how much weight

[piranhaking]

i am going to be free diving in hawaii later this summer. How much weight would be a good starting point to be neutral at about 30 feet or so. I weigh about 170lbs. I realize body composition will play a role in it, but any rough estimates?

 

[toddmcgill]

what mm thickness wet suit will you be wearing?2 piece or one piece? with a 3 mm 1 piece 8% of yur body weight is a good starting point.when free diving you want to be slightly bouyant for the first 10 to 15 ft and then start getting negative around 20 ft.be sure to take turns diving and being your partners support diver.bth divers should not be under at the same time.

 

[piranhaking]

i wont have a suit. i also wont have anyone else diving. Ill have someone there with me, but they wont be diving. There is supposed to be a nice reef right out from our motel, so i have been starting some training. Ive never freedived before really, so ive spent alot of time looking around on deeperblue.net and some other sites. Last year when i was there we went swimming with seaturtles, and i dove down about 20 feet i think it was and i though my head was gonna explode, because i didnt realize what had to be done about equalizing your ears and mask. i dont plan on pushing my self very hard though, so i think i should be ok. If i get there and its deeper than im comfortable with i may try to invest in some better equipment when i get there. Thanks for the help. I guess ill just have to find a pool to get a basic idea and then adjust when i get there for the salt water.

 

[agilis]

weights

weights

You will probably need between 5 and 7 lbs. to achieve neutral bouyancy, maybe slightly more ofr less. It sounds to me as though you are essentially snorkeling, and want to dive 10 or 20 feet down, and be able to stay there without effort. I do this kind of free diving very frequently, but wear lycra skins, which do not affect bouyancy at all, and protect against the sun, jellyfish, etc.

The % of body fat affects bouyancy. I weigh 200 lbs, and use 7 lbs of soft weights, which I wear in a compartmentalized belt, to keep the shot bags distributed properly. I can float at the surface effortlessly, very easily kick down to look under a coral head, and stay there, perfectly still, no effort, the only limit my ability to hold my breath. A couple of kicks upward, and I'm back at the surface.

 

[piranhaking]

yea, more or less, but im not sure yet about how deep it is, and i havent started any type of training or lung exercises, so i have no idea what the situation will be or what my capabilities will be by that time, so thats why i said what i did about depth. And as far as the with out effort part i was just saying i didnt plan on pushing my limits because i didnt want this post to turn into me gettin bashed for being unsafe about it. I know that in some of the other diving boards ive been reading people get really harsh really quick if everything you do doesnt line up exactly to their set of "rules". I expect the reef will be deeper than 10 or 20 feet down, but i might get lucky. As soon as i look the name of the motel up im gonna post and see if anyone is familiar with that paticular area. I am doing 2 min. statics with out any packing and i havent even started to do any O2 or CO2 tables yet to train. Im kinda anxious to see what kinda time i can get built up to by then.

 

[toddmcgill]

well i certainly wouldnt bash you, free diving is fun and i encourage you to enjoy it, i just didnt want to advise anything that might endanger you and didnt know how serious you were gonna get,with no flotation you wont need much weight,maybe none at all. some folks sink naturally and have to tread water to float some bob like a cork,my only concerns were shallow water blackout with a negative weight load. but if your being careful and not pushing the limits you should be fine.if you havent done much training chances are slim that your panic response will be repressed enough to let you get in any trouble.my guess is your brain will turn you around long before the o2 in your blood stream gets anywhere near citical.the main concern is when doing deep freediving say 60 to 200 ft, it can be an issue when you resurface the compressed gasses in your blood are sucked back out of your blood stream to return to your lungs and this can cause blackouts, no prob if you have a partner who can bring you to the surface and blow in your face to initiate a breating response.

anyway chnces are when you hit 30 ft or so and all the air in your lungs is compressed and your lungs feel empty you will have an almost impossible to ignore desire to turn and burn for the surface, i know i do i have been working on it for a while and 50 ft is about all i can manage without my brain aborting the plan.

anyhow good luck have fun and be careful, i am sure you will have a blast and see lots f cool stuff.

ohh yeah dont be dissapointed if you cant make 2 min underwater, i can do 3 min above water and only about 45 seconds at depth remember the more energy you expend the more oxygen is used by your system an the faster you need to breath again, so try and relax and use minimal effort to propel yourself.

 

[piranhaking]

i expected something similar in the time. I have read that most peoples dive time is about 40% of their static. I set a new personal best last night of 2:30 after doing a co2 table with a 1:30 hold starting at 2:30 ventilation moving down at 15 second intervals down to 15 seconds and i did two at 15, but the second one i only got about 1:10. I also didnt really have any contractions till the last 2 or 3 runs, so i probably could have pushed for a slightly longer hold. I rested about 5 mins and then did a 2:30 hold. I think it may have been because of a lower heart rate. I have a high heart rate normally (around 90 at rest), but i was down to a little under 60 when i started the last hold. I was planning on weights for the aspect of making my trip down take less effort. I plan on doing some pool training, but i dont really have any deep pools. The best i can do is about 15 feet, but i have to pay to get into that pool, so the one at my school and my friends pool are between 3.5 and 5 feet deep. More or less useless for equalization, but good for doing some dynamics. I think i can probably go to that 14 foot pool and get enough of an idea to get used to it. I may get a chance to go to the lake with a friend of mine that has a boat, so that should be some good training for depth and for the mental aspects of being in open water. I am in the process of trying to hunt down some lead shot, but if i'll only need that little weight i may just buy a few cartons of BB's. Thanks for all the help. and as far as the depth problems you mentioned i agree that i most likely wont be able to get that deep anyway. In the next few weeks i may start to get a better idea of what ill be capable of. Ive also read that you are better off to not use your legs as long as you can avoid it because once you use them they burn a ton of O2, so you are better off not to use them on the way down in you can help it.

 

[agilis]

freediving weights

freediving weights

I agree with everything Todd Mcgill wrote. There are limits your body responds to, and unless these are suppressed through training, and as long as you go no deeper thn about 30 feet, you should be ok. In truth, I try to maintain a slight positive bouyancy, hardly detectable, but enouth to cause a very slow upward drift. This also means an easy surface float for snorkeling. The weights are easly dropped in an emergency.

I'd stay away from any artificial means of extending breath holding ability. I'm good for a bit less than a minute at about 20 feet. When I was much younger, in my 20s, I could do a little better. Most beginners are lucky to do 30 seconds at any depth. Deeper free diving is very demanding, and can be dangerous. I usually free dive alone when on holiday in the Caribbean, but that's because I have no alternatives. Very few people are willing or able to float around in 20 feet of water a couple of hundred yards off the beach, for at least 3 hours. I enjoy this kind of thing even more than scuba, but as time goes by I do become more aware of risks, especially those associated with drifting along several miles of reef for hours at a time alone.

 

[piranhaking]

artificial means of extending breath holding ability what exactly do you mean by that?

 

[agilis]

Maybe artificial is not the right word. I had in mind things like training designed to suppress the physiological responses to CO2 buildup, predive use of O2, excessive hyperventilating, and a few other tricks that can increase the risk factors for things like shallow water blackout. With time and practice, lung capacity can be increased, and the urgent breathing impulse can be managed, with no associated problems.

 

[piranhaking]

ok, i see. sounds like my plans were on right on target then. Thanks for the explanation. I'll be back in touch with my progress and if i have any more questions. I really appreciate the help. I have found out that i wont be able to get any hard corals while i was there like i wanted to, but i cant figure out for sure about softies. I contacted the DLNR and am waiting on a responce about it because the regulations i found were somewhat unclear and i didnt really see any refrences made to soft corals. I really hope i can. I'll most likely need an aquarium permit which i was told was $50 but i read is free, and i know it would most likely be cheaper to just buy them, but i want to be able to say i harvested them my self.

 

[piranhaking]

it is Ulua/Mokapu beach. They said the reef is really close to shore and in really shallow water, so i kinda have my doubts about how good it will be if its that easy to access. it seems the closer to people "wild"stuff is the less "wild" it is. Also is anyone familar with the area??

 

[piranhaking]

well....turns out i will have a suit. Its a 3/2 full suit. I also got some decient scuba fins. just thought id update the post a little

 

[georgiaredhead2]

I use 8lbs and I weigh the same. Good Luck.

 

[piranhaking]

what type of suit?

 

[Michael L.]

I don't free dive at all, only scuba, but I thought hyperventilating INCREASED the risk of shallow water blackout, agilis. Correct me if I am wrong...

 

[agilis]

hyperventilating

hyperventilating

The statement I wrote listed things that could be risky to do, not things I was suggesting. The exact opposite of what you inferred, although this is not clear unless you read the earlier related posts. I was explaining what I had in mind when I wrote that some things were not a good idea as breath-hold extending methods.

 

[Jaebster]

Why not go to the local scuba shop and get a "spare air"? It's a small canister that holds about 2 cubic feet of compressed air and allows about 20-30 breaths on it. See if a SCUBA Certification card is required for the refilling of the Spare Air, if it's not, think about getting one. Although it is a bit expensive, you will greatly lessen the risk of blackout. If you plan on snorkeling a lot, freediving, or even SCUBA, it is a great back-up device. Just be sure that you don't exceed the number of breaths underwater when you're down at 30 feet. Oh and be sure you equalize the pressure in your ears as you're going down.

 

[maractwin]

Using a small cylinder such as Spare Air while freediving without scuba certification is a really bad idea. Used improperly, it could kill you. Never breathe any gas at pressure underwater without proper training.

A few years back a French reality TV show had contestants freediving for pearls in 25 feet of water. To make it easier, they allowed the contestants to take a couple of breaths off a diver's regulator at depth. But they hadn't given the contestants any training in how to do this, and more than one of them took breaths under pressure, then held their breath as they surfaced. This caused them to suffer fatal lung overexpansion injuries.

-Mark

 

[georgiaredhead2]

I use a body glove SKin suit Gold series or a standard 3mm 3/4 suit.