The Hectometer Freedive

[Orson]

Holy Shitballs. This is Awesome.


http://vimeo.com/18213129

[Gippo]

Incredible. Dudes got gills.

[Orson]

He got about halfway back to the surface and MY lungs felt like they were burning.

[=Stevo=]

that was rad... man that looks difficult. Found this one when searching for more freediving stuff, tis cool: (although I think it may be a repost here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQITWbAaDx0

[Ferris]

I wish I could hold my breath for that long, even sitting completely still.

[Huntsman]

holy effing jesus

I thought he would resurface with a compressed air cylinder or something similar, how would not panic whilst staring up at 100m of water whilst your lungs burn?

[Cap'n James086]

Having free dived to a depth of 10m I can confidently say that I could not even make it down to 30m let alone hold my breath long enough to get back up. 100m is insane.

[Captain Starfish]

I wish I could hold my breath for that long, even sitting completely still.

So does your missus...

[shan]

Both impressive and bewildering

[Infusi0n]

When you even begin to consider what is considered "normal" physiology, this guy is way beyond it.

[Orson]

So can the scuba divers among us clear something up for me?

Why is this guy able to freely alter his depth at such a rate without any of the symptoms a scuba diver would experience? Is it all purely to do with the breathing/not breathing?

[shan]

Compression decompression
i always belived.
He is not breathing compressed air whilst he is in acompressed state.
Makes sence to me and that in itself is scary

[Skut]

So can the scuba divers among us clear something up for me?

Why is this guy able to freely alter his depth at such a rate without any of the symptoms a scuba diver would experience? Is it all purely to do with the breathing/not breathing?

His lungs were filled with air at standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. That would have been compressed as he went deeper but partial pressures would stay the same (ie, no increased levels of nitrogen or oxygen). His lungs would expand to normal size when ascending...

[McGoo]

Holy fuckballs that was impressive. Amazing composure when he was ascending, I would have been thrashing like crazy to get back to the surface. I also would most likely have been dead.

[Captain Starfish]

You get two types of air pressure injuries.

Barotrauma is caused when air compresses and expands and there's no way of adding (or removing) air so it forces its way around or through tissue. Equalising ears is a classing example. SCUBA air supply is at ambient pressure. So take a breath at 10m deep (2 atmospheres), hold that breath and ascend. The air will double in volume (or try to) and tear your lungs open in the process.

But, as Skut says - take a breath on the surface, dive to 100m. Your lungs compress. They will happily shrink to 1/10th of their size at surface. Now ascend - they go back to normal. So it's all cool.

The other pressure injury is caused by nitrogen dissolving in your tissues during your bottom time and coming out too quickly (like opening a fresh bottle of coke too fast) which can cause bubble formation in your joints, nervous system, muscles, blood, pretty much anywhere. Often called "the bends". This one isn't a problem for these guys because they aren't down there for long enough and, probably, also because that one breath of air turns into bugger all when you're that deep. Sorry Skut - partial pressures do change even for breath holders. But the exposure time to high PPN2 is so short they don't on-gas enough to cause an issue.



Freaky arsed motherfuckers. Shallow water blackout and convulsions at the surface as a frequent side effect of your chosen sport? Good luck to you, guys!

[Skut]

Bugger, half right (although the actual molecules of the gases stay constant compared to a pressure regulator system? ie, atmospheric levels)

One hell of a scary buzz and some serious self discipline (necessary for oxygen conservation)

To think sponge divers did this every day for a living..

[Captain Starfish]

Yep - you were right about the held breath compressing and then expanding, same number of air bits. But as they compress, the pressure increases - as does the partial pressure of each gas (Can't remember - Henry or Dalton's law?). So presumably one day there'll be a depth where the round trip time is enough to make DCS an issue. On the other hand, have you seen what happens to the human body in extreme deep diving pressurised environments? I seem to recall things like crazy bradycardia, down to a few beats per minute, which I'm guessing is going to reduce your on-gassing rate to something only a fraction of normal.

For a living? What blows me away is that the new national OH&S laws being introduced next January have introduced recognition of a free-hold occupational diving discipline. No other occupation allows entry into an area where you cannot breathe without full breathing apparatus. But, no worries guys, have a go at this!