Free-diving

Categories: Free-diving | Extreme sports | Individual sports

Image:Freediver.jpg
Freedive photographer

Free-diving refers to various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold diving. Examples include breathhold spearfishing, freedive photography, Apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the public's attention is Competitive Apnea, considered an extreme sport, where divers attempt to reach great depths on a single breath and without direct assistance of breathing apparatus.

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Description

Competitive free diving, often referred to as "Apnea", is generally broken down into three categories; static, dynamic and depth with male and female records recognized in each category:

  • Static Apnea is timed breath holding and is usually attempted in a pool.
  • Dynamic Apnea is underwater swimming for distance and has sub-categories for swimming with and without fins. This competition is usually held in a pool.

The depth category has four sub-sections:

  • Constant Weight competition is for self-propelled maximum depth, no weights or lines are allowed. This category is also divided into sections for fins or without fins.
  • Free Immersion competition is for self-propelled ascent and descent along a line and is for maximum depth.
  • Variable Weight competition uses a weighted sled for descent and the diver ascends by pulling themselves up along a line.
  • No Limits competition allows the diver to descend with a weighted sled and ascend with a buoyancy control device, usually an air filled bag with a tether. The world record for the "No Limits" category of competitive free diving is held by Belgian diver Patrick Musimu. On 30 June 2005 he dove to a depth of 209 m (685.69 feet), in Egypt, in Red Sea; surpassing the previous record set by Loic Leferme by 38 meters and breaking the psychological barrier of -200 m. The current women's record is held by Tanya Streeter, who dove to 160 m (524.9 feet) on 17 August 2002. The unofficial record is held by the late Audrey Mestre (166 m) wife of legend Francisco “Pipin” Ferrera; she drowned whilst trying to set a world record of 171 m (561 feet).

Competitive free-diving featured heavily in the 1988 Luc Besson film Le Grand bleu (The Big Blue).

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Physiology of Free-diving

The human body has several adaptations under diving conditions, which stem from mammalian diving reflex. These adaptations enable the human body to endure depth and lack of oxygen far beyond what one would expect. The romantic explanation is given by the anthropologists' aquatic ape theory.

The adaptations made by the human body while underwater and at high pressure include:

  • Bradycardia: Drop in heart pulse rate.
  • Vasoconstriction: Blood vessels shrink. Blood stream directed away from limbs for the benefit of heart, lungs and brain.
  • Splenic contraction: Releasing red blood cells carrying oxygen.
  • Blood shift: Blood fills up blood vessels in the lung and reduces residual volume. Without this adaptation, the human lung would shrink and wrap into its walls, causing permanent damage, at depths below 30 meters.
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Training

Training for free diving can take many forms, many of them out of water.

One example is the apnea walk. This consists of a preparation "breathe-up", followed by a short (typically 1 minute) breath hold taken at rest. Without breaking the hold, the participant then initiates a walk for as far as they can, until it becomes necessary to breathe again.

This form of training is good for accustoming muscles to work under anaerobic conditions, and for tolerance to CO2 build-up in the circulation. It is also easy to gauge progress, as increasing distance can be measured.

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Some famous Competitive Apnea Divers

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See also

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External links

fr:Apnée (sport) ja:フリー・ダイビング id:Selam bebas nl:Vrijduiken ru:Фри-дайвинг sk:Nádychové potápanie sv:Fridykning