Blackout

    I got the closest I ever did to a blackout yesterday diving with Alan and Pantoja. I wasn't pushing myself, not trying to go deep or long, not even trying to shoot a fish, at least not with a gun. Here's the vid, which you may have already seen, of my near blackout.


    Video: Pantoja shoots mutton


    I'm pretty sure about why everything happened. I wanted to video Pantoja diving and maybe shooting a fish. I didn't know when he was going to dive so I spent my time breathing up while following him. I was breathing up for a long time before he decided to dive, maybe 5 minutes. I wasn't hyperventilating or anything, I never do, just my usual breath up which consists of deep breaths and full exhales. But I think I achieved the same affect as hyperventilating just because of the duration of the breath up. I was well oxygenated and the urge to breath due to C02 build up? was not there.


    The depth was around 45-50ft, I felt very comfortable with no need to breath. When I saw the stirred up bottom I was still conscious of my air and made a calculated decision to go there. When I saw the mutton is where I logged off so to speak, forgot about my mental air gauge. When the mutton was gone I suddenly/in a flash became aware of my mental air gauge, and started heading up. About half way up was when I realized how bad I was, without any physical discomfort. For some stupid fucked up reason I decided that at that point is when I should stop filming and pressed the stop record button :crazy: Although I didn't break stride doing it we know that every little effort, even a brief mental focus on something other than kicking and ascending, consumes more air. By the time I reached the surface I was feeling like I was about to float away, still without any physical discomfort. When I broke the surface I was thinking I'm going to go back down and was surprised when I didn't. I then yelled out to Pantoja but it was already over. Total dive time was about 1:45.


    Let me tell you that blacking out is a sweet and comfy way to go, but I don't want to go yet. Because of the way I breath up and dive my urge to breath is never suppressed so discomfort has always prompted me to start back up. I also never ever stop keeping my mind's eye on the air gauge. I felt that I had a couple of close calls in the past but I was very uncomfortable when that happened. It was nothing like this time. I always thought my body will give me the signs of an imminent blackout with enough time to save myself. Or at least that last adrenalin kick. I guess I was really eating shit this time. Overall it's a good thing, now I know it can happen to me and what to watch out for.


    So to conclude these were my mistakes in order.
    1. Breath up for too long.
    2. Lose track of my mental air gauge for a few seconds.
    3. Focus on another task on ascent (this particular one is so stupid and has me baffled, is it my nature to do this sort of thing again?)


    Also the whole act of filming underwater is relatively new to me and doesn't yet carry with it all the safety associations I've formed over the years diving with a speargun in hand.

    good evaluation dan, i was looking at you even before you told us you were blacking out.
    Most blackouts happen after hitting the surface, i have gotten dizzy and gotten the shakes at the surface before to where it take a few seconds to gather yourself.


    gald you are ok

    Edited once, last by Alan ().

    Hey Dan, glad you are still among us.


    I'm glad you are sharing this, as often people seem to feel embarrassed by it, and don't want to discuss it in public. Shit, often they don't even want to discuss it in private. They'd rather pretend it never happened.


    dive safe,


    G

    I agree with Gerald, it is refreshing when someone can share their experience as opposed to covering up the occurence and taking a cocky and nonchallant approach to a vital learning episode.


    Speaking from some filming experience from when we did our show, underwater filming is one of the most dangerous tasks you can do. Particularly as you never can quite get the exact timing with the diver you are filming and there are times you try to stay longer to get a kill shot or something along those lines.


    As far as your reason #1 of breathup too long may not necessarily be a bad thing assuming you breathed up properly. I don't think you can have too long of a breathe up and it be detrimental to your dive unless you are releasing much more C02. A well controlled breath up where you are fully oxygenated can really do wonders for your dive. My best dives and statics have been after breath ups approaching 10 minute marks. My point is that a long and well controlled breath up is not necessarily a bad thing.


    Glad you are here writing about it.

    Quote from gerald

    I'm glad you are sharing this, as often people seem to feel embarrassed by it, and don't want to discuss it in public.

    This forum hasn't felt like "public" for me for a while now, I feel among friends. I wasn't going to post about this, kinda forgot about it. Then I was speaking to Oto earlier today, he saw the video on the other thread and commented that my dive time was pretty good. I then felt embarrassed that I was making myself look good without talking about what it can entail, so I told him about the near blackout. Then I thought I should organize it in my mind and post. Now I'm the near blackout celebrity of the week :yay:

    Dan,
    1- glad you are okay
    2- thanks for being humble and alive
    3- thanks for being humble and sharing this info
    4- this really highlights for me the fact that all freediving is mental. i have had all of my PB dives when i was distracted and all my PB statics when there was something to focus on other than the urge to breathe...the fact that you were engaged in a new task and were distracted even at that task really brings this into focus.


    i have a few questions for you.
    were you wearing a dive watch w or w/o a depth guage? did you know how long you had been down?


    would this have been a better worse or same situation if you had ditched your belt? would that have helped you ascend or would it have been another thing to distract you?


    did the carbon fins trick you into not knowing what your body was going through? ie, were you deeper than you thought based on how hard you worked to get there?





    i also agree that this is far from a public forum, but i really do want to reitterate how greatful i am you are sharing this. SWB is our biggest predator as freedivers and we all need to know just how close it may be when we let our guard down

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    were you wearing a dive watch w or w/o a depth guage? did you know how long you had been down?

    I don't wear a watch, don't feel I need one. I tried wearing a watch for a while and got hooked on checking the depth during the dive, I don't want to be distracted by this. I like to go by how I feel, surface intervals, depth, and time. This dive was unusual for me. The reason I know how long it was is by the time of the video. I never knew how long my dives are before yesterday, and I never cared.

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    would this have been a better worse or same situation if you had ditched your belt? would that have helped you ascend or would it have been another thing to distract you?

    It would've been worse. I only wear 5lb now, it's nothing compared to what I used to wear. The weight is insignificant in terms of ease of going up, and as you said would've taken even more out of me to focus and ditch it.

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    did the carbon fins trick you into not knowing what your body was going through? ie, were you deeper than you thought based on how hard you worked to get there?

    I don't think the carbon fins were an issue. It was only 45-50ft and didn't feel deep. I was diving that depth all day and only messed up that dive. The factors contributing to the near blackout are IMO exactly the 3 I listed at the end of my post.

    Pargo--WOW, glad you are ok
    BO is a REAL danger for all of us every time we dive.
    As you will remember, my SWB is how I got invited to this forum. :0
    I have not fully recovered mentally. That is why I am still diving in less than 50fsw
    Thank you Pargo and Tin Man for the invitation to this forum last year:toast:


    PS--very nice videos. Thanks

    Dive time is a very personal thing; 2 minutes could be impossible for someone and “normal” for others…
    Dan: You should try a dive/apnea computer. I was reluctant as you are now and when I got used to it, I could never dive again without mine.
    It is a matter of safety. You learn what your maximum bottom time is and even if you feel ok, by looking at the watch, you know is time to go up. Then you can monitor your surface time, which becomes to be extremely important once you progress in freediving and can avoid serious problems as bends.
    I also got surprised on particular clear water days diving deeper than I am supposed to…
    Last but not least, I´m happy you are still with us ;)
    Cool video, BTW.

    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

    Scary. I feel really concerned about you. I am glad every thing is ok now. You are a mature and great person, you will overcome this experience an will turn it into something good for you, and even the s.f community. Thank you for sharing.

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

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