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 [URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_KMSuG_kP4] 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.