Sniffing the air back in won't really help you. That small amount of air might help a little( mostly mentally) if you are totally out of oxygen but it won't help in regards to black out.
the most important thing to do to avoid black out or samba upon surfacing is the" recovery" or"hook" breath. take a deep breath -hold for a count of 3 then exhale slowly. repeat this 3 times.Then start your normal breathing. You do not want to pant or breathe hard or fast.This way the oxygen goes to your brain and not just those expanding lungs.
If you watch videos of freedivers you will hear their coach yelling "hook" hook" when they surface .
Try to practice this on every dive so it becomes a habit even when just doing easy dives.
Happy diving,
carla
ps
Come to the OC Spearos mtg tonight. We are going to work on breathing and other techniques
ps
Come to the OC Spearos mtg tonight. We are going to work on breathing and other techniques
Thanks. I wish I could. Mondays are always bad for me.
Is there any worthwhile benefit beyond not making fish scaring bubbles or psychological ones?
I rebreath the air in my mask while ascending and I have found that helps me. Of course, it dependes on the dept of your dive. If you're diving more than 60', there's going to be "some" fresh air in that mask. For sure, it won't hurt.
Thanks. I wish I could. Mondays are always bad for me.
Is there any worthwhile benefit beyond not making fish scaring bubbles or psychological ones?
some people say it gives them a little refreshment 
but I don't think it really does much.It is good that you are breathing air into the mask on your descent. Mask squeeze is not pretty!
It is good to exhale slowly as you approach the surface so you are ready to take that recovery breath.
photo courtesy Lester Quayle and Rita Barton
Interesting thread. I would think that the air in the mask would contain a lot of CO2 on ascent.
I rebreath the air in my mask while ascending and I have found that helps me. Of course, it dependes on the dept of your dive. If you're diving more than 60', there's going to be "some" fresh air in that mask. For sure, it won't hurt.
+ 1 Try it, you can get a little out.
Interesting thread. I would think that the air in the mask would contain a lot of CO2 on ascent.
Interesting comment. I would have assumed that this air we are discussing would be off the top of the lungs / esophagus whatever where there is the least exchange and therefore be the "cleanest". However, following that logic it would likely return to the same position upon re-breathing and therefore offer little oxygen value. So the best I could hope for was that it would work to dampen the vacuum effect by filling the space of the expanding lungs. All very logical in my head but could still be way off.
Here's a thread I started when I discovered mask breathing http://spearfishing.world/diving/1185-mask-breathing.html
It works well for me in conjunction with good relaxed diving. If I'm not diving well breathing from the mask doesn't give me anything. I wouldn't count on it as a last recourse in a risky situation.
I do it to prevent the air from escaping from my mask and making noise. I blow the air into there fairly early on, so it's still got a lot of usable O2 in there.
rebreathing mask air is automatic for me on deeper dives (75+ft). you can get a sip of air every 8-10ft or so on the way up and it helps ease the discomfort although you should never "need" that air. Even if its "used" air, it still contains some O2. Breathing SOME used air w/ little o2, is always better than taking in NO air at all.
It seems to me that the majority of the air in your mask was in there on the surface or was blown in during the first 33' of descent. The O2 content should be close to 20-21%. Obviously the total volume depends on the mask volume and total depth.
I know that PFI teaches it in the class and all the competition freedivers "sniff it back" as Kirk says.
So I assume it is a good thing, and should help maintain or even increase PO2 levels during ascent. The variable I'm not sure of as discussed earlier is the dead space. I.e. is the air youre sniffing back making past your trachea and mainstem bronchi into your alveoli? I dont know. I would assume on deep dives where you have to grouper call to get air up from your lungs to clear your mask, it will make it all the way back down.
This could all probably be answered definitively by Kirk Krack. I'll have Mike ask him at their next course.
I do it and it feels like it helps a lot. And that's on 50' dives.
Charlie
Its routine in all of my dives. I started out doing it because of how annoying the escaping air bubbles were on the ascent, preventing this annoying factor made me much more relaxed on the ascent, especially coming up from a deep dive.
In theory it sounds logical to try and breath it in.
In practice, when pulling a fish to the surface, being real stoked on that, looking up, pulling......swimming harder....really?
In theory it sounds logical to try and breath it in.
In practice, when pulling a fish to the surface, being real stoked on that, looking up, pulling......swimming harder....really?
Uh, yes. I do it every dive, whether I pull the trigger or not. I spoke to Mike and he said YES, it does affect your PO2 on ascent and every little bit may be the difference between blacking out or not.
C
Uh, yes. I do it every dive, whether I pull the trigger or not. I spoke to Mike and he said YES, it does affect your PO2 on ascent and every little bit may be the difference between blacking out or not.
C
I don't doubt that it works. I've just never focused on that at all when I have a fish on. I think about it after a dive coming up empty though. I'll give it a try.
Hank,
Do you really fight your fish on your way back to the surface? I think it is very dangerous.
What I normally do is pulling the fish just enought to avoid it to hole and then release either the floatline or the reel, depending on what I'm using that particular day, to retrieve the fish from the surface.
As I mentioned on previous threads, all these little tricks, like rebreathing your mask air and some others are what gives you more bottom time and safety.
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