FishingDude's PFI experience

    wishIhadgills you did good the other day in Miami, nice form and good recovery breaths, little samba but you pulled through, nice 100ft dive.

    Details? We can all learn from someone's personal experience.


    Quote from black1

    wishIhadgills you did good the other day in Miami, nice form and good recovery breaths, little samba but you pulled through, nice 100ft dive.

    Just finished the FII Level 1 course. Glad I spent the money. Learned things like learning how to identify a diver in distress and save them, physiology of the body, breathe up and breathold technique, optimal entry form, etc... The lessons learned were great, the instructers were great, my performance was so-so. Screwed up my third breathe up, so my 3 minute breathold goal ended up being 2 min 8 sec, which is still my PB. I may have been able to reach the 3 minute goal on my 2nd breathold though, but this will have to be achieved at a later date. My max depth ended up being 53 feet(formerly about 22 feet), although I had to gain this depth by pulling down on the line with the "head up" position. Massive equalizing issues as always, if an ENT doctor can't help me, I might as well forget about ever going deep or spearfishing over 15 feet deep. After taking the course, I learned a lot and inproved my breathold, over doubled my personal best depth and doubled my "down time". By the way, so far I've tried Doc's Pro Plugs, Neti-Pot, Afrin, and Sudafed with none of these helping, anyone have any advice or am I basically screwed?

    That's good, like a neti pot, but there's there's something that's now much better. As a Boilermaker, it doesn't get any more heavy industrial and I have to rinse out my sinus after just about every shift (regardless if it's a coal-fired power plant, oil refinery, steel mill, chemical plant, etc) and I've bought a lot of things that work satisfactorily, much like the above. However, the very best, hands down, is the "Sinus Rinse". It's at MOST walmarts and IIRC, it's by neilmed and cheaper than the plastic neti pot. It's about $10-$12, comes with 50 sterile salt&baking soda (for pH) packets and a microwavable squeeze bottle. It's pressurized (but squeeze lightly, of course), so it rinses way more than the usual gravity methods. No need to crank your neck into any yoga poses. Right over the sink, bam, up one side and it's out the other before you know it, washing everything out in between. Awesome. You can even suck in (a little) and it'll wash off the back side also. It'll all come out your nose and some out your mouth if you let it, but it's normal. Way better than any others I've tried and it's reusable indefinitely. Just nuke it again and put it away.


    As a side note, for the ears, I use half white distilled vinegar and half 91% isopropyl alcohol in an empty visine bottle. It should be a preventative measure, but it's also worked for me when I've had an ear infection/ache. You'll know you have one if it hurts your ear canal a little to pull on your earlobe. The vinegar kills fungi and lowers the pH to where your ear canal needs it and the alcohol kills bacteria and dries the canal to prevent swimmers ear. It's good to use these drops (about 5 in each ear, usually) before and/or after swimming and after using q-tips in your ears, as they can sometimes be a source of fungi themselves, believe it or not. Best of all it's dang near free.


    Hope this helps, as you all've helped me plenty already.


    Ivan in Tally

    Great advise Ivan, thanks mate. I do the same eare drop, great tip on the container.


    Cheeers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    It feels good to contribute! To get back to the forum topic, though, it's high on my priority list to get to one of these classes, where ever I end up taking it (Miami or elsewhere). I'd be plenty happy with the basic freediver or level 1 course, either FII or PFI. I know it's important, especially now after Patrick Musimu himself was found dead in his own pool by his wife and daughter. Damn it... scary stuff. I'm sure, at the time, he wasn't thinking he was pushing it too far, either. That "never alone" rule sure is no respecter of persons. Yeah, I'm thinking a course is a pretty good idea, not only for the improvements, but especially for the safety knowledge.

    Edited once, last by 75th ().

    I didn't want to say something like this on the thread about Patrick Musimu, but it's OK here. The way I see it a diver has a better chance of ending up the same way if he adopts the mentality of freedive training, and that is what those courses promote.

    Quote from Dan

    I didn't want to say something like this on the thread about Patrick Musimu, but it's OK here. The way I see it a diver has a better chance of ending up the same way if he adopts the mentality of freedive training, and that is what those courses promote.


    I think a lot of those deaths should be listed as suicide. Very sad trend.

    I realize there's somewhat of a different approach between spearfishermen that rely more on judgement from personal and shared experiences, than "proper training" of the newer, more purist "trained freedivers" (whether they see it as a "sport" or an "adventure", as Patrick felt). I don't know if labels are the answer here, but I know there is a difference in approach. I just don't have the experience to explain it like some of you can. Either way, I plan on taking a FII or PFI course, but Dan's also on to something... I just don't quite know exactly what yet. Is it that in "freediving" your very intention is to push your limits for the sake of pushing your limits? Am I close?

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