Breath up

YES! Note the S & W in SWB. Start slow and learn where your comfort levels are, then expand them. Dive with a Buddy and have fun.

Quote from Billum

I am new to free diving. I plan on doing alot of free dive spearfishing on the beach wrecks In hatteras Any advice would be greatly appereciated. I can hold my breath for 2:15. I only plan on diving to 25 ft. Is SWB even a factor?

You can SWB in a puddle if you breath up in a certain way or stay in it for too long.

People mostly black out for two reasons.

1) They overstay their downtime. They feel the desire to breath but ignore it eventually blacking out.

2) They improperly calibrate their c02 levels before a dive (usually by "breathing up" in a way that reduces c02) they don't feel the desire to breath, but blackout near the end of the dive.

Both are easy to avoid by following stick-ems advice. Start slow, dive with a friend, and go deeper only as you are comfortable. Learn and then listen to your bodies signals and don't push your limits while spearfishing. Push your limits in a pool or just free diving, again with a buddy. Spearfishing isn't the place to push them too far.

Additionally to avoid #2 Don't train with static c02 tolerance tables. Im no expert, but it seems like common sense that training your body tolerate c02 (but not use less oxygen) will only train you to black out. Ive personally never done them and never will unless someone corrects my understanding in some way. Another thing to avoid is implementing a breath up without understanding its effects. If you ask me the safest way to calibrate c02 levels is to breath calmly and normally before a dive and nothing more. Anything else is changing c02, and not understanding the effects can result in accidents. And as far as I've seen, not even professional freedivers completely understand or agree on the changes.

IMHO the biggest thing that will get you to dive 25 feet in the water isn't any kind of breathup or breath hold practice. I would say more important factors for a newbie to consider are:

Being weighted right. So you're about neutral at 25 feet. Having a decent pair of fins.

Relaxing before the dive, taking a deep full breath before going down.

Diving with good clean form, doing a calm duck dive without kicking until your fins are in the water. Heading straight down not at an angle. And looking straight forward not at the bottom.

And thats about it. That should get almost anyone in decent shape down there.

there is a lot of good kowledge in this thread...take it slow and be careful

The rule of 9's:
90% of hypoxic events (Blackouts/LMC) happen on the surface after the dive is finished.
9% happen between 15 feet and the surface.
.9% happen between 80 and 15 feet.
.1% let's worry about that after you dive deeper than 80 feet.

Always dive with a buddy and take a freediving class.

breathe-up; normal tidal breathing- anything other than normal breathing is hyperventilating and that will increase your risk of black-out. Make sure you allow yourself enough recovery time between dives. Stay hydrated.
There are many factors,too many to mention here, that lead to successful dives and lowering your risk. It is best to work with an experienced diver who can help you.