Blackout while Spearfishing Video

  • When you are strong, you can dive again BEFORE your watch tells you that you can. So you are not relying on the watch to do stupid things. The watch is the one telling you not to. Is what I was trying to explain before. ;)


    And it's nice for me to know depths, temperature, etc... :)

    Marco Melis

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

  • To me the idea of deferring to a watch to tell me when to do things in freedive spearifshing is absurd. My body performs differently on different days and my job is to be in tune with it...


    That's very true. Some days I'm like "shit,….what the hell is wrong with me"?


    I know my body is different on some days and have been trying diet, rest, whatever to toy with it and see if I can make it consistent. But I wouldn't know those 15 second differences without a dive watch.

  • Yea all this just goes to show that you can look the part by buying the nice gun, fancy watch, and new ultra-invisible open cell. All that doesn't mean shit if you aren't a smart, competent, and safe diver in the first place.

    Brad

  • Dan, I find the watch very helpful for "reading" the signals my body is giving me. Without a watch it's hard to tell how much time has passed. You could argue that it doesn't matter how much time has passed as it is all relative but for me it gives me a reference. What I mean by that is if I dive and I come up after 45s or so and feel like I was pushing I know something is off. Either bad technique, not enough surface time whatever. As the day goes on I can also track my performance. As I am warming up my dives are shorter then as the day goes on they get longer to a point and then start to fall off. When they start to fall off passed a point I know that I am fatigued and generally call it a day or move shallower. All things that you an judge by feel but it is much easier to compare hard numbers (at least for me). I don't really rely on any programming to tell me to do anything.


    When diving deeper I do use the depth alarms as an aid to improve my technique. For instance If I know I am in 70 fsw I can kick down to a point with my head tucked and streamlined then as i approach the bottom the alarm can signal to start looking. Again not necessary. you can count kicks or with experience judge depth but an easy reminder.


    The last function is like Marco mentioned to make sure I am getting enough surface time while diving deeper. Generally I feel ready to dive well before I should. What i mean by that is I feel recovered and ready to start a next dive after about a minute-1:30 after a 1:30 dive to 60. However if I dive again at this point my bottom time will be substantially lower.


    Ultimately the watch is just a tool to help track the passage of time. It is not "necessary" but I find it very helpful.


    Edit: Just thought of another helpful feature. A lot of the areas I fish in the keys are roll off or ledges. The depth can change 15' or more from the top of the reef to the sand at the bottom and the fish can be at a lot of places along this edge. If the boat is anchored or drifting it can only give you an idea of the depth bellow it. When diving these areas I make a note of the depths I am seeing fish and use this information when going to other spots. Some days the fish are on top of the reef at 45 other days in the sand at 85 or anywhere in between. Again experience helps but more information is nice to have.

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