as a free diver, personally I've always felt blacking out as a failure in itself. I've never blacked out once in 10 years, nor even ever felt like I was close to. my limit isn't a number in minutes and seconds, but just the comfort zone. after a few contractions, i go out of the water. of course this is not the point of view of a competitive diver, but it doesn't mean I haven't improved over the years. just by extending the comfort zone, I've set my personal best at 3 minutes and 50 seconds in static apnea. the worse feeling I've ever experienced while freediving is a bit of a lighthead. I just don't see why you would ever harm yourself doing something you like
damn some of these safety divers are slow as hell. Once someone starts shaking/seizing (not normal contractions), GET THEIR HEAD OUT OF THE WATER. They just sit there and make sure that they inhale as much water as possible. Definitely know where I wont be going for any freediving training. I'll stick with people that can actually respond to a blackout fast enough...
It`s physically impossible to inhale during a blackout when your body is shutting down. You could inhale water while coming back to consciousness and your head`s still submerged. Also it`s protocol in competitive apnea to allow the athlete to recover by himself without assistance (assuming he didn`t completely lost consciousness). A samba/blackout stricken athlete can still get the green card, if he recovers completely and within a certain period of time. The judge is there to access the situation and signal the safety divers accordingly. In some of the clips, you can see the judge signalling the safety divers to back off. It does look dramatic, but it ain`t that big of a deal in a controlled environment.
Real question since the person is static face down what signs exactly are they looking for to determine the person has blacked out (beyond the obvious convulsions that is - are there earlier signs as some seem in a pretty bad way by the time they are “rescued “). Can’t see the attraction of continually dicing with death myself but I’m a spooky la la.
Besides the shaking, I think the other big sign that a blackout is coming is if they exhale. The safety people are waiting to intervene in a lot of these instances because they're in competitions. If the diver can recover on their own (indicated by removing their goggles and nose plug and making the ok symbol) fast enough without assistance, the dive is deemed successful. It is a failure if they need help of any sort, so they normally only intervene if the diver actually blacks out, or if they are in a bad enough way that they are clearly not going to start breathing and regain control in time to record a successful attempt.
I Breath hold a 75 Ft long pool. On the Bottom (7 or 9 Ft depending on location). Never saw this. Why d they stand there and watch the victim Flail around like that?
They are trying their best time of course... the problem with static apnea is that they had probably hyperventilated too much... that’s why failure comes without them even noticing... in normal conditions you can’t really reach failure because your instinct to breath is much stronger
Imagine almost drowning then getting a red card. I feel sorry for these athletes who literally trained to death just to get a bad card, especially when they were trying so hard to look okay after the blackout.
The same is in 7:10. Wtf? Rules? When freediver has any problem, buddy must take him save and care about him. To protect his face before crash into the pool wall! Not push up their arms like "not me, not me!" .Horrible organisation
It’s protocol to allow the diver to attempt to recover. If you are blacked out, your body shuts down and you cannot inhale water. The judge quickly signals to rescue the diver and she is swiftly saved. Don’t talk about what you don’t know.
This is so stupid! Humans don't have gills and fins so please stop trying to act like one day we'll gonna have to swim with fish or sharks underwater for hours!
