25-05-2005, 07:05 PM
Hi Rohan
Are you going to be freediving or SCUBA diving? If you are freediving the bends is not a concern. How the bends happen is that if you stay at depth (and therefore at pressure) for long enough, nitrogen accumulates in the water in your body. If you come up from depth (and therefore into a lower pressure environment) too quickly, the nitrogen in the water in your body will come out as bubbles, which can lodge in your joints and cause 'the bends'. This will happen if you are SCUBA diving at depths of 30+ metres for extended periods (say 30 minutes or more), and ascend too quickly. If you ascend at an appropriate speed the nitrogen will come out without forming bubbles. If you are freediving you won't spend enough time at depth to accumulate enough nitrogen to cause the bends - this is why competition freedivers are able to dive to 160m+ depths, but the maximum depth for recreational SCUBA diving is around 50m. Also, since your are not actually breathing at depth while freediving, there is limited nitrogen available to accumulate in the water in your body, so again freediving is not a concern. I personally haven't freedived to much more than 10m, although some of the really good guys can get to 20 or even 30m, and stay there for a few minutes without getting the bends.
The biggest risk factor for freediving is shallow water blackout (SWB). SWB happens when you hyperventilate to increase your breath hold capacity, and pass out on the way back up. In short, DO NOT hyperventilate, although it does increase your breath hold the risks are just not worth it.
I'm not sure what could be causing your water logged ear, if you're worried about it go and see a doctor who specialises in diving medicine (there are a few around melbourne).
Jaz <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':beer' />
Are you going to be freediving or SCUBA diving? If you are freediving the bends is not a concern. How the bends happen is that if you stay at depth (and therefore at pressure) for long enough, nitrogen accumulates in the water in your body. If you come up from depth (and therefore into a lower pressure environment) too quickly, the nitrogen in the water in your body will come out as bubbles, which can lodge in your joints and cause 'the bends'. This will happen if you are SCUBA diving at depths of 30+ metres for extended periods (say 30 minutes or more), and ascend too quickly. If you ascend at an appropriate speed the nitrogen will come out without forming bubbles. If you are freediving you won't spend enough time at depth to accumulate enough nitrogen to cause the bends - this is why competition freedivers are able to dive to 160m+ depths, but the maximum depth for recreational SCUBA diving is around 50m. Also, since your are not actually breathing at depth while freediving, there is limited nitrogen available to accumulate in the water in your body, so again freediving is not a concern. I personally haven't freedived to much more than 10m, although some of the really good guys can get to 20 or even 30m, and stay there for a few minutes without getting the bends.
The biggest risk factor for freediving is shallow water blackout (SWB). SWB happens when you hyperventilate to increase your breath hold capacity, and pass out on the way back up. In short, DO NOT hyperventilate, although it does increase your breath hold the risks are just not worth it.
I'm not sure what could be causing your water logged ear, if you're worried about it go and see a doctor who specialises in diving medicine (there are a few around melbourne).
Jaz <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':beer' />