Minimizing freediving risk part 2: freediving in compromised conditions

Minimizing freediving risk part 2: freediving in compromised conditions

The reading time of this post is about 10 – 15 minutes.

In an ideal situation we dive in water that is crystal clear, warm and flat as glass without any boats around, there is no current and you have a perfectly reliable dive buddy. There is not a single entanglement hazard anywhere, and you are properly hydrated and feeling good with gear that will never break.

Let’s be honest. How often does that ever happen?

More likely, you are diving in an area that has at least one of the potential hazards above. Murky water can be dangerous because you can’t see your dive buddy. Cold water presents its own unique challenges. Current can be dangerous because it causes you to drift off while breathing up, and potentially triggers mild hyperventilation if you have to exert yourself to stay in one spot. Boats can be tricky to deal with for freedivers since we spend quite a bit of time at the surface. An inexperienced dive buddy is perhaps not as likely to identify a blackout as one who has done it before. Have you ever had one of your lenses break while diving? A flooded mask definitely enhances the diving reflex, but it can also cause you to get momentarily disoriented. How do we dive safely under these conditions?

-Note that this post is written to make you aware of hazards, unfortunately the risk associated with many of them cannot be mitigated.

Safe freediving in current

Current is a tricky one in freediving. If you are doing a drift dive, no problem. Just enjoy the ride, your buddy drifts along with you and you won’t even have to fin. Problems arise when you are trying to dive in one spot, or when the current is not distributed evenly throughout the water column. An uneven distribution means that most of the current may be at the surface (like at Porteau Cove), or at depth. This means it is hard for your buddy to follow you, and impossible if your buddy cannot see you. On my last dive at ten mile point, I surfaced 100 m from my dive buddy, thinking that I should have been right next to him.

The best way to deal with current? Do not get caught in it. Check your local current tables, and know that slack current does not always coincide with the tide changes. When diving in a high current area, make sure you are actively scanning for your buddy.

Safe freediving in swell

Freediving in swell is not hard and not bad if it is not coupled with another hazard, like poor visibility or current. Problems arise when a freediver blacks out a significant distance away from their buddy. Imagine you and your buddy are both in different troughs between waves. Even with a swell of only 15 cm (6 inches), it can be very hard to spot a freediver who doesn’t have their head above the water. When a blackout occurs, every second counts. If you can see your dive buddy during their dive there is no problem and you can be within arm’s reach when your buddy comes up, but you will need to be religious about always being right above them.

safe freediving
Swell never looks bad until you get into the water and are trying to spot your dive buddy.

Safe freediving in poor visibility

Here in the Pacific Northwest, visibility is always terrible compared to a place like the Maldives. People still freedive, but perhaps (hopefully) they are a bit more careful about it. Most of the people I dive with do recreational dives in the 15 – 25 meter range. With an average of 5 meters of visibility at the surface (often less) that means they can never see their buddy. If your buddy is diving, you will not know when they come up and you will need to continually scan the surface until you see them. If they do come up and they are far from you, make sure you have visual contact for a while (at least 10 seconds, 30 is better) so that you are sure that they are not going to black out. Many blackouts occur after a freediver starts ventilating.


These three hazards: poor visibility, swell, and current, all have the implied hazard that you will not be able to get to an unconscious buddy as fast as you would like to. The safety diver cannot do anything to make sure that this risk is mitigated. In these cases it is up to the diver to make sure that the risk of blacking out is as low as possible.


Safe freediving in boating areas

The danger of freediving in boating areas is easily mitigated by using a buoy and a dive flag. However, as a diver you have to make sure to surface at least close to the buoy. Some boaters simply go close to every buoy to see what is going on. If you hear a boat underwater and you cannot see it from where you are you can wait until the sound becomes less loud. This way you know it is going away from you. If you do not have enough air to do this the only thing you can do is try to surface close to the buoy. Also remember that if you are waiting for the area to clear in the low O2 zone you are setting yourself up for a blackout. Ideally in a boating area there are three divers. In this case, one diver dives, the second acts as a safety diver, and the third makes sure no boats approach.

Safe freediving with an inexperienced dive buddy

Every now and then, you are likely to dive with a buddy that is inexperienced. Or perhaps you are diving with a buddy that you do not know the experience level of. The rule is simple. Dive well within your limits so you are the least likely to suffer a blackout. If you are not 100% sure that your buddy can rescue you, you should assume that your blackout will lead to death.  An inexperienced dive buddy that dives with an experienced dive buddy may have a false sense of security and push their limits a little harder. Make sure they understand the risks, especially when in poor visbility, current etc.

Safe freediving with gear failure

Gear breaks. Inevitably. Your carbon fins, your mask, your suit. Everything can go haywire when you are at 30 m depth. Are you comfortable swimming without your mask? What if your mask floods, and in your reaction to get to the surface fast your fin breaks? These may be the ultimate ‘doom and gloom’ situations, but they do happen. In a controlled environment, you should train yourself to be comfortable to swim up without a mask (in a controlled environment). You should also be able to feel all your gear, and take it off underwater. Make sure you inspect your gear before any diving session. Carbon and fiberglass fins often show stress marks that run perpendicular to the fin before they break (usually these are roughly in the middle). If you see these marks and you are planning to dive deep, get new fins. Otherwise, make sure that you are able to take both fins and your weight belt off if one of the fins breaks. You will notice if one breaks because of the lack of thrust and resistance when trying to swim. Personally I find the best way to get to the surface is to ditch both fins, even if one is still whole, and go no-fins until you get to the surface. Make sure to think of a protocol and test it in a pool or in calm clear water with a buddy.

Entanglement hazards

Entanglement hazards should mostly be noted before the dive. If you have a selfie stick with a gopro or another bulky item on a leash (a camera attached to a lanyard maybe?), that classifies as an entanglement hazard. Using a monofin while trying to penetrate a wreck is generally a bad idea. A fishing area will have a lot of lines and maybe some nets floating around. You can choose to carry a knife, you never known when you may need it. And don’t be afraid to tell your buddy if you think they are setting themselves up for a dangerous situation with their gear.

safe freediving
Entanglement hazards can be anywhere

Parting thoughts

In isolation, the above factors can all be dealt with. Unfortunately, hazards rarely rear their ugly heads on their own. Compounding hazards make freediving deadly. Consider both poor visbility and current, or poor visibility or swell combined with entanglement. Or entanglement combined with a flooded mask. In these cases, bad luck kills.

See also part 1: Shallow water blackout

Coming up is part 3: safe spearfishing

 

Jaap

Jaap is a geologist by trade and a freediver by passion. Jaap wrote the book Longer and Deeper in 2018. His book teaches how to train for freediving and spearfishing on land.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Luca Malaguti

    nice summary!

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