A great diver at 13

[Simon-]

Well, how far can YOU swim on one breath?

I know for a fact that my kid could swim the distance between us on one breath.

However, saying that divers should be one breath away is ridiculous! I can swim 100 feet on one breath... Is that at all relevant?


Dive buddies need to be close enough to render effective aid and facilitate communication.

The safe buddy distance is dependent on visibility, currents, relative position and many other parameters but NOT on how far you can swim on one breath, particularly if both divers are equipped with redundant scuba systems.

erm, yours was defective.

Of course the distance between buddies is relevant with regard to how far you can swim on one breath. You go OOA and can't reach your buddy because you are too far away = problem.

You crack on mate, hope you and your son have many great dives together.

I see things I consider not good in the video, you don't. Each to their own

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Good thought bubble. although today was first day of spring and a buddy was in cali for awhile, and we dove a solo yesterday, we adventured together today as we had 5' seas, we found each other and as vis was 40' at depth I was 60' away and could see his bubbles and would do a light flash to the next interest point for him to take pics. yesterday was his first day back and I was a 100' away and he was far away from entry point, but i made sure I had constant contact, either bubbles or vague outline of him. Not for safety at all just to be able to point out changes lately since he was gone.

Now it is different when you dive with someone that has been diving almost every day for over 50 years, you tend to stay close enough to notice they are in one spot for a reason. They have come upon something great.

Today I asked if you shot a shot of wolfeel that come to you in open water, he said I sent it to you, I was busy an never looked on blackberry. Any how this wolfie I feed was wanting feed and seen him and was persisitence in where is my crab diver. I seen it in the wolfies eyes that he sent me earlier today.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Simon all is good and I know every dive and every buddy dive is not the same, that is why I posted of a partial solo dive buddy i dive with.I have dove some deep dives solo that would upset most in the past week or so and I did not even put in my dive reports on SB. It does not matter if others approve or not, as long as we surface that is all that matters to ourselves!!!!!!!!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Did you find yourself diving any different (closer to your son) after he shut off your pony bottle on the dive depicted in the video?
The reason I ask is, from that point forward, your buddy was your only gas redundancy.
Did your son dive a little closer to you/keep a closer eye on you on account of the circumstances?

Maybe, I know I was more aware of buddy separation after the failure. When we got on the boat he commented that he reminded himself that he had to stay close since I lost my redundancy. Since it is a drift dive and I was pulling the float, I am the leader and he needs to follow (or stay near) me, rather than vice versa.

I have been bugging him lately to try to stay down current from me, or very close when the current is strong. He is beginning to learn that for drift diving, the allowable buddy separation (one that will not result in screaming) is a vector rather than a scalar quantity (but he couldn't express it in those terms just yet).

The current was mild that day, but with respect to buddy separation, currents make a huge difference. If your buddy becomes entangled upstream, it can be quite an ordeal to move up current 30 feet, especially over sand bottom where there are no hand holds. You need to be able to provide assistance and communicate... the safe distance may be holding hands or 40 feet, but breathhold duration is of marginal relevance.

It sounds like people are not recognizing that the hand held camera was shot with an extremely wide angle lens which makes everything look much further away than it really is.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

erm, yours was defective.

Of course the distance between buddies is relevant with regard to how far you can swim on one breath. You go OOA and can't reach your buddy because you are too far away = problem.

You crack on mate, hope you and your son have many great dives together.

I see things I consider not good in the video, you don't. Each to their own

How come no answer? It was simple enough. How far can YOU swim on one breath?

 

[Simon-]

I thought the question was rhetorical.

It would be in the 25m range.

Bear in mind though, that if you are seeing how far you could swim with one breath, you have probably done it in a pool, after a couple of good breaths and have prepared yourself to do it. Not OOA at x depth with no warning. It isn't comparing apples with apples

 

[Simon-]

So, the wide angle lens made the difference seem greater.

If that is the case, and you were in fact a lot closer, then I accept that. It still looked like a fair distance of buddy seperation though

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I thought the question was rhetorical.

It would be in the 25m range.

Bear in mind though, that if you are seeing how far you could swim with one breath, you have probably done it in a pool, after a couple of good breaths and have prepared yourself to do it. Not OOA at x depth with no warning. It isn't comparing apples with apples

I practice swimming while holding my breath 2 sessions per week. I have a realsitic idea of how far I can move with a tank on one breath; that is why I carry a pony for anything over 50-60 feet and often for less than that, particularly if I am responsible for somebody else.

 

[Simon-]

My point is, that's what you do. How many other divers do the same? I would think it would be quite a low number compared to the number of certified divers.

Hence the, no more than a breath away reference. The average diver would probably not be confident in covering more than about 10m in an OOA situation, Panic sets in and they'd bolt for the surface.

No doubt there will now be numerous comments on how far people can swim on one breath, how they wouldn't panic and would reach their buddy etc. Guess what? They do panic, they don't reach their buddy and they do bolt.

I said it earlier, it wasn't a criticism of your son, he looked more composed than plenty of adults I've seen.

 

[MRadke]

DD - I thought it was a great video. I hope that someday my kids and I will be that comfortable in the water. I wouldn't worry too much about the naysayers. Some folks get up in the morning looking for the opportunity to pee in someone elses cheerios.

We do the 80ft drift dives in Cancun on AL-80s, no pony, so the loss of one redundancy simply doesn't look like a problem to me.