IMAX "Ocean Men" Review

[rcohn]

First, I never said a word about suppression.

Freediving deaths rarely (almost never) occur during deep record attempts or the training that leads to them. These divers have excellent safety teams and thoroughly understand the risks. As a side note, there have been several deaths among the deep support divers.

Many freediving deaths do occur in swimming pools by kids just holding their breath on the bottom. This movie and other publicity about freediving's lunatic fringe only lead to more such drowning.

From: http://www.freedive.net/chapters/SWB3.html
BlueWater Hunting and Freediving
by Terry Maas
Copyright © 1997 Terry Maas, BlueWater Freedivers
Physiology Chapter: SHALLOW-WATER BLACKOUT

Medical researchers feel that many pool deaths, classified as drownings, are really the result of shallow-water blackout.
Most occur in male adolescents and young adults attempting competitive endurance breath-holding, frequently on a dare. Drowning victims, especially children, have been resuscitated from long periods of immersion in cold water 30 minutes or more. The same is not true for victims blacking out in warm-water swimming pools. Warm water hastens death by allowing tissues, especially brain tissues, to continue metabolizing rapidly; without oxygen, irreversible cell damage occurs in minutes.

James Warnock, the 31-year-old son of champion Ted Warnock, drowned in a warm swimming pool, chest deep. The Warnock family, hoping to prevent such deaths in other young athletes, has graciously allowed me to discuss the events surrounding their son s death. No strangers to shallow-water blackout, the Warnocks discussed this danger many times, especially after James had a near blackout years before.

Studying mariculture in Florida, James was excited to hear that the National Spearfishing Championships would be held in an area he knew well. A three-time North Atlantic Spearfishing Champion, James was eager to start training. He purchased a new stop watch and was practicing breath-hold diving in a medical-therapy pool. A concerned paraplegic patient spotted James inanimate body and summoned help. Rescuers saw James new watch fall from his hand as they pulled him from the water. Sadly, attempts at CPR were unsuccessful.

and

I blacked out once and had two near misses before the age of 22. Jerry Stugen, my early mentor, remembers me at age 16 coming up from a dive with purple lips. Unaware of my oxygen depleted state, I was rapidly preparing to dive again to remove a large fish holed up below. Jerry yanked the snorkel from my mouth and commanded me to stop diving for the day. When I was 18 years old, I passed out in a swimming pool during an underwater endurance test for my physical education class. The second I stopped swimming my coach jumped into the water and brought me to the pool deck where I regained consciousness. Aside from being frightened, the only other problem I had was painful legs lasting two days. My last near miss happened at age 22. I entered a Florida spearfishing contest with a borrowed gun. Ascending after a 70-foot dive, I shot a large jack which took off in a blur. Not wanting to lose the gun, I remember fighting the fish to within a few feet of the surface. The next thing I remember was being awakened by bumping my head against our anchored boat.

From: http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/photogallery/memorial/sarp.html

......Sarp Kayan died from drowning on March 27th, 1997 while training alone in a community pool near his home.

From: http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/tomkonow/index.html

Tom Konow,
Our friend and fellow team member of the Danish apnea team, drowned thursday 18.02.99 during dynamic apnea training.
This tragic incident happened in less than 1.5 m (5 feet) water depth in a 50 m pool, and subsequent CPR was unsuccessful..........

Loren Scott Maas,
1982 - 2001, an open-water SWB of a young diver well trained and fully aware of the risks.
http://www.freedive.net/loren_maas.htm

These are merely a few cases I can easily find on the Internet. Most incidents are considered drownings and not reported as training accidents.

My dive buddy John, a guy in his twenties who wanted to make the US Freediving team, was practicing static apnea wearing a weight belt on the bottom, after asking the lifeguard to watch him from the pool deck. He surfaced, gave the lifeguard the ok signal, then fell backward unconscious. John was lucky, the lifeguard was right there and he only spent 3 or 4 days in intensive care. You won't find his experience written up anywhere.

John's approach violates several basic safety standards for static apnea practice. Static apnea should be done floating face down on the surface with no weight. The safety person must be in the water directly alongside the apneist and there must be a periodic signal given and returned to verify the apneist is still conscious. The partner must be prepared to support the apneist when he stands up because blackouts or samba may occur before he has a chance to inhale. Even with precautions such as these blackouts may still lead to serious injury or death.

This movie in no way explained how dangerous apnea practice is, as evidenced by the ignorance of the scuba divers who watched it.

Finally, I call them the lunatic fringe because they simply are. There are thousands of freedivers worldwide, they hunt fish or abalone, swim with dolphins and whales, take photos, play underwater hockey, or simply enjoy the marine environment. There are only a few hundred (probably less than 200) involved in apnea competitions. Why is virtually every article about freediving about how deep they can dive or how long they can hold their breath? Most of us never do that. Safe freediving must be well within your comfort level. How many other sports have an objective of seeing how close you can come to dying without misjudging and passing out or passing away? I always admire the tremendous skill, but I am tired of a fun but somewhat risky sport being solely represented to the public by its most extreme and dangerous fringe. From many heated discussions on the Freedivelist I can assure you that I'm not the only freediver who holds this viewpoint.

Ralph

 

[MSilvia]

I think we can all agree that not breathing is potentially dangerous, but I still fail to see where the fault for someone voluntarily staying underwater so long that they black out can be attributed to a documentary.

"Ocean Men" did not encourage participation, nor did it attempt to portray what Pipin and Umberto do as typical freediving. Frankly, the media focuses on the extremes because extremes are more interesting. I know people dive for abalone and play underwater hockey without breathing apparatus, I'm just not sure I'd want to see an hour long movie about it. Frankly, I don't think many people want to see films about typical things.

I love scuba, but I'm not sure a documentary about my local shore dives would draw as large an audience as a documentary about someone who dives with great whites. It doesn't portray what 99.9% of diving is about, but then most people don't care what 99.9% of it is about. There's a film precisely because there's an interesting story to tell, and I don't think that's a problem.

The movie's byline reads, "Ocean Men is a fascinating story of two divers and their unique relationship to the sea. Their goal is to dive deeper than anyone has before-on a single breath of air." I missed the part where it claims to be about freediving in general.

I don't care whether it's about swimming into the abyss, climbing Mt. Everest, wrestling alligators, or eating broken glass. If seeing something on TV or in the movies inspires someone to carelessly emulate an activity, they get what they deserve if it goes wrong. Maybe every film and tv show should start with a warning: "Kids, don't try this at home"

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for all the kids who drown in warm pools, but I won't hold "Ocean Men" responsible. People make their own decisions, and if making bad ones gets them killed, such is life. My condolences to the loved ones who weren't there to stop them.

Yes, there's no doubt that what these guys do is insanely dangerous, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't hear about it.

 

[rcohn]

Originally posted by Dee


That web cam shows the fattest sea turtle I've ever seen!

Myrtle is a lot of fun, the NEAQ folks say she really doesn't thinks she's a turtle anymore. She is the only trained turtle in the world, they taught her some tasks for hearing tests ( at least I think they were hearing tests maybe something else.) She will drive the other turtles away from her spot in the tank where they did the training.

I finally had my first GOT dive last April after being a member of NEADC for 4.5 years (they have a monthly drawing and two club member get to dive). Myrtle's shell itched so we scrubbed it with sand. She would keep coming around looking for attention or scratching her shell on the fake coral. At one point I saw her coming so I lifted up a few feet. The other NEADC diver was kneeling on the sand taking a picture and facing in the opposite direction. Myrtle swam up to him from behind and stuck her head between his legs. I'm told she sometimes lands on diver's backs pinning them to the bottom. Having a 300 lb turtle land on you must be somewhat of a surprise, thank goodness for buoyancy.

Other highlights of the dive included petting a large green moray eel and several vicious attacks by damsel fish.

Ralph