Video - Free Diving Interior Of The Sea Emperor

[RickI]

I had no idea the holds of the Sea Emperor hopper barge were so well interconnected. Ended up doing some runs along the accessible length of the vessel below the hull of the inverted barge. The paired slits in the hull cast a surprising amount of light into the holds helping the video'ing. Apologies to the scuba diver I surprised on that first ascent. I didn't mean to cut it quite that close on ascending out of the wreck after about a 140 ft. run down the holds.

I was happy the scuba diver with the severe buoyancy problem didn't suffer any barotrauma. I rode up after seeing the upper portion of that feet first ascent from around 70 ft. to see if the guy needed help. He popped his mask off and showing his lower face covered in a lot of blood which surprised me. He wasn't aspirating blood and it seemed likely to just be a particularly severe new diver nasal/sinus capillary bleed off from a first deeper dive. Still, I towed him to the boat pronto for the crew to check him out.

[video=vimeo;73661655]https://vimeo.com/73661655#at=0[/video]

The vimeo clip keeps freezing on me, so I uploaded one to youtube as well.

[video=youtube;_OqtRk5jdgg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OqtRk5jdgg[/video]


There are some still shots at: Video - Free Diving Interior Of The Sea Emperor - FKA Kiteboarding Forums





---------- Post added September 4th, 2013 at 09:26 AM ----------

I've been having some unusual problems with vimeo and so uploaded a clip to youtube as well. Is anyone else having playing problems with vimeo?

Thanks!

 

[JesperS]

Vimeo clip played without issue. With that said, you're nuts!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Checked out the YouTube vid.. cool..
Too bad about the ******* standing on the wreck..

 

[sportxlh]

That is a very cool video to watch, but stress inducing as well. I can't believe the places you go while just breath holding!!!!! I practically broke into a sweat watching. Thx for sharing.

 

[Dsix36]

Pisses me off to think I have $10,000 worth of rebreather and gear to do the same dive.

 

[RickI]

You need to really relax in free diving, at least to get much distance out of it and to enjoy the experience. There is something about semi-confined space that aids relaxation for me. The benefits of this particular spot are all the almost continuous dual overhead wide slots (escape ways) and excellent lighting. Even better it is fairly shallow at 70 ft.. Despite that, if things go well south you can get undone free diving here or even scuba diving for that matter. I would have given a lot for a rebreather in my teens, when they were $50K and largely unavailable outside the military and commercial sectors. Trimix and multiple niggle hits from lugging all those tanks out of the water did in my long interest in deco diving in the early 1990s. I could afford a rebreather today but I think the interest has moved on, scooter free diving does it for me these days. Good diving, however you choose to do it!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Cool video. I would have cracked my head on the first constriction. Have you ever thought of strapping a 6 cu-ft bottle to the scooter for the time when you suck up some fishing line or something?

 

[RickI]

I do need to buy a new helmet. The one I have from kitesurfing doesn't work well for free diving. Finally found a shell recommended for cave diving that might work better. I used to carry a small bailout bottle and subsequently a buoyancy belt which could be used as an emergency breathing supply for deeper free dives. I concluded changing from breathhold to compressed air at depth had a special set of hazards. You always need to have enough internal reserve to abandon the dive and scooter for that matter at any point and free swim to the surface with a reasonable margin for error.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I do need to buy a new helmet. The one I have from kitesurfing doesn't work well for free diving. Finally found a shell recommended for cave diving that might work better. I used to carry a small bailout bottle and subsequently a buoyancy belt which could be used as an emergency breathing supply for deeper free dives. I concluded changing from breathhold to compressed air at depth had a special set of hazards. You always need to have enough internal reserve to abandon the dive and scooter for that matter at any point and free swim to the surface with a reasonable margin for error.

For a good freediver and good scuba diver switching over to scuba at 60-90 ft would seem to be trivial, but we all make our estimates of risk and reward and then bet our lives on it..

 

[Randy g]

That is BAD AZZ! Excellent video Rick and something I hope to one day learn to do. Good job!