Real Men Don't Use Scuba Tanks

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Chad Carney

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
1,515
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Location
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, FL
# of dives
5000 - ∞
I just read the above titled story in the January Mens' Journal, which has a six page pictoral article about the Performance Freediving course. I'm not wild about the title, but it's a good read about a journalist immersing into a new sport for the story, but the author, David Case, has his dives blown out in Miami and luckily finishes in Grand Cayman at the clinic that Tiger Woods and his wife Elin attend. The writer drags up the rear of the class, as would be expected, but reports that Tiger, a confessed spearfisherman, makes it to 4 minutes on the pool static breath hold and later hits 100 feet on the final ocean dives.

I took the course in Miami in 2003 and learned a lot from instructors Kirk Krack and Martin Stepanek. I looked back at my log and recalled that 5 of us also made it past 100 feet and to as deep as 123 feet. We would have had at least 4 more make 100 feet if some bad ears and the sea lice in May had not taken out some of the students.

I'm not happy with the small spearfishing side bar article they stuck in with it.
"Free-Diving's Even More Gonzo Cousin" by Owen West is an aggrandizing piece of fluff about shark dangers. West also states "I'm proud to say I've never used a tank - which real spearos consider unsporting."

Other than those shortcomings, I'm still glad to see another largely positive diving story get into a mainstream magazine.

I'd highly recomend the PFD course.

This same issue of Men's Journal also has a mixed diving, surfing, kayaking and fishing article I've yet to read, entitled "Discovering the Caribbean's Wilde Side."
Yet another article is about kayaking in the Galapagos Islands.

Good reading material while the wind blows.

Chad
 
Chad Carney:
I just read the above titled story in the January Mens' Journal, which has a six page pictoral article about the Performance Freediving course. I'm not wild about the title,

I met a freediver a few months ago who had a real elitist attitude and I think this title reflects that sort of an attitude that is held by some.

This freediver was telling me all about the "zen" of free diving that can ONLY be acheived without tanks and that he considered "what is to be seen with scuba at the ocean bottom" to be just boring anyway. Puleeeeze....just a bit egotistical and narrow minded?...lol....

I'm not knocking free diving.....might like to try it myself sometime....just the attitude toward scuba that some freedivers seem to have. Remember...its all good...scuba and freediving!

Sort of reminds me of the sailboater vs powerboater attitude wars...lol....
 
real men don't use speedos...we leave the speedos to the foreigners.
 
Michael,

Freediving on oil rigs (vertical reefs) is about as cool as the sport gets, and the quality and quantity of fish is superb!

I spear fish both ways, but shooting a 15 pound grouper while freediving is a whole lot more exciting than it is on scuba!

BTW, the Men's Journal article on kayaking the Galapagos Islands was pretty good too.

Chad
 
I've done both - each has its own merits - for me, I didn't see the purpose of driving myself nuts to stay underwater for a couple minutes and come flying up to the surface. I'm not a fish, and never will be one, nor am I a whale or dolphin, so don't have those kind of breathing skills...to each their own. The title was meant to be in jest, but still unacceptable; I emailed "Men's Journal" about it, and told them I would never buy their magazine because of it, and would forward the title to every one of my "non-real man (and woman, for that matter) tank using" friends and urge them to do likewise...that resulted in a very apologetic email back stating that the "title was insensitive." In the end, to tell you the truth, who really cares? People with 'elitist attitudes' are just showing their emotional insecurity and self-esteem issues for the world to see, IMHO. Happy New Year!
 
I'm giving the magazine and writer a little more slack.

I'm going to pick up the next couple issues to see if they continue the outdoor and watersports coverage.

David Case, the writer, is a scuba diver, and it wouldn't surprise me at all that the title isn't his. Titles are the most common edits.

Owen West, a pure elitest, was a poor choice to represent spearfishermen.

Chad
 
I used to free dive a fair bit, but not to the extent of proficiency shown by Tiger Woods! I think spearfishing should be practiced by free divers rather than SCUBA divers to give the fish a real sporting chance. Several of my buddies are spearfishers and I'm certainly happy to eat their catch (done legally of course).

For me free diving is not a real option. I'd have a lot of trouble staying down at 60-100+ ft to get good footage of giant sea bass with my video camera, but my hat is off to those who could (as long as they aren't arrogant about it).
 
well, I say let them be arrogant. You know the saying, If you can do it, it ain't braggin.
Dr Bill, I wanted to read a book I read about freedivers when I lived on Catalina, again. I think his name was Carlos Eyres or something like that, Silent Hunters....am I getting it correct? Anyway, you reminded me with the Sea Bass comment. I want to learn to freedive this year. I just bought the Men's Journal last night and the article looks very good. I do think the Zen part is right -on, as I am sure anyone who has played with breath control knows. Sometimes even skip-breathing while photographing for a while on Scuba gets me high as a kite.
 
Wow. Boycotting a magazine like that because of a tongue-in-cheek title? Do you really think that the title is "unacceptable"? In what way?

I'm not trying to give you a hard time, I'm serious. You mention how "People with 'elitist attitudes' are just showing their emotional insecurity and self-esteem issues for the world to see", but honestly I think a case could be made that you may be exhibiting similar issues with your response. Of course I have no right to tell you how to react to something, but the concept of trying to force or legislate others to "be pleasant and say nice things" to us has always been kind of curious to me.

Anyway to get back on track, I'm signed up for the Performance Freediving class next month here in Malibu. Aside from learning the safety aspects, I'll be thrilled if they can teach me to extend my 45 second dynamics to something around 2 minutes. It's a barrier I just can't seem to break.
 
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