RE: high incidence of SWB deaths in Hawaii among freedivers

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kidspot

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Moses Lake, Washington
# of dives
500 - 999
I was just looking at this PDF http://www.freedive.net/SWB/vest1_lo_rez.pdf where they list the following statistics:

US - continental 3 deaths in 10,000 divers
US - Hawaii 6 deaths in 5,000 divers

That is a 400% greater rate in Hawaii vs. the rest of the country ...

Assuming these figures are correct... why so many more deaths in Hawaii? I am aware of 3 deaths in the past 18 months, one was the nephew of a friend who, like most of the freedivers around here, grew up diving and was quite skilled. Most never dive alone either ...

Ideas?

Tim
 
Kid,
I think that the freedivers here tend to dive MUCH more often, and due to their
skill level, tend to push their limits....but dey be da kine.......
 
true as I have several friends that will go for fish down past 100ft. Would it have anything to do with the fact that most freedivers around here are spearing and therefore not on a "planned" schedule?
 
kidspot - I think you hit the nail on the head - the majority of freedivers in your area do spearfish and as such, do not plan their diving the way someone who freedives for the sake of freediving would. They typically push their recovery times and as such, set themselves up for SWB and the end result is a higher mortality rate.
 
It might also have something to do with lack of education about diving. Dangers and safe practices not being taught, or just getting lax with them. I haven't really been looking around, but here in Hilo I haven't seen any kind of freediving class. It wouldn't take much effort to setup a free talk every now and then to keep the dangers in mind.
 
I have to disagree with the lack of knowing about freediving instruction. Freedivers have their own community and they know what's available. Ask any freediver about Performance Freediving or Deeperblue.net and many will know about these resources. I have typically found that it is scuba divers who are unaware of what is available for freediving - and I feel it is a direct result of the scuba industry wanting to keep people in the dark about this so called "Dangerous" activity.

Back in the old days, skin diving as it was called back then, was a part of scuba certification. You had to be proficient in breath hold diving before you could get your cert card. If that was put back into the course requirements today, you would see the scuba industry die an ugly death - no one but the fittest would be able to pass the course. It's a shame because becoming a proficient freediver makes you a better scuba diver. You understand what it means to feel the urge to breathe, or if you had an Out of Air situation, your skills as a freediver would become very important in resolving that situation.
 
5ata:
I have to disagree with the lack of knowing about freediving instruction. Freedivers have their own community and they know what's available. Ask any freediver about Performance Freediving or Deeperblue.net and many will know about these resources. I have typically found that it is scuba divers who are unaware of what is available for freediving - and I feel it is a direct result of the scuba industry wanting to keep people in the dark about this so called "Dangerous" activity.

Back in the old days, skin diving as it was called back then, was a part of scuba certification. You had to be proficient in breath hold diving before you could get your cert card. If that was put back into the course requirements today, you would see the scuba industry die an ugly death - no one but the fittest would be able to pass the course. It's a shame because becoming a proficient freediver makes you a better scuba diver. You understand what it means to feel the urge to breathe, or if you had an Out of Air situation, your skills as a freediver would become very important in resolving that situation.

For some reason I doubt many of the locals here own a computer let alone cruise the internet?
 
FoggyMask - you might very well be right on that - my bad for making the assumption...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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