how do you exhale on surfacing

[ballastbelly]

i ve seen many references to controlling the first exhalation on surfacing to reduce chance of samba/blackout.
the gist of what i understood is that too rapid an exhalation will cause a sort of oxygen vaccum/low pressure area in the lungs and this will leach out oxygen from the surrounding blood/brain and bring you to the point of collapse.

how do you control an exhalation? the urge is to let it all out so you can quickly gulp in that first breath of fresh air.
do you purse your lips like you are blowing out a birthday candle? do you count to yourself while exhaling to make exhale last 3seconds?

thanks
B

 

[ballastbelly]

i googled a bit on the subject and found this, but what how does one breath out in this way? any description pls?

7) Never exhale under water or forcefully exhale on surfacing

i ve seen many references to controlling the first exhalation on surfacing to reduce chance of samba/blackout.
the gist of what i understood is that too rapid an exhalation will cause a sort of oxygen vaccum/low pressure area in the lungs and this will leach out oxygen from the surrounding blood/brain and bring you to the point of collapse.

how do you control an exhalation? the urge is to let it all out so you can quickly gulp in that first breath of fresh air.
do you purse your lips like you are blowing out a birthday candle? do you count to yourself while exhaling to make exhale last 3seconds?

thanks
B

 

[Chad Carney]

The first 3 exhalations after surfacing should be about half exhalations only, followed by normal full inhalations. They are called recovery breaths or hook breaths. This way the diver does not have a sudden drop in blood pressure possibly leading to a black out. Also much positive buoyancy is not lost at an important time. After the recovery breathing, take deep replenishing breaths and stay on the surface for a minimum of 3 times your dive time.

It's not hard to use recovery breathing following your dives. Just try it.

Chad

 

[Arubandi07]

i googled a bit on the subject and found this, but what how does one breath out in this way? any description pls?

7) Never exhale under water or forcefully exhale on surfacing

You're really over-complicating this stuff ... Snorkel in/out, just do a normal exhale when you surface. Looking up, one arm extended toward the surface, I usually begin my exhale when my hand breaks the surface, sometimes later. And since you asked for a description, just take a full breath, hold it for a little, and say "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..." without producing the actual sound, very relaxed, open throat, no force involved, and don't try to push those last couple of CCs out of your lungs. Take your first breath, ... done.

 

[ballastbelly]

thanks for the tip!

The first 3 exhalations after surfacing should be about half exhalations only, followed by normal full inhalations. They are called recovery breaths or hook breaths. This way the diver does not have a sudden drop in blood pressure possibly leading to a black out. Also much positive buoyancy is not lost at an important time. After the recovery breathing, take deep replenishing breaths and stay on the surface for a minimum of 3 times your dive time.

It's not hard to use recovery breathing following your dives. Just try it.

Chad

---------- Post added February 23rd, 2013 at 05:08 PM ----------

thanks !

You're really over-complicating this stuff ... Snorkel in/out, just do a normal exhale when you surface. Looking up, one arm extended toward the surface, I usually begin my exhale when my hand breaks the surface, sometimes later. And since you asked for a description, just take a full breath, hold it for a little, and say "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..." without producing the actual sound, very relaxed, open throat, no force involved, and don't try to push those last couple of CCs out of your lungs. Take your first breath, ... done.

 

[AfterDark]

OMG! How did I survive 52 years of diving not knowing about this? I must be one lucky diver. I get to the surface....and OH the horror forceable blow the water out of my snorkel! I've been snorkeling / free diving since I I was 10 years old.

 

[Arubandi07]

OMG! How did I survive 52 years of diving not knowing about this? I must be one lucky diver. I get to the surface....and OH the horror forceable blow the water out of my snorkel! I've been snorkeling / free diving since I I was 10 years old.

Come on, be nice now ... Re the blast-clearing thing, that's what I grew up with ... And while I don't really use that technique much anymore(various reasons) for surfacing, "Thar she blows!!" actually works great as sort of a low-tech 'homing beacon', figured that out a few years ago, funny story ... Came up from a dive, water was a little rough, and of course, my wife nowhere to be seen. OK, Arm up in the air, slow 360, still nothing, "well, time to back-track", popped in my snorkel, blew it out, and got on my way ... No more than 15 seconds later, I see her coming at me, full steam ... Must have been dumb luck that she actually saw that one single blast, but it worked. Ever since then, no problem getting back in touch when we lose each other ...

 

[ballastbelly]

OMG! How did I survive 52 years of diving not knowing about this? I must be one lucky diver. I get to the surface....and OH the horror forceable blow the water out of my snorkel! I've been snorkeling / free diving since I I was 10 years old.

well i guess you have good lung capacity, and stay within that safe limit. The problem as i see it is that nobody knows what his /her limit is. you cant set a watch to remind you when its time. its depends on how good a breath you took, how long you stay, how much effort you end up doing underwater, how healthy you feel on a certain day, even what you ate or drank and how much you slept the night before.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I'm kinda like AfterDark, in that I've been diving and breath-hold diving over 50 years now. My method is usually a displacement with the snorkel as I surface. I do that by looking towards the surface, and starting the exhalation before I get to the surface. That way the snorkel is cleared of water by the time I'm at the surface and I can breath. I have a collection of snorkels, and routinely use those that do not feature a valve in them.

Concerning the reasoning for the first three exhalations being partial, like Chad Carney discusses above, I think that applies if you are doing very deep, and long, breath-hold dives. I have learned over the years not to push myself in this regard. I placed a blog entry on Taravana, or Shallow Water Blackout, as I feel that this is a big problem and not enough emphasis is made on it. As an addendum, I added this about rhythm breath-hold diving:

In recent years, I have found that I can establish a rhythm of breath-hold diving which does not require hyperventilation to attain longer times underwater. This involves simply taking a at the most two to three deep breaths, submerging until the urge to breath come, then surfacing. I take a minimum of two minutes between dives, then submerge again. After keeping this up for about 15 minutes, I find my times extending naturally until I'm pretty comfortable swimming underwater for 1 minute, 30 seconds. I don't try to extend beyond that, but have reached 3 minutes. By doing this rhythm free diving, I can allow my body to adapt; it may have to do with the mammalian diving reflex too, but I'm not sure of that. But I find this adaptation does occur. Combining this technique with buddy diving, where the buddy watches from the surface, and free diving can be pretty easy and safe.

This adaptation takes time, and if done right will keep the diver from a situation where shallow water blackout will occur. But you must "mind your body" and not hyperventilate.

SeaRat

 

[Harmonyhallresorts]

OK so here is what I have found and what works for me. When free-diving I slowly exhale small amounts of air as I go down to allow me to sink rather than fight the air trapped in my lungs. By the time I reach the depth I intended I now have half the air I originally took in. As I start to run out of air I again exhale small bits. By the time I reach the top I am out of air and my first reaction is to inhale. This immediately feeds my system and reduces the need for "rescue breaths". Practice holding your breath empty rather than full and concentrate on your breathing and your heart rate. Try to slow yourself down as much as possible.