Can you hold your breath while Diving?

[Viper12161]

Hello!!

Went spearfishing the other day for my first time and loved it!! I am using a JBL Explorer 20. I was pretty much laying on the ground at about 40' and waiting for the fish to swim up. (Tautog's) One thing I noticed though was as a group of them were coming towards me, they would be scared away by the bubbles as I exhaled. (now I see the advantage of a re-breather ) I mentioned it to a friend and he told me to hold my breath....which from my PADI training is a big no-no. But if I am at a stable depth and not moving, can I hold my breath for a few seconds? Maybe 5-10 seconds? Or am I asking for trouble?

Thanks!!!

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

Hello!!

Went spearfishing the other day for my first time and loved it!! I am using a JBL Explorer 20. I was pretty much laying on the ground at about 40' and waiting for the fish to swim up. (Tautog's) One thing I noticed though was as a group of them were coming towards me, they would be scared away by the bubbles as I exhaled. (now I see the advantage of a re-breather ) I mentioned it to a friend and he told me to hold my breath....which from my PADI training is a big no-no. But if I am at a stable depth and not moving, can I hold my breath for a few seconds? Maybe 5-10 seconds? Or am I asking for trouble?

Thanks!!!

Its a loaded question.

I'll answer it this way.

In theory, IF you keep your airway open, you can breathe in and not breathe out for a while. Any expansion would naturally flow out.

However IF you forget, and in your excitement close your airway and drift or swim up, air expansion can cause serious lung barotrauma up to and including death.

Personally I would opt with breathe in and breathe out very slowly so the bubbles are hardly noticeable.
That would have some risk also, CO2 build up if you do it often.

 

[doctormike]

Hello!!

Went spearfishing the other day for my first time and loved it!! I am using a JBL Explorer 20. I was pretty much laying on the ground at about 40' and waiting for the fish to swim up. (Tautog's) One thing I noticed though was as a group of them were coming towards me, they would be scared away by the bubbles as I exhaled. (now I see the advantage of a re-breather ) I mentioned it to a friend and he told me to hold my breath....which from my PADI training is a big no-no. But if I am at a stable depth and not moving, can I hold my breath for a few seconds? Maybe 5-10 seconds? Or am I asking for trouble?

Thanks!!!

If you don't change your depth, there is no reason why you can't hold your breath as long as you can. The rule is that you shouldn't ascend while holding your breath after breathing compressed air at depth, as that can cause lung injury.

PADI and other training agencies tell new divers never to hold their breath because it's easier to remember while they are still learning, rather than trying to remember when they can and when they can't hold their breath.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Yes, it’s safe and fairly common to occasionally need to take a deep breath or hold it to make adjustments in buoyancy.

 

[doctormike]

One thing to keep in mind - some people do "skip breathing", which is when they try to breathhold to improve their SAC rate. That doesn't really work, and you can end up retaining CO2 which can cause problems similar to narcosis. No problem just holding your breath to get a shot, but don't get in the habit of skip breathing. Better to do long slow deep inhales and exhales.

 

[Storker]

Hold your breath by just not using your diaphragm: no worries.
Hold your breath by closing your glottis: potential sh!storm

Since you need a certain amount of disposable mental bandwidth to be able to distinguish between those two and since OW level divers aren't known for their excessive mental bandwidth, OW students are simply told "don't hold your breath".

If you know what you're doing, there shouldn't be any issues with not breathing out for a little while. Except for CO2 retention, that is.

 

[almostDIR]

learning to automatically exhale when you are about starting to drift up and inhale when you are about starting to drift down also helps. Without any reference point it may be challenging though. I personally have to struggle with equalizing quite often so small pauses in breathing are inevitable at times and it helps a lot by having the automatic "starting to go up --->Breathe out now! " reflex then.

Laying down on hard bottom, being negatively buoyant I don't see much risk for lung injury if holding breath but the possible hypoxia and CO2 could be a risk for sure

 

[oly5050user]

Why use scuba to shoot togs? Sort of unfair . I used to go for them out of Newport very successfully and never used a tank

 

[Viper12161]

Thanks for the info everyone!! Much appreciated as always.

 

[Mo2vation]

I hold my breath many times on most dives. As a photographer, I'll generally push out all the gas I can to get very still. brace and then take the photo.

I will often use my breath as an anxiety gauge... am I breathing hard? Am I breathing short? OK... what's causing this? (am I lost, am I fighting current, am I excited, am I unsure of something....) Then take a breath, hold a breath, and settle....

Its not uncommon to hold you breath on OC... just don't do anything wacky like an ascent, or pushing off the bottom or anything they warned you about in class. Breath is a tool underwater, like any other tool. Use it wisely you'll be fine.

- K