How deep is dangerous?

[Darnold9999]

The Glottis is naturally closed when you are not in the process of respiring and cannot be manually 'held open' unless you are actually breathing in or out.

You have got to be kidding or perhaps you don't understand what he is talking about. This is easy to do and as a photographer is an essential technique. You are simply wrong - you can manually hold you glottis open by simply stopping breathing - as opposed to holding your breath. Simple to explain the difference and easy to understand for most people.

As a beginner the rule don't hold your breath is an excellent starting place, but it is just that, a starting place. Knowing the difference between holding your breath and not breathing so your airway is open is useful information for divers - particularly photographers. Not sure why you are withholding it???

 

[nereas]

i was involved in trying to rescue a fatality here due to an OOG at 10 feet that resulted in a rush to the surface with a closed airway and barotrauma. it definitely doesn't take much.

That equals 1/3 ATA, which is close to what I thought for 1/4 ATA.

Thanks Lamont!

 

[DevonDiver]

You have got to be kidding or perhaps you don't understand what he is talking about. This is easy to do and as a photographer is an essential technique.

I am not kidding. It's an unsafe diving practice and you won't find it taught by any diving agency.

And...it isn't essential for photographers. I don't do it and I teach underwater photography and have had photos published.

 

[DevonDiver]

As a beginner the rule don't hold your breath is an excellent starting place, but it is just that, a starting place. Knowing the difference between holding your breath and not breathing so your airway is open is useful information for divers - particularly photographers. Not sure why you are withholding it???

I'm not a beginner - and I don't hold my breath. The longer you dive, the more lessons you learn and the less complacent you become. It just tends to be that divers reach a stage where they become very confident with their diving, but this also tends to lead to complacency. The trouble is - a few hundred dives makes the basics easy, but isn't quite enough for you to have had exposure to the sort of problems and incidents that can happen in the water. I'd recommend a dive medic technician course for anyone who thought that the 'basic rules' no longer applied to them......

 

[Age]

I'm a NAUI DM candidate and recently I've been made to all sorts of tricks UW often without a regulator in my mouth. Of course I'm not breathing, but I do let some air to slowly escape in the form of little continuous bubbles. I imagine this has the effect of keeping the glottis open, does it not? If so, doesn't it follow that this technique is useful for safely taking photographs underwater?

 

[Diver Dennis]

You are correct Age, I use this technique all the time.