LeadTurn_SD
Contributor
Again, this is NOT true. Diving down will increase nitrogen load in blood and then tissues, even without breathing compressed gas.
Correct. This fact blew me away when I read it the first time. If you had told me when I started diving 30 years ago that it was possible to get DCS from freediving, I'd have asked you what you were smoking, and asked why you weren't sharing
Here is another link and a relavent quote:
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Apnea.nl - Decompression Sickness and Breath-hold diving: Is it an issue?
Comparing DCS in breath-hold and SCUBA divers:
"DCS in SCUBA divers has been described in two types, where the first type often describes skin and joint symptoms, and the second type more neurological symptoms as paralisis and coordination problems. DCS in breath-hold diving is often described as being "Taravana" altough its classic symptoms do have many similarities with DCS type two.
Why Taravana doesn't follow the same pattern as with compressed gas divers is not completely understood. It could be imagined that silent bubbels could play a role here. Bubbels created during breath-hold diving can get stuck in the lungs. A second breath-hold dive, could shrink the size of these bubbels sufficiently that they can bypass the lungs and cause problems in the brains or other neural tissue. Strangly however is that when DCS is occurs after Breath-hold diving after SCUBA diving, DCS type I is observed."
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The competetive freediving community is well aware of the dangers of DCS and deep, repetitive apnea dives.
As I started doing searches, I found that several of the elite freedivers had taken chamber rides over the years.
DCS after freediving, and freediving being a possible risk after scuba was something I would never have considered until reading this stuff a couple years ago.
Best wishes.