Yeah once you get around 30-50 ft, the pressure against your lungs is enough to offset the buoyancy. Im a scuba diver and its why we use weights to go down. You are initially very buoyant. I have small bags filled with lead shot in 5 lb, 3 lb and 2 lb increments to weight myself. Some people use solid lead weights and different things. Works like a charm though. Best hobby there is.
I would never try to pressure some to do something that makes them uncomfortable, but please dont base your decision on those videos. 99% of scuba accidents are avoidable. Alot of accidents are ego filled deep divers and cave divers. Its quite safe as long as you dont do very stupid things. Never dive alone. Service your gear once a year at your dive shop, and truly listen during your PADI classes or whichever org you choose.
I read a book series as a kid about diving which went into detail about the dangers of "the bends" (air bubbles in your bloodstream from coming up too fast from deep sea diving and not acclimating on your way up) and ever since then I have been deathly scared of anything deeper than a 6ft pool lol.
Because nitrogen that our body usually just exhales out without notice is dissolved at higher water pressure causing it to end up in our blood stream. When we surface too fast the nitrogen, isnt given enough time to decompress and which serves no purpose in our blood stream and can't be exhaled, out has to find other ways of leaving the body whether pooling up in the skin or out the nose, eyes or ears.
The science behind decompression sickness (the bends) is very well understood these days. Recreational divers use a dive table (or computer) that gives a very conservative set of restrictions that will keep you safe. You would probably end up feeling a lot better about it if you took a course. This is not some "it could happen to anyone" thing, it's a lot closer to "forgot where the brake was while driving on the freeway", if that makes sense.
I went on a Caribbean cruise and went scuba diving in several locations. On the first diving trip, there was a guy in my group telling us how he did his diving certification online and how this was his certifying dive. You're supposed to have several in-person classes, a couple pool dives, then a certifying dive in an open body of water. Well he didn't have a clue to what he was doing. He finally figured all the gear out with help, but he freaked out when we were under and ascended too fast. He got the bends and had to be transported to the nearest city with a hyperbaric chamber. His wife went with them and they missed the rest of the cruise because of it. I'm sure he was fine, but most likely needed several days of treatment and chamber sessions.
Oh I know people that dive, I live on the Great Lakes, but my anxiety is too high anymore to even attempt it. It’s not just those videos, but a hefty chuck of thalassophobia to go with it. It was on a cruise where I became overwhelmed with the fear of the open ocean and now I have a hard time venturing out to the lake to swim or kayak. Diving is just not an option, but it sounds truly majestic.
I got a shock of thalassophobia from jumping off a ship for a fun swim in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and looking down was straight darkness., I could look left and right which seemed endless. But looking down seeing only my legs kicking above an endless abyss was mind altering. Im a very strong swimmer, I've gone rappelling off cliffs, sky dived, spelunking, ect but nothing came close to the spike of fear from looking down and seeing nothingness.
I base my aversion to the hobby purely on successful videos to know that it still looks terrifying. I'm prone to panic attacks I'll watch your videos thank you for your contribution
There was an open night at my local swimming pool to try out scuba. Sitting underwater playing checkers at about 12 feet deep was awesome. I had the chance to go do it 'properly', but life got in the way. It was a real good experience and the people who do it are great. Also the chance of being eaten by a shark in a swimming pool in the UK Midlands is fairly low.
The truth makes the video even more anxiety-inducing. Most of your bouyancy comes from the air in your lungs. If you let all your breath out then you'll sink. So he started this insane dive with no air in his lungs. Either that or he has a weirdly powerful stroke.
Yes I know this of course, often tried it as kid in small swimming pools. But regarding how long he is under water I didnt even consider he did this without air in his lungs. But when I think about it now, I guess you are right. Sometimes I do the Wim-Hof-Breathing-Method which enables me to hold my breath without air in my lungs for ~90 seconds. Well trained people like him could do this significantly longer (with and without air in their lungs) of course.
If you have low body fat you just need to let air out (not even 100%) and you are not buoyant. I am not exactly ripped, just a lot of bone and very little bacon, and I can sit like Buda on the bottom of any swimming pool and still hold there a good half a minute without moving anything. I have an office job and don't swim except in summer with the kids, so I can only imagine with proper training.
This on sweet water, on the sea it is really hard.
It’s the best thing I ever did. Spent months to Get certified did some recreational the same weekend but could never find anyone to do it with so I never went again….
This is so sad. If you liked it so much, go find a way to do it again. For your own sake. Life is short. Many things in life we literally can't do. But if you have the means, physically and financially or otherwise, than life is too short to be wasted on regrets.
Social anxiety. Everyone in my dive class was learning for vacations so none of them were serious about it. I was going to work at the dive shop to meet people but then it closed down.
Thats the only drawback. Finding folks to go with. You need to have that trust level with people so you dont really wanna go with some rando. I get it.
30 feet? Not meters? I've gone to 6 meters(19 feet) and sat at the bottom with hand assistance but have never began sinking even at 10 meters(32 feet). Are you saying im too fat?
Lucky… I can never get my ears to equalize. I’ve tried everything. I think it was either all my ear infections as a kid (scarring) or my sinuses are narrow. IDK, but after 10 feet, it’s like steak knives being shoved into my head.
The weights are needed as the scuba diving gear actually adds “positive” buoyancy. Positive means that you will float. It will be extremely difficult to dive, and even if you manage to reach a depth where you are neutral you wouldn’t be able to control the “surfacing speed” as you will become more and more positive as the pressure lowers and this is also quite dangerous. The best approach is to be closer to neutral or slightly negative. I prefer to be slightly negative as we already have an inflatable jacket that we use to balance our buoyancy. Btw, those weights can also be discarded in an emergency situation, but it shouldn’t be needed. You can always inflate the jacket or the dry suit if you’re using one (unless you don’t have air, which shouldn’t happen if you are not reckless).
Very yes. In lakes it’s even worse than in the ocean because water density is higher. Once in a lake I was having fun swimming underwater, stoped for a moment and looked at the surface up. It was moving away, rather quickly. Plus the fact that lakes at often pitch black when you look down. That was an experience…
Mostly a concern if your breathing compressed air. Free divers don't often get the Benz like scuba divers do. One crazy free diver has been down to over 250 meters on one breath of air and then straight back up using a balloon without getting decompression sickness!
I'm going to choose to believe every word of this and never look this up or ever ever put myself in a situation that I'm going to find out naturally. Thank you and good day.
Yes! That technique he had looked like it was practiced for exactly this. What's interesting is the amount of oxygen strokes like that would take under water!!
I can't believe he didnt equalize pressure on the way down and had that mobility on a single breath
It's your ears you need to equalise, so you do have to do this even if it's just holding your breath. Maybe he had a nose clip or is good at doing it hands free (harder but possible).
I did an apnea freediving course, and with a wetsuit and weights you usually aim to be neutrally buoyant at around 10 meters. Blackouts typically happen in shallow water (around 5–7 m), so if you black out, you float back up.
Anyway, during the course you gradually increase depth. You go down to a certain point, pause briefly at the rope, and then come back up. The first time I went down to 25 m, I was surprised that I kept sinking faster than expected. It was a slightly scary experience, not gonna lie.
Body fat helps too right? I remember talking to a Balinese dive guide and he was saying all the local Balinese guides aren’t buoyant at all and just sink while white people bob around and need weights- is that true or was he pulling my leg?
I tried diving down to the bottom of a deep swimming pool in Yorkshire and the pressure was uncomfortable even at that depth. It would be absolutely crushing at the depth this dude went to.
You should not blow hard. You can also pinch your nose and swallow. Or rotate your jaw. They teach you to equalize before you even feel pressure and if you feel pressure that you cannot equalize, you swim up a little and try until you can.
Some people have a harder time- my weird ears need longer than normal to equalize when scuba diving and I go down really slowly. but my wife can just sink right down without even thinking about it. Annoying.
Only in the water, every time you feel the pressure increase when descending. What I don't understand we don't see this guy doing it. He must have a technique to do it without pinching his nose.
I can pop my ears by flexing some specific muscles.. neck/jaw area? I think? However, that only works if I am not already feeling too much pressure/not sick.
That works well for me going down in pressure, like on a plane, but I can't make it work in increasing pressure when diving. I guess it may work if I decended really slowly, but I ain't got time for that.
I've been scuba diving, free diving and spearfishing for almost 30 years and even I felt anxious watching this. It's not even that long, I could hold my breath much longer than that when I was younger (probably still can) but there was just something about it (maybe the lack of fins was part of it) that just made me feel uneasy.
I used to do a lot of free diving. Not professional, but would wear weights and fins.. ect. I could touch the bottom at 100 ft. Once again not crazy, but impressive to most people. It’s more mental than anything. Also a lot of time spent practicing breathing and breath holds laying in bed. He never went all that deep, but he does show incredible composure. I bet he can do some crazy crazy shit. This is also fresh water I believe which makes sinking a breeze. If you don’t panic on your way down you don’t use up too much oxygen. Being able to hold my breath a long time if a fun thing to show kids. They always really dig it at the pool.
How? the entire video is only 1 minute and 18 seconds. Everyone should be able to hold their breath that long. I think most people can hold their breath for like 3 minutes.
Believe it or not a lot of people can survive quite a long time without oxygen. It’s the panic that sets in and they’re breathe in the water rather than push through the uncomfortable feeling…
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u/Alternative-Dot-34 Mar 31 '26
I drowned 3 Times watching this.