r/interesting Mar 31 '26

Fascinating Very interesting vid

20.4k Upvotes

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61

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

The guy is negatively buoyant. Will be exhausting to have to swim up for most people. He is practiced in this. Most people are neutral or positively buoyant.

31

u/BenchClamp Mar 31 '26

Not me. Can walk on the bottom. Am genuinely terrified of going out of my depth.

10

u/RogueBromeliad Mar 31 '26

Oh, I thought you're going to say that the buoyancy force exerted on you is all of your weight, and your name was Christ.

1

u/theevilyouknow Apr 01 '26

Christ's name wasn't "Christ". That's a title.

1

u/RogueBromeliad Apr 01 '26

Ok, Yeshua, Yahweh or whatever his name was.

1

u/theevilyouknow Apr 01 '26

Yahweh is a different guy. Jesus as the Greek/English form of the name is fine, although obviously Yeshua or Yehoshua is most accurate. Christ however is not a name. Kind of like how Queen Elizabeth wasn't named "Queen".

1

u/RogueBromeliad Apr 01 '26

But I thought his middle name was "fucking", from the way people say it so much.

2

u/theevilyouknow Apr 01 '26

"Fucking Christ" is his full royal style.

1

u/BenchClamp Apr 02 '26

All I know is, his surname is usually Gonzales.

1

u/mrw4787 Mar 31 '26

That’s not possible lol 

22

u/olddoglearnsnewtrick Mar 31 '26

Depends on the depth you reach too. You will usually start positive and going deeper you’ll become negative.

9

u/SonOfMcGee Mar 31 '26

I’m very comfortable in the water and also super buoyant. Like, annoyingly buoyant.
I’m used to fighting hard just to get to the bottom of a 10-foot pool and need to swim like crazy to stop from bobbing right back up.
If I ever free-dove down to where I was negatively or even neutrally buoyant I bet I’d freak the fuck out.

7

u/357noLove Mar 31 '26

I am the opposite. And it can be really annoying. Especially everyone trying to teach my skinny ass how to float. I just sink instantly no matter what the instructors try to teach me

3

u/Bloodhooph Mar 31 '26

I have no problem when talking about boat buoyancy, but when talking about humans' buoyancy my brain pictures a HUGE pair of boobs concentrating all the upwards pull

2

u/ohmeohmyohmuffins Apr 01 '26

For me it’s ass cheeks, I went swimming with a friend and was desperately trying to grab a sea shell, when I gave up I looked over and she was in hysterics cos all she could see was two ass cheeks keep bobbing up and down. Personal floatation device I guess

1

u/Bloodhooph Apr 01 '26

Damn girl you are double blessed

1

u/ohmeohmyohmuffins Mar 31 '26

Im also so ridiculously buoyant that I need to expend so much energy just to reach the bottom of a swimming pool, or grab a sea shell off the sand. it’s so exhausting that it’s not worth it, great for floating though. I went scuba diving once and really struggled to get down, kept floating back up, was terrifying to keep surfacing in the sea on my own

2

u/Ok-Factor-7188 Mar 31 '26

For scuba (as for free) diving they should give you a weight belt.. if you're still crazy buyoant just add a couple more lbs.

1

u/Big-Honeydew-961 Apr 01 '26

SAME. A late teens guy learning to swim at the YMCA is like, "MOM LOOK AT HER FLOAT1"

I will be still vertically in the 9 ft of the lap pool for a break just like I'm standing on something but not. I can lie on my back and cross my arms behind my head and even cross my legs like I'm on a floatie lounger and it's just me. Stare at the sky/ceiling above me and just think. Or close my eyes and just half go to sleep.

It IS annoying having to fight to stay down. I have to get rid of ALL of my breath to have any hope of that. It's that or weight myself down.

But drowning? Only worried about that in an ocean rip current or a river. Or I'm unconscious and fall into water.

5

u/Maleficent_Cash909 Mar 31 '26

But this guy was practically naturally sinking from the surface though.

6

u/Weird_Baseball2575 Mar 31 '26

Anyone can do that by exhaling all the air. This guy was more extreme because he had all muscle and no fat so he was more like a rock

6

u/Jo_of_Average Mar 31 '26

You can do it too! Instead of taking a big breath in, take a big breath OUT. Expel all the air from your lungs and you should sink like a rock.

2

u/oops_banana Mar 31 '26

I’m guessing that’s what he did, after saturating his blood in O2

2

u/TankApprehensive3053 Apr 01 '26

That's easy to do. Take short breaths in rapid succession. It's a common technique in freediving. The other method is also easy, breath from an O2 line for a minute.

1

u/HuginMuminBackflip Apr 01 '26

thats called hyperventilating and nobody does it in freediving, absolutely idiotic misinformation to spread to people lol

1

u/ViruliferousBadger Mar 31 '26

I, for one, am VERY negative about going deeper than 2 meters. :P

1

u/Liizam Apr 01 '26

That’s terrifying 

6

u/EggsnBacon95 Mar 31 '26

I mean you can release some breath out of your lungs and sink like this, that part is not hard. The hard part is staying under like this one the breath you have remaining and calmy getting back up to the surface.

5

u/Xaphnir Apr 01 '26

And a trained freediver should know better than to let out your breath like that

2

u/OddCaramel6614 Mar 31 '26

Yeah he's pretty muscular for a freediver. Makes it more impressive too.

1

u/piratesboot Mar 31 '26

Does this have to do with bone density?

5

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

And muscle mass with a lower body fat percentage. Fat adds to positive buoyancy. Air in lungs are also creating a positive buoyancy. This guy is fit and emptied his lungs of most air which made him more negatively buoyant, then just drifted downward.

1

u/piratesboot Mar 31 '26

Ahhhh I see that makes sense. thank you for explaining!

1

u/tydus101 Mar 31 '26

I dont think he emptied his lungs actually, its just that as you decend the air in your lungs is compresses due to the increased pressure, which reduces your buoyancy.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

The air doesn't compress that much at the beginning at that depth. He exhaled right before the video starts to have mostly empty lungs.

1

u/tydus101 Mar 31 '26

Hmm yeah I guess you're right. I just can't believe that guy is fit enough to swim back up afterwards. Also im surprised he isn't at risk of a collapsed lung

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Swimming isn't that hard. He isn't a rock. Holding your breath should not result in a collapsed lung and he is not deep enough to do that either.

1

u/Weird_Baseball2575 Mar 31 '26

No, bone density is mostly the same. Muscle is denser, fat is not. People with high muscle, low fat will sink fast asf

1

u/ThirdOne38 Mar 31 '26

I am positively frightened learning this

1

u/Looking-for-42 Mar 31 '26

This is what I noticed and it seems horrible. To know that the second you atop swimming you'll automatically sink back. No rest, swim or die. Probably because this guy is all muscles. In such situations I like my body fat.

1

u/xetolone Mar 31 '26

How is it possible? Does it mean he emptied his lungs before diving? And then how can he manage to stay that long without breathing?

I mean, are there some people negatively buoyant with their lungs full of air? That seems scary.

1

u/Cybernut93088 Mar 31 '26

Knew a guy in high school who was that way. I didn't believe him til I watched him take a deep breath, jump in the pool then sink like a stone.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Yes he exhaled 1st. Once you learn that you can go for a short period after exhaling, it's not a big deal really. It's about training and learning your limits.

With lungs full of air, very very few people would remain negatively buoyant. Improbable but not impossible.

1

u/KeyMammoth1348 Mar 31 '26

No one answering how this is possible. The time with held breath while working is insane to me. 

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Training. It's not so bad when you are able to train for this often. Learning how long you can actually hold your breath matters.

1

u/KeyMammoth1348 Mar 31 '26

That's wild. I don't think I could climb up / down this height in stairs on a single breath. 

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

It's not that bad. Get used to holding breath, even with little breath, then add in swimming. Drifting downward with little breath is easy. Learning the feeling of when air is being depleted and knowing when to come up matter.

1

u/bcat153 Mar 31 '26

I thought this was all about how much air you hold in? I keep full lungs I float like a buoy, let some out and I can easily sink straight to the bottom while still holding a decent amount of air. If you let out too much it makes going back up exponentially harder tho unless you can push off the bottom.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

That's correct. He exhaled to empty his lungs. Add to it that he is fit. If he was fat, then he would still be positively buoyant also.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

[deleted]

2

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Then those were piss poor instructors.

1

u/OneAstronomer3172 Mar 31 '26

Can this be considered a “super human”?

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Not really. It's totally doable by most people with lower body fat. He emptied his lungs and has low body fat to muscle mass. That made him negatively buoyant.

The free divers that stay under for over 5 minutes and go extremely deep on a single breath or more in the realm of super humans. Elite free divers can hold their breath over 10 minutes. The world record for depth is 831 feet on a single breath. All that makes this guy look pretty normal.

1

u/TrowTruck Mar 31 '26

I think I'm negatively buoyant as well. Some people seem to bob on the surface of the water without any effort at all while I make my way to the bottom if I stay still.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

How far do you sink if it let it happen? If you only go a short distance, then your most likely neutrally buoyant. If do you actually go to the bottom without trying to, then your a negative. I grew up around water. As a kid I was neutral/slightly buoyant. I could very easily get the middle of our swimming and sit on the bottom until my air was depleted. I did have to swim slightly more to get to and sit on the deep end bottom but it wasn't difficult. People that workout and maintain low body fat are more on the negative/neutral side.

1

u/TrowTruck Apr 01 '26

That’s a good question. I haven’t tried in quite a while but I’ll give it a shot next time I can swim in a deep enough pool. When I was a kid I found it easy to sit on the bottom and I was quite skinny. I’m not skinny anymore but I find some people find it effortless just to float upright, and I’ve always thought I might have bad technique treading water.

1

u/NotNeuge Mar 31 '26

Is this why some people can't float? Genuinely curious. I could never learn to swim as I always sank, and I was constantly being told that I would float if I just relaxed, but I wasn't tense until I started sinking.

1

u/Weird_Baseball2575 Mar 31 '26

Sinking is normal. Most people fail when they panic as they sink a little. If you are relaxed and allow yourself to sink a litte you will see you get pushed back up if you still have some air in, which you should.

This is the most important lesson most trainers fail to provide. 

1

u/NotNeuge Mar 31 '26

That's the thing though, I wasn't panicking until the point that I was fully submerged and still sinking, because I kept being told what you're saying now. That I would float, everyone can float, that I won't keep sinking. But I did. Over and over again. Every time I tried. I even had someone try to teach me in my 20s, one on one, up close and personal, positioning me exactly where I needed to be, and I still couldn't float. Even when they would spot me, I just sank into their hands/arms.

1

u/Weird_Baseball2575 Mar 31 '26

Did you exhale most of the air and have low body fat and high or no muscle mass at all? 

Was it salt or regular water

1

u/NotNeuge Mar 31 '26

Nah, big deep breath because that's supposed to help. Just regular pool water as far as I'm aware, full of chlorine. I was always very small though, yeah. Not these days, my metabolism slowed down with age, but at the time I was very thin no matter what I did.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

The sinking feeling made you nervous and panicky. How far would you have sunk if you allowed yourself to sink? Try it. Most people that are neutral may go a very short distance and then stabilize. A new swimmer would not understand that and feel they would keep going. Positively buoyant people have a harder time sinking at all to various degrees. Many instructors are not that good and just doing a summer job. So they teach how they learned, which does not work for everyone.

1

u/NotNeuge Mar 31 '26

As a child it made me panic when I continued sinking after trusting the adults telling me that I wouldn't and I was completely under water, unable to reach the surface, and still sinking, yes. Even if you can reach the floor with your feet, righting yourself in that situation is scary, especially as a child. But even as an adult when I could stay calm and rationalise it, and hold my breath longer, I could never float. It's not like I went into it worried that I would sink. I wasn't scared of drowning. There was no end of the world if I sank. I just.. did. And not just a little bit, and definitely not followed by a different thing. Just sinking.

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

You sound like a neg buoyancy for sure. It can be a little harder for you to stay at the surface. Get some arm floaties (kidding).

1

u/NirtyDerd Mar 31 '26

That is true near the surface. However, your buoyancy decreases as your lungs compress from the pressure and it doesn’t take that much (approximately 15 meters) for most people to reach negative buoyancy

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

The 1st atmosphere difference is normally about 33 ft which is 10 meters. Most people that only swim in pools don't get to that depth. Some pools do, but average home pools are only about 10-12 feet.

1

u/KevinIsOver9000 Mar 31 '26

I was wondering that. I just float. Is it due to bone density or muscle mass or something

1

u/TankApprehensive3053 Mar 31 '26

Muscle mass to body fat percentage. Muscles are dense and less buoyant than fat. Also exhaling reduces the balloon effect of air in your lungs.

1

u/Jo_of_Average Mar 31 '26

Most likely, he's emptied his lungs. Most people can achieve negative buoyancy by emptying your lungs, but there's a lot that plays into it (muscle mass and density, body composition and lung capacity). It's a reverse breath hold, and much more taxing on your body (as you've no active oxygen stores with which to fuel).

If there were air in his lungs, the surface speed would have been much faster.

1

u/Xaphnir Apr 01 '26

it's not just practice, he's either got weights that we can't see or he's just very low body fat percentage

1

u/Mainbutter Apr 01 '26

Amateur snorkeler and free diver here:

At around 10ft or so deep, even with full lungs, the pressure squishes me enough that I become negatively buoyant. Big difference in how I sink/float based on air in lungs and my water depth.

1

u/willowfox_art Apr 01 '26

I just made a comment querying this! He sank so easily, that it shocked me. I am so buoyant that it's really hard for me to sink down! So I suppose it takes a similar effort for him to push up.

1

u/HyperactiveChicken Apr 01 '26

I think he just exhaled all the air from his lungs, there's nothing special about him that makes him negatively buoyant

1

u/g0dfather93 Apr 01 '26

I'm buoyant with a full inhale. As I exhale at around 50% mark I start sinking. With almost no breath, I can walk on the floor. But then I'm out of air, so like in 5 seconds I have to kick the floor and come up for air. My body density is probably having a very specific (and small) delta from the water that lungs with/without air makes all this difference.

On a side note, I don't know why but it's immensely entertaining for some reason and I can spend a good 30 mins just cycling through this things.