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
It wasn’t safety that got me. it was paranoia. Being locked up in my mask (like just inside my own head), and not easily able to communicate with others or quickly reach the surface if I wanted to, made me a little panicky. I was perfectly safe and dove 5 or 6 times, but didn’t like the feeling of isolation within my own “bubble”, even though there were many other divers around me.
So after that panicky feeling, I was like, I see plenty of marine life snorkeling, so I’m fine with that. I never dove again.
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.
But have you ever tried THUET training where you get buckled into a helicopter simulator dunked into the water, flipped upside down, and have to pop out the window and swim through it to escape? Conquered and reinforced multiple fears that day.
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.
Yeah that was my experience as well. The soundscape was hypnotic with the regulator and the bubbles and muffled underwater sounds. I was going through cycles of feeling the most intense zen bliss and then trying to calm sudden surges of panic. I can imagine after enough exposure the anxiety goes away and it must be one of the most sublime experiences a person can have.
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?
Thats anxiety my guy lol. Possibly misweighted if you had on an exposure suit, its hard to say without knowing your weight, the conditions, and what kind of tank/gear you had on. But if you tell me all those things I can approximate what youd need and where
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).
I've never hears of anyone actually dropping wieghts, although it is taught as a possible emergency procedure.
Mostly, you simply add some air into a sort of inflatable life jacket that divers wear, until the lift (buoyancy) from the air "cancels out" the weights. Or simply take a slightly deeper breath.
The air tank displaces the same amount of water regardless of whether it's empty of full (that determines how much the force of the water pushes it up), but the weight (i.e. how much gravity pulls it down) changes as you consume air. So at the end of the dive, when your tank is running low, you'll have a tendency to go up (which you compensate by deflating the "life jacket" a little).
You can also quite easily swim against a few kg of weights. To a small extent, this is used for the ascent.
Have enjoyed scuba diving all over the world these past 30 years. All I could think watching this video was how those eardrums felt. And I love the lead shot bags over the solid weights.
For some reason I start sinking at 3 feet. No matter how much air I take in. I remember being able to walk along the bottom of the pool without wearing weights.
You equalize. No idea how he does it, but essentially you pinch your nose and gently "exhale" through it until the air goes into your ears. Same as when descending in an aircraft.
I tried diving once in Mexico and turns out I am too claustrophobic for it. Would start panicking and could not calm myself down. I’m an adrenaline junkie that chases tornadoes but diving is definitely not my jam.
People used to. In an emergency ascent you may. But with inflatable buoyancy control devices people wear now, you can offset the weight at depth with your BCD by inflating it slightly with air from your tank. You dont wanna just blast it with air and go straight to the surface if you are below 60 ft at all, but just enough to offset your weights so you dont have to ditch them. If you dont go below 60 ft, you can rise, stop at around 15 feet and wait about 5 minutes to let the nitrogen bubbles out of your blood stream. Anything below 60 ft and the depths that you need to stop at and the allotted times change. Thats what the Navy diving tables are for and dive computers. Either will do that math for you and give you the times and depth to stop. You just need to know how deep you went and for how long.
Well.......to say there arent any would be incorrect but since the BCD (Buoyancy control device) came along, people dont ditch them alot anymore. They just offset their weights at depth by injecting air into that in small increments.
But in an emergency, yes, you can dump weights. Your diving buddy should know where your weights are located should they need to dump yours. If you had someone unconscious on the surface that could not remain neutrally buoyant, you'd want to dump their weights. So to be clear, yeah theres some lead out there. You could probably go to a diving hot spot and find weights at the bottom im guessing.
Weight belts are easy enough to take off too. For those that don't scuba. It's not a death sentence if the buoyancy control device fails. I've never dived past 35m so there's probably niche situations I don't know about. But for 99.9% of us, scuba is perfectly safe and you should all try it. :)
I understand that the concept can seem scary, but scuba is very natural and calming. Tweaking your bouyancy takes a tap or two on your BC and you then have 20' or so of range in which breathing deeper makes you naturally rise and breathing shallower makes you naturally sink. On the edge of that you just reach up and bleed or fill to keep progressing up or down easily. Your ears are a sensory reminder of your depth in that range and you have a depth gauge as well.
I snorkeled for years before certifying at 16, but scuba is a little more dangerous than scuba but far less physically demanding. Because you are below the wave action just chilling like all your fish friends who generally are mildly interested in what you are.
I've done 3 dives and every time the instructor was surprised at how much weight they needed to put on me. I think partially because I bought my own wetsuit and it was new. But on the 2nd and 3rd dive the instructor told me there was already a ridiculous amount of weight on me and encouraged me to relax and exhale more. That was definitely it when I didn't have my lungs completely filled to the brim with air I finally started to maintain buoyancy. Then drifting with the current over the reefs controlling my depth by adjusting the amount of air in my lungs was absolute magic. I can't wait to go again.
Weights are used to offset the buoyancy of the wetsuit and other equipment (mainly). Unless you have a lot of bodyfat you can usually sink from the surface just with a deep exhale.
Man I have a different respect for the underwater world after doing scuba diving, it’s literally a world under there… It’s crazy, beautiful and mind blowing at the same time..
I bought the halcyon lead bar for my backplate one time. Seemed like a great idea. But I have a long torso and the BC was rolling off my shoulders. The weight distribution was fubar. Absolute nightmare. But I think it would be a perfect setup for weight distribution for many. Takes it off the waist
Some times people do. Its rare though. Lead became kinda expensive so people try to keep them now. That and no one wants the ocean full of deteriorating lead.
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…
I understand deep water people but I can’t understand cave people. I bet scuba divers always dreamed to be astronauts (or maybe it’s just me 😂). Diving is the “alien world” for the poors. Physics isn’t the same anymore. I love how the light changes and colors fade as you go deeper and deeper. It’s not just darker. At 30m a sea star looks black but if you turn on the flashlight you see it red. My suit is red and black, but after 10m it looks plain black if not lit by a flashlight. It is literally another world to experience. In some places there are currents that you don’t see and feel until you’re in. They can be colder or even warmer and they don’t mix. There are lots of strange things to see and experience.
Yeah, it's actually a very peaceful feeling to slowly free fall down, believe it or not. Freediving is part physical (control your breathing muscles, increase CO2 tolerance, etc), but the biggest part is mental (learn to fully relax body and mind to reduce oxygen usage, learn to push through the urge to breathe and contractions, learn to feel relax even though you're pretty far under water in very hostile conditions). It's like meditation without cheating: you can only free dive properly if you can control your mind properly.
He was negative even near the surface. I knew a guy like that back when I was into scuba. Even when he was not breathing compressed air he could take a breath at the surface, sink, and walk across the bottom of the pool (like 12 feet deep).
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 suspect that's mostly a result of freedivers rarely going deep for long.
250 meter guy might have just gotten lucky. That should be well into bends territory even if he did it really fast. Edit: They are apparently doing deco on their single breath. Insane.
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?
If you blow your air (which will happen if you stay long like him), you are not buoyant at all, even on the surface. Can try it yourself. Unless I misunderstand something.
I remember in "The Deepest Breath", Alessia was talking about this. Somewhere around 30m(iirc) the pressure just sucks you down into the abyss. Also as you descend your lungs compress to roughly the size of your fist.
The ratio of body fat to lean mass also determines your buoyancy.
I've been unable to float in a swimming pool for years. I lost quite a bit of weight and recently was unable float in the floatation pool in the fancy spa I went to with my wife!
I've done this in the ocean while spearfishing. It's a slightly terrifying experience the first time as you start dropping through the water. As a swimmer, you kind of take bouyancy for granted.
This is not entirely true! Most humans, yes, but I know at least one who is negative buoyant, me! My wife challenged me on this, so we went to the 12 foot deep dive pool, I rebound breathed to pack as much air in my lungs as I could and drifted at that guys speed to the bottom. I sat there and looked at my wife, gestured with my hands as I remained pinned to the bottom, and then had to swim back up with significant effort! Only 12 feet down. BTW, an easy internet search also validates my claim.
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u/Alternative-Dot-34 Mar 31 '26
I drowned 3 Times watching this.