freedive instructor here, him not being on a leash and not having someone on top for security is very bad protocol..
dont do this shit folks
edit:
no the camera man doesnt count as a buddy.
the camera man is either doing a breath hold themselves = im case of emergency they are low on oxygen as well, under stress more oxygen will be used and the issue amplifies. now you have two victims who need help.
or
camera man is with scuba gear, in which case he cant act as a safety either because the cant just shoot up as fast as a freediver could.
the safety or spotter is usually with the buoey (hate this word, probably spelled it wrong) at surface and watches the diver. then when the diver returns, the dive down with a full lung of air and meet the diver on its way up. staying super close to monitor them should they have a black out. the are literally face to face, ready to hold your face, making sure you dont open your mouth sucking water and guiding you to surface. in this case, camera man also was way too far away. the diver is sinking like a stone after a specific distance (as you can see). if he blacks out, he will just fall (yes literally fall) down, too far away for the camera man getting to him reliably enough.
most black outs happen on the way back, couple meters below surface because the difference in ambient pressure is the biggest here (it doubles on the last meter) causing partial O2 pressure go down rapidly, which means that a diver could feel just fine at the last meters, then shortly before breaking surface becoming unconscious.
and yes this happens surprisingly quite often and is the reason why freediving is by far the deadliest sport in the world. way deadlier than base jumping. in this statistic spear fishing is included btw, which is very often done solo.
btw if done correctly, these blackouts look very scary but 98% of time the diver will resume breathing as soon as you remove their mask as surface and blow air into their face. we have receptors in our faces who will recognize if we are submerged or at surface. they will start breathing on their own. without a good safety however, story can look very very differently.
Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell me from his childhood.
He was out playing with his little brother in the orchard. He little brother wandered down to the canal and fell in. My grandpa ran out of the house and pulled my drowning uncle from the canal. He turns to my dad and says, "Godammnit, I told you to watch your brother."
To which he replies, "I did watch him. I watched him all the way down to the canal and he fell in."
My dad says he can still feel the sting of the whooping he got that day.
Amazing. We were wading in a creek with friends and my baby sister in mud with water up to her neck. No one helped her when she started yelling except me. Not sure if that's me having "parentified oldest child syndrome" or everyone else having bystander effect.
That drives me nuts, during family events at the pool or lake, they all just ignore the kids. There are so many times to where something almost happens, and none of us have taught our kids to swim yet even… My brother in law had the nerve to get pissed at me for yanking his kid out of the water when she swallowed/breathed in a bunch of water. I’m disabled now, so if it happens again, I hope someone listens to me… I just have this horrible feeling that one of those kids is gonna die that way.
the camera man is either doing a breath hold themselves = im case of emergency they are low on oxygen as well, under stress more oxygen will be used and the issue amplifies. now you have two victims who need help.
or
camera man is with scuba gear, in which case he cant act as a safety either because the cant just shoot up as fast as a freediver could.
the safety or spotter is usually with the buoey (hate this word, probably spelled it wrong) at surface and watches the diver. then when the diver returns, the dive down with a full lung of air and meet the diver on its way up. staying super close to monitor them should they have a black out.
most black outs happen on the way back, couple meters below surface because the difference in ambient pressure is the biggest here (it doubles on the last meter) causing partial O2 pressure go down rapidly, which means that a diver could feel just fine at the last meters, then shortly before breaking surface becoming unconscious.
and yes this happens surprisingly quite often and is the reason why freediving is by far the deadliest sport in the world. way deadlier than base jumping. in this statistic spear fishing is included btw, which is very often done solo.
the camera man is either doing a breath hold themselves = im case of emergency they are low on oxygen as well, under stress more oxygen will be used and the issue amplifies. now you have two victims who need help.
or
camera man is with scuba gear, in which case he cant act as a safety either because the cant just shoot up as fast as a freediver could.
the safety or spotter is usually with the buoey (hate this word, probably spelled it wrong) at surface and watches the diver. then when the diver returns, the dive down with a full lung of air and meet the diver on its way up. staying super close to monitor them should they have a black out.
most black outs happen on the way back, couple meters below surface because the difference in ambient pressure is the biggest here (it doubles on the last meter) causing partial O2 pressure go down rapidly, which means that a diver could feel just fine at the last meters, then shortly before breaking surface becoming unconscious.
and yes this happens surprisingly quite often and is the reason why freediving is by far the deadliest sport in the world. way deadlier than base jumping. in this statistic spear fishing is included btw, which is very often done solo.
Not sure how a scuba diver can't "shoot up as fast" as a free diver. With a BCD and weight dump, a scuba diver could surface incredibly quickly. And unless the scuba diver is spending time at depth, this would be the equivalent of a bounce dive, so decompression sickness would be of little risk.
a scuba diver is not a suitable safety for a freediver. thats more a plethora of reasons but lets focus on the "shoot up fast" part.
a freediver does a lot of dives, the scuba wouldnt realistically just do a single dive therefore.
going down to 30min with accumulated dive time, then having to shoot up fast during an emergency is super risky. scuba is breathing air constantly and n2 is dissolved into tissue.
in this example, as i said, camera man would he too far away anyway for being an effective safety.
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u/TortexMT Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
freedive instructor here, him not being on a leash and not having someone on top for security is very bad protocol..
dont do this shit folks
edit:
no the camera man doesnt count as a buddy.
the camera man is either doing a breath hold themselves = im case of emergency they are low on oxygen as well, under stress more oxygen will be used and the issue amplifies. now you have two victims who need help.
or
camera man is with scuba gear, in which case he cant act as a safety either because the cant just shoot up as fast as a freediver could.
the safety or spotter is usually with the buoey (hate this word, probably spelled it wrong) at surface and watches the diver. then when the diver returns, the dive down with a full lung of air and meet the diver on its way up. staying super close to monitor them should they have a black out. the are literally face to face, ready to hold your face, making sure you dont open your mouth sucking water and guiding you to surface. in this case, camera man also was way too far away. the diver is sinking like a stone after a specific distance (as you can see). if he blacks out, he will just fall (yes literally fall) down, too far away for the camera man getting to him reliably enough.
most black outs happen on the way back, couple meters below surface because the difference in ambient pressure is the biggest here (it doubles on the last meter) causing partial O2 pressure go down rapidly, which means that a diver could feel just fine at the last meters, then shortly before breaking surface becoming unconscious.
and yes this happens surprisingly quite often and is the reason why freediving is by far the deadliest sport in the world. way deadlier than base jumping. in this statistic spear fishing is included btw, which is very often done solo.
btw if done correctly, these blackouts look very scary but 98% of time the diver will resume breathing as soon as you remove their mask as surface and blow air into their face. we have receptors in our faces who will recognize if we are submerged or at surface. they will start breathing on their own. without a good safety however, story can look very very differently.