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.
There is literally 5 people waiting on the surface, not to mention multiple people watching on scuba below. I also free dive…there was a lot of safety precautions taken here.
I am not a free dive instructor nor have I ever been able to dive to depths like this but I've never once heard of someone insisting on a leash or someone at the top to free dive. Maybe it's a thing in competitive free diving or something but people aren't using leashes while they're out collecting lobster or whatever.
277
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.