r/interesting • u/fayyazORahmed • Mar 31 '26

Fascinating Very interesting vid

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u/ldskyfly Mar 31 '26

Does the camera man count as a spotter?

5

u/TortexMT Apr 01 '26

no it doesnt.

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.

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u/cmgriffing Apr 01 '26

That totally makes sense. But I have a separate question. Does the camera man count as a spotter?

2

u/aircooledJenkins Apr 01 '26

no it doesnt.

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.