Seminar
Freediving Physiology
- Freediver Course
- Duration: 4 hrs
- Cost: 20 €
- Participants: up to 4
- Language: English
- Interaction: Questions & Discussion
Discover how the human body responds and adapts to breath-hold diving. This seminar covers equalization, breathing physiology, oxygen and carbon dioxide management, the diving reflex, hypoxia, blackout prevention, and essential rescue procedures.
Contents
Body pressure equalizations
- Spaces with air trapped in the body of a freediver.
- The diving reflex (auto – equalization of the lungs).
- Equalizing the ears.
- Equalizing the pressure in the middle ear with the ambient pressure
- The three pressure equalization methods
- The Valsalva method
- Problems and injuries in pressure equalization maneuvers
- Equalizing the sinuses
- Equalizing the air in the mask.
Breathing, blood circulation and blood gases
- Breathing and the respiratory movements.
- The exchange of gases through breathing (oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal).
Apnea
- Apnea: The breath-hold physiology.
- The role of oxygen (O2).
- The role of carbon dioxide (CO2).
- The duration of the apnea: all the factors.
- The body’s ten-minute recovery time between two freedives.
- Hyperventilation and the reason to avoid it to extend breath-hold time.
- The reason we never breath from a scuba system while freediving.
The hypoxic diver, shallow water blackout and rescue
- Hypoxia and hypoxic state.
- Loss of Consciousness (LOC – blackout).
- Loss of Motor Control (LMC).
- The mechanism of hypoxia – when the freediver is threatened by hypoxia.
- The hypoxia (or shallow water blackout) “barrier” of 7 or 10 meters during ascent.
- Before the blackout: no warning symptom.
- The avoidance of hypoxia.
- Rescue techniques for a hypoxic victim.
Learning outcomes
Participants will learn:
- How pressure affects air-filled spaces within the body
- Techniques for equalizing the ears, sinuses, and mask
- The physiology of breathing and gas exchange
- The roles of oxygen (O₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) during apnea
- Factors that influence breath-hold performance
- Why hyperventilation increases risk and should be avoided
- The mechanisms behind hypoxia, LMC, and blackout
- Recognition, prevention, and management of shallow water blackout
- Effective rescue procedures for hypoxic freedivers
This is one of the most important theory seminars in the curriculum because it explains the physiological mechanisms behind both freediving performance and safety, helping divers make informed decisions in every dive.
