FLORIDA (25 June 2008) — Pearl divers and sponge fishermen have been doing it for thousands of years: swimming into the depths and holding their breath underwater for longer than many people might think possible. It's called free diving, and it's emerging as a popular sport in the United States and around the world. Free-diving fans say it's addictive, but there are significant risks. David and Robert Richardson have been diving most of their lives. After a recent day of spearfishing, the brothers decided to do some free diving to see how deep they could go on a lungful of air. David, 16, got down to the bottom in 90 feet of water and was headed back up when he blacked out. "The next thing I remember, I was waking up coughing and spitting blood in the back of the boat," he recalls, laughing. Fortunately, his 20-year-old brother, Robert, was headed to the surface after his own dive and spotted the trouble. "I looked down and I saw David had stopped moving. ... I grabbed him and headed up to the surface," Robert says. "And the next thing I know, I was in the back of the boat." Robert made it to the surface holding onto his brother, but then he, too, lost consciousness. Friends in a nearby boat quickly took action, rescuing the brothers from almost certain drowning. Among free divers and spearfishers, it's not an uncommon tale. Last year in the Florida Keys, at least three people died while free diving. Even the most seasoned free divers experience blackouts. World champion free diver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank says she's probably experienced 10 blackouts. "They look bad to people watching them because our eyes are usually open, we're unconscious, we're very blue in the lips when it happens and we're not breathing," she says. "You look like you're dead, essentially." Cruickshank and her husband and dive partner, Kirk Krack, are apostles of the fast-growing sport of competitive free diving. They trained escape artist David Blaine for his recent record-setting appearance in April on The Oprah Winfrey Show in which he stayed underwater for 17 minutes. They've also worked with Tiger Woods, another free-diving enthusiast. In addition, Krack and Cruickshank teach courses in free diving to educate people about safety — and about physiology. "In the 1950s, doctors thought that people couldn't dive deeper than 50 meters because our alveoli in our lungs would implode and we'd die," Cruickshank says. But she notes that humans are capable of diving to even greater depths because we possess what's called mammalian diving reflexes. These are reflexes we share with seals, dolphins and other marine mammals. Researchers have learned that as people go underwater, their heart rates slow and blood vessels constrict — reducing flow to the extremities so more oxygen is sent to the brain. The downside of the diving response is that as divers near the surface, their constricted vessels return to normal and can create a sudden lack of oxygen to the brain — causing a blackout. Too often, this leads divers to drown even in shallow water. | | Freediver Audre Mestre died in a failed attempt to set a new freediving record. The 28-year-old French woman was pulled out the water foaming from the mouth and bleeding 9 minutes, 44 seconds after plunging to a depth of 171-meters (561-feet) on a 91-kilogram (200-pound) weighted sled. Krack devotes much of his free-diving classes to safety — stressing the buddy system and not pushing beyond one's limits. But he also shows students breathing and kicking techniques that get them deeper and keep them underwater longer than most have ever experienced before. After several training sessions, many find they can stay underwater for three minutes or longer. Angel Vasquez, 60, was among nine students in one recent class held in 200 feet of water in the middle of Miami's Biscayne Bay. He says he's been spearfishing and free diving for 35 years but didn't realize he's been doing it wrong. "You come to this class and you realize it is a totally different way of doing things — you know, your breathholds and the preparation for it." After three hours in the water, Krack and Cruickshank's students clamber back into the boat. Most are elated at their dives. Vasquez checks the depth calculator on his wrist. "Deep, it says deep," Vasquez exclaims. He twice reached a depth of 99 feet and says he "didn't even feel like, no problem at all coming up or anything. It was just incredible, just incredible." In Florida, California, Hawaii — anywhere there's water — free diving is growing in popularity. Cruickshank says that with better training and information, she hopes the sport can outgrow the perception that it's a death-defying activity. Pushing the envelope always carries risk. French competitor Audrey Mestre died during a dive in 2002. And when Cruickshank recently attempted to set a new free-dive record in the Cayman Islands, she swam to a depth of more than 300 feet but blacked out on the way to the surface. She was brought up by her safety diver, Krack. |
