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Free-diving refers to various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold diving. Examples include breathhold spearfishing, freedive photography, Apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the public's attention is Competitive Apnea, considered an extreme sport, where divers attempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath and without direct assistance of a breathing apparatus. Description Freediving refers to a technique that is used with various aquatic activities. While in general all aquatic activities that include breath-hold diving might be classified as a part of freediving, some sports are more accepted than others. Examples of recognised freediving activities are (non-)competitive freediving, (non-) competitive spearfishing, freedive photography and mermaid shows. Less recognised examples of freediving include, but is not limited too, synchronised swimming, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater hunting other than spearfishing and snorkeling. The discussion remains if freediving is only a synonym for breath-hold diving or it does describes a specific group of underwater activities. Freediving is often strongly associated with competitive breath hold diving or Competitive Freediving Competitive freediving is currently governed by two world associations AIDA International and CMAS. Most types of competitive freediving have in common that it is an individual sport based on the best individual achievement. Exceptions on this rule is the bi-annually World Championship for Teams, held by AIDA International, where the combined score of the team members makes up the teams total points. There are currently nine disciplines used by official governing body’s and a dozen disciplines that are only practiced locally. In this article, the recognised disciplines of AIDA International and CMAS will be described. All disciplines can be done by both men and women and while done outdoors, no differences in the environment between records is recognised any longer. The disciplines of AIDA International]] can be done both in competition as in an record attempt with the exception of Variable Weight and No limits who are both only done as record attempts. Following official disciplines are recognised by (AIDA), (CMAS) or both. Pool Disciplines Depth Disciplines The depth of the athlete is for all AIDA disciplines announced before the dive. This is accepted practice for both competitions as record attempts. Each organisation has its own rules on recognising an attempt. These can be found on the website from the respective organisations. Physiology of Free-diving The human body has several adaptations under diving conditions, which stem from the mammalian diving reflex. These adaptations enable the human body to endure depth and lack of oxygen far beyond normal. The adaptations made by the human body while underwater and at high pressure include: Training Training for free diving can take many forms, many of them out of water. One example is the apnea walk. This consists of a preparation "breathe-up", followed by a short (typically 1 minute) breath hold taken at rest. Without breaking the hold, the participant then initiates a walk for as far as they can, until it becomes necessary to breathe again. Athletes can do close to 400 meters in training this way. This form of training is good for accustoming muscles to work under anaerobic conditions, and for tolerance to CO2 build-up in the circulation. It is also easy to gauge progress, as increasing distance can be measured. Before diving, untrained free divers may hyperventilate, resulting in a lower level of CO2 in their lungs and bloodstream. This postpones the start of stimulation to the breathing centre of the brain, and thus delays the warning signals of running out of air. As the oxygen level of the blood is not increased by hyperventilation, this is very dangerous and may result in drowning. (For more detail refer to the articles shallow water blackout and deep water blackout.) Trained freedivers are well aware of this and will limit their immediate pre-dive breathing, typically to a maximum of two or three breaths taken slowly and deeply so as to maximize oxygen saturation whilst not depressing blood CO2 levels. However this does not, of itself, eliminate the risk of deep or shallow water blackout and diving with a 'buddy' who remains observing at the surface is the standard practice. Official World Records as of 2006-09-24 (AIDA) Free-diving in Fiction Some famous Competitive Apnea Divers See also | |||||||
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