Dave wrote:
On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:44:21 GMT, Gary said:


Your body is predominately made of water. Water is almost entirely
non-compressible. That means that the pressure exerted by the sea is
transmitted through all of the non-compressible parts of your body to your
lungs and throat, which contain air that is compressible. So as you descend,
all of the air in your body gets compressed to the outside pressure.



So you are trying to convince me that me chest compresses enough to make
the air in my lungs double in pressure and I don't feel it. I only feel
the same thing happening in my ears? Your saying that the 6 litres of
air in my lungs is compressed down to three litres at 33 feet (making it
ambient pressure) and then I can somehow force it into my ears to equalize?

Right.


I guess you either didn't read, didn't comprehend, or didn't want to quote
the paragraph that followed the one you quoted. (See the part about the
diaphragm)

Frankly, I don't care whether you want to believe what I'm telling you or
not. Hell, I only had undergraduate minors in physics and math, not a major,
before going to the Navy's diving school.
I just spent a little time researching freediving. You are right.
Expert freedivers can force air into their ears to relieve the pressure
as they descend. It is what limits them from greater descents but they
can force what little air they have (at depth) into their ears to
relieve the pressure...... somewhat.

You win.

Gary wrote:
[snip]
I just spent a little time researching freediving. You are right.
Expert freedivers can force air into their ears to relieve the pressure
as they descend. It is what limits them from greater descents but they
can force what little air they have (at depth) into their ears to
relieve the pressure...... somewhat.

You win.

we all win, i learned a lot

i have a few freediving books here that are terrific. one especially
that stands out because of the photos and just sheer lunacy is
"bluewater hunter and freediving" by terry maas. these are folks, i
kid you not ... who go out into the middle of the giant ocean, put on
wetsuits, grab their spear guns, and go freediving for hours at a time.
their goal ? to shoot giant fish even bigger than they are while at
the same time not getting eaten by sharks. and yeah, sometimes they
fail and get eaten by sharks!!! there are white sharks there! they
are in competition for the same food! apparently it's not that unusual
to shoot a fish and have sharks eat it before you can even get it on
board! lol. just crazy. beautiful book, highly recommend it.

purple_stars wrote:

i have a few freediving books here that are terrific. one especially
that stands out because of the photos and just sheer lunacy is
"bluewater hunter and freediving" by terry maas. these are folks, i
kid you not ... who go out into the middle of the giant ocean, put on
wetsuits, grab their spear guns, and go freediving for hours at a time.
their goal ? to shoot giant fish even bigger than they are while at
the same time not getting eaten by sharks. and yeah, sometimes they
fail and get eaten by sharks!!! there are white sharks there! they
are in competition for the same food! apparently it's not that unusual
to shoot a fish and have sharks eat it before you can even get it on
board! lol. just crazy. beautiful book, highly recommend it.

Hey Stars:

Seem like I remember some old coote about 80 years old who was
freedinving off the SE coast. Something like 10-20 miles offshore? His
boat drifted off and he survived 1-2 days till rescued. Any body
remember that? Freediving the highseas at 80? Can't be that hard if he
was doing it. I wonder if he had a problem clearing/eqalizing his
ears.
Bob

PS Did you ever live in Southern Oregon?

Both, freediving and SCUBA.