How do you hold your breath longer underwater?

[LiveLoveSurf]

how can improve holding my breath underwater for long amounts of time while being thrashed by the waves. I seem to sorta panic under the water?

[pkbum]

relax is the key for staying alive in the washing machine.

[pkbum]

oh and use your leash to pull you up to the surface.

[PapaW]

Deffo Relax, it really is quite a pleasant experience when you relax!

[garbarrage]

open your eyes and watch the bubbles, realise you can't get up until it lets you and that it WILL eventually let you up... then enjoy the ride.

[Ged]

If you want you can practice. People can train themselves to hold their breath for incredible ammounts of time. Some people can even slow down their heartbeats. Go to the swimming pool, and dive in and swim a length underwater, keep practising and eventually youll be doing 50 M easily. When I was in a swimming club there was a guy who could swim 100 M underwater. Relaxation is key.

[RJD]

Relax and count.

it may seem like a long time but in reality it'll be a few seconds.

[parrysurf]

Practice in a pool or at beach.....run under water with weight. Big wave training includes running rocks under water.

as all have said... just relaxing and not fighting the wave will get you some extra time.

as garbarrage said.. enjoy the ride

[kitesurfer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOYDbzFryus

KS

[phillwilson]

I like to relax to the point of going slightly limp...

if i try to hold my body against the general force of the wave i find i get out of breath, if i just go floppy and tuck my arms over my head and ears i kind of cannonball til i feel the power of the wave disapate by which point im nearly always right at the surface anyway.

[rich r]

Yep, I curl up and let it bumper me about. Then pop up, grab a quick breath and hope that you're not in the middle of a 5 wave set of hold-downs.

[Milo]

Don`t fall off

[twerked]

open your eyes and watch the bubbles, realise you can't get up until it lets you and that it WILL eventually let you up... then enjoy the ride.

do a lot of yall open your eyes underwater? personally, i can't, i have contacts. i usually can find which way is up...sometimes in a big tumble it's a little disorientating, but i make it okay. but, does it really help if you open your eyes?

[miamisurfer]

I open my eyes. My friend doesn't wear his contacts when he goes in, are you supposed to. opening your eyes doesn't really help when you fall but it makes a huge difference when you duckdive.

[LucasG]

I use contacts, I have to say it's quiet annoying while surfing. Does it really make a difference if you open your eyes while duck diving? I am looking to get them operated to stop using contacts and fully allow me to open my eyes underwater and enjoy.

[parrysurf]

Favorite time to open my eyes under water........at the bottom of a duck dive.

I love the way a wave looks from the underside. that clear separation of clear blue water and white bubbles.

[Dmd*Grl]

really ive never tried open my eyes underwater water, im afraid it'll burn..hahaha let alone getting sunblock along with it is a stinger... im afraid of what i might see,hahah

[LucasG]

I used to love opening my eyes underwater, but now that I use contacts, I don't anymore. I'll see if I can get rid of these soon and see underwater again!

[surferdude_scarborough]

yes it does make a huge difference opening your eyes during a duckdive. it means you can see where to point your board so as not to come up still in the whitewash. obviously if you havent got deep enough youll still float back up and get worked anyway. but theres notthing worse than gettting deep and then coming up still in the washing machine.

[Dmd*Grl]

Yes tell me about.. I tried to duck and dive a 8' waves that came from the outisde and i was off a good 3 feet in diving under....that took me down to a plunge