holding ur breath longer

[Guest]

Hey does anybody know any good breathing excercies or anything to help u hold ur breath longer underwater?? Cheers

[kieran]

in hawaii where you really need to hold your breath, they carry rcoks along the sea bed and swim through small bits of reef where you cant surface. Kind of like a small underwater tunnel.
But if you dont live anywhere so luxurious just try it with lengths at the swimming pool

[Guest]

thanks sounds good i'll try it! have to find some rocks first lol

[sinistapenguin]

My local pool aren't to happy with people bringing dirty great big rocks with them!!

Basically, if you are doing it in a pool, I would go for distances under water. (Obviously if you're swimming under water, you're burning your oxygen quicker, so you are simulating duckdiving)

Try swimming as far as you can under water, then when you surface make a note of something on the side of the pool you can use as a marker, then try and beat your record.

A look on some 'free diving' websites might help (those guys can hold their breath for around 7 minutes!!)

I can manage 2 mins 17 seconds (personal best). Also Cardio Vascular work at a gym will help.

Cheers

Sinista

[dreamwr]

It's totally different out in the water, especially when it's cold. I can hold my breath for 2 minutes, but like most surfers, 30 seconds underwater and we're dead.

I do have some tips though. Take a very deep breath, as much as possible, and hold it, letting the oygen flow through you. Trust the oxygen to be there. You'll reach a point where you'll want to give up, but you can go a bit longer...visualize the oxygen getting to all the parts in your body. However, once you can feel your heart beating very hard, it's time to come up for air. Remember that in order to have the oxygen in your body, you have to breath it in.

[PapaW]

When you wipe out or take a back duckdive and get caught inside then dont struggle.

Relax and enjoy the sensation you will be supprised... you can fell the power wash past you and slacken of then you can swim for the top.

[explodingboy]

i would think if you relax too much youd hit the rocks. besides, its hard to relax when the wave is twisting your body in ways that make you exhale the breath you took before you went down. once when i lost my air i sunk and the wave dragged me a long for a while. i dont know how long it was but when i opend my eyes i just missed a rock and scraped my knee on it. i was atleast 4 feet below the surface. if you take in a good breath, know how to duckdive well, and dot let the air out till you surface again (it helps make you float) you shouldnt be under for very long.

[PapaW]

Perhaps i've tuned it well then cause I havn't hit bottom since i started the technique. After the inital shock of a wipeout i just tuck myself together and relax. the sensation is fantastic!
As for the twisting... just let the power pass over you if your relaxed i find that you can tell when part of you is out of the current and you can make a kick or paddle that will pull or push you tottally free.

[Tamarak]

Definitely relax after taking a bad wipeout. Cover your head with your arms to protect it, so you won't hit it and lose conciousness, and hold your air in. If your lungs are full, you'll float to the surface after the wave stops holding you down. Thrashing around will cause you to waste air and energy that you might need to keep in reserve for a long hold down time. When I first started surfing I remember struggling to swim for the surface and hitting the bottom. I was disoriented and didn't know which way to swim. Let your natural bouyancy show you the way up.

[PapaW]

Well said :D

[Guest]

One way to hold ure breath for a long time on land is to lie down and bend ure knees up but keep ure feet flat on the ground. Breath deeply for a few minutes until you start to feel a tingle. Shortly after this you feel an almost ache in ure legs. this is when ure ready. take a deep breath and 2 mins is easy and normally 2:30 for me. but 3:30 is possible. however in the sea its a whole different ball game. this technique might be dangerous to use underwater because you breath for quite a while and would probably blackout.

[Wil]

Another thing you can try while waiting for a wave is to try floating relaxed, then tense up your muscles. The results are more noticeable in a pool without the salt to keep you up. The human body looses a significant amount of buoyancy when tense. ( muscles, not emotionally...)

[Guest]

i can hold my breath 4 like 2:30 minutes in the pool, but in the sea its different. Once you get wiped out and all the oxygen is knocked out of your lungs, it feels like u are under for minutes when in fact u r usually only under for seconds. I was held under once for dunno the time but the next thing i remember is lying on the beach throwing up.

[babyboarder89]

i think relaxing sounds like a very good idea, if you panic you breathe faster and use up the oxygen so relax. i havent had any bad wipeouts really yet so i have no technique to speak of but ^ post. ooh that sounds bad.

[Guest]

My instructer told me to run around my pool then jump in,swim to the bottom and hold ur breath for 30 secounds. Do it a couple of times. well............