Croatian freediver held breath for 29 minutes

[djtango]

Note this is oxygen assisted - the diver breathed pure oxygen and (from the article) can increase available oxygen from 450mL to 3L in doing so.

Still impressive nonetheless and I didn't know that this trick is sometimes used in Hollywood to extend underwater filming time. Avatar 2 comes to mind when I was impressed to find out Sigourney Weaver trained to hold her breath for 6 and half minutes in her 70s!

Coming back to the article, I'm disappointed that the details were sparse - how do they check whether the contestant is conscious? How does the contestant know what his limits are before passing out?

[Azrael3000]

To answer your questions:

- A coach / safety will give a signal to the athlete, e.g. pinching of the arm and the athlete will react to it by e.g. lifting a finger.

- Training. You get to know your body and limits very well when training freediving for a longer time. That does not mean that you always avoid blackouts, particularly in competitions they happen but that's what safeties are for. In the end, a free diving competition is one of the safest places to explore your limits.

[bjarneh]

> Sigourney Weaver trained to hold her breath for 6 and half minutes in her 70s!

That is crazy. It seems Kate Winslet broke Tom Cruise's old record while filming Avatar 2; over 7 minutes(!) in her case:

https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/kate-winslet-beat...

[ramonga]

> how do they check whether the contestant is conscious?

already answered but they'll apply pressure on your hand (or similar) and you need to apply pressure back

> How does the contestant know what his limits are before passing out?

When you hold breath for a long time your body will have muscle contractions. The time that needs to pass for each contraction to happen varies from person to person but it is quite consistent for each person. So free divers can know that they are good up to X contractions which will take after X minutes in certain conditions. The fun part is you can train to experience your first contraction by holding your breath while laying down in bed.

[codechicago277]

It’s a classic at this point but David Blaine held the record for a while and gave a fantastic TED talk on his process: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_...

[xenotux]

Another factor is that it's easier to do it underwater than on land. The mammalian diving reflex is what helps.

[nfriedly]

That's 29min 4sec after breathing pure oxygen.

The record for regular air is 11min 35sec.

Pretty impressive either way.

[dhosek]

When I was a kid in the 70s, I think the record was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3–5 minutes (maybe seven?) and we used to think that was such a short time that we could do it and then trying in the backyard bucket pools that were endemic in my neighborhood we found that cracking a minute was enough of a challenge.

[kurito]

Amazingly so Stephane Mifsud's 11:35 "regular air" WR apnea was set in 2009 and has stood since (at least as far as AIDA is concerned). There was a lot of speculation online back then as it is an extraordinary time and was quite high compared to the previous record. If I recall correctly the hold was performed at his home pool, and he has a lung capacity almost double the average adult male's.

This is a video of the end of Mifsud's 11:35 breath hold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHPGKb7ipgc . The protocol after the hold is that you have to take off your goggles/mask and noseclip, look at the judges and do a clear hand signal that you're ok. Your chin/face should not touch the water before you get a reply from the judges, in the form of a card. It's nothing short of amazing how clearly he follows protocol given that his brain has been oxygen deprived for more than 11 minutes.

[mdaniel]

I somehow thought that pure oxygen was poisonous[1], and it needed to be a nitrogen mix. I mean, I guess this stunt demonstrates that I'm clearly mistaken, or that the nuance is in the pressures involed?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

[throwmeaway222]

holding your breath for 11 minutes is asking to see the gates damn

[stavros]

Holding your breath for more than 11 minutes?! That's absolutely crazy, wow.

[ksynwa]

How is it even possible to hold breath for 11 minutes? I tried it last week (to avoid inhaling insecticide fumes) and could manage about a minute after trying very hard.

[sriram_malhar]

Incredible!

Assuming I understand such a feat even with exposure to pure O2, how does he manage to avoid CO2 build-up? Or, how did he train to retain CO2?

Cells use up O2 and release CO2 into the blood to form carbonic acid (keeping it simple), so the blood pH levels drop, which the body does not care about at all. This is what induces the suffocation reflex.

I wish I had known this while trying to master breathing while swimming freestyle: it is not just their VO2 max, but also their ability to retain CO2. Both aspects need to be trained.

[matsemann]

The body doesn't notice a lack of oxygen. Hence the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning or air without o2 etc, as you won't notice o2 lacking. What you notice is co2 buildup, and as long as you keep breathing that's not happening.

When freediving, you can't really avoid it. What you learn however is how to deal with it. Control your diaphragm when it wants to start breathing, as the spasms are wasted energy. It's mostly a mind thing. With simple exercises (co2 tables) and just getting used to the feeling, it took my quite a short time to reach 5 minutes.

One "trick" btw is hyper ventilating. But DONT DO IT! It get rids of lots of co2 in your blood stream / lungs, so it takes a bit longer for the co2 buildup. But you need that buildup. Even though it's painful, that's your only signal as to how you're doing and which you kinda calibrate against. Especially when diving, hyper ventilating before can make it so you suddenly go unconscious before you felt the urge to surface.

[Azrael3000]

You cant avoid co2 build-up, you can only slow it down, main factor here is relaxation. Particularly your brain needs loads of o2, so if you can keep that calm it helps a lot. Obviously a slow metabolism helps as well, so before big static performances fasting is common.

And regarding co2 tolerance, it is a training effect. With training you can withstand much higher levels of co2 without resulting in panic

[OsrsNeedsf2P]

I briefly got into breath holding. It's impressive how long you can go with simple techniques; slow stretches with lungs full of air, packing, and iterating animal names.

But I started to question the brain damage and couldn't find good science to confirm it either way.

[TylerE]

Did you ever try wearing a pulseox and seeing what your sat looked like? As long as sats aren't ever dipping below (NOT medical advice, but I'm being conservative here), say, 90%, brain damage is very remote. Plenty of COPD patients walking around with sats in the 80s, or even 70s.

But as someone with bad lungs...yeah, you only get one set and most meds/treatments are partial symptom relief at best.

[edwardsdl]

What do you mean by “iterating animal names”?

[Tepix]

I'm curious about breath holding and freediving: When you're depriving your body of oxygen for such a long time, do you not risk cells dying, in particular in your brain?

If not, how do we know it's not happening?

[ktta]

It does happen-- which is why we're told to watch out for high CO2 levels in our living spaces and let fresh air in often

[rich_sasha]

Can you use the oxygen trick to practically extend snorkelling dives?

I used to do a little scuba, but overall didn't like the reliance on often poorly maintained kit. But I do love snorkelling - the lightness and simplicity of it.

Can I breathe pure oxygen for half an hour on the boat and be able to repeatedly snorkel longer?

[belorn]

The desire for breathing comes from CO2, not oxygen. Pre-breathing pure oxygen will likely not have a significant impact on non-trained free divers

Pure oxygen also has its own issues and risks which is part of the training for people who use it. It is not a stretch to call it the opposite of simplicity.

[kaapipo]

Even though you can do it with pure oxygen, it won't be fun. This is because our breathing reflex activated from the rising carbon dioxide levels - meaning that for a significant portion of the attempt the person was fighting their urge to breathe.

[metalman]

shallow water practice is the best way to gain capacity and confidence, or some sort of winhoff method....sitting on the couch or whatever as it is a simmilar flex that you can drop into any sort of free STATIONARY time, ie not while driving, or on top of anything like that, or before doing a dive, even just blowing your head up, blowing baloons, again within limits, as I believe that there are possible ways to injur yourself doing that, but as an easy to do (very rough) capacity test that can be repeated as often as desired for almost no cost. I got to the point where I could swim a full lap(two lengths)in an olympic pool underwater with no trouble, and only a few extra breaths before going, it seemed to be mostly up to following a very moderate and steady stroke.

[awesome_dude]

Free diving wouldn't be mainstream conscientiousness if it wasn't for possibly one of the greatest movies of all time

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250/

[surmoi]

Although you need to watch the non US version for the real ending and good soundtrack !

[schappim]

His spleen must be enormous[1].

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/bajau-sea...

[echelon]

And he should avoid high impact sports and never get into a motorcycle accident.

Spleens are big bags of blood, and trauma to them, especially when enlarged or inflamed, can be fatal. It's one of the easiest accidental ways to bleed out.

Impressive hack and performance, though!

[jajko]

Just came from 2 week vacation in Togian islands in Indonesia where there is big community spread across various places of these 'sea gypsies'. Their ability to hold breath easily for 5-6 minutes while freediving to 20m depth and chasing fish with harpoons is quite something to see.

[bigwheels]

Archive-link: https://archive.is/ZR8JL

[darkerside]

I wonder if their babies also have enlarged spleens

[just-the-wrk]

Most people on this forum could hit 3 minutes with normal air in an afternoon of training.

[scabby]

> “the longest breath held voluntarily under water using oxygen”

Voluntarily is an important point here.

[robocat]

I wonder if the diver used any assistance to improve their oxygen capacity?

Adding extra red blood cells into our body?

Increasing the oxygen capacity of existing cells?

Is there anything we can eat/drink that would soak up excess carbon dioxide?

[nradov]

It's so crazy that this is even possible. A lot of our old assumptions about the limits of human performance are being rewritten.

[splitbrain]

No Guybrush Threepwood joke in here yet?

[whycome]

So, are "blood scrubbers" a thing? Something like dialysis that could let someone stay under water longer by removing CO2 (combined with novel ways of oxygenating the blood). Could future SCUBA just skip the lung gas exchange part entirely?

[stevage]

I'm surprised they don't make any mention of how dangerous this sport can be. Particularly if you are taking steps to avoid CO2 build-up, which is the thing that triggers the suffocation reflex.

[drno123]

At least two other Croats broke the same record in the last 11 years (Goran Čolak 23:01 in 2014 and Budimir Šobat 24:37 in 2021). There must be some genetic predisposition.

[xrd]

It is sobering to see all the related articles underneath that talk about divers who died. Every one of those articles.

[MaxPock]

I increased my lung capacity using Wim Hof breathing technique and can now hold my breath for 3 minutes.

[profsummergig]

Same.

Strong recommendation for Wim Hof method if you're undergoing acute stress. Really calms me down.

But stay away from water. Do it on your bed.

[chneu]

reminder that wim hof blew his intestines apart because he was using a public fountain to blow water up his own ass.

he'd done it plenty of times before, he said, but they recently changed the water pressure and he wasn't aware.

[desireco42]

You really have to be from the Balkans to do something like this :)

[semessier]

wondering how newborns under respiratory distress can survive hypoxia almost 30' post-birth with 50 and 57% measured SpO2, respectively.

[a_f]

I think it is in some part to do with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_hemoglobin