Free diving following diving

[imoffdiving]

Appologies if this has ever been raised before!!!:o
Just to settle a post dive bar discussion;)
Are there any implications of performing a free-dive following a (scuba) dive?????? now obviously the air in the lungs at the time of the free dive will be atmospheric so no real problems there but what are the effects if any on the residual nitrogen from the previous (scuba) dive????? anyone's input or thought would be appreciated, thrashed quite a few out at the time but looking for a more informed opinion.

Thanks in advance.:)
Nik

[Michael Purcell]

We tell divers to observe ascent rates.
It is highly unlikely those ascent rates would be observed in freediving.
(not to mention multiple up & downs)

So if your tissues are already loaded and you go freediving one would expect a potential problem with gas bubbles popping out of solution.

Having said that it is my understanding that the research is not there to answer the question substantially for either side.

Is it prudent to free dive following SCUBA? Probably not.
Will many people tell you.."You are asking for trouble"...yes
Can anyone say for sure at this point? It doesn't appear so.

[Tricky]

I recently did an AIDA Freediving course at the SETT in Gosport and this was covered by the theory element of the course. The recommendation is to leave at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hours, between scuba diving and freediving (and vice versa) to avoid any problems with DCS.

[iain aitchison]

Hi Nik,

you should certainly not be free diving directly after a suba dive - probably also not even on the same day as a scuba dive unless you are desaturated again. Some reasonable free diving before a scuba dive should not have any real effect on the microbubbles for the the scuba dive. There is some proven N2 uptake during free dives, and therefore a theoretical desaturation after them, but for most sport depths any effect will be if anything more a shake up of the microbubbles in the blood. If you have been aggressively and repeatedly free diving you might want to be more cautious on the scuba dive immedietly following just incase there is increased bubble activity left in the blood. If you are free diving make sure there is an effective rescue system for your group in place. Many divers cannot reach sport free diving depths without scuba to be of help.

regards
Iain