Ever since I started publishing regular videos in my YouTube channel I started receiving numerous messages from people who have just started diving and spearfishing. Most of these messages have different variations of the same question:
How long should I be able to hold my breath to be successful spearo and how can I increase my bottom time?
I always have the same reply to all of them, so I decided to share it here to the best of my abilities and experience.
First Part
First, I will try to answer the first part of the question about how much apnoea time is necessary to be successful in spearing fish and then I will give you my top three rules for longer bottom time.
How long should I be able to hold my breath for spearfishing?
I believe that for spearfishing in Black Sea and for shallow-water spearfishing in the Mediterranean Sea, 90 seconds of breath hold is enough for 99% of all situations!
Those of you who haven’t dived in Black Sea probably don’t know that, but conditions in the Black Sea are different than those in the Mediterranean and the ocean. The visibility is relatively low and most of the diving is pretty shallow. Fishing below 15 metres of depth is rarely done and I can count the Bulgarian spearos who practice deep spearfishing in Black Sea regularly on the fingers of my hands.
The overwhelming majority of Black Sea spearos dive to depths of 0 to 15 metres. Thanks to the particularities of our coastal waters, these depths are enough to meet any trophy fish…
Such shallow dives do not require long descend and ascent times 10-15 seconds in each direction are more than enough. This means that from our 90 seconds of breath hold we spend 30 seconds going down and then back up and the remaining minute is for spearfishing.
Why do I believe a minute underwater is enough for successful spearfishing?
Mainly because of the low visibility in Black Sea. The fish have pure eyesight, or at least they are worse than us humans. This forces them to come closer to the hidden spearo so they can see him and determine what the source of noise and vibrations is.
My experience suggests that if there are fish nearby, a minute is long enough even for the most cautious ones to swim by from the distance that they first picked up our vibrations. If in the beginning, the fish were too far away from us they wouldn’t have picked up our vibrations and would not have come even if we stayed much longer.
There is always the chance for fish that swim by us by pure chance, but this can happen at the first second after we hit the bottom or the third minute… There is no guarantee.
The situation with shallow dives in the Mediterranean Sea is almost the same… An extra 30 seconds of apnoea will be useful there due to the bigger visibility, but they are not necessary if we can hide well.
Deep diving in the Mediterranean is an entirely different story, which is not the subject of this article…
Spearos who are just starting should not be searching for trophy dentex or groupers at debts way below 20 meters anyway…
So, to summarize:
A minute and a half of apnoea is enough for successful spearfishing in Black Sea and shallow spearfishing in the Mediterranean.
Second Part:
“What do I do to hold my breath for a minute and a half?“
Every healthy individual is capable of holding their breath for at least a minute to a minute and a half without any particular training!
There is a reason for not being able to do it and after you read my three tips below I believe you will find out what your particular reason is and you can address it.
1. Having the right mindset!
In my opinion, this is the single most important factor for improving one’s performance underwater! When a person is in the water they must have a positive attitude. I believe the perfect mind-set for freediving can be condensed to these couple of words: positive thinking with a slight “lethargic” element!
Our presence in the sea should be enough to generate positive thoughts. We should be eager to make our first dive and we should think about the numerous pleasant moments that we are about to experience…
The correct mind-set immediately translates into physical results. Our movements become smooth, calm and even a bit “sleepy” and “lethargic”. They flow one into the other smoothly and naturally, with no unnecessary tension of the muscles and with no sudden movements either on the surface or below it. This state of semi-meditation helps reduce our oxygen consumption significantly, which in turn has an immediate effect on our dive time.
On the contrary, a negative attitude, anxiety, stress, nervousness and other similar moods are capable of halving the dive time of even the most trained and experienced spearo. I have personally experienced this a thousand times…
2. Having right buoyancy!
This might seem as a simple factor that is often overlooked during the preparation for a dive, but in fact it has ENORMOUS effects on the bottom time!
As I already mentioned, to achieve optimum results, our movements must be flowing slowly and naturally with minimum muscle tension. This is extremely difficult to achieve if our buoyancy is not balanced correctly!
The balance must be such that a person must be buoyant on the surface even if they are fully exhaled.
Why this is so important?
While we are breathing on the surface and we are preparing for the next dive we must be completely relaxed and to breath in and out slowly and calmly. If the person is “too heavy”, at the time of exhale they will start sinking which will force them to make a move with the fins or with their hands in order to keep the snorkel above the surface. This would break the rhythm of the preparation for a dive and will prevent the person from relaxing and completing the breath-in routine.
On the other hand, if a person is too light there will be no issues on the surface, but the problems will begin once they reach the bottom and try to lie down. Trying to stay still on the bottom will require lots of unnecessary movements – waving with the fins and all sorts of “spasms” – in order for the spearo to remain at the bottom. Such development is unacceptable if we want to preserve the precious oxygen and avoid spooking all the fish around.
I know how difficult it is for an unexperienced diver to achieve the correct buoyancy!
My advice is always to start with less weights! It’s more important to feel comfortable at the surface because we spend more time there and we “forge” the success of our dives at the surface. If during the first few dives we realise that we are “too light” at the bottom we can always add a quick weight that we carry in our float, or even use a flat rock from the bottom tucked in under the weight belt.
Last but not least, it is much safer to dive while being too light rather than being too heavy!
These were my first two tips that if you apply you will see an immediate positive effect on your breath hold time regardless of the stage in which your diving career is.
3. Correct breathing!
I’m placing this advice third because in my opinion it is less important than the first to. The correct breathing in preparation for a dive can help you increase your bottom time, but not for the reasons that many of you imagine. The correct breathing will not allow you to “stock up” with oxygen in some mysterious way! It will rather help you achieve the correct mindset that I covered in detail in my first advice!
We should look at the breath-in before a dive as a method to bring our mind and body into the best possible state for working underwater rather than “collecting” more oxygen that will help us stay longer underwater. The latter is even physiologically impossible!
The trigger for our brain to send a signal for breathing is not the low oxygen level in our blood, but rather the high level of CO2. In short, the diaphragm contractions are caused by the build-up of CO2 in our blood and not by the depletion of oxygen. So, if we try to build up oxygen levels higher than usual, we are destined to fail. The quantity of oxygen we can absorb depends on the haemoglobin in our blood and even if try we cannot saturate our blood with more oxygen than our haemoglobin can carry.
On the other hand, by breathing too heavily through the so-called hyperventilation we can artificially lower the levels of CO2 in our body to levels that are too low. This is very dangerous and it must not be done under any circumstances!
I repeat, the goal of the correct breathing is to calm our mind and body and prepare them for the underwater stay. The breathing before a dive should help us achieve the semi-meditation state that will help us reduce our oxygen use. That’s the goal!
What does correct breathing mean?
This is a topic that cannot be covered in detail in one lifetime!
However, for the simple goal we have – to be able to stay long enough underwater to catch a fish we can take on a more simple approach.
Here it is:
After we rested from the previous dive and feel ready to start preparing for the next one, we must start breathing a bid deeper than usual, starting from the diaphragm (or to put it simpler – with the belly) and slowly to fill in our lungs with air. Then, we must exhale slow and easy, with no effort. Our exhale must last twice as long as the inhale. If we inhaled for 3 seconds, then our exhale should be 6-7 seconds.
We repeat these inhales and exhales until we feel completely relaxed and calm. Only then we are ready to dive again!
I guess the number of breath-ins and breath-outs is different for every person, but just as an example – I need 10 or 15 such breaths to be ready to dive.
That’s more or less it!
At the end, I would like to give you three important warnings as well:
- Never hyperventilate! It’s dangerous and will give you the false sense of longer dive time. The extra seconds that you think you gain will come by artificially delaying your breathing contractions. It’s highly likely that the contractions will come surprisingly and too late to warn you that it’s time to go up…
- Always dive WELL within your safe limits! Feeling a contraction usually means you overstayed at the bottom! I personally, never stay to the point of feeling the first contraction. I’m always at the surface way before I HAVE to breathe. This will make your entire diving day much more pleasant and most importantly safer.
- Don’t forget that it’s always safer to dive with a partner! This saves lives!
Disclaimer:
The above text reflects the personal opinion and experience of the author and must not be considered an expert instruction on how to practice the extreme sports of freediving and/or spearfishing. I’m not a certified instructor and only share my personal thoughts. Dive safely!
dobs-spearfishing.com 
You couldnt explain it any easeyer and safer well done
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