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Chapter 4 — 1
Chapter 4
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BREATH-HOLD DIVING
Free, breath-hold or snorkel diving is a prerequisite for successful scuba diving. The diver can
thus become comfortable in the aquatic environment and gradually learn the swimming and
snorkeling skills that may later be used in reaching dive sites and remaining safe even after the
scuba set has been exhausted. One extension of snorkeling is free diving, used to spear fish,
prolong underwater explorations, retrieve equipment, check anchors and many other activities .
It is not difficult for a diver to perform a breath-hold dive for a duration of one minute or more.
This is possible because there is a reservoir of oxygen (O
2
) stored in the lungs (about 1 litre O
2
when the lungs are full), in blood haemoglobin, and in myoglobin in the muscles.
With these reserves the diver is able to hold his breath for some time without the blood level of
O
2
becoming dangerously low. Below a threshold blood O
2
partial pressure (about 30mm Hg –
less than half the normal value), the brain ceases to function properly, causing loss of
consciousness. At about this stage, the heart also becomes seriously starved of O
2
causing
cardiac damage or disturbances of rhythm.
During a breath-hold dive, O
2
is consumed and carbon dioxide (CO
2
) produced, decreasing the
blood level of O
2
and elevating that of CO
2
. Both effects may stimulate respiration but the CO
2
is the more dominant. Usually the diver develops an overpowering desire to breath (he reaches
the
break point
) before the arterial O
2
level falls to a dangerous value. The urge to breath
eventually becomes irresistible and the diver may even take a breath under water, if he is
unable to reach the surface in time.
Breath-holding can be extended considerably, with experience and will-power but the break
point is eventually reached. This is nature’s safety mechanism to prevent people from losing
consciousness from excessively prolonged breath-holding (see Case Histories 33.2 and 33.3).
ACCIDENTS and DEATHS
Breath-hold divers suffer from the same problems as scuba divers, except for those related to
compressed gas inhalation. The common problems include environmental hazards, some
equipment limitations and medical diseases such as the barotraumas, marine animal injuries,