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Old 07-23-2013, 10:23 PM   #1
Roger23043
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Urge to breathe

Has anyone else noticed a stronger urge to breathe with a mouth full of air and cheeks puffed out vs empty and cheeks deflated? Is it just me being silly?
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Old 07-24-2013, 08:20 AM   #2
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Re: Urge to breathe

Taking a full capacity breath leaves me a bit uncomfortable so I try to stay at 90-95% as I find I can relax a bitter better on the bottom. I'm not sure what the point of puffing out cheeks would be as you wouldn't benefit from the oxygen in your cheeks and it would add additional pressure and possibly bubbles from your mouth.
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Old 07-24-2013, 11:01 AM   #3
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Re: Urge to breathe

I definatley feel this, I never have my cheeks puffed out, it makes me have to breathe way more.
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Old 07-24-2013, 01:00 PM   #4
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Re: Urge to breathe

The difference is probably throat lock. Cheeks puffed you might not be using your throat to close your airway. A throat lock is safer and necessary for deeper dives...
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Old 07-24-2013, 01:12 PM   #5
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Re: Urge to breathe

Can you expand on the concept of "throat lock?" What is it, how do you use it, what are the implications on safety? This is a new concept for me.
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Old 07-24-2013, 01:34 PM   #6
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Re: Urge to breathe

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Originally Posted by OutdoorCatholic View Post
Can you expand on the concept of "throat lock?" What is it, how do you use it, what are the implications on safety? This is a new concept for me.
You probably hold your breath this way naturally. When near samba or just when under duress a diver may lose their throat lock and exhale a bit. Basically take a full breath and hold it. Open your mouth without exhaling. You're holding your breath with your throat/esophagus: throat lock. On land if you opened the throat air would escape out your nose (unless you can uncouple the soft palate from the esophagus, which is something that takes training) but wearing a mask you could hold your breath with your cheeks and the mask would keep you from losing air out your nose.
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Old 07-24-2013, 02:36 PM   #7
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Re: Urge to breathe

Ah, I see. The natural closing of the larynx from the Dive Reflex could be compromised by cheek holding. Got it. I guess I just don't know anyone who cheek holds. I actually like to keep my mouth open slightly when I'm laying on the bottom.
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Old 07-24-2013, 03:06 PM   #8
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Re: Urge to breathe

I usually get a baby breath of air at about 20 feet on my ascent too as a result of the air you used to equalize your mask expanding. Most divers lose this air out of their mask but it can be a very crucial little bonus...just suck it in through your nose.
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Old 07-26-2013, 08:55 AM   #9
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Re: Urge to breathe

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I usually get a baby breath of air at about 20 feet on my ascent too as a result of the air you used to equalize your mask expanding. Most divers lose this air out of their mask but it can be a very crucial little bonus...just suck it in through your nose.
Yeah, that is a good habit. I don't bother most of the time in California because I'm just not diving deep/long enough that my mask has much reclaimable air, but when spearing deep enough in other waters where I've had to eq the mask more than twice times, I try to always do that. I don't like to ride my mask EQ so I tend to put a lot of air into my mask.
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Old 07-26-2013, 12:46 PM   #10
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Re: Urge to breathe

I'm scared there's a little water in the nose pocket of my mask that will get in my sinuses if I breathe the mask air back in.
Wouldn't having cheeks full of air be useful after you have gone a way down? If you go just 10m, the pressure on the air in your lungs doubles and the lungs shrink. At that point, you could breathe in the extra air from your mouth.
You would have to remember not to hold that in on the way up, though - lung over expansion injury isn't something freedivers usually have to worry about, but if you were packing and have a big mouth I suppose you could do real damage...
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Old 07-26-2013, 01:19 PM   #11
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Re: Urge to breathe

I've never had an issue with a few drops of water in my nose pocket. Actually, with the pressure of the air you don't even really have to take a big pull, just a small one and the air rushes in. If your looking up while your ascending the water won't be sitting right under your nostrils anyways, unless there's a lot of water in there. If you watch video of a diver ascending from a deep dive it is amazing how much wasted air escapes put from the mask.
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Old 07-30-2013, 05:14 PM   #12
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Re: Urge to breathe

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Originally Posted by PoleSpearGaijin View Post
I'm scared there's a little water in the nose pocket of my mask that will get in my sinuses if I breathe the mask air back in.
Wouldn't having cheeks full of air be useful after you have gone a way down? If you go just 10m, the pressure on the air in your lungs doubles and the lungs shrink. At that point, you could breathe in the extra air from your mouth.
You would have to remember not to hold that in on the way up, though - lung over expansion injury isn't something freedivers usually have to worry about, but if you were packing and have a big mouth I suppose you could do real damage...
What you're describing is sort of like mouthfill, used for very deep EQ--basically at a certain point the air left in the lungs is so compressed that you can't push it into your E-tubes to equalize your ears, but if at a certain point during descent you fill your mouth (either by reverse packing air from the lung or just because you still have a pinch left) and keep your throat closed, you will have a tiny reserve of air left in your mouth to use to EQ your ears. This is an advanced technique, and unless you have very natural hands-free EQ you will need to learn to uncouple the throat and soft palate to EQ this way. When you need to use it would depend on your lung capacity but typically it wouldn't be necessary to use mouthfill unless you were going well over 100'--more like 150' to 200' at least. It can be tricky because you can lose the mouthfill--at depths where you need it, the air in the lungs will have less pressure than the air in your mouth, so if you release your throat lock, that air will rush back into your lungs and no longer be available for EQ.

Water in my sinuses isn't a big deal, it just flushes into my mouth.
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