I have been freediving now since the spring of 07. To date most of my diving has been 30' or less in low vis and I have become very comfortable at this depth. My dive times are still short, but are lengthing slowly the more that I dive. Recently, I have had the opportunity to dive deeper locations. With this new territory, I am finding that I am hitting a wall at 30-35'. I have the ability to dive deeper as I can hit 40-45ft if I "push" through my "comfort limit" and I have hit 60' on one occation without stretching it severly. I am by nature cautious, and what is limiting my depth is not so much the need for oxygen. At thirty to thirtyfive feet I experience a shift in my chest for lack of a better term. On the surface after I breath up, my upper chest/lungs feel very full, a bit uncomforable... As I decend, the full feeling in my chest eases and feels very comfortable and natural at around 25'. As I hit 30-35ft, I get a sudden shift of this full feeling from my upper chest to my stomach/abdominal region. It is at this point that the sudden pressure on my abs makes me want to stop decending. This is not a painful experience, just a subtle shift that seems to have me holding up. Has anybody else experience this that can give me some pointers. I try and keep my diving very conservative, but I am at the point where my improvement is being hampered by this occurance... I want to push through it and keep going, but I don't know what is happening and I don't want to make a one way trip. I am sure a little knowledge will help me push though this barrier, both mentally and physically. I'm all ears...

I'm not a freediver, and I may be stating something you already know....but at 33', that's the point at which you double the pressure that is pressed upon your body. It's that first 33' that has the most dramatic change on your body. the depest I've ever gone is about 25', and it just gives me the willies.

That's completely normal, it's Just part of it. You'll get used to it with more diving, just make sure you have a spotter. It can be very hard to gauge your timing when you start diving deeper. Check out http://forums.deeperblue.net/

I have had those feelings at certain depths too, especially when I first started freediving. I used to have a wall at 80' when the pressure on my chest/neck would just make me very anxious and uncomfortable, I couldn't get past this depth. I kept diving in the 60-80 range for a long time and got really comfortable and making it past 80 isn't hard anymore, so just stick with it and take it really slowly, your body needs time to get used to the new feelings and adapt (lungs/chest gets more flexible) before you can get through these depths without feeling discomfort. If you ever feel uncomfortable or any pain just abort the dive, you can get a lung squeeze or other trauma if you are not careful. I still get these feelings of discomfort but they are deeper than before, I think one of the reasons why there are so few professional freedivers is because attaining new depths is so challenging, everything takes time and training and most people don't have the patience for it. Good luck and dive safe.

I am working through the EXACT same problem. PFI helped a lot and I got passed 60'. What helps me the most is training with negative breath holds. Breath-up, let your breath out and make a slow dive to ten or fifteen feet. Slowly work up to 30 feet but just stay right with you comfort zone. Please don't even try this without a good spotter.

On dry land, you can also stretch your diaphram by letting ALL your air out and then bending over at the waist to push the last of it out. Hold it and stretch back up. If you do it right you stomach will suck in and you'll feel your diaphram stretch up into your lung cavity. This exercises will help a lot, but don't over-do it at first. A sore diaphram is really an unpleasant experience.

Edit: Oh yeah, and stop telling yourself that you have a mental barrier and relax.

Now there's some info that I can use. Thank you guys. We'll keep at it. Won't be long before this is old hat and I'm on to the next step. Good info and I apprieciate it.

On dry land, you can also stretch your diaphram by letting ALL your air out and then bending over at the waist to push the last of it out. Hold it and stretch back up. If you do it right you stomach will suck in and you'll feel your diaphram stretch up into your lung cavity. This exercises will help a lot, but don't over-do it at first. A sore diaphram is really an unpleasant experience.

relax.

You can also apply this to being in the water as well. I was doing a lot of freediving/spearfishing a few summers ago with one of the captains down in the keys. Before working 55ft all day we did a warm up. We went out to 100+ feet of water and dropped the anchor down 85ft. First dive was to 30-35ft and you stay down there until you feel your diaphram contract once then you come up and breath up then the 2nd dive was to around 55-60ft come up and breath up for a couple minutes. Third dive is where we pushed it to the max and tried to get to the anchor. At around 60-65ft i felt that uncomfortable feeling you described but i had to get to the anchor so i just closed my eyes made one last kick and just glided down to the anchor. I hit the anchor in the dark deep blue water and a little panic set in as i looked up and realized how far i had to go up. I started swimming back up and after ascending the first 10-15 minutes i felt my lungs expand a little and i was comfortable the rest of the way up. I think if i had the time to dedicate to freediving i would be able to become comfortable diving to those depths and exceeding them, but that will have to happen later on.

Anyways, after that dive we recovered for a few minutes then we did the last excersize. You breath up then release all the air in your lungs, then dive down to 15 feet, stay for a few seconds if you can then come back. It is imperative that you have a spotter for these excersizes though as it's very possible to black out on the deep dive and also the last part. I forget what it's called, maybe a negative dive or something like that.. But it's crazy hard to clear when you have no air left. Also if you try this you have to wait a while after your partner returns to the surface to make sure he doesn't black out a little while after surfacing.

You seek the level of the divers you are with. If you dive with a person with 30 sec on a dive you will be doing the same. If you dive with a good to great diver you will try to keep up with them and do better. If you want to be good or great push yourself and dive with better divers. Or take the time to drag your friends to the level you want.

And push yourself for the bottom time and relax.

Slider

Raced AMA for years and it is the same thing.

You've been getting better every time...... That's a little hint. The more you go, it starts to come a little easier. I still get uncomfortable on some of the 60ft dives, and some days, I think how my body feels determines more or less how deep I can go, especially on multiple day trips.
You need to go out to the Queen with us one of these days, it's a great training wreck.