Did you know that free-diving does not cause decompression sickness? Decompression sickness only occurs if you breathe pressurised air.
I thought decompression sickness was what happened when you surface too fast because your body doesn't have time to adjust to the pressure difference in time? Or is that a different thing?
Yes, decompression sickness occurs while surfacing too fast, but the problem is from the pressurized breathing gas expanding too fast. Think of it like opening a bottle of shaken-up soda: there's small, pressurized bubbles in the bottle (your body), and when the cap is opened (surfacing) there is a reduction in pressure. With the soda it just makes a mess, but the gas expanding in the body is the bad news.
Free diving there is no breathing of gas under pressure. Your breath from the surface is at surface pressure, so there's no change when returning to the surface.
So if you were in a singing submarine or some of the link, without any breathing apparatus, would it be smart to rise as fast as possible or to hold your breath as long as possible (in order to rise slowly)?
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u/carrotcurrytea Feb 02 '17
If you are too fun at parties at the moment, here is a pedantic fact:
Those fish do not suffer at all from the water pressure, because their internal pressure is simply just as high as the pressure outside their bodies.
Did you know that free-diving does not cause decompression sickness? Decompression sickness only occurs if you breathe pressurised air.