Wednesday, April 30, 2008

David Blaine holds breath for 17 miutes and 4 seconds... wow!


Ok, I usually don't post non-Hawaii news items, but this one's sorta related to diving, freediving anyway. He had to hyper-oxygenate (I think that would be the phrase) himself for 25 minutes first to do it, but it's still nuts.

Here's the story.

...and a somewhat related video...

I'd be happy to be able to comfortably hold my breath a minute and a half or two. Quick story, a few years back at DEMA, there was a freediving organization that held classes in the display pool offering to get people to where they could hold their breath for 4 minutes. I think 5 or 6 took it on and I saw the final round... one participant popped up 20 seconds short and took about 3 breaths and was fine, the others all made it and a couple said they were very relaxed and probably could've done another minute... Mamalian diving reflex is an interesting thing.

I don't think I've posted this particular pic of a Ghost Shrimp (also called a "fountain shrimp" in some parts of the world) before. These are a larger shrimp than the Banded Coral Shrimp pictured a few posts below. They typically hang upside down in clefts in rock.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ran into a few of these shrimp in a crevice north of Kawaihae earlier this year. Quite surprised, not only are the shrimp big, but the antennae are huge, spanning a foot or more. Really the highlight of a great dive.

Another shrimp photo

Keep the photos coming, had a bad head cold and will have to wait a bit before going back in the water, so in the meantime I can at least enjoy your shots.

Andrew