What is Taravana?

Taravana is a disease often found among Polynesian island natives who habitually dive deep without breathing apparatus many times in close succession, usually for food or pearls. These free-divers may make 40 to 60 dives a day, each of 30 or 40 metres (100 to 140 feet). Taravana seems to be decompression sickness.

Do free divers hyperventilate before diving?

Avoidance and prevention. Breath-hold divers who hyperventilate before a dive increase their risk of drowning. The diver should breathe normally in preparation for a dive, and allow the normal breathing triggers to dictate the rate of breathing to make sure the carbon dioxide levels are within safe limits.

Can anyone learn to free dive?

While freediving is commonly believed to be an extreme sport, for most divers, it’s actually the complete opposite. This sport is open to anyone who wants to get in the water as you don’t need to have any experience in snorkeling or scuba to get started.

What do you need to know about freediving training?

The course consists of three main phases: 1) Learning about freediving principles, including how your body reacts to breath holding and how water pressure affects you as you dive down. 2) Confined-water session to learn breath-hold techniques as well as static and dynamic apnea. The goal: static apnea of 90 seconds and dynamic apnea of 80 feet.

Who is an avid scuba diver and freediving instructor?

An avid scuba diver and instructor, Parkinson is describing why she loves freediving, a sport that has a passionate following.

How tall does a freediving diver have to be?

Expands knowledge and skills, and with further development in static apnea, dynamic apnea, free immersion and constant-weight freediving from 16-24 meters/55-80 feet.

Is it possible to get DCS from freediving?

For the average freediver Taravana is not a problem, but if you want to dive for pearls making 130 foot dives every two minutes for five hours, you will get DCS.