Holding breath for longer period of time..techniques?

[JC50]

Right now I only can hold my breath for about 1 min. 15 sec. to 1 min 30 sec. and that's sitting on a chair doing nothing.  I understand my weekness and am gonna work on it a bit. 

BTW, as far as I know, infamous two wave hold downs at places like Peahi or Mavericks actually only last about 25-35 seconds.

[Boludo]

wow that's interesting.  I would have guessed it to be much longer.  I think it's the preparation before going under.  Sometimes you get a surprise dunk into the water and 10 seconds feels like a minute.

[PonoBill]

the biggest problem I have is that I tend to hold my breath a lot while I'm riding a wave--a very bad habit. I've taken to being vocal while I ride to combat that, so if you hear me muttering or even yelling instructions to myself when I go by, please don't conclude I'm a couple forks short of a place setting.

[Jared K.]

Now that my A-hole housemate has been forcing me to go surf Waimea, I figured out a wonderful new technique for feeling more comfortable in heavy water:  Go out, sit too deep, or too inside, or just take off on a stupid one right off the bat and get beat down on your first wave.  That way you know how bad the beatings will be that session, and all the apprehension and butterflies get out of your system.  Plus I get fired up and surf better when I'm trying to get that "redemption wave".  Another little thing I do is play a song in my head when I'm getting held down.  There was a really cool slow song that was in a quicksilver video, ironically during some cool underwater shots.  If I know it's gonna be a legit beating, I think about that song in my head and take in the turbulent view.   

One last point:  I was watching the Eddie this year from a friends house and we were counting the rider's hold down times... even the bad ones still only looked like they were about 15 seconds or less.  I'm sure there were worse, I didn't see everything, but it helps put things in perspective for me. 

[PonoBill]

A typical holdown is for one wave--give a 15 second period for a lot of big waves that's a 15 second holdown if you make it to the surface just as the next one drops on you. Given that the center of the 15 second wavelength has a low amount of energy, you can usually get to the surface. A two wave holdown is almost always 15-20 seconds. No one wants to talk about three wave hold downs, though certainly nothing prevents the waves from doing that to you.

The problem is rarely the duration--the problem is how much reserve you had when you started being pounded, and what you've been doing while you're helpless in the washing machine. If you try to swim for the top a little too soon you're likely to expend a lot of oxygen in fruitless thrashing. And the fact that this doesn't bring you to the surface yields a lot more fruitless thrashing.

[JC50]

the biggest problem I have is that I tend to hold my breath a lot while I'm riding a wave--a very bad habit. I've taken to being vocal while I ride to combat that, so if you hear me muttering or even yelling instructions to myself when I go by, please don't conclude I'm a couple forks short of a place setting.

LOL! That's how I play Ice Hockey; "I hold my breath while I sprint to the backcheck, then I hold my breath while I sprint up on a forecheck, then I hold my breath while I dig in the corner, then I hold my breath while I bolt over there..." Hockey is just a succession of sprints, and I seem to hold my breath all over the place, it's no wonder I'm smoked after a 1:30-2:00 shift.

I imagine it's not much different in monster waves. Dig like hell to get in the wave, then dig further at the lip to keep from getting blown out the back, then pop fast as you can, then focus everything you've got for the drop, then compress and extend all you got at the bottom, then WHAM, it just closed out on your head and punched you 15-20' deep while you try to remember what was behind the wave you took, and all that energy you just blasted through is starving to suck down some O2. Hope you remembered to breath before digging for that wave...

[linter]

Yeah, it's not the first wave, it's the second.  Or else it's just getting caught in the impact zone, so while you might not have to deal w/ even a 2-wave hold down, you're stuck thrashing around taking wave after on the noggin, or getting sucked over the falls, or have no wherewithall left to dive for the bottom, bla bla bla bla.
   Come on, Dave, I know you've got something to say, so say it already!!!!

A typical holdown is for one wave--give a 15 second period for a lot of big waves that's a 15 second holdown if you make it to the surface just as the next one drops on you. Given that the center of the 15 second wavelength has a low amount of energy, you can usually get to the surface. A two wave holdown is almost always 15-20 seconds. No one wants to talk about three wave hold downs, though certainly nothing prevents the waves from doing that to you.

The problem is rarely the duration--the problem is how much reserve you had when you started being pounded, and what you've been doing while you're helpless in the washing machine. If you try to swim for the top a little too soon you're likely to expend a lot of oxygen in fruitless thrashing. And the fact that this doesn't bring you to the surface yields a lot more fruitless thrashing.