This:
Going Down
Sitting at 25M
This is the Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT) at HMS Dolphin in Portsmouth. It’s a 30M deep tank in the centre of a 10 story building, used by the navy for submarine escape training (surprisingly enough), and also by the UK Freedivers to practice in the warm waters throughout the winter. Unfortunately they bumped their prices right up so I can’t afford to go any more.
My dissertation was on the effects of sodium bicarbonate on breath hold time and the trips to dolphin were a welcome part of the subject recruitment process. The work has been published by Sheard and Haughey in various scientific journals and presented at meetings etc. Lots of data was collected and it typically raised more questions than it answered. The main finding? NaHCO3 significantly delays the urge to breathe by acting as a buffer, raising blood pH and neutralising the initial build up of blood CO2 and associated drop in pH. This is all very well, but it obviously does not give you any extra oxygen so could increase the risk of blackout. In short, don’t do it. It also gives you the shits, real bad.
Happy days!
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