Our mission at Fatal Fluid is to educate you and give you the tools you need to survive in the water. That is it. If you become a water ninja along the way, then it's a bonus. As any responsible educator should do, it's important to inform you of various dangers that accompany water training. This is one such article.

What is it?

Shallow water blackout, also called Cerebral Hypoxia, is, in layman's terms, passing out underwater. It's common during "breath hold dives," also known as underwaters, also known as "seeing how far you can go while holding your breath underwater." If you think this is uncommon, think again. It can happen to anyone, regardless of how "awesome" you are in the pool; I say this because it happens all the time during Pararescue training (US Air Force rescue swimmers); Coast Guard rescue swimmers also see this, among others. And these men are excellent swimmers.

Causes

What are some possible causes? The scientific cause: lack of oxygen to the brain-o. Yeah. A couple of other things contribute to this, though: hyperventilation--taking lots of deep breaths before you do your underwaters (very bad), just being out of breath in general before you push off, or not being acclimated to the exercise of underwaters fully (you can work up to proficiency).

Lifeguards and Safeties

Another thing that bears mentioning: don't think that just because there are lifeguards present that they will spot you in time. Which leads me to my next point...

...always tell the lifeguard before you doing underwaters that you'll be doing them, so they know to keep an eye on you. It's that simple. Even better than that though--have a safety buddy with you any time you do breath hold dives. The two of you should take turns acting as safety; while one does the underwater, the other is "spotting" you. It makes no sense for your safety to follow along doing an underwater right behind you.

What do I do if...

If you are the safety and your buddy passes out, it will look something like this. If you're a good friend, you'll go down and pull your friend out. If you don't think you can do this, you should alert the lifeguard immediately.

What if I'm alone?
Don't do underwaters!

How to Get Better At Them
We will address this subject as its own Autopsy...remember--alert the lifeguard, bring a safety, don't do them alone. It's not worth it.