Here Is What Happens to a Free Diver’s Lungs When They Go Deep Underwater

Free divers are known to swim across extreme depths underwater without thinking about its effect on their lungs or having any secure breathing appliances. But, it’s fair to assume that the deeper a diver goes, the more toll their body will have, especially with no proper equipment.

What Is Free Diving?

Free diving is basically a sport in which athletes have to go underwater and explore the depths of the sea or ocean, holding their breath for as long as possible with scuba gear or without. It totally depends on the athlete whether they want to use the equipment or not. This makes the sport quite dangerous. Despite the risk of injury, free diving is a great sport that attracts many people yearly, and it actually holds a lower fatality rate than other sports. The current world record for hazardous no-limits free diving is 214 meters, which was set by Herbert Nitsch in 2007. ‘No Limits’ free diving means divers can use as much weight as they want to descend to a certain height and use the gas-filled balloon to return to the surface.

The Video

A recently surfaced video showing the adverse effects of free diving and how the crushing water pressure can badly affect a diver’s lungs. Various water animals, like Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, have a collapsible rib cage to deal with such harsh water pressures. Still, humans don’t have the tendency to survive the same. The video shows how the pressure crushes the air container, lungs, in our body to a fraction till nothing is left. And, it’s obvious when you reach a certain depth, breathing gets trickier because you are not getting any air in your lungs.