How deep can a woman dive with mask and fins only, if she is not especially trained in diving?

Is the breath-holding time the limit or coping with the water pressure? Which is the way, she notices, that's the pressure gets too much??How deep can a woman dive with mask and fins only, if she is not especially trained in diving?
Because air can be compressed by adding pressure to it, pressure would be a concer to a skin diver. Water adds pressure (weight) which pushes on the air spaces in the body. These include, ears, sinuses, lungs, stomach and intestines.l Another artificial air space that is affected is the mask.


Scuba divers really only have to worry about the ears and mask air spaces as they descend because most other air spaces are equalized simply by breathing from their scuba cylinders and regulators.


Skin Divers on the other hand do not have that luxury.


The air in the lungs on a breath hold dive will compress with no means of equalizing them.


If your lungs are filled with air at the surface, they will compress to half their original size at a depth of 33 feet in salt water (34 feet in fresh water). Go another 33 feet deeper to 66 feet in salt water and they will compress to one-third their original size. Another 33 feet to 99 foot of salt water and the will compress to one-fourth their original size.


The pressure on the mask air space will begin to be noticable to the skin diver at about 7 or 8 ft. Skin divers can equalize the pressure in the mask by exhaling a bit of the air from the lungs into the mask through the nose. Masks have the nose enclosed in them for this purpose. Swim goggles should not be used any deeper than about 15 ft as it will begin to feel as though your eyes are being sucked out of your head (sorry to be so graphic).


The ears can be equalized by wiggling the jaw and swallowin while the skin diver descends. The skin diver can also equalize this pressure by pinching the nostrils together while exhaling through the nose. Please note that skin divers and scuba divers should avoid forceful equalization when using the second method as eardrum injuries could occur. Equalization of the ears should be done early and often as on descends beginning once at the surface and every few feet thereafter.


This should be done before any discomfort is felt. The skin diver will feel and hear a slight popping or clicking sound when they equalize their ears.


To extend bottom time, skin divers have been known to hyperventilate before going to depth. If this method is used, no more than 3 or 4 quick, deep breaths should be taken before breath holding. Any more than that and the skin diver could experience shallow water black out on ascent.


The hyperventilation is a trick to fool the autonomic nervous swystem and the brain into thinking that it doesn't need to inhales by blowing off excess carbon dioxide in the lungs which is the gas that triggers the brain to inhale. It takes the body longer to build up the trigger amount of CO2 when using hyperventilation.


The deepest that I have snorkeled is about 40 to 50 feet. The key is to get to know your limits and not to exceed them. I would suggest starting with shallower non hyperventilation dives and going a bit deeper following that. Your body will definitely let you know that you need to come back up. If you have good fins and strong leg muscles you can probably go deeper but again start shallow to acclimatize yourself first.


Women traditionally have a smaller lung capacity than a male that is the same body size, but they still usually win in an argument.How deep can a woman dive with mask and fins only, if she is not especially trained in diving?
Remember one thing,Going down is only half the battle,you've got to get back to the surface!OK,I'm a 6' male210lbs,I smoke 1pk.of cigs a day/approx.I spearfish approx 2-3x a wk.I can dive 80ft approx.on my 1st 3-4 dives w/ a hangtime of approx 90-100sec.that's max.After that depth%26amp;hangtime start to decrease.My girlfriend,5'7';125lbs,smokes maybe a pk%26amp;ahalf a/wk.comes w/me 1-2x a/wk.%26amp; can dive just as deep on the 1st dive+stays down longer,but after that...kaput!We,ve talked about it(she's DD),%26amp; she says her chest #1causes bouyancy issues,hence,being able to STAY down,#2@ pressure/Ata.her chest feels constricted,(this is strictly freediving,not scuba,%26amp; also w/o a weightbelt)Also factor in vis.cloudy vis.10ft-0ft changes the whole equation,It's like going down into a cup of coffee(it gets very dark@40ft.whereas diving in 50-100ft vis.you see all,therefore go deeper because there's a lot less Jaws Themed Music in your head!Lastly as afore mentioned surfacing is the other part you don't want 2forget,If you go too deep %26amp; surface too quick(panicking for air)you can have a shallow water blackout,which I always try to avoid!It's well documented,look it up,2 much2explain here.so anyway dive well w/i your personal limits only in the comfort zone+expand from there.Oh yeah the ear thing,chew a little gum while divingand /or keep flexing your jaw like when your on a plane.don't wait for earpain keep popping even if your not feeling alot of pressure.approx.every 10 ft underwater is a pressure change so keep that in mind.
It all depends on different aspects of the person. Her weight and height and if she has had any medical treatment in the past 10 years. The way that you can tell if the pressure is getting too much is if the woman gets light headed,dizzy or her ears start to hurt after they have popped(if your ears pop you can dive down about another 15ft of water before surfacing. Hope this helps :)
i spearfish and have gone 70 feet without a tank, but i have been doing it since i wa a toddler, the pressure is nothing as long as you can equelize. the thing that got to me is i needed air obviosley. But i dont know if the people that dive down for records the pressure hurts, hope i helped