Considering the challenges the freediving world is seeing with the doping issues as of late, the other topic coming from the 2023 AIDA World Championships is about blackouts, LMCs, and Lung Squeezes. The community works so hard at establishing guidelines through all of the training materials and establishing best practices so we can ensure the safety of ourself as well as those around us. But as that community, we all need to stand together in solidarity so the standards are continually improved upon and not diminished or forgotten.
Over the last weeks, both Dr. Juani Valdivia (Medical Director for the USFF) and Lance Davis (Team Captain 2023) have met to organize the position of the USFF around these incidences, how to grade them and when it could be safe to return to diving.
This document here provides a high level summary solely as a PUBLIC SERVICE, to help increase your awareness on how to be a safer Freediver and is necessarily not specific medical direction. If you’d like to discuss any of these points, or have questions, you are welcome to contact Dr. Juani directly at this email address.
These guidelines represent the US Freediving Federation’s lead in the community with the hope that other federations and organizations will follow.