Why is it dangerous to hold your breath when scuba diving?
I just finished my scuba certification, and they told us the number one rule of scuba diving is to *never* to hold your breath. Even when you’ve lost your regulator, you’re supposed to breath out a small stream of bubbles.
Is this only because of the overcompression injuries you can get if you hold your breath and rise (which allows the air to expand/decompress, potentially rupturing a lung, etc.) or are there other reasons?
Okay people, enough with the grouchy “you should know this”.
First, if it’s just a matter of not holding your breath when you *rise* I totally get the whole “expanding air” / “ruptured lung” thing (reread my original question… I state it right there).
My questions is why you should not hold your breath when you’re stationary (not rising or sinking), such as during the exercises where do you regulator recovery (sweep and reach methods). It feels more natural to hold my breath during that, but the course instructions say never hold your breath; hence my question.
