How long can you hold your breath?

In high school, I held my breath underwater for almost 3 minutes. I didn't have any choice. I was naked in a hottub with my girlfriend at her Dad's house, and he came out to see who she was talking to. I had to hide underwater until he was convinced she was alone and finally went back inside the house.... 

In high school, I held my breath underwater for almost 3 minutes. I didn't have any choice. I was naked in a hottub with my girlfriend at her Dad's house, and he came out to see who she was talking to. I had to hide underwater until he was convinced she was alone and finally went back inside the house.... 

That's my new training strategy!!!!

For future hot tub diving situations, remember if the air jets are on, you can survive off that air as well. 

I've been doing 45 second dives for a few years now - that's comfortable and I don't feel a huge urge to breathe after that long.
This past winter I've been really working it at the pool and I do a slow kick with small fins across the pool. I'm up to 3 lengths of the pool or 75 yards; that takes about 1 1/2 minutes. I dove LM earlier this week and it translated to one minute relaxed dives, no big urge to breathe. I'm really happy about that improvement.
My problem is that I have a hard time clearing my ears, and I usually have to blow really hard and pause and lift my head to do it, and that drains my energy/oxegyn and slows my descent. Not to mention the 60 mg of pseudophed that makes relaxation harder.
I think that shorter more frequent dives can sometimes be good; a lot of times I'm trying to stay on structure or a sand edge that I can't see from the surface and less breathing up time means I don't drift off it as far.

At the beginning of a dive, my breath-hold time is usually pitiful, around 15 seconds, as I warm up and acclimate to being in the water. But by the end of my time in the water, I can stay under for almost a minute with some good adrenaline. Regardless of my dive time, fish fear me.

Hows this for bottom time?

Truglia holds a British record for an underwater free dive on a single breath (249 feet).

My problem is that I have a hard time clearing my ears, and I usually have to blow really hard and pause and lift my head to do it, and that drains my energy/oxegyn and slows my descent. Not to mention the 60 mg of pseudophed that makes relaxation harder.

I read somewhere that it would help if you practiced clearing your ears all the time on land.
Something about expanding ( exercising ) the eustacion tube on a consistent basis would make it easier to clear when you dive. I cannot personally attest to this but it kind of makes sense to me.

Maybe someone else could chime in on this...Marmite??????

I read somewhere that it would help if you practiced clearing your ears all the time on land.
Something about expanding ( exercising ) the eustacion tube on a consistent basis would make it easier to clear when you dive. I cannot personally attest to this but it kind of makes sense to me.

I haven't tried this, but when I dive a lot my ear tubes work better.......so it makes sense.

I read somewhere that it would help if you practiced clearing your ears all the time on land.

Yes, that's definitely true, but as Pescador says, diving a lot is even better. When I'm doing the pool laps, I always clear (that's part of the workout). If I'm on my way south to a dive trip I take pseudophed and practice clearing (per advice of my ENT doctor). If I remember, I do it as a general habit, but I don't usually remember!
My biggest fear about doing multi-day freedive trips in the Channel Islands was that my ears would lock up by the 2nd day (like they do when I'm tank diving). Lo and behold, the opposite is true! They get better!
But clearing during deeper freedives is always really hard for me  .
Still I persist... If I can learn to hold my breath for 2 or 3 minutes, I might be able to hit 60'. Unfortunately, that's not much of an exaggeration.

My record was well over three minutes....But that was more than half a lifetime ago and in my parents pool..........I paid for it as well with a massive ear infection that impacts my diving to this day.  I have a weak eardrum and degraded inner ear bones on the left side which makes equalizing nearly impossible and VERY painful so I have to limit myself to shallow dives........usually 10' or less.  The thought of being underwater, bleeding, disoriented, and in agony just does not appeal to me for some strange reason.

The pseudafed is a good thing at times............necessary for me during allergy season if I want to be able to breath, and I need an inhaler when my lungs tighten up on me.  I usually take a hit before diving as well as it seems to help quite a bit.  I am also absolutely religious about keeping my ears clean.

My Dr. thinks I am nuts to want to dive/spearfish, but his simple instructions if I just HAVE o get out there is to take your time..........Don't try for a long dive right off but make several shorter dives and slowly get an idea of your capabilities on any given day.  I also usually do simple breathing exercises BEFORE entering the water to get an idea of what I have to work with.

Good advice to anybody I think...........You do NOT want to end up with ear damage like mine believe me........Was in a plane once that lost cabin pressure and the pain was unimaginable........the bleeding wasn't fun either.......Nor was the emergency landing........the trip to the hospital.........am I getting my point across???

Word to the wise...........NEVER dive to any significant depth with a sinus condition, earache, cold......