A professional diving instructor on Monday warned about the risk of blackout after a recreational diver nearly drowned at Divecube Hotel (潛立方旅館) in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) on Sunday.
The 29-year-old man, surnamed Chang (張), was reportedly practicing free diving to a depth of 11m in the hotel’s 21m-deep pool shortly before becoming unconscious and sinking to the bottom.
An on-site instructor reportedly rescued Chang and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before paramedics arrived. Chang was receiving critical medical care at a hospital as of Monday.
Photo from Divecube Hotel’s Web site
A diving instructor surnamed Lai (賴) said that free diving — considered the world’s most dangerous extreme sport after skydiving — refers to diving without the aid of breathing equipment.
Diving without an external source of air leads to a higher risk of blackout from a lack of oxygen, which is exacerbated when diving alone or with a partner untrained in first aid, he said.
Some free divers are attracted to the practice as it eliminates air bubbles that could disturb fish during a dive and does not require lines and equipment, he added.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS