Picking Your Brain
Posted By Paul Kotik on 10 July 2006
A number of physicians and scientists have, over the years, passed through the Performance Freediving world as clinic students, each adding new knowledge to Kirk’s growing database but also taking away observations that have fueled new research and analysis.
An early partnership struck with Simon Frasier University in Vancouver,BC, continues with a regular program of activities, measurements, analysis and reporting. So, too, it’s no coincidence that the Performance Freediving Team’s newest member is a physician and an inventor of medical devices. Dr. George ‘Doc’ Lopez, 58, is a US National record holder in the Free Immersion discipline and Founder/CEO of ICU Medical Devices, a global leader in safey medical systems. Doc Lopez is a walking ( and freediving) example of the synergistic effects of practical experience and a scientific background.
More recently a distinguished pulmonologist from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Ralph Potkin, has been organizing an ambitious program of freediving-related research. Dr. Potkin is no neophyte to dive medicine. He’s been an active scuba diver since 1971 and has dived all over the world - including Antarctica, for all you been-there-done-that braggarts. He’s made hyperbaric medicine his primary specialty for the past ten years and has founded the Beverly Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. Potkin, an alumnus of the Performance Freediving clinics, resided with the team during the train-up for the Sink Faze Cayman 2006 World Record event and recorded pre- and post-dive physiologicals from team and support freedivers.
Dr. Potkin’s scientific interest in freediving has roots in his earlier study of decompression sickness in marine mammals. The finding that whales, seals and dolphins can indeed suffer DCS prompted him to wonder about the vulnerabilities of human freedivers. His current work is in the nature of a pilot study, the intent of which is to develop a basis for a formal research program. Read on - there's a role for you in this project.
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