Kurt, you were obviously being sarcastic.
Only very mild hyperventilation is used for static apnea as part of a breathe-up. It wouldn't be an advantage to be heavily hyperventilated as you still have to get your head up and out of the pool and do the protocol of taking your mask off, making and ok sign while saying "I'm OK". If you watch the vidoes of folks doing static you'll see that some even after a non-commendable time of about 5 mins will not be able to do this. The point being: you want to ensure that you CAN lift your head up and do protocol. Confusing the body with excessive hyperventilation will mean you have less chance of being able to do this as you can't with any confidence keep pushing to the a point where you know you will have a good chance of getting the protocol done.
Obviously, hyperventilating before any free-diving can be extremely dangerous. This is accepted by pretty much every one, although some people still think that very mild hyperventialtion (2-3 deep breaths) is fine. This was US army/navy protocol last time I read, and still may be the case. I still would not risk it as I doubt it was intended to work with spearfishing or free-diving for any considerable time/depth and considering the duration of a diving/spearing session.
My PB so far is a meagre 4:22 with 35 contractions. Have done 40+ contractions but with a shorter time. But then I have only very recently been interested in Static Apnea (a month ago). I think its pretty cool and I like the feelings I get after about 3:30. Its refreshing
