Freediving: An introduction
From a young age I found a love for the sea in the rock pools of Cornwall, Perranporth Beach. My first mask had a snorkel attached with a ping pong ball to stop water coming in at the top!
I re-discovered my love of Freediving many years later, watching Tafa and Alice training as SSI Freediving Instructors for Freediving 2000, my new adventure. I’ve loved every minute of my Freediver training from the first “I’ll never do that”, to “wow – what’s next”. From my first breath hold of 37 seconds I can now go over 3 minutes, and I’m working towards 4! I am now a Freediver – let the Adventure begin.
Freediving is a form of underwater diving that relies on a diver’s ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing rather than on the use of a breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Freediving is relaxing, liberating and a unique experience significantly different from SCUBA diving. The advantages Freediving has over scuba diving are:
• less equipment to wear
• greater mobility and speed
• lower diving costs
• shorter preparation time
• no decompression time for deep dives
• greater visibility due to a lack of exhaled air bubbles
• no distracting sounds like regulator breathing
• greater time in the water since air tank refills are not needed
Experienced Freedivers can often go as deep as scuba divers – sometimes even deeper. Recreational Freediving is practiced by many people ranging from the average snorkeler to the professional Freediver. Freediving demonstrates the potential for man and nature to be in total harmony together. It is a powerful statement of how, when man respects and surrenders to the power of nature, nature will, and does, look after us.
