Freediving and
Scuba Diving
The photographs on this site probably illustrate all too well, my passion for being under the water or out on it, every free moment I can manage. My variation of the popular adage: "I don't know whether I'm a diver with a sailing habit, or a sailor with a diving habit".
Everyone in my family (my wife and all three children, not to mention my brothers, their children, father, and cousins) are all PADI certified scuba divers. Our two oldest children are now married to people who dive. And nothing is more fun than to have my entire crew all down on a wall off Cozumel, Mexico.
When I get my choice, I'll take freediving over scuba nine times out of ten. Exploring underwater on a single breath of air is a challenge that I fell in love with, and have been pretty good at, since very young. But in order to join others that don't have the desire or ability to go as deep on a breath-hold, I scuba dive a lot too. Like being a social drinker, I'm a social scuba diver — otherwise I'm a freediver.
Anyone can learn to freedive. Anyone can improve their breath-hold. In my experience, at first everyone thinks 30-60 seconds is about their limit. But practice 3-5 breath-holds (not in the water, just on the couch or lying in bed is fine) every day and in a couple of weeks, just about everyone can be hitting 2-3 minutes. If you can do 2-3 minutes sitting on the couch, then learn basic skills with mask, snorkel and fins (to the point you can relax in the water and know how to do a simple tuck and dive and then come back up and clear your snorkel), you'll be able to make 1 minute dives underwater and reach 30-40 ft depths comfortably. I usually figure actual dive times are about half of the time you can hold your breath sitting on the couch. Not moving during a breath-hold is called static apnea. Diving or swimming underwater while holding your breath is dynamic apnea.
There are lots of good sites where freediving (aka. apnea diving, skindiving, breath-hold diving, snorkeling) techniques and equipment are discussed and debated ad nauseam. One of my favorites is deeperblue.net. And there are more than a few Freediving books
that offer great advice on training, safety,
equipment, and the best dive sites to
freedive.
I have my own opinions about techniques that work (if nothing else they work for me), but with no formal records to give my thoughts any weight publishing my ideas seems a little pointless. I can hit a 5 minute static after warming up good. I can usually make 90-100 ft depth when I just want to go straight down and up. When I'm diving recreationally, I can have fun hitting 40-60 ft all day long.
More than depth alone, I've become more interested in improving the ability to make consistent and repeatable moderate-depth dives. To me, that has real application in recreational freediving and spearfishing, where riding a sled to depth or even swimming straight down and back up a cable don't. I practice with the goal in mind to be able to dive all afternoon long making 2 min dives with 3-5 minute surface intervals. After an afternoon spearfishing I like to look at my depth timer/gauge and see that I hit two minute dives consistently, no matter what depth I made.
There are plenty of people peddling freediving training on the net, so I'm not even going to attempt to add to the noise. But write me if you have any questions that I can help you with. I can be as opinionated and verbose as the next guy who thinks he owns an exclusive on what he thinks is the holy grail of techniques for doing something as simple and natural as holding your breath and swimming under water — something we can all do naturally and without any instruction at birth.
Questions, comments, criticisms; I'm all ears.
The photographs on this site probably illustrate all too well, my passion for being under the water or out on it, every free moment I can manage. My variation of the popular adage: "I don't know whether I'm a diver with a sailing habit, or a sailor with a diving habit".
Everyone in my family (my wife and all three children, not to mention my brothers, their children, father, and cousins) are all PADI certified scuba divers. Our two oldest children are now married to people who dive. And nothing is more fun than to have my entire crew all down on a wall off Cozumel, Mexico.
When I get my choice, I'll take freediving over scuba nine times out of ten. Exploring underwater on a single breath of air is a challenge that I fell in love with, and have been pretty good at, since very young. But in order to join others that don't have the desire or ability to go as deep on a breath-hold, I scuba dive a lot too. Like being a social drinker, I'm a social scuba diver — otherwise I'm a freediver.
Anyone can learn to freedive. Anyone can improve their breath-hold. In my experience, at first everyone thinks 30-60 seconds is about their limit. But practice 3-5 breath-holds (not in the water, just on the couch or lying in bed is fine) every day and in a couple of weeks, just about everyone can be hitting 2-3 minutes. If you can do 2-3 minutes sitting on the couch, then learn basic skills with mask, snorkel and fins (to the point you can relax in the water and know how to do a simple tuck and dive and then come back up and clear your snorkel), you'll be able to make 1 minute dives underwater and reach 30-40 ft depths comfortably. I usually figure actual dive times are about half of the time you can hold your breath sitting on the couch. Not moving during a breath-hold is called static apnea. Diving or swimming underwater while holding your breath is dynamic apnea.
There are lots of good sites where freediving (aka. apnea diving, skindiving, breath-hold diving, snorkeling) techniques and equipment are discussed and debated ad nauseam. One of my favorites is deeperblue.net. And there are more than a few Freediving books
that offer great advice on training, safety,
equipment, and the best dive sites to
freedive.
I have my own opinions about techniques that work (if nothing else they work for me), but with no formal records to give my thoughts any weight publishing my ideas seems a little pointless. I can hit a 5 minute static after warming up good. I can usually make 90-100 ft depth when I just want to go straight down and up. When I'm diving recreationally, I can have fun hitting 40-60 ft all day long.
More than depth alone, I've become more interested in improving the ability to make consistent and repeatable moderate-depth dives. To me, that has real application in recreational freediving and spearfishing, where riding a sled to depth or even swimming straight down and back up a cable don't. I practice with the goal in mind to be able to dive all afternoon long making 2 min dives with 3-5 minute surface intervals. After an afternoon spearfishing I like to look at my depth timer/gauge and see that I hit two minute dives consistently, no matter what depth I made.
There are plenty of people peddling freediving training on the net, so I'm not even going to attempt to add to the noise. But write me if you have any questions that I can help you with. I can be as opinionated and verbose as the next guy who thinks he owns an exclusive on what he thinks is the holy grail of techniques for doing something as simple and natural as holding your breath and swimming under water — something we can all do naturally and without any instruction at birth.
Questions, comments, criticisms; I'm all ears.
News
17 May2009 — Several shots I snapped on a recent run down to Beaver Lake in NW Arkansas.
Click here to see photos.
A friend (Les Sage) and I had to check out the rumors of 40-50 ft visibility on Beaver Lake this year. It was pretty clear, but 40 ft would be stretching it a bit. I laid on the bottom with depth gauge reading exactly 42 ft and I could just barely see a spot of sun on the surface. Then I left the bright yellow reel that I pull my dive float with at the bottom and surfaced -- couldn't see it from the surface looking back down.
I don't consider, looking up to see sun on the surface a measurement of visibility, do you? To me visibility should define: 1) how far a diver can see horizontally through the water, while at depth; and 2) the distance you can make out a fish or an object clearly, not just a shadowy figure somewhere out there in the great green beyond. So . . . my vote is we were diving in 20 ft visibility, at best.
Twenty feet. That's what I would tell a friend if I were being really realistic, not wanting to raise their expectations to high and end up disappointing them if they were going to travel very far. But then, if I were working on a tourism brochure for Beaver Lake, or writing copy for a web site, or I owned a dive shop down that way and wanted to pull divers in from neighboring states, I guess I'd call it 40 - 50 ft viz.
But don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching, it was definitely clear enough to be fun. Had it been spearfishing season (begins June 15), I'm sure we could have each nailed striper and a walleye. Photography in the deep greenish-brown of our midwestern lakes is always disappointing; no let's call it pretty crappy. So I was impressed that the viz allowed enough light at 30 ft to still get a shot.
Most of all . . . it was great to be back in the water and out in the sun -- my first dive of 2009. We saw lots of carp, largemouth bass (always see lots of largemouth bass on the lakes of NW Arkansas, some nice big stripers, a few walleye, and a few little pike.
17 May2009 — Several shots I snapped on a recent run down to Beaver Lake in NW Arkansas.
Click here to see photos.
A friend (Les Sage) and I had to check out the rumors of 40-50 ft visibility on Beaver Lake this year. It was pretty clear, but 40 ft would be stretching it a bit. I laid on the bottom with depth gauge reading exactly 42 ft and I could just barely see a spot of sun on the surface. Then I left the bright yellow reel that I pull my dive float with at the bottom and surfaced -- couldn't see it from the surface looking back down.
I don't consider, looking up to see sun on the surface a measurement of visibility, do you? To me visibility should define: 1) how far a diver can see horizontally through the water, while at depth; and 2) the distance you can make out a fish or an object clearly, not just a shadowy figure somewhere out there in the great green beyond. So . . . my vote is we were diving in 20 ft visibility, at best.
Twenty feet. That's what I would tell a friend if I were being really realistic, not wanting to raise their expectations to high and end up disappointing them if they were going to travel very far. But then, if I were working on a tourism brochure for Beaver Lake, or writing copy for a web site, or I owned a dive shop down that way and wanted to pull divers in from neighboring states, I guess I'd call it 40 - 50 ft viz.
But don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching, it was definitely clear enough to be fun. Had it been spearfishing season (begins June 15), I'm sure we could have each nailed striper and a walleye. Photography in the deep greenish-brown of our midwestern lakes is always disappointing; no let's call it pretty crappy. So I was impressed that the viz allowed enough light at 30 ft to still get a shot.
Most of all . . . it was great to be back in the water and out in the sun -- my first dive of 2009. We saw lots of carp, largemouth bass (always see lots of largemouth bass on the lakes of NW Arkansas, some nice big stripers, a few walleye, and a few little pike.