Diving at freedive depth

[boulderjohn]

Is it because of decompression issues?

Because freedivers may not understand the need to constantly exhale as they ascend, and hence can get barotrauma from expanding gas as they ascend.

Yep. Giving an unknowing free diver a breath of compressed air can lead to death.

 

[Belzelbub]

Is it because of decompression issues?

In a way, yes. But not the way I think you mean it. A breath or two is not going to lead to decompression illness.

However, freedivers and scuba divers have different ascent procedures. A freediver can hold their breath as the air in their lungs will only expand to what it was at the surface when they started the dive. Breathing one breath at depth and holding breath on ascent will result in lung over expansion injuries. The alveoli can’t take much pressure differential, and since gas expands at the greatest rate near the surface, it doesn’t take much depth at all to do damage.

 

[mac66]

I started diving because of free diving. I was on a cruise in Bonaire snorkeling/free diving on the reef when I ran into some divers at 30-40 feet. They were surprised to see me. I could hold my breath for 4 or 5 minutes so I spent some time down there and then ascended. It thought to myself at the time "I should be scuba diving so I can stay down there". The next cruise I took a discovery dive and was hooked. I then went and got certified.

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

I’ve done a few private dive days where I’ll freedive the first dive, then scuba the next. I gave a mate a hell of a fright when I pulled her fin at 15m (she could see the other scuba divers in front of her).

I love both pursuits. I reckon you get better interactions with nature when free diving, but scuba is easier and being able to hover and enjoy the view is awesome. I went freediving with dolphins the other day, that was my favorite dive this year.

At one stage I had freedived deeper (22m) than my scuba training level (18m). I know guys who can freedive to 40m, but I’m no where near that good.

 

[TMHeimer]

I’ve done a few private dive days where I’ll freedive the first dive, then scuba the next. I gave a mate a hell of a fright when I pulled her fin at 15m (she could see the other scuba divers in front of her).

I love both pursuits. I reckon you get better interactions with nature when free diving, but scuba is easier and being able to hover and enjoy the view is awesome. I went freediving with dolphins the other day, that was my favorite dive this year.

At one stage I had freedived deeper (22m) than my scuba training level (18m). I know guys who can freedive to 40m, but I’m no where near that good.

I did a lot of snorkeling (decades) before I was scuba certified. I would do a bit of freediving, though I didn't know it was called that. I actually freedived once to 12 feet (1.2M)!!! Figured it was time to do scuba.