Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
All this talk lately about plates/wings, no BC diving, streamlining, minimalism, etc. I'm just curious as to how many here were freedivers before they became scuba divers, and if so did it help your scuba diving?
For me I freedove up in Northern California for abalone, which is a huge draw and an activity in this area that is probably more popular than scuba. As such many people get into freediving for abalone first then decide to take it a step further and get scuba certified. Those people tend to become regular scuba divers in our local area more so than people who just go straight to scuba and get certified to go on vacation.
I freedove for a few years before I decided to do scuba, a natural progression I guess, but in learning to freedive first I was already acclimated to the water and conditions, I knew what to expect and what I was going to see. Being that I was also used to freediving I already knew some things about weighting, wetsuit warmth, streamlining, body positioning for maximimum efficiency whilst moving through the water, etc. A freediver naturally seems to find out that aiming your body toward the direcdtion of travel like a torpedo yields the best results. Plus the most efficient fin kicks and a host of other skills that people don't think about (mask squeeze, equalizing ears by both methods, etc).
So when I finally got certified it was a cake walk. All I had to do was a few skills that I wasn't used to freediving like mask off breathing (which was a trip since it goes against everything your body tells you to do when ice cold water hits your bare face), air shares, buddy breathing, and some physiology, but all the other stuff was there including being really comfortable in the water. Every other person in the class was doing the feet first descent while I was naturally trying to tip forward and swim down just out of habit. And of course the ocean was all new to them, AND they had to do all the skills so I could only imagine the task loading they were going through.
I just can't thank freediving enough for bonding me with the ocean way before scuba. I probably wouldn't have gotten certified if I wasn't involved with skin diving first.
I know that the Sonoma State University scuba program teaches a full skin diving course first plus ocean acclimation before they even use scuba gear for the first time. I think it's fabulous.
Would you recommend to someone thinking of getting into scuba to do some freediving first and learn some skindiving skills?
(If they have time)
I know they removed skindiving from most OW classes, but do you think that was a mistake?
For me I freedove up in Northern California for abalone, which is a huge draw and an activity in this area that is probably more popular than scuba. As such many people get into freediving for abalone first then decide to take it a step further and get scuba certified. Those people tend to become regular scuba divers in our local area more so than people who just go straight to scuba and get certified to go on vacation.
I freedove for a few years before I decided to do scuba, a natural progression I guess, but in learning to freedive first I was already acclimated to the water and conditions, I knew what to expect and what I was going to see. Being that I was also used to freediving I already knew some things about weighting, wetsuit warmth, streamlining, body positioning for maximimum efficiency whilst moving through the water, etc. A freediver naturally seems to find out that aiming your body toward the direcdtion of travel like a torpedo yields the best results. Plus the most efficient fin kicks and a host of other skills that people don't think about (mask squeeze, equalizing ears by both methods, etc).
So when I finally got certified it was a cake walk. All I had to do was a few skills that I wasn't used to freediving like mask off breathing (which was a trip since it goes against everything your body tells you to do when ice cold water hits your bare face), air shares, buddy breathing, and some physiology, but all the other stuff was there including being really comfortable in the water. Every other person in the class was doing the feet first descent while I was naturally trying to tip forward and swim down just out of habit. And of course the ocean was all new to them, AND they had to do all the skills so I could only imagine the task loading they were going through.
I just can't thank freediving enough for bonding me with the ocean way before scuba. I probably wouldn't have gotten certified if I wasn't involved with skin diving first.
I know that the Sonoma State University scuba program teaches a full skin diving course first plus ocean acclimation before they even use scuba gear for the first time. I think it's fabulous.
Would you recommend to someone thinking of getting into scuba to do some freediving first and learn some skindiving skills?
(If they have time)
I know they removed skindiving from most OW classes, but do you think that was a mistake?