How safe is freediving?
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redstrom
Contributor
Ari,
The greatest risk with freediving I see is loosing interest in scubadiving.... it happened to me.
All other risks can largely be mitigated by proper training, diving within you own comfort levels, and with a sound buddy system in place.
Shoot me a pm when you get back if you want to try it out. I freedive at Dutch every weekend with a bunch of guys. The majority of us came out of PFI and hold basic to advance certs.
Look us up on: EastCoastFreediver : East Coast Freediver
Dana Beck is running basic (PFI) classes at Dutch starting this summer (Freedive NYC). She's very nice and has a complete rig system with multiple lines.
Cheers/Rik
The greatest risk with freediving I see is loosing interest in scubadiving.... it happened to me.
All other risks can largely be mitigated by proper training, diving within you own comfort levels, and with a sound buddy system in place.
Shoot me a pm when you get back if you want to try it out. I freedive at Dutch every weekend with a bunch of guys. The majority of us came out of PFI and hold basic to advance certs.
Look us up on: EastCoastFreediver : East Coast Freediver
Dana Beck is running basic (PFI) classes at Dutch starting this summer (Freedive NYC). She's very nice and has a complete rig system with multiple lines.
Cheers/Rik
redstrom
Contributor
Unfortunately there is no pool diving going on in Philly, as most of the "regulars" live in New York or northern NJ. Note that, pool training is typically centered on dynamics (swimming lengthwise under water) and statics (timed breath holds), warming up by swimming regular laps. When we dive at Dutch it's a mix of line diving with a float in the deeper section of the quarry and "fun" diving (swimming through the chopper etc.) Because we are limited to 100 or so ft at Dutch we also started doing some no fins diving this year.
You should def look into Nemo33 while in Europe. It's a 108ft deep pool outside Brussels where they teach scuba/freediving.
You should def look into Nemo33 while in Europe. It's a 108ft deep pool outside Brussels where they teach scuba/freediving.
ImmersionFreediving
Registered
When I do Freediving presentations I always bring up a slide that says is freedive safe?
In my opinion freediving without any formal training is like scuba diving without taking a scuba course. Every one this forum would likely agree that scuba diving with out training is crazy, but most wouldn't bat an eye at freediving with out formal training.
In a scuba course you will get a manual that covers lots of information. In the classroom you learn how to set up your gear, you will learn the risks associated with scuba diving, you will learn how to deal with those risks, you will learn some basic physics and how it applies to scuba diving. Then you go the pool and practice the theory you talked about in class. You will get to practice fixing all the things that could go wrong on a scuba dive. You will learn how to clear you mask, deal with losing you regulator, how to deal with running out of air etc. Lastly you go diving in the ocean where the instructor makes sure you can dive and deal with all the things that might go wrong on a dive. At the end of the course if the instructor thinks its safe for you to go scuba diving off you go.
Its hard to go scuba diving with out taking a course because the dive shops require certification to go on the boats and get your tanks filled.
Its easy to go freediving with out a taking a course because there is no gatekeeper in freediving. You can walk into any dive shop buy freediving fins, freediving mask, freediving wetsuits, and a big gun, and out the door you go. At a typical dive shop/retail store you will not hear anything about the risk associated with the sport you are about to embark in.
During a freediving course you will learn of course how to better your freediving performance. You will also learn all the risks associated with the sport and then how to handle those risks just like during your scuba course.
If you didn't take a scuba course and just went out scuba diving, lets consider the things you wouldn't be aware of. You wouldn't know you shouldn't hold your breath, you wouldn't know you couldn't come up fast, you wouldn't know to do a safety stop, you wouldn't' know what to do if you mask flooded, you wouldn't know what to do if ran out of air, you wouldn't know you could get bent if you stayed down to long, you wouldn't know what to do if your BC over inflated. When nothing goes wrong scuba diving its really easy! its when things go wrong that you need to rely on training and education. Freediving is no different.
When people are freediving and haven't taken a formal course, often times they are just not aware of the risks, not aware of the how the physics and physiology effect their body. Because of this they don't have appropriate safety procedures in place.
Before I took my first PFI course, I was a scuba instructor. I knew more about diving physics and physiology than the average Joe, but I was still freediving in a very unsafe manner. I once did a 60-7ft freedive came up and felt a little funny and my vision was a little weird for 1-2 seconds, and then I felt fine. I wondered what was that? I remember thinking oh yeah I didn't eat breakfast this morning, because I was in such a hurry to get to work. After I took a course I learned that I had a loss of motor control. I was diving without direct supervision and was grossly over weighted, two common and dangerous situations. Once I took the course and realized how unsafe I was being, I stopped immediately. As a scuba instructor I was completely ignorant of freediving safety. Not only did I learn about safety, I went from having a 2:15 breath hold to a 5 minute breath hold in 4 days!
As a freediving instructor and a scuba instructor I think diving without a buddy freediving is more dangerous than scuba diving without a buddy.
If you want to freedive and enjoy the same safety you do while scuba diving, take a course, Not to mention they are lots of fun.
Dive safe,
In my opinion freediving without any formal training is like scuba diving without taking a scuba course. Every one this forum would likely agree that scuba diving with out training is crazy, but most wouldn't bat an eye at freediving with out formal training.
In a scuba course you will get a manual that covers lots of information. In the classroom you learn how to set up your gear, you will learn the risks associated with scuba diving, you will learn how to deal with those risks, you will learn some basic physics and how it applies to scuba diving. Then you go the pool and practice the theory you talked about in class. You will get to practice fixing all the things that could go wrong on a scuba dive. You will learn how to clear you mask, deal with losing you regulator, how to deal with running out of air etc. Lastly you go diving in the ocean where the instructor makes sure you can dive and deal with all the things that might go wrong on a dive. At the end of the course if the instructor thinks its safe for you to go scuba diving off you go.
Its hard to go scuba diving with out taking a course because the dive shops require certification to go on the boats and get your tanks filled.
Its easy to go freediving with out a taking a course because there is no gatekeeper in freediving. You can walk into any dive shop buy freediving fins, freediving mask, freediving wetsuits, and a big gun, and out the door you go. At a typical dive shop/retail store you will not hear anything about the risk associated with the sport you are about to embark in.
During a freediving course you will learn of course how to better your freediving performance. You will also learn all the risks associated with the sport and then how to handle those risks just like during your scuba course.
If you didn't take a scuba course and just went out scuba diving, lets consider the things you wouldn't be aware of. You wouldn't know you shouldn't hold your breath, you wouldn't know you couldn't come up fast, you wouldn't know to do a safety stop, you wouldn't' know what to do if you mask flooded, you wouldn't know what to do if ran out of air, you wouldn't know you could get bent if you stayed down to long, you wouldn't know what to do if your BC over inflated. When nothing goes wrong scuba diving its really easy! its when things go wrong that you need to rely on training and education. Freediving is no different.
When people are freediving and haven't taken a formal course, often times they are just not aware of the risks, not aware of the how the physics and physiology effect their body. Because of this they don't have appropriate safety procedures in place.
Before I took my first PFI course, I was a scuba instructor. I knew more about diving physics and physiology than the average Joe, but I was still freediving in a very unsafe manner. I once did a 60-7ft freedive came up and felt a little funny and my vision was a little weird for 1-2 seconds, and then I felt fine. I wondered what was that? I remember thinking oh yeah I didn't eat breakfast this morning, because I was in such a hurry to get to work. After I took a course I learned that I had a loss of motor control. I was diving without direct supervision and was grossly over weighted, two common and dangerous situations. Once I took the course and realized how unsafe I was being, I stopped immediately. As a scuba instructor I was completely ignorant of freediving safety. Not only did I learn about safety, I went from having a 2:15 breath hold to a 5 minute breath hold in 4 days!
As a freediving instructor and a scuba instructor I think diving without a buddy freediving is more dangerous than scuba diving without a buddy.
If you want to freedive and enjoy the same safety you do while scuba diving, take a course, Not to mention they are lots of fun.
Dive safe,
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