Freediving Without Training?

I've heard differing opinions on whether freediving could potentially be more dangerous than scuba diving.

Do many people freedive without training? Is it safe if you're careful or if you do your research?

I don't have any formal freediving training, so you'll have to take this strictly as my own opinion. People originally learned to freedive without training, just as people originally learned to scuba dive without training.
If you're smart, do your research, and don't push your limits you should be fine.
There are plenty of resources out there to get you started.

Formal Training and Instruction will allow you to go deeper quicker. And it will give you the appropriate knowledge to be a safe freediver. Without taking a formal class you're at your own risk and that level of risk depends on how much information you've managed to exposed yourself to.

Key things to make a freedive safer:
- Know your limits
- Have safety swimmers (at least one) who know a rescue procedure
- weight yourself properly
- equalize properly
- get the right equipment

Knowing your limits is important to prevent shallow water blackouts. I won't go into that explanation unless you want me to.
Safety swimmers are important in the case that you do have a shallow water blackout. Ideally you should have one swimmer on the surface and another meeting you on ascent.

Weighting yourself to be neutral at 15ft or below makes sure that you're buoyant on the surface, yet still able to sink to depth after passing your neutral depth. This requires a near textbook dive if you wear exposure protection. The deeper you go, the less weight you'll need, but the more effort you'll need to dive down in the beginning. If you weight yourself heavy you'll get down easier but getting up will be harder. It is better to expend your energy on the descent, reach your neutral depth with a textbook dive and long kicks, then glide down to your max depth while conserving your energy.

Equalizing properly is self explanatory.

Getting the right equipment. A large volume mask takes a lot of air to equalize and robs your lungs of air. Your ears already take up a portion, and pressure with depth "takes up" even more. So get a low volume mask.
Weight belts can also be a problem. A standard nylon weight belt needs to be tightened as you descent. Not the most ideal thing to have to fumble with when you're trying to remain calm and keep your heart rate low. For this reason Rubber Weight belts are ideal.
Weights themselves should conform to your body to reduce drag. In this case standard uncoated lead bricks seem to work best for me.

There's a lot more info on freediving off of Scubaboard. Generally Scubaboard isn't the best place to be looking for info on freediving.
Spearboard.com and various other freediving blogs and FAQ websites will have a much wider archive of information.

Hope this helps

I'd guess that most people free dive without formal training. The saving grace is that to get into serious trouble you need to be unusually good from the get go or read a lot, experiment, gain experience and train with someone who knows more than you do; except for ears noobies rarely get hurt right out of the gate.

Check out DeeperBlue Beginning Freediving. If freediving was offered at a local college, I think many would take it. The cost seems much more than a SCUBA course, so it may be prohibitive for many. Many freedivers may already be comfortable with the ocean, pool, lake, river. They may be prior snorkelers, swimmers, surf boarders, SCUBA divers, etc. I have training from my father. It is not a good idea to be neutral at shallow depths less than 20 ft if there is say a 40 ft drop-off. I am neutral at 30 ft for working 25-40 ft. I carry more weight on my board or kayak if I see something at less than 15 ft. We Northern California SCUBA divers are abalone freedivers part of the year. Instead of SCUBA diving every weekend, as I get older I almost exclusively freedive. Mainly due to being able to stay in the water for longer periods of time. Also there is less to clean up at the end of the day.

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I think to answer this question properly you have to know yourself. For example, I am an ex professional athlete with many years of self-managed training regimen behind me. I know my body, my limits, and have a good understanding of my physiology.
I have not taken professional freediving instruction, but will be taking a class with several world champions next summer, that are known for their research contribution to freediving. I want professional training in several specific areas that I want to improve. If they want me to take a basic class so that I speak their language and understand their training procedures, I will!
Because I respect a professional's time and dont expect to get "two for the price of one".
So to answer this question you have to have a good understanding of yourself. If you feel like you are not in a position to make good judgement on your skills, seek out good professional training.
And yes, surface support, proper planning and goal setting are a must, instruction or no instruction.

There's one big difference between scuba and freediving: scuba emergencies are usually a slow-motion affair. Freediving emergencies happen in the blink of an eye.

For example, deep water blackout presents as a perfectly normal ascent, with the freediver becoming unconscious at roughly 3 meters (15 fsw). There is no warning, either from the diver's experience - they usually feel perfectly fine right up to the point they black out. From the outside, they look like normal, and the blackout happens as if a light switch was pulled.

This is why a reputable class will teach you to escort your buddy to the surface from a depth of ~10 meters. Freediving, when done safely, is far more buddy-centric than scuba diving.


A student rescues a "blacked out freediver" correctly during class. Note the nose and mouth are held closed - the opposite of a scuba rescue.

In addition, a class teaches you the things to look for in yourself, that tell you you've pushed it too far, as well as the things you can see in your buddy that tell you they are on the verge of blackout.

The good thing is that the normal, untrained recreational freediver hasn't learned the extra techniques that allow them to extend their bottom times. Hence they are not usually at risk. But eventually, if they continue, they will pick up experience and tips, and get extra bottom time, and run the risk of becoming a statistic.

So, as far as the OP's question, do you need to take a class? The answer is no, especially at the beginning. However, if you routinely start producing bottom times of more than 30 seconds, or push deeper than 10 meters (33 feet), do your loved ones a favor and take a quality class.


All the best, James

Taking a reputable freediving course will definitely help you dive deeper, stay longer, and most important be safer. Most people that freedive do so with out formal training, without a trained buddy, and with-out a full understanding of the safety procedures that should be employed.

Hardly anyone that scuba dives, does so with out training, and without a buddy, and without understanding the safety procedures and dangers associated with the sport.

If you are interested in freediving taking a course will be an invaluable tool as well as teach you to enjoy the sport safely.



Dive safe,

There are hundreds of island locals who have been in the sea most of their lives freediving to spearfish.
They dive alone without formal training but they are not interested in pushing time or depth limits, just
in feeding their families. They know the sea, they know their limits and they return safe day after day.
They do not need formal training, if you don't live in the sea, want to push personal time and depth limits
then you definitely need formal training. Fist thing is to love and respect the water.

ImmersionFreediving:

Taking a reputable freediving course will definitely help you dive deeper, stay longer, and most important be safer. Most people that freedive do so with out formal training, without a trained buddy, and with-out a full understanding of the safety procedures that should be employed.

Hardly anyone that scuba dives, does so with out training, and without a buddy, and without understanding the safety procedures and dangers associated with the sport.

If you are interested in freediving taking a course will be an invaluable tool as well as teach you to enjoy the sport safely.



Dive safe,

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While I agree with all the points, you're making in re to freediving, IMO, the comparison to doing Scuba without training is a bit of a stretch.

I freedive quite a bit up here in Norcal for abalone. Most of us got started by aquiring some gear (new or used) and then going out with someone who'd been at it a while to get shown the ropes (and the spots). When I started nobody I knew had any "formal" training. All we were doing was just diving down in the 10 to 30 foot range and popping big snails off rocks.
I'd say to this day you'd be hard pressed to find 1 person out of 50 who freedives on the North Coast that has any formal training.
A lot of the guys up here who are good don't necessarily dive deep but they are tenatious. They will work a crack or an underhang for hours if needed to get a big ab, sometimes close in where the water breaks and they will get rag dolled doing it. It's all about comfort and self control, knowing the hazards (in my area it's the feather boa kelp that can lasso you and hold you down), and knowing your capabilities and not pushing the envelope to try and impress your friends or yourself.
I was told that if I ever got good enough to fight off the urge to breath well enough that it was only a minor annoyance then that's when you have to watch it. Shallow water blackout is very real.
I limit my dives to no more than one minute and usually way less than that. I can pull a limit of abs in 15 seconds on one breath if I want to and that's good enough for me.

I recommend Terry Maas's books on freediving.