How does free diving work?

Okay, so I spent 2-4 hours last night watching these spear fishing videos on youtube from one particular account. Not a single person spear fishing was using a tank to breath. These guys were diving 40+ Feet and laying on the reef or in weeds just waiting on fish. These guys have to be holding their breath for over 2 minutes or so. It is insane, how does one get that comfortable that they can hold their breath that long and not worry of drowning? I would love to practice that so in case a real emergency comes up, I know what to do under water.

Some of those individual can hold their breath much longer. It is quite amazing. depending where you live, you can take classes on how to hold breath and Freedive/Spearfish. I have a friend taking one soon in So Cal.

Some instructors will add a small portion of freediving to their scuba courses. If you are really interested in the sport, contact FII - Freediving Instructors International - Freediving Training - Freediving Courses - Waterman Survival and see if there is an instructor in your area.

Any of those classes near Beaumont Texas? I don't know what to look for. I would love to look into it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving

Freediving Instructors International, FII - his name is Brandon Gross and he's apparently in Port Aransas part of the time:

http://extranet.freedivinginstructors.com/app/public/courseslist.php?idinstructor=30

Awesome, thanks guys. I thought it was the coolest thing. I feel like it's something everyone should be able to do before diving!

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The body adapts. The muscles relax. Just don't hyperventilate prior to the dive (it would kill you).

With only a small amount of training most people will be able to get a 3 min + static breath hold i.e. lying face down in the water hiding their breath while NOT exerting themselves at all. Find a free dive club and join - you will get a lot out of it.

40' plus dives are not too hard either - again with a bit of training and awareness of what your body is doing etc. I used to SCUBA dive but have now sold my tanks and prefer to free dive. Less gear, quieter, a physical and mental challenge, and I get to spend longer in the water over the course of a day. Here is clip I put together from an hour or two we spent free diving a wreck here in New Zealand. The top of the wreck is at 50', the bridge is 72' and the sand the wreck is sitting on is 112'.
[video=youtube_share;2U9AUxT0hz0]http://youtu.be/2U9AUxT0hz0[/video]
(This clip is several dives edited together - look for the bits where it fades to black briefly ... I cut out the surface stuff as well as the buddy diving we were doing where my buddy came down to meet me as I was swimming up. Google "Shallow Water Blackout" and you will understand why we were diving in pairs).

If your interested in free diving first work out for what purposes - are you looking to set depth records like William Truebridge etc or is Static Apnea what appeals to you? Or just learning to hold your breath longer to spear fish?

From there find a course that interests you - and a GOOD instructor. Shallow water blackout is the biggest danger. You will find some of the worlds best freedivers are the Haenyo women at Jeju average age 67.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgU0QeBYH68

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRtyabtv2E

CMAS do a great freediving course...again......dependent on the instructor.

Check out Performance Freediving International for classes and locations. If you ever make it to Philadelphia, PA or St. Croix, USVI I'd be happy to have you in one of my classes.

Dive safely / Rik