Are there any practical advantages for a scuba diver to learn free diving?

[tstormdiver]

I'm just curious. What, if any are the advantages for a scuba diver to learn free diving? I've had this curiosity for quite a while. I have just never pursued it because there really is not anywhere to really practice it. I am not asking if free diving is better than scuba, but rather asking how it can compliment scuba.

 

[DaleC]

I would suspect that at this point, from your profile, that you are a very gear intensive diver, so the lessons of free diving or skin diving may not be as relevant to you.

To the average or beginning diver skin/free diving holds many benefits.

Familiarization with basic gear like mask and fins before adding scuba to it (ever see people timidly put their face below water in a scuba class).
Learning to equalize
learning to fin efficiently
learning to clear a mask
learning to breath from a mouthpiece and become comfortable with a little water in the mouth.
learning to descend
learning to become comfortable floating on the surface and underwater
learning about neutral bouyancy
learning how long they can hold their breath so they don't freak out during an LOA/OOA
learning about general water conditions and hazards before adding scuba...

the list can go on and on.

For many, scuba instruction crams way too much introductory experiences in too short a time and many come out overloaded and stressed on their initial open water dives. Free/skin diving covers almost all those experiences and lets the diver focus on learning how to use the actual scuba equipment.

 

[g1138]

You ever see a diver descend down, stop in front of a rock face, turn-pivot, then swim around it?
You ever see a diver descend down and use his momentum to glide around the rock face without kicking?

The latter most often depicts a diver with some freediving skill set. You can find yourself doing less finning, more gliding, and more sea lion-esk swimming. Less helicopter form and more jet fighter-like turning when maneuvering.

It can compliment and make diving more enjoyable. Your pike dives under surf-break will definitely improve if you ever do west coast shore diving.
I don't see it as a definitive step in the progression ladder, but just a different style of diving that you can mix into your tool kit.

I don't think it has any compliment to tech diving. All the complimenting gear doesn't allow for long glides and momentum, I think.

I do think good experience in freediving helps you with disoriented trim. Example with integrated weight pockets, most students I see try to replace them UW either knees down or in 0-horizontal trim face down. I put them in 0-trim but facing the surface. I credit freedive/skin-dive training with making me comfortable in prolonged off-trim positions and axis rotations.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Comfort, buoyancy control using the lungs only. Proper weighting. This is why with my OW classes the first pool session is spent entirely on skills that do not involve scuba. Students to a small degree learn how to control their breathing and buoyancy using only their lungs. I desperately want to take a free diving class to add to this.

Right now before they go on to use scuba they have to retrieve their mask and snorkel from the deep end after a 40 ft or so underwater swim. Don the mask and snorkel, clear the mask, and have the snorkel breathable when the top of their head clears the surface. Then I can put them on a scuba.

Building up to that is all free diving or breath hold skills practice. We do things like dive to the deep end, exhale a little to dump some excess CO2, adjust buoyancy, and do a simple task like write a note, take a photo, or pick up several objects. Then surface safely and slowly with complete control. It demonstrates that you can relax underwater and do things.

Free dive training would also allow me to extend that 50 ft breath hold dive I can do now. One school advertises that in a weekend you can learn to do two minute dives. I don't know about that but just some practice using their techniques took me from 30 seconds to just over a minute. Nice for those times when you want to accomplish a task with minimal gear.

 

[Akimbo]

I believe that freediving at the intermediate level significantly increases panic resistance for most Scuba divers. You will learn a lot about the physiology of hypoxia and learn to manage hypercarbia. You will also learn that you have a great deal more time before passing out on one breath than you ever imagined. As others have mentioned, freediving at the basic level also has significant benefits.

 

[tbone1004]

like said above, the biggest thing is comfort in the water. We run all of our students through a full month of skin diving training and they have to pass a ditch and don of their skin diving gear in order to get their basic OW cert *no hand motion on the skin dive with fins, allowed one arm pull no legs without fins*. This is likely overkill, but it ensures that they are comfortable under water if they have to hold their breath and learn to move efficiently. It helps tremendously in the panic type situations if they lose function of their regulator or it gets kicked out of their mouth, same if they lose their mask, etc. Promotes a huge amount of in water comfort that you can't get with the safety net of being able to breathe...

Now, that is all just basic skin diving, not true free diving, but those are similar skills as learned in a freediving type course.

 

[Mustard Dave]

There are a lot of freedivers at my club. One of the instructors really got into it, to the point where he did very little scuba other than teaching. The majority of freedivers at the club are also qualified on scuba, many of them getting into freediving afterwards, but one or two who did it the other way round.

Many of the freedivers say the breath control and relaxation techniques have helped reduce their air consumption when using scuba.

With regards to practising, you can do some in the pool. There are several pool disciplines, and competitive freediving events are held in pools. These include static apnea (floating face down in the water for as long as possible), and dynamic apnea. Dynamic apnea is measured in distance, and separated into finned and no fins categories.

Obviously depth records cannot be attempted in pools, but freedivers will use the same quarries that scuba divers use for practice.

 

[Akimbo]

I can honestly say that the Intermediate class from Performance Freediving was the only diving course I have taken since leaving the Navy that was useful. Highly recommended. I wish it was around when I started diving.

 

[Nemrod]

The simple answer is yes. On so many levels that any diver should have at least basic free diving skills.

I would not recommend people do extended breath holds and deeper dives without instruction or mentoring and of course we all know that hyperventilation is a no, no!

N

 

[tstormdiver]

Thanks guys! Without really having any formal training, I am capable as is to free dive for about 30- 45 seconds... While not a show stopper by any means, I am entirely comfortable with it. Typically down to the bottom of the pool,... mess around for a while (especially if there are any divers down there), then slowly make my way to the surface, clear the snorkel & breathe with face still in the water.