Basics of Free diving?

[natew]

Can anyone give me some basics of what I might need to know about free diving as a scuba diver?

I am going to be camping out on an island for several days here pretty soon, I plan on brining two scuba tanks with me and doing two dives on one of the days but after that I have no way to refill them and the boat dropping us off only allows two tanks per person. Not to mention my buddy will probably only be there for the first day.

SOOO.. I got to thinking I could grab my mask, snorkel, wetsuit, weights?, and fins and explore free diving on the other days out there. But I've realized that I really don't know jack about free diving. Any good resources to get me started? Any benefit to bringing my computer (Aeris T3 Elite) and putting it in free dive mode? And um, I'm sure I'll have more questions.

 

[TB2Scuba]

Just don't mix freediving and scuba in the same day they say you can freedive first then scuba but I wouldn't. If you are looking for more info on freediving go to Spearboard Spearfishing Community - Powered by vBulletin there are a ton of freedivers on that site with loads of info. Just do some general searches. Read up on SAMBA or shallow water black out know how it affects you and how to prevent it. Also look up O2 tables or breath hold tables to increase your breath hold time. Its an exercise you can do on your couch. I would bring your computer with you. If it does have a freedive mode why not use it? Freediving can be very rewarding and somewhat simple. But just as with SCUBA make sure you educate yourself especially on shallow water blackout. And as always dive with a buddy.

 

[cmburch]

Check out the link "How to start Freediving"
Beginner Freediving

In general for California such as Channel Islands, much is the same as for SCUBA minus the Rig, tank, Reg, and a few pounds of lead. You may drop about 4lbs off your SCUBA belt for freediving. Always dive with a buddy. One up when one down! Your buddy is at the surface while you are diving. Relaxation is key. No hyperventilating. Take a look at above link about normal(slow) deep diaphragm breathing. The depths for us Northern California freedivers is normally shallower than Southern California due to water visibility. I expect you will mainly be snorkeling and not going deeper than 40-50'. Perhaps 20-30' starting out.

I work 30-40". I am weighted to be neutrally buoyant at about 30'. This means that at 25' I will float up. At 30' I can remain motionless without kicking. Below 30' I will begin to sink.

Do not overweight! To be neutral at shallow depths such as 15'. Since Northern California abalone divers may only go 20-25', they may weight themselves for this depth.

Have a great time!

Remember calm/relaxed.

 

[Hank49]

I started free diving back in 1963, when we would dive down to the 12 foot part of the local swimming pool to get the coins that fell out of people's pockets off the diving board.
I had never taken scuba and didn't know why my ears hurt down that deep.
Just swim out, take a breath and dive down. Start at 10 feet or so. Get a feel for it.
Don't over hyperventilate. Do only about 3-4 quick breaths before going down.

 

[diver_doug]

Step 1: Float on the surface with your mask/snorkel/wetsuit/weights on.
Step 2: Submerge.
Step 3: Repeat step 1.

 

[madprops]

please only freedive if you have a buddy there with you.

DO NOT hyperventilat at all! not even 3-4 quick breaths before going down. if you don't know anything about free diving then play it really safe.
go on deeperblue.com and read up. some of the worlds top freedivers use this site.

if you want an answer to anything else msg me and i would be happy to help

 

[natew]

Thanks for the info. I tried it out but didn't have much success on my first time. In my full 7mm suit I started off around 14lbs of lead and worked my way up to I think 18 or 20lbs but never manged more than about 5-8 feet underwater. It seemed to be that I was too positively bouyant as I was kicking pretty hard to get even that far and ended up mostly feeling out of breath and immediately headed back to the surface. I gave up and spent the rest of the time snorkeling at the surface as I just didn't feel like going back to the beach for more weight and didn't really feel comfortable adding any more weight anyway. Oh well, maybe i'll have a chance to try it out again sometime soon or maybe I can pick up a class!

Thanks for the info everyone, there's some good reading there.

ps. .I've always had a long breath hold, on the couch stationary I can do about 3-4 minutes.

 

[madprops]

you need to take a class asap!!!
how tall are you ?
i am 6 foot 2 and have a 7mm free dive suit and the most ill put on is 14 lbs. with 20 lbs and scuba fins you could kill yourself fast!

please make sure you have a buddy with you!

if you can't get down you need to work on your duck dive and be good enough at it so your fins get under the water. then big strong kicks! not fast little kicks. BIG BIG kicks!
maybe try it with no lead on and get really good at your duck dive. then when you put 14 lbs on it will be easy
post back up and tell me how it went

 

[cmburch]

When I invert just like on SCUBA, I am already down 10'. It is hard for me to go 5-8' also. I will just pop to the surface because of the bouyancy of my wetsuit at less than 12'. I just invert and use a slow easy kick past 20'.