What kinda water are you freediving into?

[holdingmybreath]

clear as a bell... I can see over 100'.

YEah, I wish... I shoulda continued the list... down to what I dive in.. blackness...

 

[freediver]

Freshwater quarry mostly. It's a treat when I get to do some blue water diving. Did some deep stuff (100+) in Lake Travis/Austin and let me tell you it gets dark, fast!

 

[scubafool]

Freshwater so far, viz is generally great, depths are shallow (mostly). I would love to do some saltwater dives if conditions were good.

 

[FreeFloat]

Freshwater, everything from 3' viz to 100'+. Quarries, St Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Georgian Bay (brrrrr). Some current (drift freediving is a BLAST!) some still. Some warm(ish), some water right down to 32°F and drifting through ice chunks on the surface.

 

[holdingmybreath]

I didn't mean to start this thread... I was thinkin' about it but didn't mean too. I musta hit the post button while I was half asleep last night... a well.. That "clear as a bell - I can see over 100' " was supposed to be the first of a long list of choices of what conditions you might dive in. I know here it gets dark REAL early! but that's what lights are for eh?

 

[Frank O]

Mostly Southern California ocean diving, which can range from <5 ft off beaches to 60 ft+ around the Channel Islands. Night freediving is a lot of fun, too.

 

[FreeFloat]

Mostly Southern California ocean diving, which can range from <5 ft off beaches to 60 ft+ around the Channel Islands. Night freediving is a lot of fun, too.

Yeah, especially if you take your HID. Just don't do what I did, remember to remove a block or two of wait off your weight belt as the things are more nagatively buoyant than they seem while on scuba..................

 

[Frank O]

Yeah, especially if you take your HID. Just don't do what I did, remember to remove a block or two of wait off your weight belt as the things are more nagatively buoyant than they seem while on scuba..................

I borrowed a friend's handheld Light Cannon for a night freedive once, but I haven't used my canister HID light while freediving yet. I'd probably have to rig an additional belt to mount the canister on, as I don't think it'd fit on the weight harness I usually use when freediving.

The time I used the Light Cannon was a couple of years ago when a bunch of my scuba buddies were going on an all-night boat trip to Catalina to hunt lobsters when the season opened. I decided to go and freedive. Hauling around a bright light near the surface, I got pelted by tons of small baitfish apparently attracted by the light. It got quite bad for a while. Also was shadowed for a while by a juvenile electric ray that liked to hang about 15 feet behind me. Every time I stopped it stopped, and then when I'd move it'd move.

 

[freediver]

I have a light cannon as well, love it, but oddly enough I have never been freediving with it. I generally mount a light to my mask and keep the hands free.

 

[FreeFloat]

I wear a typical rubber weight belt while freediving so in my case my Helios canister (the smaller one) just slid right on. Whenever I wasn't actively using the light I tucked a loop of the light cord down through my belt, just like I stow it while on scuba, except that I pulled the loop all the way down so that the Goodman handle was right near the belt. That way, it was out of my way but not dangling.

It was a great dive. Although I'm perfectly fine on scuba in no-viz, for some reason I get qualms about freediving into places I can't see..... it's what's kept my PB depth at 70' though I'm perfectly capable of deeper - once it gets too murky/dark I tend to turn the dive.