The mystery of competitive freediving

  • As someone who just dives to spearfish I never attended a freediving course or spend time among pure freedivers. Competitive freediving and freedive training seem to be getting more and more popular, so finally I got really curious about what actually goes on, I'm sure some of you are curious too. I researched a bit, here are a few vids I found that give us an idea.



  • so people pay to go do that????? for anyone that wants to practice laying face down in a pool for a 6pack ill supervise and drink beer while you hold your breath in my pool. max capacity is 10, peeing not allowed. seriously id want a refund. While I think that may help individuals know there breathold limits, it doesnt make me feel any more comfortable while im swimming around 40+' when pressure and movement are working against you. I think practice makes perfect and in a spearfishing application the best way to improve ones abilities is to go spearfishing. Oh and there at an indoor pool why are they wearing wetsuits???? is there a thermocline somewhere between there shoulder blades and nipples???

  • What I'm starting to see is that pure freedivers are basically nurturing individuals who enjoy the company of other pure freedivers. Who also enjoy dressing up to go in the pool.




    while i do see the silly and mild gayness of this video, i dont think its so absurd.. i mean they are all freedivers and they mangaed to get together which is something we all try to do, and yeah they are wearing wetsuits in an indoor pool but then again the wetsuit helps u float there kind of suspended, and ive been in some pretty cold indoor pools to be honest.


    the first video, though, i have no jusifications for :confused1:

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

  • c'mon Dan , that is an unfair assessment of competitive freediving. you ferreted out the gayest videos with some lame Euro-types doing boring statics. I personally,hate statics and only do them when forced.
    here is a real record video -William Trubridge- no weight, no fins. His current record is 95m over 300ft. You can't imagine how hard this is to do. I do 50m and it is so physically demanding.



    BTW. mrmike; they wear wetsuits because you get really cold when you do statics because you drop your heart rate so slow in order to conserve oxygen. you aren't moving at all and trying to stay warm and relaxed. the record for this is 11:35. and that is a really boring video!!! watching some guy (stephane mifsud) just laying in a pool for over 11 minutes.

  • Competitive freedivers enjoy the camaraderie and excitement of rescuing each other.





    no we don't really "enjoy" rescuing each other but it is better than the alternative :rip:


    I am sure she would prefer to remain anonymous but that is my friend, Klara Hanssen of Sweden. That was a bad blackout and not a single episode for her!


    AIDA, the governing body of freediving, is now keeping count and making policy changes in order to reduce the occurrence of b/o's in training and comp. Although freediving is considered the 2nd most dangerous extreme sport;this is not the image we wish to portray.


    Dan, I do have a sense of humor regarding my sport-- but I am the only here who can defend it! :)

  • You're a good sport Carla.


    The fantastic thing about pure freediving is that it's so much fun without a purpose, you don't even need the ocean to do it. A dummy shark is enough to create the right atmosphere. At the same time allowing competitive freedivers to get used to it, in case they ever do find themselves in the ocean and see a real one, so they can immediately try and ride it.




    Often pure freediving is all about how many arbitrary poses one can come up with underwater.



  • these vids are hilarious, but i do think that there are two camps, at least, of pure freeedivers.


    those who are actually doing something sporting and competeing against each other, and mostly themselves, for greater and greater depths...I dont get it, but I do get competition and the "because it's there" mentality


    and those who think they are too cooll for school and like that freediving is a hugely elitist activity simply by virtue of the fact that it is hard ( i mean all freediving; any activity pure, spear, photo, romantic:) )and those are the dousches who do the poses and jesus moves underwater .....



    if you want to get a cool comparision, look for Blessum's vids of hime w/o fins tricking scuba divers on a wreck at 100'...that is cool freediving for me



    i like to spear fish

  • One can learn much about fish, the sea and self by leaving the camera and gun at home and just going to play
    Grasshopper.:D


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

  • I took a one-night breath hold class a few years ago at Anderson's Dive shop in Pacifica. Most of the people taking the class were surfers including one or more of the Mavericks guys. They were trying to learn how to relax and hold their breath longer while being pummeled by a 50' wave. We did the static breath hold hanging on to the edge of the pool. Anderson's pool is about 90 degrees (for teaching kids to swim), so it is perfect and you don't need a wetsuit. Personally I thought the class was great and I can totally relate to apnea as a "sport" or hobby in itself. The more I dive/the older I get the less fish I take; I love to dive and hunt and I want to be in the water more and more all the time but I think the big attraction for me is the focused-ness and endorphines produced. I'd rather spend more time in the water than in front of the fillet table... Of course my friends can vouch that I'm full of crap and I just suck at spearfishing!
    What I notice is that in any sport there are always a few a-holes overly serious and full of themselves; this goes for apneists and spearos too. Having evolved into freediving from tanking and still a sometimes tank dive hunter, I always strive to be humble about the freedive thing as opposed to tanking; I was preached to plenty by some freedivers before I really caught the bug myself. I think sometimes I may come across as a holier-than-thou freediver, but I like to think that it's just because I'm so into freediving that I try to convince some of my tank diving friends to try it more...
    I look forward to retirement when I can do underwater laps in the pool without my brain dwelling on work scenarios, when I have time for the yoga classes that I know will help me relax more underwater. I just hope I'm still physically up to the task then!

    "It's the Ocean Flowing in our Veins"

  • A curious thing to note about competitive freediving, is that even though diving is part of the word, it's not necessarily part of the sport. I do dig the massage at 4:10, maybe what they mean is it's a prelude for muff diving.




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