I finally got a chance to see what this "freediving" fad is all about. :thumbsup2:
There were three of us on Chad's boat. Blue water was in close, so we left from Venice, LA, and spent last Saturday and most of Sunday hopping from rig to rig looking for tuna and wahoo, and slept on the boat at night. No success with the pelagics, but I can say without hesitation that it was the most amazing dive experience of my life. I had two great divers to learn from, and quickly felt very confident at 40' around the rigs where I had plenty of visual references to monitor my progress. I could feel myself getting a little more nervous diving in open blue water, with no bottom in sight, where I was not as certain of my depth. I was also on the front end of a little head cold, and had a bit of trouble clearing at times. So I just kept diving around the 40' mark, trying to get more comfortable with that instead of edging deeper.
I really just couldn't believe it. Floating on the surface in sees less than 1', you could see 80' down the rig, and it just keeps going for several hundred feet from there. Some of the floating rigs were in over 1000' of water. There were schools of barracuda too numerous to count, approaching to within a few feet. Rainbow runners were thick everywhere. Amorous little sharks, and tropicals all over the barnacle encrusted steel, all just an arm's length away.
Bill and Chad shot some almaco jacks and mangrove snapper, but a little deeper than I could go. We also managed a mahi and half a dozen small tripletails on some loose weedlines. I really wish I had a camera for the weedlines. They were absolutely covered with juvenile fish, and it was amazing to me that you could recognize triggers, jacks, mahi and others as miniature adults just a few inches long.
I can't stop thinking about it . . .