Freediving can be something new and exciting to try on vacation to help you expend your kowledge on your snorkeling skills and learn a new sport.
If you think freediving is just like snorkeling (but going really deep), think again. The underwater world can be explored in a completely new way with freediving. You’ll descend further, stay down longer, and experience a greater sense of the ocean.
Freediving is a unique and challenging sport that forces you to rely solely on your own body and your mental and physical faculties. The idea of diving under water without any special equipment challenges the human nature. Using only your body gives you freedom of movement under water. You get to be a part of the underwater world in a way that is not familiar to most people.
Diving has its roots in yoga, meditation and breathing skills. Freediving goes way beyond regular diving and snorkeling. People that are interested in freediving know that this activity requires a big amount of concentration and focus on your body. This is not only physically but even more important mentally. You will have to push yourself beyond the limits of the possible. While practicing freediving you will get to learn a lot about yourself.
“The scuba divers dive to look around. The freediver dives to look inside.”
Umberto Pelizzari
Freediving has many benefits both physically and mentally. You strengthen your body and help develop your muscles. It also benefits your joints because they experience less pressure while you are under water. Freediving will also strengthen the lungs through the breathing exercises that are needed to be done to increase your oxygen capacity.
Freediving helps to master a variety of relaxation, concentration techniques and calms the nervous system. This will help you to become more calm and more conscious during your daily activities.
The sport of freediving is fairly simple to learn. Many freedivers and spearfishers learn the sport through friends and family, but if they are not receiving instruction from a certified instructor, this can come with risks. Freediving seems to be quite straightforward, but there is a lot of safety, physiological, and theory to understand. We advise anyone interested in freediving to take a recognized course with a certified teacher from a licensed organization. There is much to learn about freediving, especially in terms of safety, tactics, and being aware of the risks.
To enroll in a PADI Freediver course you must be at least 15 years old. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health. No prior experience with snorkeling, skin diving or freediving is required.
The PADI Freediver course consists of three main phases:
Knowledge development about freediving principles through independent study with PADI Freediver eLearning (or your instructor may conduct class sessions if not available in a language you understand).
Confined water session to learn breathhold techniques as well as static and dynamic apnea. Goal – static apnea of 90 seconds and dynamic apnea of 25 metres/80 feet.
Open water sessions to practice free immersion and constant weight freedives, plus proper buddy procedures. Goal – constant weight freedive of 10 metres/30 feet.
Look at our discover freediving and freediving course to experience the amazing benefits yourself!
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