Hi from the UK

[Cat]

Hi All

I have been 'lurking' on this site for a while now and I thought I should write a quick intro before I start appearing on the rest of the board.

I've been scuba diving for about 18 months now and learnt in beautiful warm waters off Madagascar but have since been converted to the joys of UK diving (albeit with a drysuit!).

However, I guess I'm now also a (very) newbie freediver. I've always been fascinated by the water and love the idea of freediving.

I will now admit that I was one of Sam's 'wannabe-mermaids' (although I think I'm pretty well hidden in the photos!) and I think her cunning plan to get more women interested in freediving has paid off because despite not making the finals she certainly hasn't seen the last of me! So, until the quarry warms up (I'm a wimp) it's lots of time reading these boards, dry statics and the occasional trip to Saltfree - then roll on next Summer!

Looking forward to getting more involved with freediving.

Cat

[Apnea_Addict]

Hi Cat,

how was your experiences at the "mermaid casting" ? Would be great to hear more about it.

best wishes
Holger

[Almostafish]

Come and have a crack at spearo if you want to. Salt water is not that bad for you..

B

[Freediver81]

Hi Cat!

Welcome to the freediving family!

Said

[Cat]

Thanks for the welcome.

I really enjoyed the mermaid casting. It was great to get a chance to see what I could actually do in the pool since I don't have anyone nearer than salt free that I can train with. It was also nice to meet so many other like-minded people after most of my friends had decided I must be nuts for even thinking about freediving!

I have to admit that I'd never even thought of spearfishing until I started looking at this site and now I'm actually getting tempted! I already swim, dive, play waterpolo and have even attempted to surf - yet another excuse to be in the water sounds good to me - especially one that then produces food! But still, I think I need to learn to freedive before I start trying to spearfish (and start buying lots of nice shiny new equipment!) - walk before you can run and all that Although I might just have a look at the board for places you can spearfish in the UK...

[Almostafish]

Where are you mate as the South West coast has loads of people who spearfish and are into freediving..

[SEDATE]

Welcome on board Cat

[naiad]

Hi Cat, welcome from another UK freediving girl!

[Cat]

Thanks guys

I'm in Cardiff so not too far from the Saltfree crowd (just have to get myself organised to get to Bristol or Chepstow). It would be a bit more of a hike to get to the Southwest coast, depending on where I might be able to do it in a day but would probably need a whole weekend.

Main problems are time (isn't it always!) and kit. I don't want to spend lots of money on kit and find I don't enjoy it or can't get to any depth for some reason.

So, the current plan is to do a course with Saltfree when they run the next one so I can borrow kit and see how it feels to be swimming down rather than along then go from there. I've got a wetsuit fins, mask, weightbelt etc but they are designed for SCUBA rather than freediving so I would have rather a lot to get. Then spearfishing is going to involve a gun and all sorts of other stuff - why can't I just enjoy a nice cheap hobby like running

[miles]

Hiya

Welcome to DB!!!!

Spearfishing kit is actually quite a bit cheaper than cheaper than your whole scuba kit. Your current scuba gear, wetsuit, mask and fins will do fine. Once you get into it and find out that you enjoy it, which you WILL, then you can look at long bladed fins and a nice open cell wetsuit.

Other than that, JUST HAVE FUN!!!!

Regards
miles

[samdive]

Hi Cat
if you want to borrow any kit for some spearfishing, just ask. All the SaltFree kit sits around in my flat most of the winter so someone may as well use it!

I even have a suit that might do for a bit of spearing....

see you at SaltFree soon

Sam