Well OK, maybe not a million... 
Just got a handfull of questions, mainly things I've wondered about before but never really had someone to ask... this forum is pretty good!
Firstly, I've been diving and spearing since I was a wee little todger, and now I've hit the big bad 20, I'm getting more serious as to where/how I dive. One of the problems I have is in equalising - it's not that I can't do it, or that it hurts, it's just that it takes me a little while to do it. I do a bit of scuba as well (OK, read maybe 10 dives in a good year), and then, I have no probs going 30m, it just takes a minute or two longer. You can probably see the problem here - a minute or two longer out of a freedive is something I can't really afford.
Because of this, my deepest dive so far is around the 7m or so mark, and I stayed there trying to equalise for a while, ascending occassionally, but that didn't really seem to help... any ideas?
Secondly, my dynamic training consists of doing laps of a 25m pool - how many laps should I be aiming for on the one breath for say a 15m dive? I haven't been in the water for about 6 months, then the other day I jumped back in and did 2 laps (50m) with board shorts and a set of body boarding fins (about 10 cm long). I'm kinda thinking that with real fins, I should at least be able to reach the 10-12m mark, and thats what's annoying me.
On this, how many 25m laps would the good guys be able to do? Like say Pippin - he dives pretty deep in the ocean, but without a weight, and having to turn every 25m, ho good would he go?
OK, for a more physics type question... 95% of my diving is done in Jervis bay, Australia (3 hours south of Sydney) and up close to the shore. Occassionally I head up to Cairns (Far North Queensland, Australia), and dive off the outer reefs there. In general, I find that if I dive down a little without equalising, it hurts a lot more at Cairns than at JB. What's the reason for this? I came up with a few answers - the further out water may have some effect, the fact that the waters a lot clearer and you dont realise your depth, or maybe a physilogical one, like the air is warmer so your ears are more sensitive - any ideas?
Next on the list... is anyone aware of any freediving courses/schools in or around the Canberra, Australia region? I've searched through the phone books and through shops, but the best I can find is a scuba shop that will teach me how to 'snorkel' - allthough I've been diving a while, I think it's a good idea if I want to be serious about this to take a lesson.
Finally, there seems to be a few books available on freediving (such as the one by Terry Maas) but I can't seem to find anything on training regimes to reach really good apnea times (this is another reason I want to find a diving instructor). Can anyone recommend any available in Australia?
Thanks a lot to everybody for any help they can provide with this, and good luck with your diving!
Loopy
Just got a handfull of questions, mainly things I've wondered about before but never really had someone to ask... this forum is pretty good!
Firstly, I've been diving and spearing since I was a wee little todger, and now I've hit the big bad 20, I'm getting more serious as to where/how I dive. One of the problems I have is in equalising - it's not that I can't do it, or that it hurts, it's just that it takes me a little while to do it. I do a bit of scuba as well (OK, read maybe 10 dives in a good year), and then, I have no probs going 30m, it just takes a minute or two longer. You can probably see the problem here - a minute or two longer out of a freedive is something I can't really afford.
Because of this, my deepest dive so far is around the 7m or so mark, and I stayed there trying to equalise for a while, ascending occassionally, but that didn't really seem to help... any ideas?
Secondly, my dynamic training consists of doing laps of a 25m pool - how many laps should I be aiming for on the one breath for say a 15m dive? I haven't been in the water for about 6 months, then the other day I jumped back in and did 2 laps (50m) with board shorts and a set of body boarding fins (about 10 cm long). I'm kinda thinking that with real fins, I should at least be able to reach the 10-12m mark, and thats what's annoying me.
On this, how many 25m laps would the good guys be able to do? Like say Pippin - he dives pretty deep in the ocean, but without a weight, and having to turn every 25m, ho good would he go?
OK, for a more physics type question... 95% of my diving is done in Jervis bay, Australia (3 hours south of Sydney) and up close to the shore. Occassionally I head up to Cairns (Far North Queensland, Australia), and dive off the outer reefs there. In general, I find that if I dive down a little without equalising, it hurts a lot more at Cairns than at JB. What's the reason for this? I came up with a few answers - the further out water may have some effect, the fact that the waters a lot clearer and you dont realise your depth, or maybe a physilogical one, like the air is warmer so your ears are more sensitive - any ideas?
Next on the list... is anyone aware of any freediving courses/schools in or around the Canberra, Australia region? I've searched through the phone books and through shops, but the best I can find is a scuba shop that will teach me how to 'snorkel' - allthough I've been diving a while, I think it's a good idea if I want to be serious about this to take a lesson.
Finally, there seems to be a few books available on freediving (such as the one by Terry Maas) but I can't seem to find anything on training regimes to reach really good apnea times (this is another reason I want to find a diving instructor). Can anyone recommend any available in Australia?
Thanks a lot to everybody for any help they can provide with this, and good luck with your diving!
Loopy
