Pros of SCUBA:
1. Allows concentrated attention on marine life, while freediving concentration can be broken due to the need to surface. Often the subject takes advantage of this break to disappear, or this occurs plainly due to visibility or recognition issues, that the freediver is subjected to on the return to surface and attempt to relocate the subject. SCUBA gives you the best chance to witness marine life that has the potential of being lost, for the lengthiest amount of time and varied acts it might go through.
2. Underwater photography/video can be prepared at depth giving more options of the type of photography/video you may employ.
3. Various underwater tasks can only be performed, or would not be efficiently viable, without SCUBA.
4. Under circumstances of danger, should one succumb to it (ie. tanglings/trappings, wounds, being predated upon, etc...), SCUBA allows for various strategies that involve time, towards dealing with the circumstances.
5. Ability to scan an underwater environment for macro life and small details with a simple inquisitiveness, whereas in freediving it takes much more mental control to allow yourself to do this. It is in our nature when holding our breath, to feel a sense of urgency and expectation to locate something. It is essential in freediving to train yourself to be satisfied with having a dive where you do not locate anything new and fascinating, otherwise you succumb to a sense of panic, which actually hinders/stops you from detecting details.
6. The less physically inclined/active can enjoy the SCUBA experience.
Pros of Freediving:
1. Almost no equipment required, means confidence in being only dependant upon your body. Equipment failures in SCUBA are more fatal and impacting than the minimal equipment employed in freediving.
2. Ability to travel light and explore locations without the need of a boat. One can fit all their equipment in a backpack and hike to desirable locations. Also implies the ability to camp and dive.
3. Ability to dive all day long without a dependancy on pre-planning oxygen requirements.
4. More inclined to dive regularly and at a moments notice. No monetary cost for diving, tends to mean a freediver is more likely to dive when they feel like doing so. A SCUBA diver will consider costs and thereby not be as free to dive. Also preparations for SCUBA are lengthy and cumbersome, which also may lead to a more specific requirement of being in the right mood.
5. The sense of belonging in the water. There is nothing comparable to free swimming and going where you wish just because you can and nobody can take that away from you, except through changes to your body. SCUBA is dependant upon equipment functioning and being available. Equipment to freedive is merely complimentary as opposed to necessary (I regularly recreationally dive no-fins, although I much prefer having a mask than without
).
6. Is a physical activity that is likely to train your body and maintain a good level of fitness, if performed regularly. This is only minimally applicable to SCUBA under very specific circumstance.
7. Bubbles are not a distraction to marine life.
8. Salvage dives can be immediate and costless. The ability to immediately salvage those glasses that fall overboard.
9. No certification required. One can freedive any time, any where. SCUBA is dependant upon certification to acquire air. To be certified requires money and acceptance of your certification. What if you forget your certification identification?
10. Unlikely for a freediver to be exposed to decompression issues (although I have just returned from 3 sessions of 2 hours in a hyperbaric chamber), which also implicitly limits a SCUBA diver to a certain amount of dives and conditions in a day.
Well that is all that I can quickly roll out of my mind for now. I always say they are different activities for different interests. I only freedive because of the general interest and benefits I experience, but some pros of freediving will not be another's interests and therefore the pros experienced in SCUBA will be of more interest.
