Boat Accessed Diving

[Brian Hamilton]

Hi, I currently dive to 20m (limited by the depth of shore based dive sites) and have identified several offshore sites which are much deeper, some as much as 50m.

I have boats available to use but am wondering how freediving from a boat differs from diving from shore.

Have any of you dived from a boat and how does it compare to shore dives?

I always use a rope on shore dives, how is this set up on boat dives?

How does breathing up differ from shore dives?

There appears to be little mention on this topic on this forum so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am keen to use a boat to try and take my freediving to the next level.

Thanks.

 

[cdavis]

Hi Brian,
Diving down a line off a boat works fine if you can stop the drift. I use a 5 ft diameter traditional sea anchor on my 24 ft boat. I works fine up to about 12 knots of wind. A parachute sea anchor and more weight on the line would work better. A better technique is to have a relatively large float, line and 11 kg weight, all not tied to the boat, just drifting. This requires having someone willing to drive the boat, which lays off down wind of the float. Good luck designing a system.