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Cover picture of Manual of Freediving

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N

neonh

Active Member
Aug 22, 2013
19
2
38
Just started to read Umberto Pelizzari's Manual of Freediving. I couldn't help noticing that on the cover picture, the freediver is hyper extending his head, which really creates lots of resistance. The book specifically stated in multiple places that the head should be aligned with the body, not to look upward or forward, yet the illustration on the cover really gives people the impression that hyper extending of the head is the right way. This seems funny to me.
 
In most of his "artistic" videos, Guillaume does this too.

Something about seeing where you're going I assume.
 
Yes, I have always wondered about that photo too. I belive its been specifically chosen from a marketing perspective. It just looks cooler for an untrained eye.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Reactions: NZFreediver
So, which freediving is it that is potentially more interesting/cooler, more aestetic and thus indicated on this photo?

maybe this freediving is real enough, rather than a "photo trick"

What really baffles me is, that even Umberto, who knows well enough about these things to make this one the coverphoto, does not explain that putting "headpositioning" into the right/wrong logic makes only sense, if the functional tasks are clearly defined.

Does freediving really consist of clearly defined functional tasks?



Why do we so easily accept the restricted idea of freediving that gives sense to "waterresistence" to be an argument for general rules?


One possible answer to this question is the story of this book and it´s coverphoto:
Umberto not commenting on his cover picture, makes it easier to neglect the obvious - like this, it was done before (by umberto himself!)

Imagine, Umberto, as the competitive champion he was would have made a clear statement in this very book!
(A statement, explaining that the kind of underwaterswimming that gives sense to look in front of you is just as valuable freediving too. This statement would have been a comment on the cover pic. And the cover pic would have been the strongest possible emphasis of the statement)
 
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Here I go again- a spear fisherman butting into a free diving forum. But for what its worth, I, along with all my free dive spear buddies, hold my head back so I can see where I'm going when diving in a kelp bed. Also, I seldom dive perfectly vertically, but angle forward a bit. I encounter a lot of white sea bass on the way down, and I'd prefer to see them and shoot them rather than head butt them.

I mention this just to remind everyone that some freedivers have goals other than attaining maximum depth.
 
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Reactions: NZFreediver
You're right there, but obviously at depth it's probably not a good idea because it would probably cause injury.
But for spearfishing you don't really want to do a "perfect" dive and end up on the floor with no idea if anything big is around.
I think the cover photo would be for artistic purposes but with analysis it seems to give the wrong idea. but newbies probably won't study and copy it and more experienced guys wouldn't do it
Just my opinion
 
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