hey, i had to write an instructional essay for english. so i wrote one about freediving for begginers. it isn't as thorough as it could be (in terms of dangers and specific techniques) but i think it is pretty good for an easy to read intro to diving.
tell me what you think! critics wanted!
Free diving
Imagine being completely relaxed, gliding head first towards the ocean floor. Every second you are slowly sinking deeper and deeper, watching schools of fish swim past. That is freediving in its purest form, exploring God's creation in an environment that you have no hope of conquering. Even the world class freedivers are still drawn by that sense of discovery, the idea of going where no man has gone before. And the best part about freediving is that anyone can learn how to do it! The only prerequisite is some snorkeling experience, something anyone can learn how to do. In this article I hope to give you a basic understanding of freediving so that you can put down this paper, grab some gear, and go diving!
Speaking of grabbing some gear, your going to need a few things before you hop in the water. Most importantly, you're going to need some water. I don't mean just any water though, you'll want to find somewhere at least thirty feet deep to practice in. That way you have enough room to practice technique and you can start pushing your maximum depth right away.
The next thing you are going to need is a friend to take diving with you! I'm not just suggesting this to improve your social skills though, you really must have a diving buddy whenever you are going to freediveing. Even though it is a very relaxed sport, it can be physically demanding and even dangerous sometimes. Having a friend around ensures that even if something does go wrong there will be someone close by to help you out.
The next most important part of your freediving arsenal is your mask and snorkel, for obvious reasons. Picking a mask and snorkel is very simple, but you should keep a few things in mind. Your mask isn't just your ticket to an underwater safari, it is also an awkward piece of plastic you are going to have strapped to your head for several hours. Do yourself a favor and pick a comfortable one. Also, one of the best things about a mask is that it keeps water away from your eyes. There is nothing more frustrating than spending half of a dive trip draining water out of your mask. So try and pick one that fits. One easy way to tell if a mask is a good fit is to put it on your face without putting the strap over your head. The mask should stick to your face when you suck in a tiny bit of air through your nose. If it stays on, it fits. If air gets back into the mask and it falls off, find another one. If you keep those two things in mind you wont have any problems finding a good mask.
The next most important thing to bring with you is some freediving fins. These are exactly the same as any snorkeling or scuba fins, except they are much longer. Think about it. When you go snorkeling the idea is to lazily push yourself through the water and drift in the current. That is fun to do when you are freediving, but you usually do it deep underwater. A regular snorkeling fin can definitely get you to freediving depths, but by the time your get there you will have next to no oxygen left in your lungs from all that extra kicking you did. So the longer fins help you by letting you work less to get where you want to go.
Now that you have all your freediving essentials stored in your beach bag, its time put down this article and go jump in the water! Well, you could do that, but you would probably get back from the beach sore and exhausted, wondering why you struggled to get more than ten feet underwater. Save yourself that misery! Keep reading!
There are four things you need to remember to dive long and deep: relax, tuck, kick, and glide. I cannot stress the first step enough, you need to relax! Many professional divers say that they have been so relaxed while diving that they have almost fallen asleep on the water. That is the level of calm you are looking for. When you relax like that your body purges carbon dioxide that was trapped in your muscles and replaces it with oxygen. And trust me, you want as much oxygen in your body as possible.
The next step is the tuck, or the actual dive. It is a pretty straightforward maneuver, but I aim to be thorough so here goes. Once you are completely relaxed you must complete the next steps in one fluid motion. First take a deep breath, as deep as you can go. Then tuck your dominant leg up to your chest. This starts a rotation motion that eventually points your head towards the ocean floor. Once you have begun the tuck motion with your dominant leg, you have to raise your other leg out of the water so it is straight above you. That weight sticking out of the water is heavy enough to start sending you to the bottom. Once you get that little push from your airborne leg, you do one breaststroke straight down and begin kicking with your fins. Those four steps are the basic mechanics of the diving motion.
Once you start kicking towards the bottom you will notice something fairly quickly. It is an ever growing pressure in your ears and mask. You can ignore until around ten feet deep, but after that it is not only annoying but also dangerous. That little pressure is caused by air pockets in your inner ear and the one behind your mask. As you go deeper the air in those pockets compresses, pulling whatever is around them closer and closer. That means that the pressure is not only sucking your mask onto your face but also sucking your eyeballs out of your head! Not good! For your ears it means something equally distressing. Those little air pockets are right behind your eardrums; so if you go to deep the pressure will win and your ears will go POP! The only way to fix the problem is to normalize the pressure in those little spaces by making it equal to the water pressure around you. For your mask that is as easy as letting in a little air through your nose. There is slightly more effort involved in clearing your ears, but not much. There are two steps: first pinch your nose shut, then blow. Hear that pop? Your ears are now equalized with the atmosphere around you. The only tricky thing is that when you are diving you have to equalize your ears every three feet. So keep a hand near your face! Otherwise things can get very painful very quickly.
The last thing you have to remember to do a successful dive is to stop kicking. It may seem counter productive, but eventually the air in your lungs will compress enough that you begin to sink. Once you start to sink, stop kicking! In fact, stop moving in general. Why waste oxygen if gravity is doing all the work for you? Glide down and explore until you think you have just enough oxygen to comfortably make it back to the surface. That sort of intuition takes practice, but after a few dives you will know your limits fairly well.
And that's all there is to it! Once you have the right gear, all you need to remember is to relax, tuck, dive, glide, and equalize. Wash, rinse, repeat and you have a great day of freediving ahead of you. And guess what? I'm not holding you back anymore. So get out of here and go diving!
tell me what you think! critics wanted!
Free diving
Imagine being completely relaxed, gliding head first towards the ocean floor. Every second you are slowly sinking deeper and deeper, watching schools of fish swim past. That is freediving in its purest form, exploring God's creation in an environment that you have no hope of conquering. Even the world class freedivers are still drawn by that sense of discovery, the idea of going where no man has gone before. And the best part about freediving is that anyone can learn how to do it! The only prerequisite is some snorkeling experience, something anyone can learn how to do. In this article I hope to give you a basic understanding of freediving so that you can put down this paper, grab some gear, and go diving!
Speaking of grabbing some gear, your going to need a few things before you hop in the water. Most importantly, you're going to need some water. I don't mean just any water though, you'll want to find somewhere at least thirty feet deep to practice in. That way you have enough room to practice technique and you can start pushing your maximum depth right away.
The next thing you are going to need is a friend to take diving with you! I'm not just suggesting this to improve your social skills though, you really must have a diving buddy whenever you are going to freediveing. Even though it is a very relaxed sport, it can be physically demanding and even dangerous sometimes. Having a friend around ensures that even if something does go wrong there will be someone close by to help you out.
The next most important part of your freediving arsenal is your mask and snorkel, for obvious reasons. Picking a mask and snorkel is very simple, but you should keep a few things in mind. Your mask isn't just your ticket to an underwater safari, it is also an awkward piece of plastic you are going to have strapped to your head for several hours. Do yourself a favor and pick a comfortable one. Also, one of the best things about a mask is that it keeps water away from your eyes. There is nothing more frustrating than spending half of a dive trip draining water out of your mask. So try and pick one that fits. One easy way to tell if a mask is a good fit is to put it on your face without putting the strap over your head. The mask should stick to your face when you suck in a tiny bit of air through your nose. If it stays on, it fits. If air gets back into the mask and it falls off, find another one. If you keep those two things in mind you wont have any problems finding a good mask.
The next most important thing to bring with you is some freediving fins. These are exactly the same as any snorkeling or scuba fins, except they are much longer. Think about it. When you go snorkeling the idea is to lazily push yourself through the water and drift in the current. That is fun to do when you are freediving, but you usually do it deep underwater. A regular snorkeling fin can definitely get you to freediving depths, but by the time your get there you will have next to no oxygen left in your lungs from all that extra kicking you did. So the longer fins help you by letting you work less to get where you want to go.
Now that you have all your freediving essentials stored in your beach bag, its time put down this article and go jump in the water! Well, you could do that, but you would probably get back from the beach sore and exhausted, wondering why you struggled to get more than ten feet underwater. Save yourself that misery! Keep reading!
There are four things you need to remember to dive long and deep: relax, tuck, kick, and glide. I cannot stress the first step enough, you need to relax! Many professional divers say that they have been so relaxed while diving that they have almost fallen asleep on the water. That is the level of calm you are looking for. When you relax like that your body purges carbon dioxide that was trapped in your muscles and replaces it with oxygen. And trust me, you want as much oxygen in your body as possible.
The next step is the tuck, or the actual dive. It is a pretty straightforward maneuver, but I aim to be thorough so here goes. Once you are completely relaxed you must complete the next steps in one fluid motion. First take a deep breath, as deep as you can go. Then tuck your dominant leg up to your chest. This starts a rotation motion that eventually points your head towards the ocean floor. Once you have begun the tuck motion with your dominant leg, you have to raise your other leg out of the water so it is straight above you. That weight sticking out of the water is heavy enough to start sending you to the bottom. Once you get that little push from your airborne leg, you do one breaststroke straight down and begin kicking with your fins. Those four steps are the basic mechanics of the diving motion.
Once you start kicking towards the bottom you will notice something fairly quickly. It is an ever growing pressure in your ears and mask. You can ignore until around ten feet deep, but after that it is not only annoying but also dangerous. That little pressure is caused by air pockets in your inner ear and the one behind your mask. As you go deeper the air in those pockets compresses, pulling whatever is around them closer and closer. That means that the pressure is not only sucking your mask onto your face but also sucking your eyeballs out of your head! Not good! For your ears it means something equally distressing. Those little air pockets are right behind your eardrums; so if you go to deep the pressure will win and your ears will go POP! The only way to fix the problem is to normalize the pressure in those little spaces by making it equal to the water pressure around you. For your mask that is as easy as letting in a little air through your nose. There is slightly more effort involved in clearing your ears, but not much. There are two steps: first pinch your nose shut, then blow. Hear that pop? Your ears are now equalized with the atmosphere around you. The only tricky thing is that when you are diving you have to equalize your ears every three feet. So keep a hand near your face! Otherwise things can get very painful very quickly.
The last thing you have to remember to do a successful dive is to stop kicking. It may seem counter productive, but eventually the air in your lungs will compress enough that you begin to sink. Once you start to sink, stop kicking! In fact, stop moving in general. Why waste oxygen if gravity is doing all the work for you? Glide down and explore until you think you have just enough oxygen to comfortably make it back to the surface. That sort of intuition takes practice, but after a few dives you will know your limits fairly well.
And that's all there is to it! Once you have the right gear, all you need to remember is to relax, tuck, dive, glide, and equalize. Wash, rinse, repeat and you have a great day of freediving ahead of you. And guess what? I'm not holding you back anymore. So get out of here and go diving!
