how long is the journey?

[dhu]

i've been shallow freedive spearing for many years but haven't really gone beyond about 7m til recent times. this has been more due to environment and opportunity than anything else. i'm asking here and now for testimony from anyone and everyone as to how long it took them to get to the level of competence they are at today. how long and specifics as to how deep they regularly go and for how long and also their pbs for depth and time.
thanks everyone in advance
i'm trying to suss out if feats such as 1 1/2 min plus at 15 m or more is within my reach. i'm a good swimmer and fairly competent at the shallow spearing i do and i really want to go deeper and longer and feel what its like to be done there so deep and free and all.
cheers again,
dhu.

 

[Alison]

Hi dhu
I'm sure many will disagree with me but the key is to keep practicing, not just once a week but every day. Even if you cant get in the water do some dry land statics, other better qualified people will give you better advice than I on breath holding but keep practicing
The most important thing is "Dont push yourself in the water alone"

 

[dhu]

thanks alison!
i know i'll b struggling to get in the water more than once a week, but i'm sure gonna try and do dry statics and dynamics daily. all the best,
dhu

 

[DeepThought]

Originally posted by dhu
i'm trying to suss out if feats such as 1 1/2 min plus at 15 m or more is within my reach.

I think this is at almost everyone's reach. The matter of how long it takes to get there is a riddle, for some it might take only a day, and for others it might take a few years (or eternity).

The best advices I can think of at the moment to achieve those goals are to:

1) Participate in a reputable freediving clinque. Advancing without the proper safety measures and life-saving knowledge is a gamble. Plus it gives you "labratory" conditions to asses your current limits, or even if you don't reach your limits you still know much better what you are capable of and know what level you should continue working at (and get the tools for it). Those cliniques give you knowledge and expirience that otherwise it would've taken years to achieve by yourself.

2) Dive as often as possible. 2 weeks of everyday diving will have a significant improvement on my skills (vecations).

3) Do it for the fun of it. If I don't feel good and happy with my dives, they just become worse. I try to make sure that every dive will be as anjoyable as possible. It might be slow, but I think it pays off in the long run. My longest dives usually apear on the diving days where I have the most fun, not on training days.

4) If you decide to train, it is much better to "under-train" than overtrain.

Good luck.

 

[Kars]

I went in two years from the 7m to over 50m, and in statics from 3:42 to 6:19.

The number of deep diving days are still very much counteble, and in this years vancation in Spain I went from 42m to over 50 in a week.

I like to add some ideas to those nice ones Alison and Deepthought already posted.

You can practice your concentrationskills almost everywhere,
while walking,while eating, while breathing, while relaxing, while typing, etc. etc. Being able to focus mind and body is very importand.

Allong with a good swimming technique, Stanima is also very important. Cycle, swim, run.

Flexibility is often a underestimated thing, in my view it's very important. The more flexible you are, the better you can relax, the more air can inhale, the easyer you can equilise, the better position you can have in the water, the better the swimmingmovement etc. Practice often but with low intensity. Every day a 10min is much better than an hour on one day in a week.

Choose your master(s) careful,
Your pleasure, succes and health depent on it.

Be patient, all good things come when you're ready. Learn to appreciate every thing you learn. I've come to love every training because I learn in most something new.

Find a buddy to share your journey with, it's much fun to share knowledge, help eachother with keen observations, being eachothers safety etc.


Have a nice journey,

Kars

 

[cdavis]

Hi dhu,

DeepThought and Kars are right, its available, no telling how long it takes, and practice makes perfect. I'd been diving 5-15 meters for 30 years plus before discovering DB. Lots of pool practice plus two more seasons with not very much real diving and and I'm well past 30 meters. Today, 1.5 minutes in 20 meters is no problem and I expect to get a lot better. Much of the necessary knowledge was gained from these forums, but a Performance Freediving clinic was critical. The clinic had the nice side benefit of saving my buddies life. If you want to dive deeper, I strongly reccommend a good clinic.

Connor

 

[dhu]

thanks michael, kars and connor!
very encouraging. even in the last few days i've been doing expired, inspired and dynamic statics and already seem to be improving. really quite exciting. i'll keep ya posted.
cheers again,
dhu.

 

[JasonWelbourne]

I went from not freediving at all, and not knowing how to equalize to 30m free immersion 20m constant w/o fins 4:00 static in a few months of diving once a week.

 

[dhu]

impressive! i'm thinking that what is more than likely holding me back is a mental barrier. my fitness probably isn't that great either as i can only hold my breath for a 2:45, and thats going fairly blue in the face. even with that kind of breath hold though i should be able to go15,20,25m? the next few months will decide.

 

[samdive]

Originally posted by dhu
i'm trying to suss out if feats such as 1 1/2 min plus at 15 m or more is within my reach.

I'd say to get some proper training - do an AIDA course if you can

I have been teaching total beginners all summer. Every single student has achieved 1 1/2 mins or more on their first static session.

All but one with dodgy ears have dived 15m during the AIDA ** Course.

Spearos, snorkellers and scuba divers have done WAY better than that - so no, certainly not out of reach - but make sure you are training with someone who knows what they are doing.

Sam

 

[okane]

Dhu.

It will be very hard to find the answers you are looking for in this forum, and you can eventually end up frustrated by reading all the stupid lies that a lot of guys write here.

7 meters is not shallow, 7 meters is way deep my friend, and it's an ideal depth to do spearfishing, spearfishing is commonly practiced in the range of 5 to 17 meters, if somebody tells you that they do spearfishing at 30 meters you are listening either pipin, carlos coste, or a real dumb teeneager snorkeler writing lies on the internet.

Hunting is a very demanding activity, going down 25 to 35 meters, fight with a 20 kilos fish and going back to the surface is a task for aquaman or pipin and not for exelent free divers as you.

The 15 meters are not far from you, considering that you hunt at 7 meters, I assume that it takes you 10 sec to get to the bottom, 30 secs to hunt in the reef and 10 secs in the way out, well just cut the 30 secs in the bottom, and keep on kicking hard deeper for 10 seconds, after that, kick hard to the surface and you will get your 15 meters, it will take you 20 secs the way down and 20 secs the way up.

But is kind of buring isn't it?, after all, you are a hunter.

The solution is not in this forum among the 40 meters deep hunters and the statics of 6 minutes in the shower just this morning, the solution is in a real and professional course from real free divers, from a real assosiation as AIDA.

The guys who tells you in this forum that going to 20 meters is a shallow inmersion, tells you that cause for them 1 or 100 meters is the same, a fantasy in their heads, what your are doing is a big deal, and you need to be propered trained to safely go for your personal goals. This is not a game or a video play as some who write here makes it seem, this is an activity who claims many lives each year, and shit heads like the ones we regularly read here, encourage real divers to risk their lives.

Do not go for your personal records by yourself, and do not go with the internet's shit head advices, go to an AIDA instructor, or seek for your representation of AIDA in your country, they will guide you safely to reach your goals.

Just think that a 3 star AIDA diver goes down to 24 meters, and a 4 star AIDA free divers goes down to 32 meters, considering that to own the maximum 4 star ranking in AIDA you have to go down 32 meters, grab a card and go rocket speed up, do you really think that this guys go down there to spearefish a barracuda of 15 kilos at 40 meters, fight her, and ascend with an extra 30 pounds of ballast to the surface?????????

Do not listen the shit heads, go to school, your life depends on it.

A guy who spearfish at 7 meters is not a beginer as you think, you are way up to most of the guys here, they go deep only in their bags of potato chips next to their keyboards.

Saludos
Okane

 

[okane]

DO NOT TRAIN OR DIVE ALONE, YOU CAN AND YOU WILL DIE, IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU, IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYBODY EVEN IN A 1 METER BATH TUB DOING STATIC, THIS IS NOT BOWLING, THIS IS THE REAL ***** YOUR FAMILY WILL HAVE TO RECOGNIZE YOU IN THE MORGUE, ALL PURPLE WITH THE MOUTH FULL OF VOMIT.

GO TO SCHOOL NOW¡¡¡¡

 

[dhu]

thanks for the advice. i was about to go out this weekend as i just got some new fins and try for 20m. why so cautious though? have you had some bad experience or know of someone who has?
i'm only asking because i've read in just about every article in spearo mags that the average guy goes down to about 20m, sometimes 30m. also i've heard that most people that do a freedive course will reach 20m. is the idea that this is within my range so proposterous. i really think it's within my reach. i feel the biggest obstacle is in my mind!

 

[Erik]

Dhu, take your time, be safe and most importantly enjoy the journey.
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[Ricochet]

Hiho dhu,
I had exactly the same mind barrier, as you can read in this thead

Just don't try to push yourself. This mind barrier will vanish into thin air when your ready. The most important thing is to relax.
Relax and let yourself sink down into the blue. After you exceeded this barrier for the first time the folling dives will be even more relaxing and enjoyable.

 

[Kars]

Well Okana is trying to say that freediving and spearfishing can be dangerous, very dangerous and yes also very leathal.

My advise is like Okana, do a proper course, and DO what the instructor advises you to do.

As for your enthousiasm, I too have to struggle with that.
I know it's hard when you feel there is so much potential in your body.
My advice to that is, put it in the safer part of the freediving training.

Meaning:

-stretching,
-stamina training,
-swimming technique,
-concentration practices,
-dry statics.

In freediving there are a lot of techniques involved, techniques like: Duckdive, right kick, strokes, monofinning, breathing, aquadynamica, etc.
It's key to perfect them all, so there is a lot to learn.

You can like me practice them and do not need to push it, or even come close.
Just do not hyperventilate, and come up at the FIRST feeling of a shortage of breath. You do not need to stay under long to practice a technique in a pool

Though some things can be practiced allone, some can definitely not. What cannot? ANYthing in the water where you pass you first feeling of discomfort.
Beware that depth gives you the idea that everything is ok, but returning you have to payback your oxigen, and that's the dangerous part, only dive deep with a capeble buddy!

Allone you never should do any PB, even if you feel GREAT.


So what should you do?

- Find a buddy,
- follow a good freediving course together,
- train together, have fun from the things you discover together.


And be not scared away by these posts, I whish you the very best freedive experience and many of them to follow.

Love, peace and water!

Kars

 

[Erik]

Originally posted by okane
It will be very hard to find the answers you are looking for in this forum, and you can eventually end up frustrated by reading all the stupid lies that a lot of guys write here.
Do not listen the shit heads, go to school, your life depends on it.
A guy who spearfish at 7 meters is not a beginer as you think, you are way up to most of the guys here, they go deep only in their bags of potato chips next to their keyboards.
Saludos
Okane

Then what are you doing on this forum? If everyone here are liars and shitheads, why even talk to us? Nice first post, newbie. Very pleasant.
I regularly hunt at 2 to 5 metres in the lakes, but I've hunted at 30 metres. Many have hunted deeper and do it all the time, not just your hero Pipin. I've seen indigenous divers with crap gear hunt at 20+ metres for days on end, with 4 minute dives. Just because you limit yourself, don't suppose to enforce your limitations on others. You know what they say, "misery loves company"
Have you met everyone here? Anyone here? I've met lots of them, and they're real divers who do what they say. Who are you to call us all shitheads?
I'll stand by many of the contributors here NB: CONTRIBUTORS...understand that word?) as they are good and helpful people who are not here for bragging rights: they're here to be part of a community. A happy and friendly community.


Dhu, you will find excellent answers on this forum and on others. You will also receive support, encouragement and positive critique.

Erik Y.

 

[Fondueset]

I agree. This forum has some of the most knowlegeable people in the field.

For me it seems the ears are the key. I just really started up again this past summer but had no trouble hitting bottom at eleven meters after a surface sprint of about 200 or so. No strain. In the past I know I've been much deeper than that, but I never used a depth guage while freediving. Do have someone with you who knows a bit - and don't push the envelope too much.

 

[efattah]

The funny thing about Okana's post is this:
- He says most of the people on the forum are liars who can't dive
- He says AIDA is a good, respectable organization
- Except that most of the people on this forum have dived DEEP in AIDA competitions

So, according to Okana, AIDA must be a liar and cheat organization, because otherwise everyone in AIDA competitions would be diving less than 20m, when in fact the average depth in competitions is about 50m.

So, Okana, is AIDA a respectable agency or not? If so, then the people on this forum are not liars and cheats.

Okana, why not go onto the AIDA ranking list; you'll find that half of the list is made up of deeperblue members. So maybe you should apologize for calling everyone a liar and a cheat.

 

[Gerald]

First of all, welcome to dhu on deeperblue. It's great to have You!

From a Christian seminar I remember a great definition given for discipleship: It is mentoring. And mentoring was defined as follows: passing on life's secrets to someone else in order to save him from ignorance and mistakes. This is what I experience here on deeperblue. There is an openness and transparency that allows a vivid exchange. Many times I was on the receiving end but I hope others have also benefitted from my input.

Everybody's progress is somewhat different. In my case it was a slow and joyful journey that led me to -51m in Constant weight after more than 30 years. This is my brief freediving history.
Today I still enjoy it as much as I did then. Bill from Kona, Hawaii has also been freediving for a long time until the public became aware of his prowess. Congratulations to Bill for his recent achievements! :king

Clinics are a good way to start. But even if You don't find the time or money to attend one, make sure You never dive alone. Build up a network of buddies. I was looking for good buddies I could consistently train with until 2003. That gave me the opportunity to put into practice the mouthfill equalization technique (© efattah) I had already known theoretically since 2001. It helped me to advance in depth by a decade (in meters) within one week.

cheers
Gerald