Hey everyone
I am new to this site and fairly new to free diving. I first started doing it about 4 months ago on a scuba trip to the great barrier reef, when at the end of a dive, to kill a few mins I tried to see how deep I could go.
deepest I got was about 12m, and that was by thrashing for dear life with fins on the descent until I hit the panic stage, then closing my eyes and thrashing for dear life again on the ascent, trying to take my mind off things, until I could see daylight returning through my shut eyelids. All in all it was a lot more relaxing than I might have imagined
Well since then I have been practicing a few times a week in the pool, with a variety of techniques. I can now swim about 30-35m under water, and can static hold my breath with a dive weight for just on 3:00. Mostly I have been training doing bizarre stuff like tying and untying complex knots under the water, diving down and bringing up really heavy things and combinations of the above. Hardest thing I ever did was swim 25m under the water to a 15kg stack of bricks 4m down, bring it up and tie a bow line to it from a rope hanging from the surface, balancing the stack on my lap and kicking my legs to keep buoyant. That particular challenge took a long time to master :duh
So anyway, just a few questions. It seems that 4:00 is about the benchmark between intermediate and advanced for a static underwater breath hold... what about underwater distance swims and dive depths? Would be nice to know these things, for my own progress and stuff. At the moment looking to increase my general underwater capability, not focus on any one thing and knowing some basic benchmark figures would really help me balance my training I think.
Well, wish me luck
I am new to this site and fairly new to free diving. I first started doing it about 4 months ago on a scuba trip to the great barrier reef, when at the end of a dive, to kill a few mins I tried to see how deep I could go.
deepest I got was about 12m, and that was by thrashing for dear life with fins on the descent until I hit the panic stage, then closing my eyes and thrashing for dear life again on the ascent, trying to take my mind off things, until I could see daylight returning through my shut eyelids. All in all it was a lot more relaxing than I might have imagined
Well since then I have been practicing a few times a week in the pool, with a variety of techniques. I can now swim about 30-35m under water, and can static hold my breath with a dive weight for just on 3:00. Mostly I have been training doing bizarre stuff like tying and untying complex knots under the water, diving down and bringing up really heavy things and combinations of the above. Hardest thing I ever did was swim 25m under the water to a 15kg stack of bricks 4m down, bring it up and tie a bow line to it from a rope hanging from the surface, balancing the stack on my lap and kicking my legs to keep buoyant. That particular challenge took a long time to master :duh
So anyway, just a few questions. It seems that 4:00 is about the benchmark between intermediate and advanced for a static underwater breath hold... what about underwater distance swims and dive depths? Would be nice to know these things, for my own progress and stuff. At the moment looking to increase my general underwater capability, not focus on any one thing and knowing some basic benchmark figures would really help me balance my training I think.
Well, wish me luck
Last edited:
