Newbie freediver - what formal training to start with?

[Sergiu]

Hi guys,

Found this forum about a week ago and ever since I am hanging out here in the cyberspace reading and learning - loads of great stuff!

I have been skindiving/freediving for fun but I want do it properly for safety reasons but also to improve me abilities under water - i can share with you my dream, swimming with a pod of dolphins at 25m - Lungfish I think has that pleasure already!

So, next thing is to decide what formal training (e.g. AIDA) is good to start with and where i can do it. I am right now located in Budapest, Hungary (no sea within 700km...) but i am ready to get myself down to any place, though the closer the better.

My PB on static is 3.45min a couple of days ago after doing for the first time the O2 static tables, while on the dynamic is about 35m (without fins, never tried in a pool with fins yet!). As for constant weight i would only guess it's below 20m yet again, I never had the chance to do it in a proper set-up though I recall going down to 18m (had a dive computer with me) without fins while skindiving with friends in Turkey.

That's where I stand and ready to get started - any suggestion will be appreaciated. Dont wanna rush into things and will take it bit by bit but I really want to get started before summer even if i have to fly to Egypt or elsewhere - this forum was an inspiration and a call for challenge

Serge

 

[SEDATE]

Welcome on Board Serge

 

[Sergiu]

Thanks Sadate!

R u located in Turkey? I used to live there for one year, turkce cok az conusyiorum!

did a lot of scuba diving while there but never found another person willing to hold his/her breath and take for the blue... :hmm...guess i was hanging out with the wrong crowd!

Serge

 

[SEDATE]

Yes..i located in turkey
i hate living and eating turkey rofl ... but it is a must!
i think you hanging on with the wrong crowd!
next time try to dive free..it should be heavy to cary the tanks ,..i guess

 

[lungfish]

Hi Serge!
Welcome. I understand the challenge you describe and wish you good luck (and good judgement) as you rise to meet it.

As for your question, my best suggestion is to do cardio training three or four times a week, swim alot, do your tolerance tables and start thinking about basic freediving equipment (fins and a wetsuit)..... The reasons for a wetsuit is that it is part of your safety system (if you need to bail out, you can drop your weights and use the bouyancy of your neoprene wetsuit as an aid)....

Just ask any of us about any questions you have about acquiring equipment.

Also, I am going to lease a house in HI in a month or so. If anyone is interested in coming to HI and visiting, I will be happy to show you around and maybe arrange a dolphin swim (If they are in the bays....its all timing).

Here is a pic of a dolphin pod at 25m.... I swam into the group and just rolled over and snapped off a shot to one side. They are sleeping.....visibility and clarity was poor that day.

I do have one excellent dolphin story where I was joined on a 40meter dive by an entire pod of dolphins. I had been swimming with these three animals for a half hour or so and then did a deep bounce to 40 meters with them. It was really charming to watch them on my descent - clicking and whistling and trying to look in my mask as if to ask me if I was OK. They stayed with me at the bottom and when I turned around and returned, about 35 animals pulled in close around me on my ascent and escorted me all the way back to the surface. I could have hugged half a dozen of them at a time, they were so close. Dorsals and pectorals and tail occasionally touching me... I will pm the story to you if you are interested...

Lungfish

 

[Sergiu]

Hey Lungfish,

What a story, it's absolutely amazing - i would love to get the full account by pm if you could send it! I think swimming with dolphins is among top 3 activities anybody would like to do in a general survey but most likely people wanna pet them in a pool... but the real thing is to be down there in their environment and swim along - i guess you have now at least one memory to think about when trying to relax mentally before any dive

your tips are great and will start as soon as tomorrow a training. I got in touch with the AIDA Hungary guys who train 2-3 times a week and will join the ranks! Excited! As this is a all-new-start, i will record down the progress in terms of training done and results, be it static, dynamic, fins, no-fins etc - it may help later on others.

I read about your move to Hawaii, it sounds great and would love to come over for some quality freediving and sharing a bowl of spagetti ...yet, i just got back from a 2 months long holiday and wont be able to take much time off in the near future. There is a chance to lose my job soon (read - i plan to quit!) - the burnt out syndrome which is still present even after 2 months of travel! - if so, i will likely several months or more exploring the seas and Hawaii should be on my radar. How long will you be there?

thanks again for sharing the dolphin story - truly an inspiration rofl

serge

 

[ottoman]

Hi,
I am considering to offer underwater scooter tours for tourists.
The tourists who will be participating in our tours will almost never have any previous experience with apnoe-diving. Also most of them will have only average or even below-average condition and fitness level.
The only training they will get from us is a basic introduction into equalization and breathing techniques
What is the maximum depth i should allow them to go with their underwater scooters without taking ANY risks like damaging their ear-drum, suffering black-out, samba etc.
As far as I know, in apnoe-diving there is no risk of compression sickness...
Many thanks

 

[lungfish]

Hi Ottoman,
In my opinion, you should be very careful with this idea for several reasons....

There are compression sickness concerns in apnea diving however, you can avoid a lot of problems by choosing shallow waters to operate your program in. If it is 10 or 15meters deep or less you shouldn't have as many worries.

However, there are still considerations..... most of this could be addressed with a carefully written waiver that your guests sign prior to using the equipment. If you consider that with a 45 min introduction many dive boats offer an introductory scuba dive to as deep as 60ft, then your idea doesn't seem so strange.

I think you might have some concerns with people injuring themselves on coral, etc, if you choose an area that is too shallow. Also, if the goal is to look at fish and sea life, they might not want to use the scooter because of the noise and the speed.

Think it through. It seems like an ok idea if you were careful to protect your guests and yourself.

 

[lungfish]

Hi Serge,

Glad you liked the stories, dolphins continue to surprise me. They remind me a lot of wolves. Highly organized, good communicators, confident, playful.... I am not a New Age believer in dolphin spiritualism but the animals are terribly interesting just the same. I think what impresses me most is that these animals are wild. Yet, they are playful and interactive with me on occasion. They are selective and don't seem to simply play with whomever is in the water either. So that makes it all the more interesting.

attached is a partial pic of the group that did the 40 meter ascent with me...

Anyway, about Hawaii, I will be leasing a house there long-term. I will be commuting between that residence and my place here in San Francisco area. So the offer is open as long as I maintain a residence on the island. If you pick a longer stretch of time, you will be able to do more exploring. There is a lot of diving to be had and the water is clear, blue and 79degrees to 250ft....

As for training, the best advice I can offer is to train diligently and take a course if you can. If you simply do your tolerance tables every week you will enjoy great improvements in your apnea skills. If you work on cardio conditioning and diving technique as well you will only get better. Add correct equipment to the equation and you should be on the right track to becoming a competent freediver.

Dolphins do breathing cycles about every 4 to 6 minutes.... I have had times out there when I get lost in what I am doing and I have matched their duration for a cycle. Of course, you have to stay on the surface for a minimum of twice the duration of the previous dive and you never want to get so lost in what you are doing that you lose track of your ventilation and breath-up patterns...

 

[Sergiu]

Hi,
I am considering to offer underwater scooter tours for tourists.
The tourists who will be participating in our tours will almost never have any previous experience with apnoe-diving. Also most of them will have only average or even below-average condition and fitness level.
The only training they will get from us is a basic introduction into equalization and breathing techniques
What is the maximum depth i should allow them to go with their underwater scooters without taking ANY risks like damaging their ear-drum, suffering black-out, samba etc.
As far as I know, in apnoe-diving there is no risk of compression sickness...
Many thanks

Hey Ottoman,

I had little experience with underwater scooters and all related to scuba diving rather than freediving. I think your idea may not work with obsolute beginners even if you give an intro training. Let me explain it. Freediving itself is a challenge for any beginner due to equalisation problems, fear of not having enough air to breath, water getting into the nose etc. Now on top of it, you want to give people a propelling device that can only complicate a problem once it occured for whatever reasons. These devices are usually not fast yet they are fast enough to burst an ear drum if one inexperienced guy keeps going down after that school of seabreams 10m down but it's not able to equalise fast enough! How can you equalise properly, with one hand and the other steering the scooter? Sounds doable yet complicated...

Another issue is safety in real time. Gliding along with one tourist at the time may seem enough but can you really afford that kind of 1 to 1 service if you are to turn in a profit and not ask a fortune for 10 minutes of UW scootering from the tourists?

Dont mean to put you off, personally i would love to try one myself! Yet you have to make your own judgement if this idea would fly with newbies or even experienced people, letting the tourists decide (even if the sign a paper taking own responsibility) may still end up in accidents.

serge

 

[Sergiu]

Hi Serge,

Glad you liked the stories, dolphins continue to surprise me. They remind me a lot of wolves. Highly organized, good communicators, confident, playful.... I am not a New Age believer in dolphin spiritualism but the animals are terribly interesting just the same. I think what impresses me most is that these animals are wild. Yet, they are playful and interactive with me on occasion. They are selective and don't seem to simply play with whomever is in the water either. So that makes it all the more interesting.

attached is a partial pic of the group that did the 40 meter ascent with me...

Anyway, about Hawaii, I will be leasing a house there long-term. I will be commuting between that residence and my place here in San Francisco area. So the offer is open as long as I maintain a residence on the island. If you pick a longer stretch of time, you will be able to do more exploring. There is a lot of diving to be had and the water is clear, blue and 79degrees to 250ft....

As for training, the best advice I can offer is to train diligently and take a course if you can. If you simply do your tolerance tables every week you will enjoy great improvements in your apnea skills. If you work on cardio conditioning and diving technique as well you will only get better. Add correct equipment to the equation and you should be on the right track to becoming a competent freediver.

Dolphins do breathing cycles about every 4 to 6 minutes.... I have had times out there when I get lost in what I am doing and I have matched their duration for a cycle. Of course, you have to stay on the surface for a minimum of twice the duration of the previous dive and you never want to get so lost in what you are doing that you lose track of your ventilation and breath-up patterns...

Hey Lungfish,

Excellent story, thanks again. This is truly helpful and inspirational! I have started today my training at the pool and continue 2-3 times a week with static tables but also cardio. Will keep records on the progress so that it may be helpful for others in the future. No world record attempt planned for this summer but i would like to impress at least a lion fish at 60ft

Serge