No Dive experience but I am signing up for Master course.

[Arcticnick]

No Dive experience but I am signing up for Master course, anyway.

Hi there,

I am about to embark on a 6 week AIDA Freediver, Advanced Diver, and Master, courses, and am thinking that Total-Apnea, Koh Tao, Thailand, may be the best facility and am really excited at the prospect.


Most shops seem to be charging about 25000 BHT, for tuition and their, combined, courses run for about 10 or 11 days. Although Apnea Total are charging more, with 37500 BHT, it is for 6 weeks, including the Master course and seems like particularly good value.


-Does anyone have any experience with free diving in Thailand, generally, or specifically with free diving courses?
-Will there be lots of hidden expenses?
-Do I need a watch (eg Sunnto D4) if I want to dive seriously?
-Any advise or recommendations, please?


I have only done some very basic free dives but I feel confident that I will love the world of breath holding.

I am a PADI Divemaster and a NAUI instructor and am very comfortable in the water.


My friends, and I, recently went to the Similan islands, 60 km off the West coast of Thailand. They are not scuba divers so we stayed on a 3 day snorkel live aboard, with Poseidon, in Khao Lak and had a great time.
Although I missed certain aspects of scuba diving I did enjoy may other aspects of free- diving.


Our guide, Lee, and I, had a little breath holding competition, and after one practice effort I held my breath for 2:16.secs. ( I forget his times). I then let my breath out, very slowly and controlled and took in two deep breaths and held it again for another 1:36 ( I am nearly 47 but thought that was a good beginning.) I felt great, so high. It was bliss. My diaphragm began to spasm in the last 20 seconds, or so but I somehow managed to put off the urge to take in breath. It was, intellectually a really interesting experience, too.


Although I am a Brit, I live in Swedish, Lapland, near the Arctic circle, and have been doing long distance winter cycle training. It seems that it has been good for my (ex smokers) lung capacity, if not for the blood supply in my fingers and toes!

In the 2 weeks that I have been back from the trip I have done some research and discovered that the lungs start filling with plasma, beyond 30 meters. I find this amazing. When I was diving professionally, over 15 years ago, the theory of human physiology was not as developed as it is today, and I had never heard about such a principal.
I just have to try the response for myself, and start filling up my own lungs (with plasma).


When I was much younger the only thing in life I knew was that I wanted to work in diving. So I signed up, for my open water one certificate, at the Akumal Dive Shop, Yucatan, Mexico. I was a non diver, and had never done scuba before but committed and paid for all the courses, up to and including Divemaster.
Before long the 'gamble' paid off and I worked regularly as a DM and spent some very happy years working underwater.


I think I will take to the free diving in the same way. Actually I think am ready to let it help me make some more big changes to my life and am immensey looking forward to the whole thing.

 

[REVAN]

Welcome to the sport of freediving. I also spent many years on scuba. I got tired of hauling all of the gear around (above water as well as under it). These days, I am finding that I generally have more fun when I just go out with my mask, swimsuit and monofin, so I think you will like it very much indeed.

 

[nostres]

Welcome on board

wow, 3 courses in a row in 6 weeks. How much time between them? You gonna need some time to rest and recover, after freediving for 7 days straight no matter how deep, You will feel exausted. Then performance goes down until You rest.
After six weeks You should sleep like a baby!
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Arcticnick]

No Freedive experience but I am signing up for Master course.

Welcome on board

wow, 3 courses in a row in 6 weeks. How much time between them? You gonna need some time to rest and recover, after freediving for 7 days straight no matter how deep, You will feel exausted. Then performance goes down until You rest.
After six weeks You should sleep like a baby!
Posted via Mobile Device

Hi again,
I can choose when I start each course, so I can take time off in between, to recover, whenever necessary.

-Do you know how many dives per day one does and to what depths, typically?
-Where can I find general detail on how the courses are run?

I look forward to sleeping like a baby. I haven't done that since...I guess... I was a baby!

Thanks.

 

[Arcticnick]

Welcome to the sport of freediving. I also spent many years on scuba. I got tired of hauling all of the gear around (above water as well as under it). These days, I am finding that I generally have more fun when I just go out with my mask, swimsuit and monofin, so I think you will like it very much indeed.

Thanks Revan,
I think I will enjoy the world of freediving, too.

 

[rovanpera]

The Apnea Total courses are not AIDA courses...

 

[Arcticnick]

The Apnea Total courses are not AIDA courses...

Oh! That's interesting.
What kind of cousres do they offer, please, and what are the differences?

 

[azapa]

look more to the teacher rather than the type of association the instructor supposed to belong too. A good Apnea Academy instructor will be better than a bad Aida one and vice-vercer. A (present or past) world record holder will be better than an average instructor from AA or Aida etc.

Ask who the specific teacher will be, and look him up here. If he does not exist, you had better think to do courses elsewhere (for probably the same cash)

Good luck!@

 

[island_sands]

Re: No Freedive experience but I am signing up for Master course.

hey Nick

I admire your ability. You must be confident that you can get to 40 metres consistently to gain instructor status in such a short space of time. there are many other other performance requirements of course, however recent experience has shown that many scuba instructors believe that they will automatically be good freedivers but more than often this is not the case.

You might want to consider other options too, as getting training is not only about price but about receiving the best training and also VFM
there are other places about

Learn Freediving with FreedivingCourses.com - the home of the World's Leading Freediving Courses
SaltFree Divers
.:: Freedive Dahab ::.

Emma Farrell is also a very experienced instructor trainer, you could also email her and ask for advice
emma.farrell@deeperblue.com

Good luck mate.. It will be interesting to receive updates on your training and hear your perspective. How do your lungs feel after 30 meters? Did you find it difficult the first few times after being out of the water for a bit?

 

[agbiv]

Re: No Freedive experience but I am signing up for Master course.

Good luck on this ambitious venture! Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Arcticnick]

Re: No Freedive experience but I am signing up for Master course.

Good luck on this ambitious venture! Keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks.
Will do!

 

[Sherrin]

Hi,
i learned free diving with Apnea Total in Thailand. It was a great experience and i was extremely happy with every aspect of the courses. I plan on doing their Master's course as soon as i have time.
They have all the equipment you need.
You won't end up with an AIDA certification but you will certainly have a great time, learn safely with great people, and become very proficient at Freediving.
It''ll be a fantastic experience and money well spent.
Sherrin

 

[Arcticnick]

Hi,
i learned free diving with Apnea Total in Thailand. It was a great experience and i was extremely happy with every aspect of the courses. I plan on doing their Master's course as soon as i have time.
They have all the equipment you need.
You won't end up with an AIDA certification but you will certainly have a great time, learn safely with great people, and become very proficient at Freediving.
It''ll be a fantastic experience and money well spent.
Sherrin

Hej Sherrin,

You don't know how happy I am to hear something of your experience, training at 'Apnea Total'.
I have to say, too, that I am also very grateful for the balancing, counter- argument, from other contributors to this thread, about the dangers of hyperventilation. Thanks to them (you).

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my Mum and Dad, my publicist and agents, without whom this would never have been possible!

No seriously again...just for a second or two:

Through my online research, on free-diving in general, and whilst looking for a great school in which to learn, I discovered 'Apnea Total' (AT).
The thought of training with them for 6 whole weeks, diving every day, assisting teaching some classroom modules and dive sessions, and receiving video of personal dive technique development, at the end of the Master course, on DVD, along with some of the course work and lectures, sounds like just the thing I need, though I do concede I have no way of judging for myself, yet, if the specific risks of hyperventilation (HV) are manageable and therefore acceptable to me, or not.

-For example, can I learn about the dangers of HV and adapt 'AT's' training to a more conservative, reserved, safer, approach?
-Or would this be totally incompatible with how they teach their classes?

Of course the best way to fully judge the suitability of a course, as well as doing loads of online presearch, would be to arrive on the scene, before signing up, and ask the instructors and students, at all the local shops (and bars), what the local scoop is.
-Then sign, up one at a time, for each AIDA course, followed by the comparative 'AT' course. If I can afford to run each agency course consecutively to the other then, surely, I would get the greatest theoretical, as well as practical, grounding, and also develop the knowledge, as I go, to be able to, intelligently, compare training styles. Then if I felt uncomfortable with one training method I could simply concentrate on the other.

I am beginning to appreciate that there are few black and white issues in this, highly complex, water- world. I was initially amazed how involved the courses are. 6 weeks just to learn how to hold your breath?

-I assume that the most important free-dive skill is in determining how to push the techniques for ultimate increased bottom time, safely.

-Surely, every kind of breath, out of the normal breathing cycle, is some kind of Co2 packing, or hyperventilation, of one sort or another.

I have so many questions:

Sherrin. I would love to learn more of your 'Apnea Total' experiences, please, (and anyone else who has dive experience there, or in Koh Tao.)

-How is a typical dive day planned?

-How many dives do you do in a day?
-What is a general dive schedule /format, ie arrive on boat, put down weighted line, relax on board, breath technique, elect buddies, enter water, breath on surface, dive, etc?

-Any specific detail to flesh out the course?
I also feel that now is a good time to start to develop my own theory of safety, based on all the information out there, and start to establish for myself some of the do s and don't s.

Of course that would be so much better with feedback from folk like yourselves, with a variety of experience.

Already I am already forming opinions about politics, safety etc, I wonder if I was to do a fully regulated AIDA course, followed by a non- cert course with 'AT' (providing of course that I survive the HV training with 'AT' , would be best.

Training with AIDA and Apnea Total:
-Would I not get the best of both extremes, lots of amazing experience, and hundreds of closely monitored dives?

Although I am cramming, super-intensively, especially, here, on this forum, I am an absolute novice, and beginner and have so much to learn.

Any and all feedback would be well received.

Thanks, in advance.

 

[watts]

Learn what you can but remember some things take time. All the best.

 

[DivingDane]

change your location buddy!!!!!! Dorothy aint in Sydney no more!

good luck with your courses, generally i would not recomend doing multiple courses all together as you need time to digest the information given, no learn how to apply it to your own diving, and then most importantly give your body time to addapt not only to the technique but also to breath hold diving, the pressure and effects on the body are mind blowing even at relatrively shallow depths and the body needs time to adapt to the new surrounding!

but regardless you will have a great time, just remember to go slow and pay attention to the signals your body is giving NOT your head. slowly slowly is the best way to learn and and enjoy this incredible sport long term

 

[DivingDane]

dnot get bogged down with thr advanced techniques and science to much before you master the basics, knowing everything in theory can often make the dive more difficult because you focus on everything rather than the aspects which are important for the dives you are making.

no need to worry about blood shift to the lungs or advanced equalisation techniques when you are diving to 20-30m its so much more important to focus on technique and above all relaxation rather than everything else, when these are natural the next batch of challanges arrive when going frokm 30-40m. thats what i find so satisfying is that every level is equally as difficult until you understand it and it becomes easy, you can then choose to stay in this comfortable level of bliss or look to the next depth challange and with it its own set of skills that need mastering.

DD

 

[Arcticnick]

change your location buddy!!!!!! Dorothy aint in Sydney no more!

good luck with your courses, generally i would not recomend doing multiple courses all together as you need time to digest the information given, no learn how to apply it to your own diving, and then most importantly give your body time to addapt not only to the technique but also to breath hold diving, the pressure and effects on the body are mind blowing even at relatrively shallow depths and the body needs time to adapt to the new surrounding!

but regardless you will have a great time, just remember to go slow and pay attention to the signals your body is giving NOT your head. slowly slowly is the best way to learn and and enjoy this incredible sport long term

Wow! You make it sound awesome!
By the way, I do plan on spreading out the courses.

-Where can I find information on the AIDA course structue?

 

[x_yeti]

Pay for your first course, do it and then sign up for the next. I'd guess that between 30-50% of newbe freedivers are either unable to equalise on their first course or bugger up their ears trying. Then there are sinus issues and and and...

One step at a time and enjoy Koh Tao. I loved it.

 

[Fondueset]

Nostres - thats interesting. I find I do my best dives after 10 or so days of continuous diving. I've done a couple PBs both times on my last day in the Bahamas after a week or two of continuous daily diving. But then I'm probably not that close to my limits yet.

Arcticnick - at the very least you'll have a great time! Equalization tends to be the biggest issue at first - even scuba divers are not used to the speed and frequency needed for freediving - plus equalizing head-down is very different. As you get down in the 30 meter range you need to be mindful of lung squeeze. A lot of us do special exercises to help the lungs and chest adjust to negative pressure. Equalizing becomes a whole 'nuther below 30m too - I'm still very much work-in-progress in that regard and its been my limiting factor - I'm hands free all the way to 30 or so - then things get tricky . It's all technique though and I just need to do it more.

I've only ever taken a couple of courses from Will Trubridge - part of his no-fins class and his Master Class - so I have no experience with the AIDA courses.

Bottom line there is no substitute for experience - which takes time. I'm sure the AT courses will give you what you need to do safe dives - best to go with an empty cup (insofar as thats possible!). Then you have to make it your own.

 

[nostres]

Nostres - thats interesting. I find I do my best dives after 10 or so days of continuous diving. I've done a couple PBs both times on my last day in the Bahamas after a week or two of continuous daily diving. But then I'm probably not that close to my limits yet.

I never had a chance to go diving for 10 days You lucky ba***** but it makes sense what You are saying. However, I still think it's good take one day off even when You're on a great roll

My best diving experience was 7day camp in Hawaii with Martin. And like You said towards the end of it, 6th and 7th day almost everybody was doing PB's like nothing. Day 6 I did 50m, day 7 - 55 and 57, felt great and wanted to do 60+ but Martin wouldn't let me. I would go diving day 8,9 and 10 probably hitting more depth but would love to take day off, I think that would help a lot.

Time for recovery is as important as hydration and training itself. Of course
it depends how often one gets to dive, current shape, depth, water time etc
but after 7 days of diving even Martin said he had enough and he's fish..