SCUBA or not to SCUBA????

[feign]

I agree with most of you, I think both have their place. I started scuba when I was 12 and have always loved being in the water. Only recently got into freediving, although I have been wanting to do it for many years.

I think if someone said to me today "you will have to choose only one - scuba or freedive and you can never do the other again". I would choose to freedive.

 

[neshamah]

hi

Scuba means: Apartus for breathing underwater

Freediving -means :You breath your owm breath-the only implemente with have from scuba is -the sonrkel-fins and mask-_______________________________

ps we don't need the tank.

 

[Dark&Cold.Diver]

I love the feeling when freediving , ive got many chances to try scuba when i have been on diving-trips.
Instructors have offered me free trys , but i havent done it yet.
I have to say that many of the scuba people is acting kind of weird.
At the last trip me and my friend went to similan islands fo a 10 days diving trip with padi certified scubadivers and instructors.
It was the best opportunity for me and my friend to freedive in nice waters.
Many of the scuba-divers didnt to talk to me and my friend when they realized that we were freedivers, and thoose few who said something ,said things like:
- I cant understand why you guys are freediving?
And why are you on this boat , this is a scuba-trip?
I think its a shame for them that they didnt understand that we dove for the same reasons as they dove:
- for the love of the feeling of just being underwater , and the great opportunity to see some cool stuff underwater that we never would be able to see where we are from (Sweden).
Forgot to mention that me and my friend dove more dives than any other diver on that trip, we also dove at same depths as the scuba-divers . we saw almost as much as them under the water.
Many divers took copies of our underwater-photos after the trip.
All i want to say is that many scuba-divers have been given me a negative feeling to the whole thing with scuba, i have promised myself to try sometime before ill judge the feeling of going scuba.
Maybe me and my friend just had badluck , meeting the wrong people?
Have to say that i never met a freediver with bad attitudes, maybe i will someday......

Jeppe.

 

[Rax]

Jeppe,
I am sorry to hear on your bad experience with scuba divers. During the last few years I have been scuba diving a lot in the Philippines and met with lots of scuba divers. Most of them has been VERY nice persons. Except for a few "I am an expert diver" guys that usually performs quite poorly but like to act as some kind of cool action hero/master diver. The more experienced the diver usually they are more humble and cool.

On the other hand you can also here on this thread sense that some people do not like scuba diving. I also practice sports fishing. Some people practice spearfishing. It is quite common that scuba divers do not like to talk to you if you say you are sportsfisherman.

This is VERY silly since we all NEED to cooperate to keep our seas clean and full of life.

Sometimes I feel that it is the human nature to fight instead of cooperate. This is sad and I hope I am wrong.

 

[Rax]

By the way Jeppe. Where in sweden do you live?

 

[Dark&Cold.Diver]

Hi Robert nice to hear , proves that my experiences dont have anything to do with scuba-divers in common.
I think me and my friend had bad luck ,meeting the wrong people.
Anyway i wasnt talking about scuba-divers in general i was just sharing one of my experiences that made me a bit dissapointed =/ .
Anyway im living 2 miles north of sundsvall in a smalltown called Timrå.
Me and my friends (theres 2 of em) are practising alot around the coastline here and a bit longer up in the north, we´re currently planning a trip to Hitra/Trondheim.
Soon we will have our own local web-site with our own forum i can inform you when we are up.
Where do you come from?

 

[Rax]

I live in Arboga. All my diving activities are more or less non existing at the moment. My family just transferred back to sweden after 4 years in the Philippines and my ears have also given me lots of problems the last year. Hopefully I will be able to find some other freedivers in my area.

 

[ARDEN]

I stopped scuba about 12 ago years because I thought it was a hassle. I wouldn't mind getting back in to it though.

 

[Ron Brandt]

I been scuba certified for 22 years. Now PADI MSDT, and IANTD gas blender.

My scuba students often wonder why I "want to hold my breath"
and dive without a tank.

Ron

 

[Jon]

I finally sold off the last of my gear last week.

OK, I still have an old 72 and a double hose for nastalgia, but everything else is gone.

I figure I'll use whatever rental gear the shop has when I teach. That means I'll fit in with whatever their trying to sell and I won't have to maintain it. Since hte shop I teach for has everything form stage bottles to scooters in rental I'm set.

I would have to agree with Arden that it's much more of a hassel than freediving. Last weekend I out lasted all the bubble blowers and only got out becasue others were ready to go. I could have easily stayed in for a few more hours- thanks Elios!

Jon

 

[flyboy748]

Jon, is that elios suit new? How does it compare to your Supercomp?

I can relate, a couple months ago I was freediving a wreck with some friends on scuba, and just when I was feeling the dive reflex start to kick in (about 30 min) they were all heading for shore! Also when diving Blue Spring in the middle of March, we got to and from the Spring head much easier than the scuba people, (nothing to carry up the river) and once we were there, we were set for the rest of the day. No way I was getting cold diving in 72 degree water after all that 33-35 degree diving here at home! Long after all the scuba divers had left we were still going strong.

There's something cool about staying in the water for hours at a time.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[Jon]

That's one of the main things I lve abouthtis sport, being able to spend hours in the water. I don't care if it's deep or shallow, just being able to hang out in there all day is the fun part.

I see too many divers who rush in, and rush out, just so they can talk about it on the boat, and in the bar, later on. It makes me wonder what all the rush is about?

The Elios suit is new and blows away my Supercomp! I got the 6mm Heiwa, low density, suit with the opencell inside and smooth skin on the outside- per Eric Fattah's advice. It works great and I no longer even get a shiver after spending a couple of hours in 40 degree water. The hood fits so well I don't even use the ice ca anymore.


Jon

 

[samdive]

oh no!! I'm getting my new Elios suit at the weekend

Jon - does this mean I won't have a good excuse to wear the ice cap any more???

and it was such a fun item of clothing.....

Sam

 

[Jon]

You might still find other uses for it out of the water.

It's just that I can't see wearing anything extra under my suit since my Elios fits so well and the chin cup is cut to perfection- which means that very little of my face is exposed at all. The top part of the hood makes a great seal over the skirt on my mask so there's nothing left to get exposed.


Jon

 

[FreeFloat]

I'm certified scuba as well now - as of last October - the very last weekend in October, too, might I add. For anyone who knows Canadian waters that means a whole lot of COLD water in my 27 scuba dives since then.

For a period of time over Dec/Jan I was just so hooked on scuba, I lived, ate, breathed, and dreamed scuba. My freediving days in the summer were but a distant memory.

Then my buddy flyboy748 from Toronto e-mailed me one day and said, hey I'm putting in an order, can I add in those long fins you wanted...?

The fins arrived and naturally I couldn't wait to try them out. Add that to the fact that I had finally learned to equalize using the Frenzel (thanks Eric Fattah) and when I slipped back into the water unencumbered and free, I wondered why I had ever thought I could stay away.......

Don't get me wrong, I still scuba dive. For one thing, it's a whole lot easier to find scuba buddies than freedive buddies. But I have to agree, scuba is definitely equipment-intensive. It takes me about a half hour to gear up for a scuba dive, and that's if my BC and tank are already rigged and I'm hurrying. However when the waves are beckoning me to freedive, inside 15 minutes I can be wet.....

If I could choose only one, for the rest of my life, it would have to be freediving for many many reasons.

Not to mention, scuba diving always costs so much MONEY.........

 

[Snorkel Bum]

I have asthma so I am not allowed to go SCUBA... I still went last summer because I really wanted to try it out, I didn't tell the intructers that I was asthmatic. I felt really lathargic and wanted to get out of the suit and go off on my own, but I still enjoeyd it immensly.
My diving buddy is certified and this year is doing the advanced open water thingy

 

[Phoerixx]

Free after Scuba

As mentioned before. Free after Scuba = NEVER to do, EVER.

I started my underwater experience as a scuba diver of a well known scuba school. The course was quick and teach me a bit of what i should do and even less of what i should not.

I almost died when i tried to set my first PB in constant... after to the edge no deco dive scuba i set my 15,4m. At that time 20m was unbelievable deep.

The point is that nobody before that ever told me that scuba before apnea was dangerous. Even worse, on my first scuba course we try to freedive after scuba...

I don't scuba anymore, not because of the accident but because freediving is a sport and scuba is not.

Regards,

Erik Stojanovic
SAPA Slovenija apnea team

 

[Pablo]

Re: Free after Scuba

Originally posted by Phoerixx
freediving is a sport and scuba is not.

 

[pyro]

even tho i am still in training, i see scuba as being a visitor down there, but when you are free diving, you actually belong there. i mean, it sounds a bit contradictory, a visitor spends more time underwater than the person who belongs at the sea, but, whatever lives under the sea is not supposed to breathe oxygen, it either holds its breath like our friends the dolphins, or uses its gails, using the tanks to breathe seems different than any of the above, but in no way something bad or less enjoyable.

 

[Phoerixx]

blub, blub

Scuba makes you see the underwater world, but people have to be concerned about gear, air pressure and decompression etc.
While freediving you find yourself within the water element and yourself, we forget the gear and fully enjoy mentaly, physicaly and spiritualy.

I fully agree that scuba is usefull and fun. I'm a certified scuba and want to keep doing it from time to time.
As for freediving i want to keep doing it all the time.

Erik