Swimming ability of freedivers

[efattah]

Despite my poor swimming technique, I have a 'backup plan' which has saved me in many situations.

I first used this backup plan when I was just 7 years old in Hawaii in 1982. The undertow on the beach was so strong I was not able to get back to shore. I had only a mask, no fins or anything else.

After exhausting myself trying to swim against the current, I treaded water and rested. Then, I went to the bottom and crawled along the sand. I would then go up for air, and back to the bottom to crawl.

These days, if either a rocky cliff face or the bottom is available, I will always pull myself along the rocks or bottom, against the current, even if I have a monofin on. It is way more efficient than swimming against a current, and I can often cover 3 times the distance in the same amount of time.

I'm very rarely in 'bottomless' water. Of course in bottomless water this method wouldn't work.

 

[Narsil]

I've done exactly what Eric has described a few times.

Even where there is no danger, and in relatively shallow water, you can save energy when returning to shore from a dive. Especially useful when you are towing a float line heavy with fish - grab onto rock/ weed while the water surge works against you, and then letting go for a free ride, when it reverses shortly afterwards.

 

[iceselkie]

I am a pretty good swimmer, most of my swimming is done in the pool because of my background and have been quite able to swim 1 k freestyle and another 1 k of drills in the same session (without music). I like how it quiets my headspace really. I am not a good static apneist.

 

[Nickel]

For me it was a natural progression from pool swimming to open water swimming and finally to freediving. I started out on my high school swim team. A lot of the drills we did are the same drills used in freediving. We would do static and dynamic apnea drills to improve our competition times.

From there I discovered open water swimming via an Alcatraz race and picked up triathlons along the way. When I started freediving, it wasn't much different from what I had been already been doing, just going deeper and holding my breath longer.

I definetely think that having a swimming background is extremely helpful even if it is just learning how to be familiar and comfortable in the water along with know your own limits.

 

[sheepeck]

Many years ago in my childhood I didn't care about going to deep water even I wasn't able to swim at all - I just hold breath and dived.

As I posted here before = I started with freediving because of my interest in surfing - I wanted to learn how to hold breath after wipe out. I need to use my arms to paddle so swimming crawl (freestyle) is almost must for me. Well, I don't say I'm good at it because in fact I'm not. :rcard
I decided to focus more on swimming training.

Not long time ago I read book The Big Drop - amazing big wave surfing stories. One guy called Jose Angel were diving off the Maui for black corals. When coming up he found himself being swept by the current too far from boat and there were no chance to swim back to it - so he swam about 13 miles to Molokai. :duh
And others guys did terrible swims in more then 20ft swells. Of course without fins and buoyant wetsuits. Would you dare? Maybe, but not me. :blackeye

 

[Haydn]

Let me presume to offer 'expert' opinion. Having swum the English Channel both frontcrawl and backstroke. I see two issues here.

First, assuming you have never formally trained as a swimmer (as most freedivers) and can only swim recreationally in calm water for less than 20 minutes. Put this into perspective, you are a person who would not be capable of swimming ashore from say, the Cyprus barge in Howards comps but could swim ashore from Loics dive site in Ville Franche.

Maybe your standard of swimming is ok IF you keep your fins on. In which case, you might be able to swim 400 yards to get out of immediate danger, chase down a loose bouy, swim a buddy to shore. Remember this though, whenever you really need to rely on your swimming ability to get you or a buddy out of trouble, there will be a very high chance of secondary trauma that may make this emergency swim a much more serious event. ie: your dive buddy has been lost at the bottom of the rope, or floated to the surface with no lanyard and has been seen 200 yards away, face down. 200 yards means 2 minutes away for a seriously competitive swimmer or, 3 to 4 minutes away for an ok swimmer with fins. By then, you will approach your buddy totally unable to offer assistance until you have recovered first. What if you were doing pull downs with no fins, what difference would this make to your ability to perform a rescue? What if your dive line is half a mile off shore? Do you really expect to make it to shore, bearing in mind you will no doubt try to sprint the whole way, maybe 15 minutes for a trained and sprinting swimmer, then run (how far ?) 400 meters in a wet suit yelling for assistance? Let me say, there will be very few amongst us capable of reaching the shore in any fit state, if an emergency situation coincides with this need. Always assume you are injured, recent lmc/blackout , cramp, jelly sting (shark bite...and dont say that wont happen after my experience with an oceanic white tip 3 days ago, eye to eye at 12 inches, luckily his mouth stayed shut. Or Martins experience as the same 8 footer barged past him. Needless to say the videos only last a few seconds each and I dont know how to post them here). So the first issue is a question of the quality of safety you can offer as an untrained swimmer. Put yourself to the test and at the end of your next dive, swim ashore, fast. Dont take the boat.

The second issue assumes you are an accomplished swimmer. Not necessarily competitively trained or an active triathlete, but a fit, in shape freediver who trains in bifins and mono. You are a person who not only regularly trains in the local pool but regularly takes time out of freediving a reef or rope to swim or finswim a mile to the pier and back. Will this make you a better freediver......you bet. Put it this way, Freediving is like the Christmas turkey, but if you want to eat a banquet, you need to add other items to the menu. Our love of the water allows us to freedive, swim, scuba, and many other variations of expression including yoga and meditation, all of which compliment our main activity, we enrich our sport by becoming more proficient in a few of these other areas and they make our freediving more rounded. Put yourself a mile, or three, or six, off shore and swim ashore (have your dive boat keep escort if you need one quietly out of the way, you may get bored and tired and believe you may never reach the shore, you may retire early to your boat, but you will have caressed the ocean with a new touch, and she will reward you.

Just my tuppence worth. Now get Alun Georges opinion, he would have drowned if he fell into a swimming pool a few years ago.

 

[sheepeck]

That's bull's eye hit

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Haydn,

First let me say that I have never swum the English Channel, and couldn't if I tried. However, I think this puts me in the great majority. Would it be better if all of us could? Certainly. But I think its a strain to come up with all these hypothetical situations in which it would be better if I were a champion freestyle swimmer.

What if I see a car crash 100 meters down the highway and could save the people in the car if I could just get there in 10 seconds before the car burst into flames? Then wouldn't I have been better off putting my time into sprint training rather than swimming?

Or what if my hiking buddy is seriously injured in the wilderness and I could get him help in time to save his life if only I could run a marathon in 2:30. My best marathon, many years ago, was only 3:08. Wouldn't it have been better if I did more distance running instead of swimming?

Freediving is not my only activity in the world. I can only be a champion at so many things. I flew jet fighters for 20 years, and it was important for me to put a lot of time and effort into that activity if I was to be safe and effective. Maybe that cut into my swimming proficiency. Did I make the wrong choice?

I just think you are stretching your case for being a freestyle swimmer with all these hypotheticals. Have been diving since about 1952 or 1953, and have never encountered a single instance like those you described. And I have never had an incident in which I even felt the need to swim freestyle. Am I that atypical?

Also, I think I can outswim all but the very best freestyle swimmers if I am using fins, but it seems everyone wants to assume I will lose my fins. I have never lost a fin in all my years of diving. Am I that atypical? How many of you reading this have lost your fins? How? Why?

 

[Haydn]

Great answer Bill, but in your flying career, dont you think say 30 hours solo in a microlight, 30 freefall jumps, a hang gliding course, a gentle hot air balloon trip, paragliding as a hobby, private pilots licence in light aircraft etc etc would add to your expertise and awareness as a jet pilot. Now the punch line....Yes you have done all those things. Are you a better jet pilot because of these experiences? Certainly you are.

The hiking scenario? Yes it would be better if you were fit enough to provide the response required, especially if it meant you could run 26 miles through the wilderness when any other hiker would have to struggle to walk that distance for help. Especially If your fitness is also balanced with a first aid/medical certification, this would also make you a better hiker. Can you splint a broken leg or stem arterial blood flow? These abilities would make you a better mountaineer even if you never need to bring them into use.

However, its not just about ability when the chips are down. Or a question of being a better buddy in an emergency. As you say, these scenarios are rare. More importantly, I believe my previous water experiences have enriched areas of my life in many ways that freediving has not matched. I have been alone in the ocean 10 miles from land. I have woken in hospital after fifteen hours in Loch Lomond colder than a corpse. I have swum in the most placid of flat waters and in water so rough my boat crew were worried about capsizing while my heart raced with adrenalin and laughing aloud. I have been stranded on a beach for two days, unable to swim away from it because of the tide. I have swum while crying in my goggles not to have to do one more stroke, knowing I had four hours still to go. I have cried in my goggles because of the beauty and serenity of the ocean. The foundation formed by these experiences now enrich my freediving. And freediving experiences now build upon and enrich my love affair with the ocean. Dropping down the line under negative bouyancy, getting the tag, seeing a baby lion fish, being close enough to kiss a roaming shark on the nose, spooking a scuba diver swimming through in a reef tunnel in Hawaii, the peace of a quality static session.

The question related to swimming abilility and will you be a better freediver if you can swim. The answer has to be yes.

 

[Evita]

In general, I agree 99% with the claim that good swimming ability (all round) will make you a better freediver.

But here's an example of something I have struggled with:

I am a fairly good swimmer and crawl/freestyle is my favorite style. I inhale every 3 strokes (classic) and I do salto turns. My usual rhythm before a turn on a 25m lane is to take a final inhale, do 3 strokes, glide a little, salto turn, push off, glide, kick and exhale under water, and break the surface for the first stroke and first inhale on the new lane.

For breast stroke turns, I also kick off, glide, take the first arm stroke under water, glide, do the first kick under water, (don't glide because my breast stroke kick sucks!), exhale, bring arms forward and break the surface for the first inhale in the new lane.

This means that I am so used to exhaling after turns, that it has taken me many, many months to NOT do it during a dynamic. The routine is too much on my back bone and it has been a really bad habit for me in dynamic training!

Maybe it is also a bad habit in swimming? I am not at the right level to know this.

But I know that for the first 1½ years of my freediving pool training (up until a few weeks ago), I just copied my swimming on the surface and "pasted" it underwater, too. Same breathing pattern except for the inhale. But I discovered that I need to think of dynamic training as something other than just swimming under water.