Want to meet fellow Canadian freedivers!

[iceselkie]

Hi!!

I am trying to get some contacts here in Canada, but anywhere would be awesome! I have tried to start up groups, but am having a tough time meeting people that way!

Join my MSN Group
.:Breathless:. http://groups.msn.com/Breathless/homepage

or on Yahoo
.:Breathless:. http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/breathless_freedive/

Thanks for looking, hope to hear from you!

 

[jkivi]

Hey iceselkie,

there are a couple of big groups of freedivers in canada. The 2 main ones are in Vancouver and Toronto. You could join CAFA at www.freedivecanada.com. I am a part of CAFA as well as a member of the alberta freedivers (altasub) you can joing our MSN group at:

http://groups.msn.com/AltaSub/

the alberta freedivers also use a forum at:

http://www.mossmanscubaventures.com

If you are ever interested in coming out I am sure someone could put you up or something. We do a lot of diving out at Lake Minnewanka and up near Edmonton as well.

Jer

 

[jkivi]

hehehe just went and checked the MSN altasub group and realized you are already a member... sorry about that. I don't check it too much. You can join the mossman page though. we plan dives and talk about training there.

 

[iceselkie]

heheh I am a member there as well!

It's a pretty close knit group- somewat tricky for a starting out, 27 yr old female with no SCUBA gear and no training, to hang with.
I know Ron Brandt (also a member of a lot of these boards, including scubaboard.com), who also is listed in our yellow pages as a Freediver/Suba Master.. and he has proferred no advice on training either.
I have emailed CAFA, specifically Kirk Krak, who I know hails from Saskatoon even. No response. I have emailed CUGA, no response. I emailed the Edmonton Octopushers, and got a response fron Gilles- last August! I know Calary and Edmonton have a lot of active mebers. I just want to know the secret!
Saskatoon has a UWH club called the Seals, but I haven't heard much in response from them either.

 

[iceselkie]

http://www.pucku.org/tourist/ca.html

 

[iceselkie]

"If there's a lake with any amount of depth out there, I'd be willing to come out and share what I know about safety and technique. I'll dive anywhere if it's got some depth!
Cheers,
Erik Y."

How about the Lawson pool?! LOL Ah well, back to the drawing board...

 

[Erik]

Hi Brianna, hopefully we can all meet up at some point. Are there lakes with depth in Sask? It's too late in the year now, but I'm sure a few of us could get together and come out for a visit next spring, once the ice is gone. Freediving in a group is a lot of fun....you should try and come out to Minnewanka Lake or Twin lake sometime.
I was the lone freediver in Alberta for a few years and it's much better now that there a few of us willing to travel a bit for diving.
I always crash at someone's house on the coast when I go out there....you'll find we're all pretty supportive of each other
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[jkivi]

It's a pretty close knit group- somewat tricky for a starting out, 27 yr old female with no SCUBA gear and no training, to hang with.

when I started last winter I had no training. I just went to a pool. taught myself how to dolphin kick with a terrible pair of 1980 scuba fins and a pair of old swim goggles. After doing that for like 2 and a half months I moved up to saying I was going to continue with this and bought a monofin.

When I started I rented a wetsuit and didn't know anyone. I was 24th now I am 25. The Alberta Freedivers are always welcome to new people... even from saskatchewan :t . After renting a suit like 10 times this summer I finally broke down and got a picasso black termic suit. I will PM you with some stuff.

 

[iceselkie]

Hi Erik! Yeah, I was a little discouraged when I realized that everyone out there is lake diving and I haven't got to that point yet even. I just bought a wetsuit and I used it in Lake Diefenbaker last summer briefly. I don't spearfish, didn't own a weightbelt, and my buddy had no wetsuit so the whole thing didn't last too long. Really, as far as lakes go, word of mouth is that Lovering Lake is the diving lake around here. As far as depth goes, I'm not really sure on that one.

Basically I tried SCUBA in 1994, but couldn't afford PADI, so I got my NLS.. then when I first got my snorkling gear back in 1997, I went to one UWH game and realized I needed much more practice. Since then I put a lot of time into family and school and actually.. I didn't even know my obsession with water was simply called Freediving until my husband and I watched "the Big Blue" last year.
I've been looking for a monofin on EBAY, but I might wait a bit on that for now... things just seem to be fairly stagnant here. I would really like to do something about that.. but also I do plan on moving to Victoria in a few years. I just don't want to have to wait until then to learn how to be a good freediver. And when you love a sport, you just want to get other people involved or meet other people who love it too. That's where I'm at right now. thanks for reading!!

 

[iceselkie]

Jeremy, Nice website first of all!

Yes, a lot of the things you mentioned. I found a training schedule on Tanya Streeter's websitebut definitly too advanced for me... I would like to learn about breathing up techniques. For me, I get to the pool, swim around on the surface for a bit, slap on the gear http://www.angelfire.com/ne/m0/freediver.html
and do some dolphin kicks... eventually I work my way down and across until I've been in the water long enough that not needing regular breathing becomes natural. I've never timed myself.
I do swim with my husband but I would like to meet and swim with someone ( or many) who is as motivated as myself, as far as going beyond recreation.