What started you freediving?

[fcallagy]

Tried a search to see if this has been done but just curious how people got in to the sport, I came over from scuba but it took a while as I always regarded freedivers as mental when I saw a comp on TV and saw 3 diver black out I just thought why would someone do that ? maybe that got me started ? Just curious

 

[MBanks]

Ever since I was a baby I have always spent more time under the water than on top (obviously without drowning). I have always practised underwater distance and depth swimming, along with static holds, long before I even knew of the term freediving, or even if the term was around then (does anyone know how long it hjas been associated to it?) I don't there was antything in particular that started it, I just enjoyed it more under than on top!

Martin

 

[fourfeetdown]

Same as Martin - always been more at home under the water. Hadn't swum for years till I started again around 6 months ago as CV work for weight training, and got to wondering if I could swim 25m underwater. I found I enjoyed the underwater bit much more and have since eased off on the long swims and am doing dynamics a few times a week - might even get to try some CW one day!
(DNF pb is now 50m in 1.04, dry static 3.30)
Ady

 

[Erik]

Started in scuba, saw The Big Blue but thought it was just for warm water divers, worked on a dive boat and found myself snorkelling to get more access to in-water time. Freedived in a drysuit with 30lbs lead and plastic fins to 50' and nearly died a few times! Got internet access and started learning and getting proper equipment. Never looked back
Peace,
Erik Y.

 

[MKDVR]

Similar to Erik. I saw "The Big Blue" back when it came out and was always fascinated by the idea of freediving. It stayed in the back of my mind. I started scuba diving 9 years ago but now I've been doing the family thing and can't keep doing it at the level I want to. I found freediving to be the answer. I didn't have to give up diving totally.

 

[Fondueset]

eight years old - had to hold my breath and sit on the bottom for swimming class. It was pure magic. The instructor had to pull me out 'that's long enough' he said.

 

[Alexx]

I can't remember my first time rofl but I know freediving was the reason why I learned swimming very late, at the age of 13. No one could make me put off the fins and mask . At the age of 10, I did cca 7m CWT. From that moment I hate scuba :vangry . One scuba diver, which I didn't see, grabbed my ankle on the bottom (childhood trauma rofl ).

 

[Mermaid24]

Well, I just got into it. Last year. I have grown up loving the water, yet being starved for it. I live here in Amarillo Texas (Desert) No real bodies of water for swimming more than 6 ft deep. My boy friend introduced me to a place called blue hole in new mexico it is 81 ft deep and crystal clear. I fell in love instantly by trying to go down with the scoobies who train there. The irony is that he doesn't swim well and definitely won't get in that deep of water. I have no buddies to go with.

 

[sheepeck]

:-D I started because I planned to visit Hawaii - especially to surf there and not to dive - but thought that would be good to train my breath hold to become more safe when being wiped out and held down there. But - it took my interest and now I do freediving for freediving.

 

[jimdoe2you]

"Why I started freediving" by Jim Doe

I grew up on a clean, clear small fresh water lake with my four older sisters and a lot of friends. We had a big dock, a diving board and always swam every chance we got. We would always have races above and underwater for speed and distance as well as tag (marco polo) and depth competition.

As I grew, I was on the City of Miami swim team for most of my young life and swam, played water polo, and was on the diving team in high school.

I have always been a very aquatic person and am happy to announce that gene has been passed on to my daughter. If she had her way, she'd be in the tub five times a day. She often crys when I take her out!

I will had some pics in a couple of hours.

Jim

 

[island_sands]

i began with scuba... then moved to Cayman and met Cali Johnstone. Addicted since then.

 

[Spaniard]

My parents put me in a weighted sack and chucked me overboard somewhere in the English Channel. I learned freediving pretty damned quick

 

[BennyB]

It's funny that you start freediving, then you piece together all the evidence over the years that guided you towards it. (prepare for the epic saga of love and karma.....:yack )

My dad grew up in inland Australia and didn't like swimming, would only wade around in water. Mum on the other hand was a gifted swimmer who trained with 2 sisters (one ended up marrying Mum's brother & stopped swimming, the other went on to become a world champion swimmer with 2 gold & 2 silver olympic medals and 28 world records). Mum was truly gifted in the water, and I inherited the water bug, just not the athleticism that came with it :duh . As a kid i'd spend hours in the pool at home swimming underwater and mucking around.

There were 2 moments when I was quite young that I remember quite vividly. The first was when I was about 8, a bunch of us were swimming in a creek. No-one had ever swum to the bottom so the kids didn't know how deep it was. I swam down and grabbed a rock and brought it back up. I think it must have been about 4 or 5m but damn it felt like a long way. Seeing as the other kids were my brothers age (4 years older) I felt like the king of the world

I'd seen The Big Blue when I was 13 or 14 on tv and recorded it (still have that tape 16 years later :inlove ) so I now knew what Freediving was.... falling in love with Dolphins and getting with crazy chicks

The other moment was when i'd just joined the surf life saving club at 15, a mate and I decided to swim out past the breakers and see how far we could go. We went a way out then I started diving down with this other guy. Wasn't long before he chickened out and I touched the sand at probably 8-10m. I remember looking up and being completely awestruck by the amount of water between me and the surface, it was love at first sight.

Years later, had moved away from the water for too long then found myself in Sydney. Met my girl, got married and honeymooned in Fiji in 2004. Started snorkelling and rekindled my love of the water. Met an Aussie guy also on honeymoon who had a set of longfins (he's also a DB member). Turns out he was from the suburb next to me in Sydney. Before I got a chance to get his details, he got sick and I didn't see him for the rest of the honeymoon.

The next few weeks I spent on the internet researching and finally found a shop in Sydney to buy some equipment. I was there trying some fins on and I looked up and saw the guy from Fiji there as well... karma! We started freediving and spearing together, at this stage I only knew of one freediver in Australia, Walter Steyn. Karma again, Wal put a training course on in Sydney where I met my good mate Watts, who became my training buddy for the next year and a half until I moved here to London 6 months ago.

I was chatting to mum the other night and she mentioned that back in her day she'd won an underwater race in one of her meets. It was either 25 or 50m, can't remember now. I wish she'd told me that a few years earlier!

Cheers,
Ben

 

[perow1]

My parents put me in a weighted sack and chucked me overboard somewhere in the English Channel. I learned freediving pretty damned quick

Haha! No, i ment to say tragic. That was an original story anyway. Most freedivers tend to:
1. Be born water loovers spending more time under water since they were born
2. Overcoming water fobia and got stuck loving the water
3. Old scuba divers.

For me it was the static part. I saw a TV-show about freediving and had to try static. Being a fairly undisciplined person i was amazed that i could push myself that far. I immediatly closed up on five minutes, but got scared to push further since I had herd the "rumour" about brain damage past four minutes.

It took years though before I got to freedive properly.

 

[jimdoe2you]

Mum on the other hand was a gifted swimmer who trained with 2 sisters (one ended up marrying Mum's brother........................

Hmmmmmm, ...............that kind of stuff is illegal here in America (regardless of what the people in Tennessee think )

Jim

rofl rofl rofl

 

[BennyB]

Oh no, you just need a license over here

 

[John A]

Grew up in S. Florida, once I could swim, folks bought me a mask (5 or 6?) and been in the water ever since. Got my scuba cert when I was 15 but never gave up free diving.

John

 

[Boomstick]

I was snorkling in the Dominican Republic, chasing lobsters across the sea bed and it dawned on me that there must be a way to train myself to stay down longer.

Got home to blighty, trawlled through Google and found Howard Jones via the extreme sports cafe, running a course at the SETT tank.

The rest......as they say.......is History.

 

[fogish]

I have always loved water but my dad only used water for fishing, not swimming. Took a scuba class and loved it, I would sit on the bottom of an outdoor pool and just look up at the clouds for 30-40 mins. at a time. I came to the realization that I couldn't afford to do scuba though and I gave it up.

A few months ago I caught the tail end of a show on satellite about freediving, mainly just showing some lady swimming around and then talking on a boat about how much she loves water. I got the bug again to be in the water and found this site. Now I am training, slowly buying my equipment and my wife is even joining me! We have plans to go to some local lakes on the weekends and catch crawdads/crayfish and I will cook her dinner. I thought freediving would be cheaper than scuba so I went for it, but cheaper and cheap are two different things.

 

[bjpete]

Interesting stories so far! For me I started SCUBA in the mid 70's and became an instructor in the mid 80's. Needless to say, lugging around all that equipment is a pain, let alone all the time spent driving to and from the dive shop to get the tanks filled,tested & inspected, get the regulators tuned up, and so forth, for what! so I can drive several hours & jump in the water for at most an hour. Plus trying not to freeze with the wetsuits that let in so much water. After trying freediving, this was so much better! it's so much easier without all the heavy equipment. I can move around so much better in the water, I'm able to spend a lot more time in the water, and with my apnea wetsuits, I'm able to stay in the water so much longer and not get cold at all. There's been a number of times just before I get in the water where I think I've forgotten some piece of equipment. Also the cost too, it's a lot cheaper, for the price of getting air fills for a year, I can buy a really nice wetsuit.