I am new to the forum and wanted some advice regarding beginning free diving. I am 48, from Michigan (USA).. Have had some experience with SCUBA but am really intrigued by free diving. I'm in good shape without any health concerns.. Any thoughts?
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Where to begin
- Thread starterdrdalrymple
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Ive just started free diving this year and its been great so far. I got my Lt. from work to start freediving with me who is 47yo. (he was big into scuba and didnt understand why i liked to free dive until he came out to the lake with me) now he gets it. Im in florida so I have lots of lakes around and just a couple hours away there is a great spring to dive. I dont think I would be into it as much if I didnt have a readily available place to practice, i cant often make it out to the ocean and in fact, i havent been out since ive started free diving. I started off working on breathholds during the cold months before I started diving. That helped a lot to get me use to the feeling of high co2. I moved that practice into the pool, which for me was much harder. I found it hard to relax in the water but now Im doing better. Now that im getting to dive about once a week in the lake, im having a great time. Id say the most important thing is to find at least one person to dive with, not only for safety but also for the fun. Its nice to have someone there learning with you and going through the same experiances. Take your time and research about the type of wetsuit, mask, snorkel, fins, ex. that you will need. If you've already got scuba equipment that should work fine for beginning. Plus you can make sure you really want to continue before you spend any cash. Whats made diving even more fun for me was getting a bouey and rope for the lake dives. That opens up more options for ways of diving and makes it that much more fun. This site has helped a lot with my practice so I suggest sticking around to get advice from the guys who have been doing it a while. Good luck.
Thanks so much for your response.. all of that makes sense. Did you take a class or read a book (or internet info).. ?
So far ive only done internet search. Mostly here on deeperblue, its the best and most active freedive site I have found. It seems like just about everything you need to know is here and if you cant find it you can always ask. Id like to take a class but i cant afford it. As far as safety goes...i listen carefully to what these guys have to say and I follow their instructions.
Dont get bummed out if your breath holds arent good at first, it takes some time. My brother could barely get 1 min at first. Now hes making 50ft dives and sometimes staying down 1:20. Thats not great compared to some...but its good enough to have a lot of fun.
Make sure to check out the begginers section and training section. Thats a great palce to start on here. Ive recently posted a couple videos in the beginners section and asked a question or 2. You will find a lot of info there.
Dont get bummed out if your breath holds arent good at first, it takes some time. My brother could barely get 1 min at first. Now hes making 50ft dives and sometimes staying down 1:20. Thats not great compared to some...but its good enough to have a lot of fun.
Make sure to check out the begginers section and training section. Thats a great palce to start on here. Ive recently posted a couple videos in the beginners section and asked a question or 2. You will find a lot of info there.
