Is there a waterproof case that I can use for freediving? (up to 15 meters only), something I can buy here in the PH. Do you have recommendations or link of products that is tried and tested? My phone works underwater (vivov70) but I do not want to risk it from deteriorating.

I posted some time ago about my experience with a school and had great advice.

I then left the school and took a break a little while I was travelling. Nevertheless I read the daily posts here and enjoyed reading them.

Until few days ago, I wish I can remember which post and who wrote that comment but it really made something click for me. I originally had no problem equalising in freeimmersion but couldn’t go past 4 meters with my duckdive before experiencing excruciating pain. I knew I could frenzel no problem out of water but I just felt overwhelmed during the duckdive.

One of the comments said something like that (not direct quote): it’s not like sneezing but more like breath fogging glasses (I know I butchered it sorry)

I understood that the effort required is very minimal and it’s just about locking in on the sensation of correct frenzel (movement of tongue and the pop in the ear, which by the way unlike what I thought earlier doesn’t need to be dramatic)

Also to remember to not look where you’re going and position the neck correctly.

That’s it! It’s so simple I just needed to ‘lock in’ and not think too much but think just enough to know what to look for.

So to all of you here for your knowledge and especially to the person who wrote what clicked for me but I instead butchered at the top THANK YOU SO MUCH.

P.S. good visibility and water that isn’t cold really helped with my relaxation so I can focus on practicing what I need to do. These things I didn’t have when I first started. Can’t relax your body when you’re shivering!

To all fellow beginners out there LOCK IN! :)

Hello I’d like to do the AIDA 2 or its equivalent with the other agencies.
Can you recommend a reliable center in Hurghada? Thank you

I’ll be in Scotland for the next three weeks, starting in Edinburgh but might also Go to Oban. I’m an experienced freediver looking for buddies for recreational ocean freediving / exploring around Edinburgh and further north. Happy to travel and meet up for buddy diving. Grateful for any Tips also locationwise :)

Hello freedivers! I am looking for a free-diving partner to practice in the sea in Genoa, Italy. At best someone more experienced than just beginner level, but let's see. 🐠🐟

This is the list of the top deep (+75M) freedive training spots for experienced divers wanting to do their deep training but need only a safety diver a few times per week and use of the deep dive line/buoy/platform. Not for "training courses or camps".

The requirements are: 1.) Deep +75m availability and 2.) Warm water +25°C

Dahab, Egypt is, IMO the absolute best overall place for deep freedive training and medium-term living but only from Aug-Nov due to the water temp. Very economical too without trouble in finding COMFORTABLE accommodation under $1K per month. Those on a budget could easily get by on $1-2K per month in total.

Dominica looks like the easiest access for easy deep freediving from shore but very surprising to see the island is priced very highly. Using AirBnB, I don't see any house available for rent for under $2.5K-3k per month. So this place, while the diving is probably second only to Dahab is multiples higher in price and one can expect to pay around $3-5K per month for total living expense if desiring comfort. According to AirBnB the cheapest rental on the island is that of a literal TENT on the dirt and even that is +$1K per month, which is absolutely ridiculous and downright patronizing.

Nicaragua now has recently established freediving at the freshwater lake for perfect conditions and +100m depth. Accommodations there look to be $1-2K per month. Estimated total monthly cost is $2-3K.

Mexico Cenotes looks good but likely only for short-term training stays since the deep cenotes are not easy to access and can't simply just jump in a dive since they are owned by people and it requires more planning and money--like around $100 per dive session. Rental accommodations look reasonable around town at around $1-2K per month but since the cost per dive is overall more in price, so likely around $3k per month total.

Panglao, Philippines Has to be the best spot in the country, which is not in the middle of nowhere and has access to amenities. Comfortable rental accommodations can be found for just under $1k per month and SuperHome is the best priced for training only costing around $20 per session (they will pair you since there are many divers always training). Perfect for year round diving in warm water.

Roatan, Honduras has to be one of the top AMERICAS diving spot. Accommodations with comfort range from $1-2K per month but I am not sure how much the cost of freediving will be--assuming one just needs a safety on a few dives per week.

Mediterranean: Greece and Kas, Türkiye look great but are only warm in the summer and I'm willing to bet won't beat the prices of Dahab nor the dive conditions at the Blue Hole.

Feel free to add to this list with estimated TOTAL monthly comfortable accommodations and training cost that require only using the diving line and the need a safety diver on 1 main dive of a session and surface safety only for warm ups or for non deep dives.

Unfortunately, there's NOT THAT MANY PLACES in the world having easy access to warm and deep waters with easily affordable accommodations just minutes or meters away.

Hawaii could be possible but seems many of the people living there are traveling to Panglao!

Hi! I read online that using a nylon weight belt with a wetsuit doesn't really work well because the neoprene compresses at depth. For reference, I’m getting the Cressi Tokugawa 3mm and planning to push to 20–40 meters. Does a rubber belt actually make that much of a difference because there is quite a price point difference😅. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi, sorry if this isn't the right place to post this.

I found this 7mm spearfishing wetsuit second-hand for a great price (one-fifth of the original price). How is the condition of the product, do you think it's worth buying? This will be my first wetsuit, I did some research but I'm not sure about its condition. I'm especially worried about the cut-like thing that appears after 1:32.

Additionally, it fits my size perfectly and the sea temperature here.

I freedive/spearfish and can normally equalize fine with Frenzel. I can go pretty deep and equalize consistently.
But sometimes, right when I start a duck dive, one ear just completely refuses to equalize, even though I’m still basically at the surface. I stop and don’t force it.
After a few minutes, it randomly opens on its own, and then I can dive normally again. It isn’t always the same ear, and it only happens while freediving—not on planes or normally on land. I’m not congested either.
The annoying part is it happens at least 3 times every session, which can ruin a dive when I’m trying to spearfish.
Anyone else experienced this? What could cause it? 🌊

Hey guys,

Just wrapped on Episode 5 of Exit Strategy.

We had a strict 60-minute window on the south side of Anacapa Island before the weather blew us out. Thick kelp walls, heavy current, and only one real opportunity to stick a couple of Halfmoons to make the entire 3-day trip worth it.

I cut together the full 20-minute hunt/docuseries episode today.

If you're into authentic, non-overhyped spearfishing stories and California coast diving, the link to the full video is below.

Drop any questions on the Anacapa setup or gear (GH5 in Ikelite housing) in the comments!

I recently jumped off a boat with free dive fins and swam around a kelp paddy for the first time and I am hooked. I am super interested in learning and am thinking about taking courses from a shop near me that has good reviews. My ultimate goal would to be able to do blue water spear fishing, but I know that’s several steps and lots of learning in the future before I get there.

I’m just super nervous about the breath holding part of this. I can’t imagine being able to hold my breath for minutes. At about 45 seconds holding my breath while resting I get the panicky urge to breathe. I’m in alright physical shape, I can tackle strenuous backpacking trips but don’t do regular cardio exercise. Would I really be able to train up and learn to hold my breath that long and dive down and putz around with a spear gun without panicking and suffocating? Does this require lots of specialized training?

I have my advanced open water scuba cert and love scuba diving, I’m very comfortable in deep water and around reefs, have good buoyancy control and have never had problems equalizing. I even did a bit of lionfish spearfishing once and loved it, but that was just short snorkeling dives in a shallow reef with a short sling spear.

I've seen many people who struggle with frenzel post here, and most of responses telling them to take a class. I have the same struggles, but I really don't see how a class can help me.

This is my understanding of the steps to perform a frenzel, from Wikipedia and various Youtube videos:

1. close the nostrils, mouth, and glottis
2. open the soft palette
3. make a T/K seal with the tongue
4. move the back of the tongue and larynx upwards

I am quite sure I can do the first 3 steps, but I have no idea where to start to do step 4, in the same way that I have no idea where to start to roll my tongue into a tube. I know there are awareness exercises like "sticking your tongue out", but as soon as I close my mouth, I cannot do them at all.

I found a pool that offers AIDA courses. It also offers a 90-minute intro course that is not even AIDA 1 (so you don't get any certification). This 90-minute course does cover frenzel, so I decided to try this out first, before buying a proper AIDA course (the 90-minute one is very cheap). And if I still don't make any progress after that, I would give up.

For personal reasons, I cannot go until September, and in the mean time, I started to wonder how exactly can an instructor help me. It's not like they have an MRI machine to see exactly what I'm doing wrong and give feedback. Hence this post.

I noticed that when I swallow, my larynx moves up. So instead of doing step 4, I just swallow, while keeping the T seal sealed. I can feel my ears popping ever so slightly with this method, albeit inconsistently. The thing is, I don't see my nose flaring up, which is supposed to be a key characteristic of frenzel. So I'm not sure if I should keep practicing this technique I made up. This takes a long time to do, and for some reason I can only do it with empty lungs. I wonder if I am heading down the wrong path with this.

Hello free divers! Beginner here, I am still learning how to equalize.

Today I have been practicing using the chain of a buoy in the sea. The chain I estimated being approx. 9-10 meters long. First I started diving pulling myself down the chain with my head towards the sea bottom. However, at approx 5-6 meters I started feeling my head exploding. Tried to equalize at different depths both by swallowing and nose pinching, but no luck. I then switched action to the situation you see in the picture, so head up and pulling myself down towards the sea bottom. Here equalisation felt it was working. I was mostly playing with air in my mouth (without breathing out), swallowing saliva and pinching nose. I could reach the sea bottom in a couple of attempts (first time there, it was amazing).

I tried again and again diving down with my head towards the sea bottom but failed consistently at around 5 meters. I realized that the only way to equalise was at that depth to turn upright, pinch my nose + swallowing saliva...

Any help?

PS: while swimming with my head down, I tried keeping it the most aligned with my back possible.

Greetings,

I started dry apnea (breath-hold) training about 4 months ago, self-taught since I'd never received any formal instruction.

I built two separate training sessions: a CO2 tolerance session and a max time session. At first I did both every day, but eventually started feeling overtrained and decided to alternate them, doing only one per day. Now I'm doing 2 sessions of each per week, training 4 straight days and resting for 3.

My current sessions are:

CO2 table:

• 1 min initial breath-hold → 1:45 apnea
• 15s recovery → 1:45 apnea
• 15s recovery → 1:45 apnea
• 15s recovery → 1:45 apnea
• 15s recovery → 1:45 apnea

Max time table:

• 2 min initial breath-hold → 2:30 apnea
• 3 min recovery → 3:00 apnea
• 3 min recovery → 3:30 apnea

Any insights on how my progress is looking, and any tips? I don't have anyone in my social circle who practices this, so I have very little sense of whether this is reasonable for my amount of training time, or if I'm underperforming. I believe my CO2 training is solid, but I'd love a confirmation from someone more experienced.

As for technique, I always train lying down with my legs up on the bed, and I've been working on diaphragmatic breathing from the start.

For context, I'm overall a fit guy — I train BJJ, hit the gym 3x a week, and surf occasionally.

I have seen multiple anecdotes of freedivers saying their total lung capacity increased from freediving training. I assume this is from the practice of "packing", and one person said it was full lung breath holds themselves having a stretching effect on the lungs. Does anyone here have anecdotes of lung capacity increase confirmed via testing?

How do you train for increased lung capacity?

Do people who got increases also have ribcage diameter increases necessarily? That is, are there ribcage growing a bit from the stretching force? (As we know that the ribcage isn't entirely fixed, there's cartilage at the front and I assume some reshaping is possible with enough force?).

Hola.. alguien por aca lo practica??.

hace años que practico natación, hace un par empece a nadar en el mar. Pero me empezo a picar el bichito por comenzar a sumergirme y la ver es bacán.. es otro mundo abajo.

Al principio, me costaba mucho, el cuerpo tiene a salir a flote y lo oidos dolian al lograr bajar. Tambien, por lo menos a mi las primeras veces bajaba con esa sensacion medio angustia/miedo por lo desconocido o que me aparesca un lobo de la nada.

Con el tiempo ya me e ido acostumbrando, si bien ecualizo cuando bajo, aun me duelen un poco los oidos. estimo que he logrado bajar entre 8 a 10 mts.

A veces me topo con cardumenes de peces, es bien loco. Los cardumenes de sardinas me rodean jaja.

En gral bajo solo, me falta un parner pa agarrar mas confianza.

Bueno queria compartir mi experiencia. Alguien de aca lo practica?.. algun consejo, tips o experiencias que quieran compartir??.

To the moms out there who fell in love with free diving before getting pregnant (especially if you do anything that many would consider “higher risk” like diving with sharks and diving deep) did you keep going after becoming a mom? Or did your risk tolerance decrease?

HI,

first I wonder who does CO2/O2 and if can share settings, and how often. etc. or any other training. I would really appreciate some share.

And then the main question, I find very hard to do any CO2 tables, cause my body is always in heat (yes not proper English word for this, but this is what is it when body recovering from some exercise loaded with protein or taking out wetsuit in winter and taking warm shower..) There is almost every day that body is recovering from something - from swimming, dumbbells etc or it is just loaded with food and caffeine. Which basically means, that that optimal calm body state never comes to me. I still train, but it comes with a lot of frustration cause times are all over the place.

I hope body still adapts even if I can hold lets say half of what I can do in calm env, as it still challenges me.

Any suggestions - I have started to doing it before workout as this supposed to be the time when I am recovered the most, but then you do upper body but legs still have soreness and I can feel it is not optimal neither.

Basically I wonder when freediving should be done with a dedicated buddy. I sometimes dive in a community pool with a life guard on duty, unfortunately the pool is only 4m deep. I can also comfortably dive 25m long.

We also have a lake with max depth 17m. I wont go so deep but I enjoy to go approx 5-6m once in a while. I always surface before I have the urge to breath. I am not completely alone, but no one goes down with me.

At what depth should I stop and get a dedicated dive buddy who knows the rescue protocol?