Are Freediving Courses Worth It?
Diana participated in a Fluid Focus Freediving Retreat and talks here about one of the most commonly asked questions about Freediving.
The first time I heard of freediving was in the movie “Mavericks.” It was a brief mention that made me Google it soon after - diving without an oxygen tank, diving whilst holding your breath. It seemed equally as dangerous as big wave surfing, and I quickly categorized it as a “not in this lifetime kind of sport.” Years later, and now a freediver myself, I can see that I was both right and wrong in that initial assessment.
Freediving is indeed the practice of diving on a breath-hold without the use of any external breathing apparatus. Yet it’s a surprisingly safe sport when proper technique and safety measures are applied. And despite the astronomical depths and breath-hold times Google talks about, it shouldn't intimidate newbies. With the right guidance, diving deeper and holding your breath longer than you ever imagined is easier than expected.
That’s the key to freediving - guidance, which is why I strongly believe freediving courses are not just worth it; they are necessary.
Debunking Myths and Limiting Beliefs
Before I did my first course, I was an occasional snorkeler with a limited breath-hold of about 30 seconds, which had probably declined since I last practiced with my brother in the pool of an all-inclusive hotel in Turkey. My claim to great depths was slightly more exciting; I had made it to 40m during a scuba diving course, but it had taken a good 5 minutes shuffling up and down a line in shallow water, desperately blowing air into my ear canals, to successfully equalize. It was uncomfortable and made me avoid even shallow 2m dives for the foreseeable future out of fear that my eardrums would once again scream in agony.
These experiences convinced me that I was not a natural breath holder and my ears were not built for deep dives.
I took this thought with me as I walked into a freediving school to sign up for my level one course. Over the years, I had heard more and more about the sport, and my curiosity was peaking. After two days, I realized my self-drawn conclusions had been wildly false.
Breath-hold is not so much a natural talent but rather a skill that can be taught. It involves two key components; learning how to fully relax your body to optimize oxygen use and understanding how the body reacts in low oxygen and high CO2 environments.
Armed with this knowledge, students can prolong their breath holds with confidence.
CO2 vs. Oxygen
What is the discomfort you feel when you start feeling out of breath? In fact, it’s not the lack of oxygen but rather the buildup of CO2.
What do you do when the discomfort kicks in? What exercises can you do to increase your tolerance to discomfort? How far can you push safely? What’s the worst that can happen?
My first breath-hold in my first lesson, after learning just some basic techniques, was two minutes, a seemingly impossible feat. A few weeks later it would increase to three and half minutes. Now I have no doubt I can achieve five or six minutes. I understand how to train and how to do it safely.
Equalization
The second lesson I learned was that equalization is not so much dependent on ears and ear canals as it is on technique. And it’s not only one technique but rather a variety of them used for different types of dives and depths. For example, beginner-level scuba diving and freediving use two main types of equalization, Valsalva and Frenzel.
Proper equalization and ease in doing so depend on the control a person can build over their soft palette, and control comes with practice. With disciplined training, students can learn even more useful and advanced techniques such as hands-free.
I now dive to 27m, and 40m feels eerily attainable. The impossible has become possible.
The knowledge I have acquired over my own body in the freediving courses I’ve taken has unlocked a sense of potential I did not previously have. By understanding how I react, from an anatomical point of view to the practices I put my body through when freediving, the thought that was previously “I can’t go any further than” has become “How can I learn more to get myself to.”
It’s been liberating, inspiring, exhilarating and impossible without the instruction I have received during my freediving courses.
Chasing Progress in Freediving
I am aware we don’t all have the same journey. Some of my friends have grown up on boats, diving to 20m+ for fun, and some of the things I have learned come almost naturally to them. Why would they need to attend a course? They’re already doing it, diving on one breath.
Even the best of us eventually reach a plateau without coaching. The deep blue, unlike other settings, is consistent in its ever-changing nature. Your capacities at 10 meters are very different from those at 20, 30, 40, and 100 meters. Light, buoyancy, and pressure increase or decrease with depth.
To share a brief example, pressure increases every 10 meters by 1 bar. This means at 10m, the pressure doubles, and your lung size halves.
At 40 meters, your lung size is a fifth of its surface size. To even reach those depths, your tissues need to have enough flexibility to compress. Finding air to equalize your ears becomes increasingly difficult at depth, leading to the array of equalization and air drawing techniques.
Below 20 meters, your buoyancy is negative, which means where in shallow water you use energy to dive deeper, at depth you’re in free fall. Some freedivers call this a “free ride”, but the return ticket to the surface is where you pay. Your muscles will work harder on the way up, and lactic acid will start to build up. The urge to breathe will kick in, and you’ll still have to stay as relaxed as possible throughout the entire experience.
The progression to deeper dives and the adjustments required are not intuitive, they are 100% learned. For this reason, courses focus on building knowledge and achieving progress through a multitude of practices and techniques. In fact, most progress is achieved as much in the water as outside of it.
Instructor Guidance
During a course, the instructor will be able to offer you the right warm-up techniques, stretches and breath hold exercises in order to: increase your tolerance to CO2 buildup, increase the flexibility of your tissues, improve your ability to relax, and increase your muscle tone.
They will be able to talk you through each dive, what to expect from the environment, what to expect from your body and how to adapt to the changes. They will dive with you part of the way, be able to analyze your body positioning and your rhythm, and have the knowledge to offer feedback. Sometimes a blockage that won’t let us get any deeper could be something as simple as keeping the shoulders tense or the neck bent during our dive. Having someone to debrief with after the dive and discuss what felt difficult and what felt easy is key.
By learning your strengths and weaknesses, they will be able to tweak the exercises to focus specifically on your needs. Not all of us face difficulties in the same areas, so having someone offer bespoke solutions is necessary.
Most of all, instructors will be able to keep the rate of your progress in check, make sure you don’t push too far too quickly, and above everything, make sure that whatever you do, you never forget to enjoy each dive, surrender to it and have fun.
Becoming part of the community
Freediving is a sport where there is no barrier between novices and professionals, where everyone, regardless of skill, is bonded by their shared love of the deep blue. Attending freediving courses enables freedivers to become part of this community.
Having people to speak with about the mental as well as physical aspects of the sport, to compare experiences and offer support, to train, and even just to be able to share the appreciation of the underwater world is extremely useful. How do others perceive the same challenges? How do they overcome them? What do they do that you can learn from?
Being able to dive with people of different skills can be a lesson in itself. Witnessing someone go to a depth you can’t yet conceive as ever being within reach can suddenly make that same depth become that much more attainable. Seeing someone taking their first dives and discovering this world for themselves can show you how far you have come and build your own confidence in your progress. The dynamic between divers of similar levels is a test of its own, testing our own competitive sides, learning how to direct our focus inwardly, and forcing us to improve our mental resilience to both other people’s success and our own failure.
To top it all off, being part of a course, meeting new people, making friends, and having fun make even the most amazing experience better. And the celebratory beers even more so.
Whatever road leads you to it, freediving is its own kind of magic.
For me, it is the most personal practice. It has taught me more about myself than any other sport ever has.
Without my instructors' guidance and patient teaching, I doubt I would have achieved the same level of progress, self-knowledge, and control. To anyone picking it up for the first time, I wholeheartedly recommend starting taking a beginner course from a reputed diving school. It will enable you to quickly build confidence and a solid knowledge base and will set you on the road to success whilst keeping you sound and safe.
And like me, you might very quickly move this sport to the ‘will do for the rest of my life’ category.
Freediving Course FAQS
If you’re interested in starting your freediving journey, here are some answers to some of the most common questions to get you started.
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Yes! Freediving is a sport accessible to everyone and anyone interested in learning it. The only requirement is a love of water since you will be spending a long time in it.
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Although you don’t need to be an Olympic-level swimmer or have any specific swimming technique, the base requirement is to be able to swim 200m unassisted.
Even if you are not interested in certification, freediving is an amazing way to increase your comfort in the water.
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Most schools offer an Introductory session. This is just a one-day session in which you will receive some base theory and get to experience what it is like to dive into the deep blue. This is not a certified course, and should you want to progress further, you will have to enroll in a Course.
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The short answer is no. Although having previous experience and feeling comfortable in open water is always a great starting point, we highly recommend that you do the course to learn the basic techniques, build a solid knowledge base and understand how to practice the sport safely.
Diana is a full-time nomad, adventure traveler, and aspiring novelist. After a decade in London, where she worked as a business analyst for one of the top tech companies in the world, she decided to pack up her life and head off in the pursuit of adventures across the globe. She is currently traveling around Indonesia, improving her freediving and exploring the deep blue.
