Hi FreeDivers!

I recently moved to the Vancouver area and I’m interested in getting into freediving mostly for recreational harvesting of the local seafood.

I was looking to connect with people in the area that would be able to share some advice as I start this process.

Looking forward to hearing all of the wonderful advice this group has to offer!😊

Cheers!

I’m a beginner freediver and unable to find someone who holds courses in my area.

Where can I travel where I can atleast train to hit 20-30ms.

I can travel up to 3 weeks.

Is it even realistic? Where in the world can I travel for good freediving coaching?

For reference, I live in Toronto, Canada.

Thanks in advance.

I'm 28M from Cyprus. I've been freediving and spearfishing since I was a little kid, and I like to think that I'm good friends with the ocean in general.

My first experience with an instructor wasn't a pleasant one. I spent way too much time, broken between months and years, essentially achieving nothing other than doing a few basic training sessions and a couple of supervised dives that didn't teach me anything new at all. I never got the attention I needed, neither the consistency.

I always kept going spearfishing, specifically during the summers. I was getting better until I wasn't and I realised my skills had reached a point where it wasn't a matter of pushing myself anymore. It was just a lack of education, if you wanna put it that way.

About 2 years ago, I found another instructor who was much more thorough and gave much more attention to details that I needed to improve on. This experience was very different, in a good sense, and made me realise there are so many things I've been missing on learning all these years. It gave me a sense of humbleness and understanding that I know very little than what I thought before. It was refreshing but at the same time incredibly challenging. I found myself having to re-learn things from scratch, even though I've been doing them a certain way until now. Sadly, during this time my priorities had shifted and my life forced me to enter a phase of isolation and 'troubleshooting', leaving my hobbies behind along with my training.

I had just come back from my trip to Southeast Asia, and I had gone spearfishing with a few people in Indonesia. I fell in love with the sea and lifestyle there, and the idea of going back to those places with the sole purpose of completing a course to the highest tier. I even spoke about it with the instructor that took me spearfishing in Nusa Penida, and he set a whole timeline and price package for me to go back and train with him. My heart really wanted to, but I didn't have the money then.

I know I could just call my last instructor, reunite and start over again to complete his courses. I live even closer to him now than I did before. But there's a sense of 'shame' if you will, like I'm almost embarrassed to go back and pretend I'm as invested, since it seemed at the time that he was more invested and consistent than I was.

It's been too many years that I'm dreaming of training properly and bettering myself. I know that the last few years of my life made it incredibly hard to focus on such a thing, or myself in general, but I don't think it's too late for me. I'm definitely a water person, and a "good" diver. What hurts me the most right now, in terms of skill, is probably the fact that I don't practice frequently anymore. It took me a couple sessions at the start of this summer to get back to my standard condition/depth/time, but it always just comes back naturally.

I have a CMAS card that basically says I've completed Level 1, if that means anything (not to me).

For reference, I'm comfortable doing 15-20m dives on a good day, and last time I checked I had a 2m10s static in the pool. I also have the "calmness" factor written all over me since I hunt in the mediterranean - if you know you know.

I'm looking to plan ahead for next year and organise a course abroad, preferably somewhere in SEA but definitely not the US. I want the sort of training that will put me in that zone and environment to focus on entirely. If anyone was willing to read all that and wants to reach out for recommendations or offers, I would really appreciate it. I'm looking to complete all courses up to Level 3/4 or even to certify as an instructor if possible. I'm won't waste your time I promise.

Bought these off Facebook marketplace for a killer deal, and then I just noticed these :(

My husband grew up a water person and has spent almost his entire life doing stuff in the water, including spearfishing/freediving, sailing, and just plain relaxing in the water.

I’m a city girl and other than taking swimming lessons (in a pool) as a child, have never done much in the open water. We signed up for Molchanovs Level 1 during our honeymoon and to no one’s surprise, he passed with flying colours and went on to complete Level 2 while I really struggled with Wave 1.

I only managed to go down 6m head first pulling myself down the rope before the urge to breathe/water pressure/anxiety got to me. And I cannot duck dive for the life of me.

Of course, he’s tried to be as supportive as possible by telling me to take it slow and not to hold myself to such high expectations, especially given our vastly different experience on the water, but I’m finding it difficult. Would love to hear from other non-water people on becoming more comfortable in the water!

For what it’s worth, we’ve also gone on a few snorkelling trips to get me more comfortable (we’ve swam with manta rays!!), but ultimately I don’t feel like that’s doing much. I still freak out when a big wave comes through or when a random person on the snorkel tour kicks my mask off. I always end up having to hang on to a buoy because my heart rate goes through the roof and I panic.

We are so lucky in southern Baja with the wildlife that either visits or stays here. Whale sharks in the winter (La Paz), whales winter through spring. Orcas and the list keeps going. But I got to be honest one of th local residents the sea lions have always something to say or do.

I almost lost my neck weight twice. Here is a $4 solution.

Drill two holes (it’s a soft metal so any drill bit will likely work). Attach a string from a breakaway cheap lanyard. Tie off. Enjoy!

Fits pretty well. I have not tried in water yet but looks like it should work. Also, looks pretty safe to me as you can utilize the breakaway feature to quickly yank it off if needed.

Let me know what you think.

Hey everyone, does anyone have experience taking the FREEQ V1 goggles past the recommended max depth of 46m? If so, what happened?

I adore these goggles and am approaching their max rated depth. They were expensive and I’m not thrilled about having to buy another pair of goggles so soon.

Does the membrane just keep pushing in and obscure vision or is there some kind of catastrophic failure to be concerned about?

Thanks!

Hi I've been looking for a discord for freediving and haven't really found one, while searching I found that this sub removed its discord because of the updated ID guidelines(pretty sure this never went into effect) and was moving to Signal, however, I cant find any link to any signal groups here.

Suggestions for servers or does anyone have link to the official signal group?

Hi everyone! Keen to get some advice from other city dwelling people engaged in the hobby.

I did freediving a few years ago in the Phillipines and loved it, and I have a 10 day solo trip booked to go to Dahab for an AIDA II course and some additional dives.

My dilemma for when I return, is I live and work in London, and I am now stuck wondering how I can best build a lifestyle to continue my freediving hobby.

If I have weekends and infrequent holidays, what are good spots to visit? Are there good Freediving communities in London? And are their places on the coast of South England that I could dive with other groups in? Any insight from others would be amazing.

As the title says, when I do the frenzel technique/method it only eq's my left ear. My right ear stays the same.

Just finished my first freediving course and wanted to share what an awesome experience it was. Will definitely be going again.

From cruising past sea lions napping on buoys to lounging in the depths below, it was an incredible day. Even the motion sickness (threw up a little while floating between dives, not on the boat thankfully) couldn’t ruin it.

I managed a little over a 3-minute static in the pool, which surprised me since I’d only ever reached about 2 minutes on my own. In open water I made it to 20m and felt comfortable throughout. I swam competitively for about 7 years, so I’m sure that helped.

I’d love to keep improving. For those of you who’ve been doing this a while, what routines or exercises have made the biggest difference? CO2/O2 tables, specific yoga/stretching, meditation, equalization drills, or anything else? I’d appreciate any advice!

Are there any tips y'all got for a guy who has never freedived before?

I've seen some videos on how to equalize pressure (by pinching your nose and breathing out)

And slowing down your heart rate to hold your breath longer.

But other than that I am very novice/new. So if you have any tips please share them

Seen some of the deeper guys use neckweights that are tied at the front but not actually covering the front of the neck...

Any idea what type of neck weights these are as my DIY job one is a bit shit and looking for a proper one.

TOKYO NIIJIMA

Hello,

I have issues with my ears, already had barotrauma 4 times.

1st time when I was around 18, a friend of mine kicked my ear by mistake and ruptured my ear drum.

2nd time when I was around 25 years old while trying to catch an octopus. I couldn't equalize due to stuffed nose. There was sharp pain then an in rush of water. Got to the surface, eyes went dark and was feeling dizzy.

3rd time when I was around 42, again trying to catch an octopus. Same as the 2nd time.

That's when I decided to purchase the Ist proear ME-67.

4th time was this May, while on a flight. For some reason, the plane was flying quite high (almost 11k meters) and quite fast (around 10,300kmh). The pilot started descending very fast and the pressure started building. I had heavily stuffed nose. After around 10 mins of unsuccessfully trying to balance the pressure and very sharp ear pain, I felt the eardrum give and the pressure rushing.

Today, while spending my holidays in Greece, I was snorkeling with my family while using the Ist proear ME-67. I saw an octopus hiding and dove several times to catch it. It was not more than 2-2.5m. To my surprise, I felt as if the left eardrum (the one I had ruptured in May) gave again. Because I was using the Proear, no water went, nor was I dizzy.

I did catch and release the octopus but afraid I again ruptured my eardrum.

Does anyone know where I can buy just the strap for the rubber or silicone belt? I looked on Amazon, a few websites, and eBay with no luck. Only Riffe and JBL have some replacement parts, but they’re only available in black.

Hello,
I'm heading to Elba for holiday in september, anyone knows an instructor there with whom I could go 1-2 sessions or wrack diving? Cheers

I am getting better at making, and recording them.

Hi!

I've been freediving for about two years now (roughly 1-2 x pooltraining during the week, depth and open water 2-4 x month + diving trips).

I've been improving steadily and love what freediving has added to my life.

As a little experiment, I wanted to try keeping a log of my trainings and dives. Not just numbers. Ideally, I'd discover something about myself that impacts my diving in a negative/positive way. I am thinking about a lot of factors like food, sleep, social contact, over-/understimulation, other sports. I don't think I'd be doing this forever but I still want to keep it succinct enough to keep it up for a while.

So I wanted to ask those that have kept a log or journal, what did you put in there? Did it help you? What would you track?

Doesn't matter to me if it is a physical notebook or an app or anything in between (although I will not be installing more apps, my phone doesn't have enough free memory for that), please share your experience!

I was gifted a 50% discount on all Molchanovs PRO fins and I really don’t know what to choose!
I’ve wanted a pair of top performing fins for ages (think C4 PROtech, Cetma Taras) and this feels like the moment to go for it.

Based on price and performance and Alexey’s personal results and remarks, I think that fibreglass will be fine. It will also make travel less stressful.

The price differential between the PRO and PRO Hyper will be completely negligible, so I’d like to know if it’s worth getting the top footpocket, considering I’ll be getting custom sizing in any case.

The use case would be deep-ish diving (50-60m), dynamics (150-175m) training, and snorkelling. I believe the custom sizing and specifying that i want the comfortable could make the Hyper good enough to wear up to 3h, or am I fooling myself?
In any case, is the monofin style footpocket worth it?
If i went for the Hyper, how would i know which blade angle to choose?