Free Diving courses - do I need one?

[Argent Aqua]

My Girlfriend and I both enjoy snorkelling and diving/swimming around without tanks, regs etc. I’ve recently bought a free diving mask & entry-level fins and can immediately see the advantage of this kit over my ordinary snorkelling/scuba stuff for this purpose.

The thing is: we can both already swim & hold our breath (for a bit), and we’ve no interest in just swimming up and down a rope. So, do you think we would gain anything from attending one of the Aida or SSI courses, or are we better off saving our money?

[nigel hewitt]

I did the course (AIDA**) and they taught me to hold my breath longer than I expected but although it was fun there wasn't any vital stuff in there.
Most of the stuff I liked was having an instructor's time to critique my ways of doing things.
The rescue drills were good to have practised.

[notdeadyet]

I did a week long freediving course in Thailand with an Argentinian freediver, Monica Ganame. I've never seen anyone as at home in the water as her in my life.

Anyway... yes, a good course is worth it. I went from being able to hold my breath for a couple of minutes to being able to hold my breath for nearly seven minutes over a week of training. Also went from floundering around in about 5m to being able to do 30m breath-hold dives. Even if all you want to do is just simple surface diving or spearfishing or something then the improvement in technique is immense.

There are also a lot of safety issues that you don't really get to appreciate just by doing it yourself.

It was the best course I've ever done and certainly the most satisfying. Freaking out the herds of PADI divers at 20m when they realise you've no equipment other than a mask and fins is worth it alone.

[Purge]

Im hoping to do one this summer on Gozo. Im the same, dont find too much excitement going up and down a rope. However, the enjoyment I get from being underwater for 1 min without a tank can only be magnified with some decent training!

[notdeadyet]

I found the write up I did of the course:

https://www.lizardland.co.uk/free/freedive-01.htm

https://www.lizardland.co.uk/free/freedive-02.htm

https://www.lizardland.co.uk/free/freedive-03.htm

https://www.lizardland.co.uk/free/freedive-04.htm

https://www.lizardland.co.uk/free/freedive-05.htm

And the school I did it with: http://www.apneatotal.com/

[Tim Digger]

I would urge you to do a course. A year or two ago we witnessed a young man brought out drowned from a water front in Cosumel Mexico. He was free diving the relatively shallow (10m) water in front of his hotel. He may have been a case of shallow water blackout. But we will never know. It is not without risk.

[Allan Carr]

On holiday in the Azores last week, the boat owner was saying that last year his anchor got stuck when diving the Princess Alice Seamount. One of the dive guides was kitting up to go and free it when a free diver on board offered to go and release it which he did. It was only at 63M after all! I would think that some serious training is required before trying that!

[taz]

.

Just out of interest what happens to the lungs at that depth.

Obviously they are compressed but do they get damaged as
they fold over themselves and separate from the chest wall?

Often wondered and not sure if I've had it explained before.

taz

.

[Allan Carr]

I've also wondered about DCS and narcosis. Is it that there is not enough nitrogen in one lungful (or should it be two lungsful?) to cause problems?

[jb2cool]

For DCS, you are not at depth long enough to absorb much additional nitrogen into your bloodstream. DCS is a factor of depth and time. The deep deep free divers that are underwater for a non-trivial amount of time could possibly have issues though.

For the lungs, they will reduce in volume when you go deeper but if you think about it, they are used to shrinking whenever you breathe out so that won't be a problem. When you start going deeper though and they can's shrink much more thinks get a bit nasty, (I think I'm right in saying this) there is this thing called blood shift where blood/fluids leak out of the tissues and pool in the body cavity taking up the volume that the lungs would have previously occupied.

I might be wrong with some of that though so seek expert advice.

[Nickpicks]

.

Just out of interest what happens to the lungs at that depth.

Obviously they are compressed but do they get damaged as
they fold over themselves and separate from the chest wall?

Often wondered and not sure if I've had it explained before.

taz

.

I don't think they separate form the chest cavity wall (otherwise there would have to be air / vacuum between the lung and the ribs). As the air in the lungs compresses, the diaphram will be pulled up so the abdomen will be pushed in to take up the space (so the beer gut will look better )

[PBrown]

.

Just out of interest what happens to the lungs at that depth.

Obviously they are compressed but do they get damaged as
they fold over themselves and separate from the chest wall?

Often wondered and not sure if I've had it explained before.

taz

.

Basically the gap between the chest wall and the lungs fill with blood:

http://divewise.org/science/freediving-science/

I've also wondered about DCS and narcosis. Is it that there is not enough nitrogen in one lungful (or should it be two lungsful?) to cause problems?

Both are possible, albeit at the extremes:

http://divewise.org/science/neurological-injury/

http://divewise.org/science/tanya-streeter-nitrogen-narcosis/

cheers,
Paul

[Tim Digger]

To take issue here slightly. Having read some of the linked article.
1. The blood does not fill the space between the lung and the chest wall, it is within the blood vessels of the lungs and since fluid is not compressible you need a litre or so to keep the chest wall from caving in. This is quite possible to be diverted from periphery to lungs. There have been cases of pulmonary haemorrhage (bleeding into the lungs) from this over distension of the lung blood vessels but this is not into the pleural space (the POTENTIAL) space between lung and chest wall. This was poor writing in the article quoted.
2. It is definitely possible to get DCI from free diving, but it does require multiple free dives over a relatively short period. Combining SCUBA with significant free diving is definitely not a good idea.

[Fraga]

On holiday in the Azores last week, the boat owner was saying that last year his anchor got stuck when diving the Princess Alice Seamount. One of the dive guides was kitting up to go and free it when a free diver on board offered to go and release it which he did. It was only at 63M after all! I would think that some serious training is required before trying that!

May I ask if you know his name?
At that depth... it might well possibly have been my uncle.

[Neilwood]

Not being a freediver I can't comment on if the courses are worth it but I would personally think about taking one to try to improve my efficiency. If training can get me anywhere near the results mentioned earlier (1minute to 7 minutes over a week of training) then it is probably well worth doing it.