Shop

Surf in: Surf for: Min price £ Max price £ Order

Brands

Browse shop

Webcams

Our friends

How to Free Dive

It’s necessary before learning how to free dive that a person first know how to snorkel. The more advanced technique is called free diving where you dive down to the bottom of the water, this can be a few a metres or two, up to 100 metres.

The free diving record is held by Martin Stepanek who dived 106 metres in 3 minutes and 45 seconds off the Cayman Islands in 2010. But don’t expect to free dive down that far any time soon, first you have to learn how to free dive.

Once you are snorkelling on the surface of the water you want to take large deep breathes inhale as much as you can, at least three breathes then hold them for a few seconds. When you’re ready to go, take a fourth breathe and start to face down towards the bottom while sticking your feet and legs up in the air. This helps to drive your body down so you can get started towards the bottom.

As you begin to go down farther and farther you will feel water pressure building in your ears causing discomfort, so you will need to learn how to clear your ears to relieve this pressure. To clear your ears, you simply pinch and hold your nose through your mask if you’re wearing one, and then try and blow air out through your nose. This will cause a small popping sound and bring instant relief from the discomfort feeling.

After clearing your ears you will be able to continue downwards toward the bottom, you need to start clearing your ears as soon as you start free diving down, it will take a bit of time to get used to it, afterwards it will become second nature. Equalising the pressure in your sinuses is the only real obstacle to learning how to free dive, other than snorkelling, and your ability to hold your breath long enough to get down as far as you want to go.

WARNING:
• NEVER deep free dive alone, especially in strong current
• Never free dive at night

Featured Articles

Britain in a tandem sea Kayak
In early 2011 Open Horizons intend to circumnavigate Britain in a tandem sea Kayak, We will be relying only on natural elements to complete the challenge. We estimate this adventure to take 90 days...
read more

O'Neill World Cup
The O'Neill World Cup of Surfing is an annual surfing competition that is held in Hawaii in the United States. This competition is comprised of the top professional surfers in the world and is...
read more

Long Board Surfing: Pros & Cons
A surfboard - like many other sporting tools, is actually much more complex than many people think. To the recreational surfer who does not spend much time thinking about design one surfboard...
read more

Scuba Diving Lessons
Scuba diving really is an amazing sport and holiday destinations around the world with a beach or sea almost always have a PADI dive school. PADI stands for the Professional Association of...
read more

Kite Surfing Kit: What You'll Need
Kite surfing is becoming increasingly popular in the world of water sports. It seems many of the people who use to be avid windsurfers have either made the switch entirely or are in the beginning...
read more