free diving to benefit scuba

[Eric Sedletzky]

Yes being an accomplished Freediver is potentially extremely beneficial prior to scuba diving training. However once you are trained as scuba diver, I’m not so sure that freedive training is better than scuba practice.

There are outliers too that can freedive well, but just aren’t comfortable being 90 ft down on a tank.

It is a different culture, if I want to impress scuba divers, I tell them I can Freediver to 60 ft and if I want to try to impress freedivers, I tell them I can scuba dive to 180 ft (on air).

Of course anyone who is accomplished at either sport is throughly unimpressed!

There are freedivers that laugh at 180’, that is amateur hour for them.
There champion freedivers going past 250’ or 300’.
What’s the all time record for deepest freedive now? - 702’
One breath.
Their athleticism is stunning!
What does in take to do those depths on scuba?

 

[boulderjohn]

There are freedivers that laugh at 180’, that is amateur hour for them.
There champion freedivers going past 250’ or 300’.
What’s the all time record for deepest freedive now? - 702’
One breath.
Their athleticism is stunning!
What does in take to do those depths on scuba?

There are many categories of freediving, depending upon what is used to assist in the descent and ascent. The 702 foot record, for example, uses a weighted sled for descent and a balloon for ascent.

Types of Freediving: The Different Disciplines Explained

Freediving pushes the boundaries of human capability. It involves divers striving to achieve impressive depths or durations.

blog.padi.com

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

There are many categories of freediving, depending upon what is used to assist in the descent and ascent. The 702 foot record, for example, uses a weighted sled for descent and a balloon for ascent.

Types of Freediving: The Different Disciplines Explained

Freediving pushes the boundaries of human capability. It involves divers striving to achieve impressive depths or durations.

blog.padi.com

Yes I know, but just the fact that a diver did that on one breath even assisted is pretty remarkable, no?
What would it take to do that on scuba? How about open circuit scuba?

 

[dmaziuk]

Yes I know, but just the fact that a diver did that on one breath even assisted is pretty remarkable, no?
What would it take to do that on scuba? How about open circuit scuba?

Exactly the same thing, just never breathe from the reg.

Seriously though, you can't do polaris ascent, and there may be issues with sled descent too. It's way too much "apples and oranges".

 

[Still Kicking]

There are freedivers that laugh at 180’, that is amateur hour for them.
There champion freedivers going past 250’ or 300’.
What’s the all time record for deepest freedive now? - 702’
One breath.
Their athleticism is stunning!
What does in take to do those depths on scuba?

Aside from the athleticism, the mental fortitude....hardcore!

 

[boulderjohn]

Yes I know, but just the fact that a diver did that on one breath even assisted is pretty remarkable, no?
What would it take to do that on scuba? How about open circuit scuba?

Yes, it is impressive, but also very much unrelated to scuba. As dmaziuk said, in this regard they are apples and oranges.

There is also a danger in taking the comparisons too far. In many past threads, people have worried (needlessly) about being able to exhale all the way to the surface when doing a CESA in an OOA emergency, and invariably people enter the thread to argue that they should take free diving practice to help with the depth from which they can do the CESA. Apparently they believe the longer you can hold your breath, the deeper you can be when you begin your ascent on scuba. Since the ability to hold your breath has nothing to do with your ability to exhale, it implies that they believe one needs to hold one's breath during ascent, a belief that could be fatal.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Exactly the same thing, just never breathe from the reg.

Seriously though, you can't do polaris ascent, and there may be issues with sled descent too. It's way too much "apples and oranges".

A Christmas tree of bottles, back gas, stages, stages on the line, stages everywhere.
Just don’t breathe from the reg?? Lol
Most scuba divers unless they are incredibly filthy rich and have money to burn would never be able to even do half that depth on open circuit scuba with the amount of helium needed. I don’t even know if 702’ is possible on scuba?, is it?
It’s pretty amazing when you think about it, in order to go that deep and just get a peek at what it’s like to be there all the cumbersome gear gets ditched and they do it on a breath hold instead.
Scuba divers going deep I‘m not impressed.
Freedivers going deep I’m freakin’ impressed!

 

[happy-diver]

Isn't all that other stuff what you do until you've saved your money and your mum says you can buy a tank

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Isn't all that other stuff what you do until you've saved your money and your mum says you can buy a tank

I heard stories of two guys pooling their money and finally saving enough to buy an Aqualung double hose with tank (J-valve) with straps on it.
They would take turns using it while the other freedived. Flip a coin as to who got to use it first,
The second guy always ran it out of air.

 

[CG43]

Hello

My brother (17year old) bought a tank and I (16) bought a reg. He got the first half of the filling and I got the second half . Of course, this was controlled by me by diving down more often and checking the SPG. When it was under half I turned off the valve. He stopped swimming, sat down on the bottom , controlled the SPG and came up slowly. Because we where experienced freedivers with around 1000 freedives this OOA situations where easy .

There is also a danger in taking the comparisons too far. In many past threads, people have worried (needlessly) about being able to exhale all the way to the surface when doing a CESA in an OOA emergency, and invariably people enter the thread to argue that they should take free diving practice to help with the depth from which they can do the CESA. Apparently they believe the longer you can hold your breath, the deeper you can be when you begin your ascent on scuba. Since the ability to hold your breath has nothing to do with your ability to exhale, it implies that they believe one needs to hold one's breath during ascent, a belief that could be fatal.

If a scubadiver comes up and his lung is full he must breath out . That's known by everyone .
The big advantage for a freediver in an OOA situation is that he is used not to inhale underwater .
For him OOA is not an emergency , it's normalcy . This is why he has much better chance to be calm
then an only scubadiver . And because the freediver is used to stay relaxed he needs less oxygen , and therefor produces less CO2 and he is used higher CO2 levels without panic . Without panic the diver
exhales if his lung is full . Whether a panicked only scubadiver exhales is uncertain.

The biggest disadvantage is that freediving is dangerous if you dive close to your own limits .
Also, scubadiving may not be so exciting anymore and you may tend to underestimate dangers .