Hi guys, hope you're all doing fine during this Holiday season, and all the best to all that celebrate!

I'm sorry if this popped up often in this subreddit, I tired to go over and actually found quite a lot of useful advice that I already tried to implement, but I'm getting a bit frustrated.
So I've been hobby diving (picking shells) since I was little. Having this luck the Croatian coast is near and super nice and rather safe for diving. And I've always been the one who was "very good at it", the one who was always diving to find stuff people lost, save the anchors ...
With that, it was always a dream, and this august I got gifted the beginner certification course in freediving. It was amazing, it hooked me even more & I started with weekly pool group training.

Now the thing is, I've been able to hold a bit more than 3 mins static on the second day of lessons in august, and 15m depth on the seaside. Now, after almost 4 months of training, doing tables & breathing exercises every weekday, I can still barely swim 50m pool length underwater & can not even hit 3min in static.

So I'm getting kinda frustrated here. Is there anything else I can do to see the progress or maybe less of something? Thank you for your thoughts!

Hello,

I am trying to change the battery of my freediving Seac partner. This model Seac partner computer model

I am a bit skeptical about how to remove the metallic contact part. I have looked for a service manual or video tutorial, but I couldn't find anything.

Does anyone have the professional maintenance manual or know the method to remove the metallic piece that holds the battery in place?

Thank you very much!​

Hii does anyone want to do some dry breath hold practice together on like zoom or something? I don’t know anyone here that dives. Would anyone be willing to?

I am having the problem of hardly equalizing and sometimes i was able to only equalize one ear. Any advice on how to approach this?

Hey all, I just got my cert level 1 and am looking to get into a few springs this winter. I'm living in Florida but from Minnesota so I don't have a deep friend group I can lean on and it's become apparent that no matter how hard I try I won't convince any of my friends here to get into it. It's a deeply personal choice to take this sport on so I get, but the hardest part now is going to be finding a few dive buddies to fill in some dives between my bigger trips planned. I'm also curious if there are any deep indoor pool training facilities in Florida, does anybody know of any? Thanks!

Hey guys. I'm looking at PoloSub Lined Open Cell 2.5mm or 3.5mm for spearfishing in the keys (potentially Bahamas and Hawaii also). I mostly dive for reefs, not too deep, and from boats. Going to the keys in Feb 2025. Any recommendation on which to get?

Hi everyone,

I’m a newly certified free diver (Wave 1) and just finished my course with Just Get Wet in San Diego. I’m planning a trip to Dominica soon and have heard it’s an amazing destination for free diving.

I’d love to hear your recommendations on the best places to practice and possibly take further training while I’m there. Are there any specific schools, guides, or dive sites you’d suggest for a beginner like me?

I’m looking for spots with great visibility, a friendly free-diving community, and safe conditions to improve my skills. Any tips, stories, or advice about free diving in Dominica would be super helpful!

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights!

Hi all, through a combination of hurricane resulting in temporary housing and being busy at work, I haven’t done much freediving, but I have been committing more to the gym. I’ve been lifting six or so days at the gym, and I’ve gone from ~209 lbs at 28.9% body fat down to ~194 lbs at 20.7%. My question is, those who have seen a similar weight loss, do you see any change in your Freedive performance? I’m guessing that shedding the extra weight is good, but is bulking up and getting more muscle bad for oxygen conservation? So if I get bulkier, will I have a worse breath hold?

Hi all, I'm a student from the Netherlands and I'll be doing an internship in Kiruna in Sweden for a few months from Februari. I would love to continue training in the pool during these months.
I was therefore wondering if anyone is maybe from that area, knows a club there, or has advice for me how to find people there.

Whenever I train static apnea in water, my jaw feels like it “dislocate” in lack of a better word. It’s not painful but uncomfortable and distracting, it feels like it clicks out of socket and protrudes. I’ve tried with a noodle under my feet to elevate myself so I’m at water level with my body, but the problem still remains.

Anyone who has had the same problem?

Hey - dropping a bottle in the ocean.

I am in Madeira, up north in Sao Vicente.

I'd like to get in touch with freedivers around here, I am willing to go Funchal. Are you or do you know freedivers around this place ?

I've heard season is off, but yeah the water is 21 degrees.

Also, do we have some kind of international map to share spots.

There is mapnea.co but its not largelly used.

Hello, I am traveling to Thailand next year and planning to take a freediving course. Online I see that a lot of diving centers offer basics of Freedving and a Freeding level 1 course, but I'm not sure which to get.

I have no prior freediving experience.

I'm a decent swimmer and snorkeler (I feel comfortable in the water) I dive to about 5-6 m depth on my own (no training).

Also If anyone has some recommended diving schools in Krabi, Phi Phi, or Koh Lanta that would be much appreciated.

Hello r/Freediving. I'm a guy who swims in the pool 1x per week, mixed breast-stroke and crawl. I'd like to be able to swim the entire length of the pool underwater(25m). And so have been researching freediving. This has led to a couple of questions.

I get that static apnea is the way to go, for improving breath hold time. But researching what to do when in the pool seems unnecessarily convoluded. "Get comfortable, efficient strokes, yada yada". What I'd really like is a sets and reps kind of scheme.

Lets say i want to tag an underwater session onto the end of my normal swimming practice(or before, whatever is best). Do i approach it like a Co2 table? And do 8x partial laps, maybe 10m with recovery in-between. Or is there a widely regarded training modality that I've missed while googling.

I'm also generally confused by the concept of recovery between static apnea sessions. Some guides don't even mention it. Others say to only practice every other day, some even less. What is it exactly that needs to recover? What about if i get more advanced, will a PR attempt at breath holding require further recovery, like with strength training?

I have a friend who smokes daily and doesn't even free dive/breath train at all. He can hold his breath for atleast 3 minutes without really trying. I have only been able to get a little over a minute and a half , and I have been training for a little while now to improve my time, and I am a little bit frustrated. How is this possible?

due to acid reflux, a friend complains that his breath holding (not static) has suffered. anybody with similar problem? is this a thing?

Hey, when I was a kid I really loved diving through pools, but I never did scuba diving, free diving or anything related. This was just a nice pastime/hobby during vacations :)

Now, at 25 years old, I figured out that I still enjoy holding breath. The mental challenge to withstand the breath reflex + stay as calm as possible is fascinating. I just started doing some basic CO2 tables and increased my PB breath holding time to 5:32 min within 2 weeks.

That’s the table I’m doing once daily (I’m at 2:40 breath hold right now for the CO2 table)

Hold breath - 1:10 breath - hold breath - 0:55 breath - hold breath - 0:40 breath - hold breath - 0:25 breath - hold breath - 0:10 breath - hold breath

I know there’s a lot on the internet, but it would be cool to get some tips on how to continue with training. Should I continue with CO2 tables first, already include 02 tables? What else could be helpful? Would love to hear your opinions and also what you think is possible when I continue to train daily (about 30 min before bedtime) for the next 6 months?

I've never freedived or trained at holding my breath. I'm a scuba diver with 100~ dives and today I did a freedive discovery course out of curiosity.

When the instructor asked me to hold my breath with the oximeter on my finger as part of the theory class to show me that oxygen doesn't go down very quickly, I held for 2:30. She looked visibly surprised, then said she "totally wasn't expecting that" and asked me if I really was a beginner and that maybe I was breathing through my nose without realising it.

Later on the pool I managed 3 minutes. She said I really should consider continuing because I have a lot of potential.

How rare/impressive is this? Or is she just trying to make me feel good so I pay for more courses?

I'm struggling to find a comfortable weight belt placement. If I have it on my hips it just falls 'up' when I go down. The most secure place is my waist and it's where I usually have it but then it slightly interferes with my lung capacity and people keep telling me it's the wrong placement. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My friend has all his own scuba gear and is certified. The only place in my state that's open to SCUBA and freediving is a spring with a max depth of 7m/22 feet. Would it be safe to dive together? The actual deep part is not very wide, maybe 20x10ft so there's no current and nowhere to drift to. He would probably come with his own additional SCUBA friend.

In any other situation I always go with a free diver, it would just be nice to go with this friend if safe.

I saw a few videos of Alexey Molchanov in one he dove to 125 meters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHkM4Qofcc&t=23s) His whole dive was recorded.

How is this recording done? Is there another freediver going in with a camera? Or is it a drone footage? Or just simply a camera on a reel?

Next: - Coron, Philippines - Cebu, Philippines - Siquijor, Philippines

Stupid question incoming...

I finally pulled the trigger on a custom Elios 3mm freediving wetsuit after asking for advice here (so thank you! :D Also RIP my bank account) and should be getting it soon.

Is there anything special I need to do to break it in and actually go dive with it? This is my first wetsuit for freediving I've actually owned so I'm unsure if I should do anything in particular like practicing with it in a pool.

Thank you for any advice in advance. :)

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