Freediving

A development of diving now includes freediving in which divers hold their breath until they resurface instead of using breathing devices like scuba gear. Freediving can include other activities like recreational diving, photography spear fishing and even some snorkeling – all while holding your breathe. This involves participants seeing who can get to the furthest time, depth or distance in one breath. Freediving can include several (competitive or non-competitive) activities such as spearfishing, photography, freediving and mermaid shows. Some of the lesser known examples of freediving are underwater rugby, hockey, hunting (not spearfishing), target shooting, snorkeling and synchronized swimming. There is still debate as to whether or not freediving is merely an alternative name for holding one’s breath while diving or if it truly describes a set group of activities that are done underwater. Presently, two international associations govern the competitive side of freediving: AIDA International (International Association for Development of Apnea) and CMAS (World Underwater Federation). The commonality between the branches of freediving is that they are individual sports and measure the achievement of individuals. However, the bi-annual World Championships for Teams – in which the combined team’s scores make up the final score - done by AIDA, is one of the exceptions to this. The sport is also done purely for recreation and is considered to be uniquely different from scuba diving while also being relaxing and freeing. Some of the biggest advantages it has over scuba diving are that divers can move more freely and faster, need less time to prepare for dives, have less equipment to wear, which means greater visibility and no need for time in decompression chambers. There is also no distraction from sounds made by regulator breathing and since oxygen tanks do not need to be re-filled, divers can spend more time in the water. In addition, freediving training can be done on land and in various forms such as the apnea walk in which divers prepare for a breathe-up and then hold their breath for a minute while trying to do the walk until they need to breathe again.