Freediving
(Text by kind permission of Panos Lianos)
Most of you have already practised freediving, although you may not know it! Every time you go underwater while holding your breath you freedive. Other names include Snorkelling and Breath-hold Diving. So all those times you held your breath and went under the surface to take a look at something or pick something up from the seabed, you were freediving!!! “I was?” I hear you say.. Yes you were. That was fun wasn't it? The ability to move so easily and fast in the water without any heavy gear, gives you a very nice feeling. That's what freediving is all about, getting the feeling that you are part of the underwater environment
Freediving as a sport though is a little more than just going under water. People often want to know how “far” they can go. I know we humans are sometimes into competing. And that's good if it is done in the right spirit (remember the spirit of the ancient Olympic games when even wars stopped during the games). This is the same spirit that makes you admire the fellow athlete, not because he is better (or worse) at the sport than you are, but because he is an “Athlete” (with a capital A), and you respect his effort.
In order to compete, a few rules must be followed to allow for fair comparisons. So a few varieties or categories of freediving are present:
Constant Ballast is when you dive as deep as you can and fin your way back to the surface. It is called “Constant Ballast” because whatever weights you use to help you go down you have to bring to the surface on your way back.
Variable Ballast is when you can use limited weights to help you go down faster then leave the weights at the end of your descent before you fin your way back to the surface. Obviously people go deeper this way than in the Constant Ballast method because they don't use any energy to go down.
No Limits is when you use as much weight as you wish to assist you in the descent, and you can use an inflated balloon to bring you back to the surface. Think of this category as an “elevator” taking you deep down and then bringing you back to the surface.
Dynamic Apnea is when you try to swim underwater for the maximum distance. Two variations exist, one with the use of fins and one with no fins. The above four categories are further divided into “Sea” and “Freshwater or Lake” categories.
Static Apnea is when you simply get under water and hold your breath for as long as you can.
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