The Complete Guide to Free Diving

Chapter 1: What Is Free Diving and Why People Love It

Let's start by clearing up what free diving isn't, because the videos you've seen online probably paint the wrong picture. Free diving isn't a sport of extremists holding their breath for five minutes while sinking into dark water with a single rope disappearing into the abyss below. That's competitive deep diving, and it's a tiny fraction of what the activity actually is. For the other ninety-nine percent of us, free diving is simpler and quieter than that. It's putting on a mask and fins, taking a deep breath, and sinking a few meters underwater to look around. It's the closest you're going to get to flying.

You'll duck beneath the surface, and the world changes instantly. Sound compresses into a muted hum. Your own heartbeat becomes audible in your ears. The chaos of the shoreline - the crashing waves, the wind, people talking - just disappears. You're suspended in a blue-green space with no bubbles escaping from a tank to remind you that you're a visitor. You glide a few meters down and suddenly a school of silver fish parts around you like they're used to you being there, because after a few minutes, they are. You feel weightless in a way that no swimming pool float can replicate, because the water is deep enough that you're not touching anything at all. When you need air, you turn, look up at the silver mirror of the surface, and kick