Has anyone ever used a “respiratory muscle training device” such as this Breather Fit? What are your thoughts and opinions on tools like this?

Does anyone need or want freediving class in South Korea :D???

Firstly, I get that this was stupid and we'll not be doing it again any time soon.

So, he's 6. He's been swimming (able to stay above the water) since he was 3. And he's been able to swim 20m since he was 4.

We were on holiday last month and we've promised ourselves we'll keep at the swimming. So we went today.

Our local pool is quite good. It used to have a diving board and a slide, but budget cuts screwed those. But it retains its deep pool.

The pool is nearly 4m deep for a quarter of the length. We were messing about diving in and retrieving a pool toy. He can do 2 metres fairly easily.

I had him stand on the side and told him he could go once I'd let go of the pool dive toy. But I didn't realise how quickly it would sink. We were over the 4m depth area.

He dove in and swam down. I straight away figured he'd not be able to beat the toy to the bottom, so I dove down to grab him. But he was fast. Before I could get to him, he was at the bottom and brought the toy back up.

We grabbed the side and I made sure he was OK. I'd never intentionally have let him go down that deep. I was really worried for his ears, or for inhaling water or even just being panicked. But he was fine. He said he didn't want to do it again, but when we got in, he told his mam all about it.

We're not going to be repeating that any time soon, but I'd like to ask for any advice you'd like to give. Should I be looking out for dry drowning, or any signs of water inhilation? Could his ears be damaged if he ignores the pain. Is there a risk he could blackout? If he's ever dipping down to retrieve toys, I'm always in and right by him. And I always tell him to catch his breath before going underwater and we talk about being safe around water lots. But is there any wisdom I'm overlooking?

I think we've got a real good future with him diving. If only I can convince him there are no sharks in the deep end of our pool!

Hello folks, I live in the USVI, St. Croix. I'm a pilot with strange work times. I'm looking for freedivers interested in getting in the water more often with a buddy. Is anyone in the USVI?

Hi all,

I have an equalization issue that I hope people can help diagnose and offer advice on how to correct. This issue is more prevalent when going heads down but essentially when I frenzel equalize, I make this weird dolphin/whale sounding noise. I think it comes from my throat. One of my instructors said it was my glottis opening and air escaping through. A YouTube video says it’s my soft palate remaining closed. Due to this I’m not creating enough pressure to open up my Eustachian tubes consistently. I sometimes compensated by unlocking my jaw to create more air volume to equalize. I’m able to dive to max of 18m via this method but my instructor says I need to correct my fundamentals if I want to go deeper

Has anyone seen or experienced this issue and know how to correct? At this point I’m working through balloon exercises for better soft palate awareness and hanging upside down in a pool (with a safety ofc) to practice. Not sure if there are better methods.

I'm starting a new freedive course this week (studying right now actually, or I'm meant to be).

My problem is in my head- because I've tried two times to do two different freedive courses (with different roadblocks), my mind is now playing the 'you're going to fail, why do you think you'll pass this time?!' loop. It's got me into a loop of playing over the failures and the things that went badly/wrong during my previous training and it's honestly got me doubting if I'm a) going to get any further with this course and b) if I'm even cut out to freedive or if I'm just wasting time and effort.

How do I shut my brain up?

Hi all,

I've been training in the pool all winter, 1 stat session and 1 dyn session a week plus some dry training (and a few occasional fun dives in the cold ocean). My PBs are 4mn stat, 85m Dyn and 65m dnf. I'm in the best overall shape i've been all year.

But for the last few weeks I've been hitting a wall in my training : I can't find the motivation to "fight" and I'm actually going backwards in thermes of performance. I'm starting to find 50's difficult and i can not even hit 75m anymore. It's not a physical issue as i feel fresh after thoses dives and find myself wondering why i stoped .... Anything above 50's start to stress me out now. I believe my technique is not the issue and i'm well weighted. I believe it is some sort of metal block but I don't known how to work this out and move forward (not backward as I'm doing now).

Anyone's been here before ? Can you help a fellow freediver out ?

Thanks :)

I (16M) live in Santa Fe NM. I have been freediving for a few years now, and recently finished my Fii 2. I currently do a fair bit of dryland training, but given that the best way to get better at freediving is to dive (or do dynamics/negatives in a poor) need to find a trained buddy or two. The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa would be my top candidate for a dive site, but there are a few lakes around there that could work too (Eg. Rock Lake which is apparently 98m deep with solid vis, but on private land). I know this is probably a bit of a shot in the dark, but any takers?

Do you think an average lifeguard can identify a shallow water blackout?

as the title says, i've booked a holiday on thassos this summer and would like to know if you guys have any freedive spot recommendations.

Hey r/freediving! I’m Eugene, our team has been working on a product that might just change the game for freedivers. We're really excited about it, but we want to make sure it resonates with the community.

We're eager to hear from freedivers of all levels about your experience. What drives your passion for freediving? What memorable experiences have you had in the depths?

If you're interested in sharing your insights and possibly helping shape an innovative freediving product, we'd love to chat. Feel free to DM me or drop a comment here, and I'll get back to you with more details. Thanks!

What the title says really. Is there any (noticeable) difference between the models? I don’t seem to be able to find it via a google search and it’s not mentioned on the salvimar website but several stores list them as different priced models. 😅

I want to share the horrible experience I've had dealing with Bestdive wetsuits.

I bought a Bestdive custom wetsuit and immediately after using it, the stitching is falling apart. This is due to the poor design of their velcro beavertail which cuts into the pants of the suit. I've spoken to 2 different freedive stores here in SoCal and numerous freedive buddies and they all agree with me.

I've sent dozens of emails, instagram/Facebook messages and WhatsApp messages and they refuse to acknowledge any issue and have now stopped replying to me (7 messages in the last 2 weeks with no reply). By the way, EVERYTIME it takes at least 5 or more messages for them to even reply to you. They really don't care about any customer follow up and just want you to place the order and then never communicate with you should you have a problem.

Now I'm stuck with a $500 custom open cell suit that is falling apart at the seams.

Mary and the team at Bestdive are totally incompetent and should not be doing business. In my 20 years of dealing with dive companies, they by far have shown the worst display of customer experience I've ever dealt with. Avoid this terrible company at all costs.

#bestdive #bestdivesucks

is there a certain technique to help equalizing, usually i have to point whatever ear i want to equalize towards the sky but even at that its still a bit iffy, does anyone know any better ways of equalizing

👋 Hey divers,

I've been working on a breathing exercise app called BreathRite, designed for my own need to improve my breathing habits and running performance.

It's my first public version, and though it's modest, it offers functionalities to track apnea progress and includes a few breathing exercises that have helped me with running as well.

I'm aware there are other apps out there, but I wanted to share my take on this with a different approach and some personal touches. I'm planning to enhance it further based on your feedback.

I'd truly appreciate if you could check it out and share your thoughts here, if you'd like to give it a go you can get it on the App Store.

Really appreciate it 😊, thanks!

Can I do freediving if I have swimmer's ear?

Hi!

My fiance and I love to freedive and will be getting married early 2025. We normally dive in cold Pacific waters and are hoping for a 4-7 day honeymoon in the Caribbean where there's some good freediving/snorkeling and nice beaches/resorts.

I've already started looking at Roatán. Any other ideas?

E m

Hey all,

I just had a couple of questions about the C4 250 foot pocket and whether it’ll fit my DiveR blades. I live in Aus and none of my locals have a set of them since they’re quite new so I’m looking for some feedback about them first before I order them in. How do they fit relative to shoe size? Are they comfortable? Insoles worth it too? I’m currently using Ocean Hunter foot pockets (39-40) with a 2mm or 3mm (tight squeeze tho) sock on my other pair of fins.

Thanks!

So theres two tricks

One is to use oil into ear before dive for a seal

One is to mix half white vinegar half water (iirc). Question is im in asia and rice vinegar is prevalent here. Has anyone used it successfully to dry out the ear canal?

I'll be in Tokyo japan soon and I'd like to stop by any store/outlet selling diving gear such as mask, suit, or anything. and I want something only available in Japan or especially cheap in Japan.

Any recommendation is welcomed. Thank you 🙂

Of course, I will detach the foot pockets when it comes to it. But is this much bend going to cause serious problems? They're fibreglass.

I'm looking for opinions from experienced divers on the pros and cons of snorkel fins and freediving fins. I'll be doing a lot of snorkeling this summer in Roatan which has massive coral heads and deep valleys. Is there any reason to not just get free diving fins like the leader fiberglass? The snorkel fins I'm looking at are the Mares Super Channels. I've heard freediving fins are less fatiguing compared to snorkel fins for extended periods in the water. Are free diving fins really hard to use when floating on the surface?

Hi, i'm a beginner in freediving, i'm at the first course which means up to 10m. At the moment i'm using an aqualung favola which i bought for scuba. I tried the fit of a frameless and i thought to buy one. Could it be used also in freediving?

Hi all,

I've been doing apnea in club since few months now. I was wondering if you guys might have some advice to improve my DYN performance in swimming pool.

I'm currently around 70m, which feels great. But here is the thing, when I'm doing STA, I can hold my breath for 5min (PB is at 5min07). Few of my friends are struggling to pass 4min, which is already super great.

Now those same mates are going 80+m easily where I'm struggling to touch the 75m (25m pool). I was wondering if you could share some training tips, videos, podcast or experiences that can help me improve during my DYN sessions?

Thank you all, swim safely!

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