I’m pretty happy given Ive done next to no training! Getting that number was… hell to say the least 😂

Looking for some advice on fitting a pool wetsuit.

Right now I'm training in the cheapest decathlon tri, but want to invest into something with full glide skin finish. Recently had an opportunity to try on the cressi triton, but it had a tear so had to give it back. Worst part is that after trying on something a little bit higher end than my sturdy decathlon I'm getting more and more depressed each time I go train (pretty sure my numbers got worse also ;) )

So i have to questions and would much appreciate any insights.

For pool training better have suit slightly too small or too big? (my current one is my first, so don't have much experience)

I'm 185cm, 90kg male, the one I was trying on was size L and I managed to fit in it pretty easily and for the brief moment I was wearing it it felt very comfortable, haven't had the opportunity to swim in it though. Looking at size charts I'm slightly above the size L, and should in fact buy XL.

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Second question. Cressi has a second model in same price range - Freedom, it seems that only difference is that it's open cell on the inside. I have open cell suit for open waters and it can be a bit of pain in the ass to get into. Does open cell make much of a difference in pool training? It's not a big deal from me just curious...

thanks a lot!

I heard that if you hold your breath until you pass out then your body will start breathing automatically, but what if i tape my mouth and close my nose with something then my body won't be able to breath. Will I die then? I am not asking because i will try it, i am just curious.

I recently just managed to do Frenzel, but if I went past 1-2 feet without doing it I couldn’t. From what Ive searched you can should do it every 3 feet. Im practicing in a 7 foot pool so I’m sorta limited. Is this just a skill I need to practice?

Before someone kills me yes I had an adult yes I get if you blackout you will die no matter the depth if nobody helps. For whatever reason in previous posts people assumed I didn’t think 7 feet of water was dangerous. I will take an online safety course (Ted Harty’s) but I can’t get in-person training. Trust me, I want in-person training.

Anyway, thanks for any help!

So, I'm preparing for a performance requirement (30cnf) and I've been training for this for months. I think I'm finally ready to do it - had a clean, comfortable 25 today - but now my mental state is a bit difficult to manage. Because I've worked so hard for this goal. And now I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the worst case scenario so as not to be disappointed with myself, while also believing that the best case scenario happens. Anyone got any tips?

So after trying it on in the shower and confirming it fits (was difficult for 1st timer)

I know for a fact it will be allot harder to get into it in the ocean, I have the luxury of a pier with ladders I can hold onto while getting gear on.

Im aware of sex lube and soapy water so not looking for tips like that for the preparation but more so for actually getting it on

Do I put both arms in first or focus getting the hood first? I found myself almost getting claustrophobic before I got it on properly and had my head pop through the hood of the suit

I’m planning to buy an Orca wetsuit.

My choice is between Orca Mantra and Orca Zen. Has anyone used them and what are your thoughts? Which is better?

Thanks

Hey guys, I’m looking into getting into free diving and was wondering how to start. I want to be able to take underwater photos of reefs and stuff and possibly get into spearfishing but was wondering how necessary a physical course would be. The course in my area is around 300-600$ which to me seems like a lot for what they are offering (self study, one classroom day, one pool day), so I was wondering if I can just learn online and slowly start practicing in a pool or even the bay. Another question I had was is it safe to free dive solo as a beginner? I have access to a boat to take free diving so I can choose what depth I need and would start slow in around 15-20 ft and gradually move to deeper depths as I learn more, so is a buddy system really necessary for these shallow dives?

Hello, I recently started swimming longer distances (for me they’re long) and supplementing it with lots of breath holds while crossing the pool. For example yesterday I swam 1.5 miles. 1/4 of that was with breath holds for 25 meters which is a lot for me.

I obviously overtrained. Today I have fatigue and 95% blood oxygen. I’m kinda new to this stuff. Jogging and biking were my thing and working my lungs like this is completely new.

Google says it’s , Exercise induced hypoxemia (EIH) , is this fairly common?

Also I get headaches from doing this which I think is CO2 buildup? Granted I’m a noob.

Lastly does holding your breath spike your cerebral blood pressure? I’m prone to tinnitus and I noticed practicing static breath holds gave me tinnitus for a couple hours.

I would like to find a coach but I live in the Baltimore, MD/ DC area (USA) and haven’t found anything online. Maybe a scuba shop could help.

Thank you for any input!

I want to get an open cell wetsuit that would be the same warmth as a 3mm closed cell wetsuit.

As open cell is warmer than closed cell, I don’t want to get it too thick and over heat.

What thickness should I choose? I’m guessing 1.5mm?

I am planning on being in Nusa Penida Bali during April 25th - 29th and am looking to do a beginner freediving course.

Just realising this isnt "ideal season" i.e. cloudy, wavey, rainy maybe, but is it still worth going?

Specifically for either freediving 1 or the molchanov wave 1.

I get it might be a bit rainy or overcast but didnt know if worth postponing the whole trip or a better location in Bali to go to during this time.

Thank you so much!

Heya!

I'm diving in Mallorca and looking to buy a weitsuit, especially for the off season, open for suggestions for high season too.

Does anybody have any wetsuit recommendations, easily accesible in Spain or Europe?

For sure looking for inner open cell, outer lined suit. Thickness, open for suggestions - are 5mm good for Med off season? Temps drop to about 14 degrees in the coldest months. Peaks in August may get to 28, but only on the surface, gets chilly once 10m down - would wearing only the top half of a 5mm be good, or buy something separate?

My body composition is tall and lanky (starting to build muscle tho!) 1,91m tall (6'2ft), and somewhere between 75-80kg.

From your experience, what's the price difference between ready-made suits and tailor made? Depending on how vast the difference is, I'd be more inclined to buy a standard size one, especially for a first wetsuit.

Appreciate any insights!

Looking for dive buddies & building a community.

Hello. I'm interested in improving my co2 tolerance and I started doing no contraction tables every day, adding a couple extra seconds to the breath-hold each day. It was working pretty well, but then I also started incorporating cardio training twice per week. As you know, cardio makes you build up a lot of co2. (My cardio still sucks tho cause I'm just starting).

So the thing is, I already see a decline in breath hold time, can I switch my breath holds to two times per week and increase the hold time a little? (I'd do them the same two days where I do my cardio).

So basically I'm wondering if two days of somewhat intense co2 training per week is enough to get increased tolerance. I don't swim btw. Sorry for the long message. Lots of love.

Hi everyone, apologies if this has been asked before a bunch of times here. I’m just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences to me and what you’ve done to overcome it.

I’m a fairly experienced freediver, been diving for several years. Molchanovs level 2, personal best is 43 meters, and I’ve quite regularly been comfortable between 30-35 meters. When we were training a lot last year 35-40m was a normal depth on a line diving session, and 25m is a depth I feel comfortable spending some time on the bottom exploring the reef.

Lately though I’ve been really struggling with depth, largely because every time I go deep I end up with a sinus squeeze. It’s been this way for several months, I dive semi-regularly on weekends. I think I can trace it back to getting sick with Covid, since then I’ve had trouble with congestion. When I go deep I don’t exactly feel pain, or have trouble equalizing, but if I go beyond 15/20 meters then I will often come back up and hack up a glob of bloody phlegm. That’s the point where I stop diving and give myself a good week or more away from depth.

It’s frustrating because I was on a good trajectory with training and progression, hoping to go for the wave 3 soon and pursue an instructors qualification. Now I feel like I’m going backwards, and the negative thoughts and self doubt are having an impact on my diving. It’s a sport I really love and want to continue to progress safely with. Anyone else here been through similar issues?

UPDATE; I’ve just been chatting with my instructor about this, and he’s given me some really solid advice I thought I should share here.

We’re fairly certain it’s a sinus squeeze. The issue with repeated sinus squeezes, like I’ve been experiencing, is that over time you build up scar tissue in your sinuses which makes it easier each time to injure yourself and repeat the process.

The advice with recovering from a squeeze is stay away from depth for several weeks, and then when you start diving again to only descend to half the depth at which you had an injury previously. So I’m going to wait three weeks before going deep again, and then for the first couple sessions only focus on hangs at 10m. Be very careful with equalization at this point, if it’s not feeling perfect or easy then restart and wait some more.

Diet can also have a huge impact on congestion, staying away from dairy, gluten and alcohol can help. I’m gluten intolerant so there’s zero gluten in my diet anyway, and I basically don’t drink. I’m going to cut dairy out and see what happens.

I’ll also start using a Neti Pot and nasal sprays along with breath work exercises to try and clear my sinus issues.

Here's some background. I just started, so I haven't bothered with much real practice at all. I don't even know how to equalize yet, but that's a problem for another time, as I'm not going to do anything deep at all. My pool is 7 feet (2.13 m) deep. I am training for when I am going to do some snorkeling, as I want to have the experience of diving and not being restricted to the surface. I only will be going 20 feet (6.1 m), so I am most worried about holding my breath for as long as I can, not depth. Obviously, for these depths, equalizing ill be important. I am also less than 18 years old.

On land, I could get 2:00. I did notice my vision got slightly blurry and my hearing got slightly distorted, so I'm not going to push for more. I just took several breaths beforehand, relaxed, and breathed in and held my breath. I did not breathe out, if that matters.

After that, I tried it in a pool. Breathing in the pool, I got 0:45. I did not breathe out. Then I tried breathing outside the water, so my lungs were less restricted due to the water pushing on me. I then slowly got in and held my breath and got 1:00. I didn't breathe out again. This was also on the surface. I then tried to go to the bottom of the pool so MDR could help, but I had to breathe out so I could sink. I then only got 0:45. I wonder if I was less calm in the water.

Why do you think I do so much worse in water? Why did my vision get slightly blurry when I held my breath for 2:00 on land?

Thanks for any help!

Edit: I had an adult with me who has been experiencing in water rescue. I also wasn’t hyperventilating as Ive read that is a big no-no! Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Edit 2: I also have no in-person courses I can take. Our water is cloudy at beaches so you can’t safely free dive.

Another question on mask fitting. Currently using the salvimar noah and love it. Though the nose is to big and does fill with water often when EQing. Other than that the fit is great.

Question is, is this something I should just deal with and its a good as it gets or to look for an even better fit for the nose?

Cheers

Yayyyyy

Can anyone suggest the best freediving spots for these islands and nearby locations? I have spontaneously extended my trip here in the Philippines and didn't have time to research these areas. I'm hoping to see the Blue Hole in Tablas, but I'd like to do it by boat from Romblon if there are any dive shops available? Unrelated picture from Panglao for attention

I had a similar thing happen when I was trying to get to a 100m dynb. I kept wanting to get there, and I regressed to a point where 75m was a struggle. I spent a few months just doing 50's and the advice of 'never end at the wall, always turn' and 'after that, fin a little bit more' paid off and I managed to get to 100.

My dry STA PB is 4:20. I always get a little bit less in the water, which is definitely a sign of some sort of mental hangup. During my AIDA 3 I hit 3:15 in the water. I think during my AIDA 2 I did 2:30. During my AIDA 4, I could only manage a 2:45 at the most.

I did have some mental stressors; I was back in my home country (usually live in the USA) due to a close family death. But diving gave me a lot of solace and it still does. I did the most comfortable PB dive there and performed pretty well while moving in the water. But my water STA times were still crap.

Now even in the dry, I'm really having trouble pushing through contractions. My contractions used to come at the 2:00 mark. Now they come at 1:50 ish, even though I'm not really thinking about it.

What should be my game plan? My instructor said start doing them more at home (and whenever possible at the pool) but to take it easy, and not to push past whats comfortable for a few weeks. Should I stick to CO2 tables? Or something else designed specifically to push through contractions? One breath tables perhaps? Or do casual max attempts with warm ups?

I do need to send in a video of me doing STA (including 30 seconds prior and after) to finish up my AIDA 4 requirements.

Hi, I’m curious as to whether anyone knows what the SSI requirements are for Level 2 certification freediving? In particular, is there a blackout rescue requirement or any other rescue requirements in order to pass the certification?