AIDA 2** Freediver Course

[Padowan]

Just got back from a weekend diving with no gear on....! As some of you know I'm one of the safety divers at the NDAC that cover the freedivers up there, I was chatting to one of the instructors the other week during the competition and they asked if I fancied giving it a try, being on the "other side" so to speak. I thought it would be fun, and I'd done a little snorkling/freediving in the past, so decided to sign up.

Arrived at the NDAC on Saturday morning for a theory session, covering a lot of stuff that I was familiar with being both a diver and having seen lots of freedivers in action, and also some stuff I was not so aware of like breathing techniques and some freedive specific physiology.

By the afternoon we were in the quarry, in a wetsuit, on the little pontoon - I never thought I'd be getting into that place in a wetsuit. The session consisted of some free immersion dives (pull down and back up the rope) and some constant weight dives (fin down and back up) - by the end of the session I had built up my depth from 7m to 15m. We also covered some surface rescue techniques to deal with blacked out divers.

Second day started off straight in the quarry, with some warm ups before our assessed deep dive for the course - I managed 16m quite comfortably which was the minimum requirement for the 2* course, so decided to call it a day, not push the depth and have a play with a monofin instead, which I sucessfully took to the bottom of the line which was set at 10m. We also were required to perform an unconcious diver recovery from 10m, by swimming down, and lifting both you and the other diver to the surface.

This afternoon was in the pool, and we had to perform static breathe holds face down along the side (I managed about 2:15, pass mark 2:00) and dynamic swims underwater wth fins (I managed 50m, pass mark 40m) with some more safety and rescue skills.

All in all, a challenging weekend, exploring my physical and phychological limits, and thoroughly chuffed to have made the grade for 2*

[Phoenix]

Well done Simon, I may take up freediving myself as the kit is more reliable

Ian