Freediving for beginners: pool or open water, your first course and the kit you need
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Freediving is diving on a single breath: no tank, no regulator, just you, a mask and fins. It looks effortless when experienced divers do it, and the calm it brings is a big part of the appeal. It is also a sport where the main risk, losing consciousness from lack of oxygen, gives little or no warning. That is why almost everyone who stays in the sport started the same way: with a course and a buddy, never alone.
What freediving actually involves
There are several disciplines, and a beginner course usually touches on most of them:
- Static apnea: holding your breath face down at the surface, usually in a pool, without moving.
- Dynamic apnea: swimming horizontally underwater, in a pool, with or without fins.
- Depth disciplines: diving down a line in open water, either finning, pulling yourself down the rope, or swimming without fins.
Many people never care about numbers at all and simply want to snorkel deeper and stay down longer on a reef. A course is just as useful for them, because the safety skills are the same.
Pool or open water first?
- Pool: warm, clear, shallow and controlled. It is the best place to learn relaxation, breath-hold technique, finning and, above all, rescue skills, without having to think about waves, currents or cold.
- Open water: where depth, equalisation and line diving are taught. Visibility, temperature and swell all add to the workload, so your first open-water sessions are normally shallow and done on a buoy and line with an instructor beside you.
Most entry-level courses mix both: pool or confined-water sessions first, then open-water dives to modest depths.
Entry-level courses
Several international training agencies run a first freediving course, and the content is broadly similar whichever you choose:
- the physiology of breath-hold and why blackouts happen
- relaxed breathing before a dive and recovery breathing after it
- equalising your ears on the way down
- finning technique, duck dives and line diving
- buddy procedures and how to rescue a diver who has blacked out at the surface or underwater
Choose an instructor and school more than a logo. Ask how many students they take per instructor, whether they teach in a pool before open water, and how much time goes on rescue practice. A good course spends a lot of it on safety, and you should leave it able to bring an unconscious buddy back to the surface.
Do you need to be fit?
You need to be comfortable in the water and able to swim, but you do not need to be an athlete. Freediving rewards relaxation more than strength, and many beginners are surprised that trying harder makes their breath-hold shorter. If you have any heart, lung, ear or sinus condition, or any history of fainting or seizures, speak to a doctor before you start; most courses ask for a medical questionnaire.
The kit you need to start
- Low-volume mask: sits close to the face, so it takes less air to equalise.
- Snorkel: simple and flexible, used at the surface only and taken out of the mouth before a dive in most training.
- Fins: many schools lend long-bladed freediving fins; ordinary snorkelling fins are fine for a first pool session.
- Wetsuit: even in warm water you cool down quickly when you are still at the surface between dives.
- Weight belt: a soft rubber belt with a quick release, weighted lightly. Your instructor will set this with you.
Most schools rent the bulk of this, so there is no need to buy anything before your first course. Our separate equipment guide goes into each piece in more detail.
The one rule
Never freedive alone, and never practise breath-holds in water on your own, even in a shallow pool. A blackout underwater without someone watching is usually fatal. Train with a buddy who has the same training as you, and who is watching you every time.
Are you thinking about your first course, or have you just finished one? Share your questions and experiences in the comments below.