Free Diving for shooting Video

It always struck me that the very best underwater camera operators are really good at breath-hold diving.

I have to improve my free-diving skills a lot in the next few months as it looks like I'm going somewhere that tanks aren't allowed. At the moment I struggle to manage a length of the pool underwater but I need to be able to hang 10m down in the Pacific for a while filming stuff.

Any tips for improving free-diving technique with video in mind? I know a lot of it is just a case of relaxation and practice but I'm sure there's more to it than that.

Any good books/videos/courses/websites on the subject?

I got into it a few years ago hen i stopped diving professionally, and most commonly was a 10m freedive as that was the depth of water my boat goes to daily. I eventually got to the point of 2 mins not moving at 10m or just over a minute if i was moving. I think the book I used was one a friend of mine had had on a freediving course he took here.

My friends who I did it with had these books http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manual-Freediving-.../toc/1928649270 and one called Freediving and another one that was about Spearfishing and Bluewater fishing (also had some info on breath holding)

It may be worth ringing up a few Dive training places .. see if they offer a course. http://www.sunrisediving.net/free-diving-p...t-thailand.html a quick hunt has these guys mentioning it.

When I did it we did some trainging on land, but it is always best to do it in water IMO, on land our brain says its ok air is just a mout opening away. in water its different especially at depth. I never went any deeper than 70ft (so 20m) and I only was down for about 30+ seconds. I was never that good at it but it is very fun and relaxing to just be able to pretend for a bit.

Do be carefull I have seen some very bad things happen even from shallow depths. Although On that topic I saw a discovery channel program years ago about this guy who was changing breath holding. He had proven that if you exhale before going down you could stay under for just as long, use less energy to get down and as you had no air in your lungs shallow water blackout was impossible. I'll have a hunt and see if i can find the show online.

Found while trying to find the Discovery channel thing a few other bits that I thought seemed useful and interesting.

http://forums.deeperblue.net/freediving-training-techniques/

http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/education/education_lung.html

http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/education/e...bottomtime.html

I am guessing there is probably a lot of stuff online relating to spear fishing. Don't let the nature of the sites put you off looking through some of those guys have some great information when it comes to freediving.

Do read up about Shallow Water Blackout too. I remember the guy in this video explaining it very well. It isn't that you run out of Oxygen and so pass out (as I had thought) it is that your lungs contain more carbon dioxide than your blood. As you rise and the partial pressure changes the carbon dioxide returns to your blood rather than being expelled.

This is the theory of why you should only exhale in the last 5-10m of the accent (I am assuming).

Easiest tip for you to get better IMO is Hypoxic Swimming training This will not only train your lungs but also get you in better shape and used to holding your breath in water. Oh and it's also easily done in a swimming pool.

It may be a little out of your geographic area but I did the Level I free dive course with these guys and I am signed up for Level II. They do courses in Florida, the Red Sea and Hawaii I believe. After a morning in the pool and some classroom sessions, I was diving to 50 feet for about 30 secs. I would have done better if not for issues with my ears that weekend.

http://www.divefit.com/

Nick,

You can improve your freediving skills quite quickly if you get the proper training.

Try to be carefull of TV programs and what they say about freediving: they need to sell....

Diving with no air in your lungs won't provide you to blackout at all and if you balckout with no air in your lungs, you'll inhale the whole ocean...

I advice you to take a freediving course, in 3 or 4 days you'll be able to learn some very usefull techiques to improve your breathhold abilities in a safe way.

Have a look at www.aidainternational.org, it's the world governing body for freediving. They have instructors, look in the list for someone near you.

In the post before, FIT was mentioned, it's run by Martin Stepanek, world record holder with AIDA. In US zone you also have Performance Freediving running courses.

On my side, I'm freediving instructor and shooting video on freediving as well.

I hope this can help you a bit

Fred

www.nektos.net

ooops, sorry:

www.aida-international.org

Fred

Hi Nick

If this is a Tonga thing, I recommend you get all the training you can well before you get there. I struggled for the last three years until the end of each season, at which time I had done a month or so on the job training. Problem is the best encounter could be on day one so you want to be ready for it. Train to stay down as long a possible rather than going deep - the best action happens on the surface so 5-8 meters is usually deep enough to be shooting up.

That said, you will definately improve throughout the season and the best way to do that is to train each morning while the boat is at anchor, and the whales and guests are only thinking about getting out of bed.

Good luck

Josh

PS if this isn't a Tonga thing, ignore this post

Alright Nick?

Free-diving school here on Lanta..... http://www.blueplanetdivers.net.freediving.htm

prices are up there but hey - it seems everyone here advises it..... plus its AIDA...

you can be here in about 3-8 hours (depending on local "infrastructure issues") and then we can grab that long-awaited beer, eh?

Chris

Fred is on the money - I have taken courses with Kirk Krack (Advanced Freediver), Pipin Ferrarras (IAFD Level III Freedive Instructor) and Aharon Solomons and each has provided something to my freediving.

Aharon is probably one of the finest freedive instructors I have come across - and for a man of 70 who can freedive to 60 meters, that says alot.

Taking a course will get you the necessary basics. I personally train 6 days a week, following the material in Umberto Pellizari's book "Manual of Freediving". 3 days of cardio apnea, 2 days customized Ashtanga Yoga Primary series and 1 day a week static apnea tables.

Looks like BluePlanetDivers is in your neck of the woods - give them a shout and see what they say.