My Thailand Freediving Experience
Like the vast majority of people had never had any experience of Freediving. Snorkling certainly, but Freediving? Never had a clue.
That was until recently, when I decided to give it a go, and I have to say my experience was – surprisingly quite amazing.
Freediving in Thailand was one of the highlights of my trip for several reasons. Ok so I love the ocean and water in general – I have always been a strong swimmer and scuba diving is one of my favourite hobbies, (I am a Divemaster). So being in the water is kinda second nature to me, but this was certainly not the case for other members of my class, and judging by some of the depths and times they achieved over the 2 days course, it pretty much prooved to me anyone can do it, with the correct training.
What is Freediving?
Freediving (also known as Apnea) is all about holding your breath and swimming under water with out using Aqualungs. It is about knowing what your body is capable of doing and testing your mental limits. Surprisingly, Freediving is second nature to humans and many other mamals, long dormant reflexes are built into our DNA, that aid humans in freediving, the same natural reflexes that help seals, Dolphins ans Whales dive down under water and stay submerged for so long.
For instance there is the mammalian diving reflex which helps you to stay underwater longer and it is all completely automatic.
Through years of research and practising the sport, best practice techniques have been developed to help teach the sport safely and help people with a love of discovering the ocean (in Thailand this is not a bad activity anyway!) and this is exactly what you learn during the Thailand freediving course (an option on the Koh Tao Adventure and Xtreme Thailand Experience).
Day one at the Freediving School
The first day was a morning session spent in the class room with our instructor Marc, Marc is Canadian and has been freediving for many years, he was full of eye opening information, especially to someone like my self who has been down to 12 metres quite comfortably before.
Surprising facts came to light like there a 4 parts to your lung that you can use to inflate and take in oxygen, and that the capillaries (they do the oxygen gas exchange in your lungs) are mostly located in your bottom part of your lung – which is rarely used when breathing by most people. (Try looking at how you are breathing now, probably really shallow breaths, unlike then you do a big yawn).
He Taught me pretty cool breathing techniques and dispelled the myths around hyperventilation (which is actually a really bad thing to do when freediving).
The theory session really helped visualise what we put in to practice on the afternoon session on the boat. every one was split into small groups so the instructor ration to students was 1:2 and then we practised duck diving techniques – emphasising breaking the surface with minimal energy exerted.
My first attempt got me to 5 metres or so – I had equalisation problems, but then after about an hour I was hitting the bottom of the rope, a massive 20 metres below the surface of the water!
These guys really know there stuff, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. So if you are planning a Thailand Gap Year, spending it freediving in Koh Tao is not a bad option, and hey, how often do you really get the opportunity to try something new and exciting anyway?
Thailand gap year | Kenya gap year | Brazil gap year | Tanzania gap year | Mozambique gap year | Ecuador gap year | Namibia gap year | Brazil gap year | Tanzania gap year | Mozambique gap year | Ecuador gap year | Venezuela gap year | | south africa gap year | | australia gap year | | africa gap year | Become a diving instructor| asia gap year | | Fiji gap year | | New Zealand gap year | fitness holiday | Gap Year Diving
Related posts:
