I am an experienced scuba diver but have always been afraid of freediving.
Can I really do free diving if I can’t even hold my breath above water for 40 seconds?

On an impulse, I signed up for the freediving certification level one. A friend and I went to Amed in Bali to take the two days course. Read on for our trials and tribulations as we progressed through the course and find out if we were finally able to free dive like mermaids…

Fear of free diving creeping in on our way to Amed

As we traveled to Amed, I was seriously doubting my decision to join this freediving class. Fear started to take hold. Do I really want to dive over 10 meters without a scuba tank? Will I be able to hold my breath for a sufficient period of time? I am usually very bad in yoga classes when we do Pranayama (breath retention) exercises.

This sport is dangerous. Many people have drowned, and there are other risks that I had thoroughly researched before signing up for the class. The water pressure on the lungs when ascending too quickly can cause shallow water blackouts where the diver loses consciousness. And just as with scuba diving, there is also the risk of decompression sickness, which can cause brain damage.

Amed is about a 3-hour drive from Ubud or the airport. Google Maps says 2 hours, but don’t believe it. Every time I’ve gone to Amed, it took me 3 hours. So I had a lot of time to dwell on all of these scary things.

We stayed at hotel Puri Wirata, which is by the sea, about 10 minutes drive from the center of Amed. It is a simple hotel, but I had an oceanfront room with a huge balcony and was very happy with my choice. There is also a great Italian restaurant called “Gusto” across the street.

The sunrise from my room at Puri Wirata Resort

Day 1: Free Diving Theory and Breath Retention Practice

When we arrived at 9 am, my fears hadn’t abated. The classroom was busy so we had a fifteen-minute wait. Once we got into the classroom, I was really questioning my decision. We were stuck in a small room without windows that was freezing cold. The pace of the class was so slow that I was quickly getting bored.

But as soon as we started the practical exercises on breath retention, things changed and it all started to make sense.

We learned that there is actually quite a lot of time between the moment when you feel the urge to breathe and the moment you will actually pass out. This is why it is important to start recognizing the signals that your body sends.

For me, the first signal was a strong pulsing in my stomach. After that, I felt a pulsation in my throat. That was enough for me, and I took a deep breath in. What a pleasure that one breath was!
After 2 hours of classroom lessons, we went to a swimming pool 10 minutes away.
There we started the static underwater breath retention exercise.
Our teacher was very good at helping us slow down and relax so that we could begin to improve our breath retention.

How Long Can a Beginner Free Dive?

My first attempt was 1.10 minutes. The second attempt was 1.40 minutes, and the third one was 2.08 minutes.

That’s pretty amazing after only a day of training! I never imagined I would be able to retain my breath for so long. Beyond the improved breath retention time, I also understood what gets people hooked on free diving.

(The world record of free diving is 22 minutes, so I still have a long way to go…)

Free Diving as Meditation

Getting into a state of deep relaxation and controlling my body in the water felt like a meditation on steroids. Beautiful peace of mind came to me during those moments and I couldn’t wait to put my head in the water again.

After the static meditation, we moved to distance swimming. Here, the idea was to do dive to the bottom of the pool and do laps. Our instructor was great at showing us the most aerodynamic position for swimming and correcting our movements underwater. An aerodynamic position is very important because freediving is all about saving your effort so that you can reduce your air consumption. I ended up being able to swim 40 meters underwater.
Our first day finished by about 3 pm. We received a free diving theory book to read and retired to our hotel pool for a relaxing afternoon. We realized we both felt great and our minds were very focused. It was similar to the feeling you get after a deep meditation session, combined with the exhaustion from a strong sports practice.

Free Diving Health Benefits

During the theory class, we learned that freediving has a lot of health benefits.
Freediving is a great way to relieve stress since you need to be in a very relaxed state to reduce your breath consumption. It is also a good way to improve focus. It’s vital to stay totally focused the entire time you are in the water. This balance of relaxation and focus is a very beneficial mental state.

Freediving also improves lung and heart elasticity. In the long term, it increases the lungs’ oxygen capacity and the hearth elasticity.

Day 2: Getting Real with Ocean Free Diving Practice

The second day of training was a bit more chaotic. Again, the classroom was busy when we arrived, so we had a 40-minute wait in the morning. We missed out on the theory portion of the ocean freediving depth practice, and my friend and I were both feeling pretty apprehensive.

I often have equalization problems with my ears when diving and therefore felt very uncomfortable free diving for depth. I worried that being time-constrained by my breath would not give me the opportunity to come up slowly enough if I needed to surface for my ears.
So, I went very slowly. After a few trials, my position and technique improved and I was already going down to 6 meters quite easily. I felt relatively safe, as we had an experienced free-diving instructor following us underwater, ready to rescue us should the need arise.

It felt truly amazing to go down into this amazing blue ocean. Everything was so quiet and sharp. It was like being in a silent film in slow motion.

By the end of the course, I felt great. I was so proud that I’d completed the course and was still a bit high on all this intense meditative focus and adrenaline boost. We went for a beer on top of a hill to watch the sunset and it might be one of the best beers that I have ever had.

Free Diving or Scuba Diving?

I do a lot of recreational scuba diving, so I was definitely wondering how free diving would compare.

Let me tell you this: it is totally different.

Freediving seems to be more like a sport where you consistently try and push your limit. To do that, you need a lot of relaxation, mental focus and body awareness. And it feels really great. Looking through the vast blue ocean while being totally focused is an incredible experience.

That being said, I am not sure that as a beginner I could really pay attention to what was going on around me. Concentrating on my breath means missing out on some of the corals and fishes.
So for sightseeing, wildlife observation, and underwater photography, I still much prefer scuba diving.

I took the opportunity to do four scuba dives while in Amed and you can read my review of Amed diving here.

Learning to free dive has given me an extra level of confidence while scuba diving. I now know that if I were to have an accident and lose my air access, I would probably be able to retain my breath and come up to the surface in a controlled way.
Also, it’s worth noting that freediving certification is still in its infancy, and it seems a lot less organized than the diving open water certification. If you expect a “German-style” organization, you are going to get frustrated. Just go with the flow and in the end, everything should be well.

Conclusion

In the end, I really enjoyed my freediving experience.

I was pushed to my limits and defeated my fears, and it was all done in a soft and gentle way. No moment felt overwhelming. It was a lot less scary than I expected.
The moments of grace and silence I experienced down there are memories that I will always treasure.
I am looking forward to practising again but not too soon…
If you have been thinking about trying freediving, take the plunge and do it. We did our course with Fusion Free diving in Amed