Freedive Course Pre-Requisites

Ready for a course? We briefly go over the few pre-requisites for freedive courses and what to do if the thought of freediving in the open ocean kinda freaks you out.

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Transcripts

Hello future freedivers 

And welcome to the Total Beginner Freedive Podcast brought to you by Octopus Freediving. 

The next few episodes we will address more practical aspects of freediving and that begins with a freedive course This is episode 7 where we discuss the prerequisites for taking a freedive course. 

Lemme hear that jingle. 

Hi, this is Ray, the Freedive Nomad and your host for today as usual. 

So what are the prerequisites for a beginner freedive course? 

To be honest there are not a lot of requirements for joining a freedive course. There are generally 3 explicit requirements for a freedive course - age, swimming ability and health. Note there are about a dozen international freedive agencies but most of them i believe will have more or less these prerequisites

Age - 16-18 is usually the minimum age . Some agencies like AIDA and PADI do have programs for children under 16. 

Swimming ability - most agencies have swimming requirements of between 100m-300m, the longer distance is if you use a mask, snorkel and fins. This is really not a test you want to JUST pass as you do need a strong swimming ability to freedive. 

Generally good health - when you sign up for the course you will be given a medical questionnaire listing out many health conditions like diabetes or asthma or any heart, sinus, ear, pulmonary or neurological conditions.  if you answer yes to any of them you will need a sign off from your doctor. And seizures is the one condition I know of that will totally preclude  you from a freedive course. 

Now this is not an explicit prerequisite but definitely something to consider.  You must be comfortable in the open water - despite being strong swimmers, there are still a lot of people who kinda freak out when they can’t see the bottom of the lake or ocean. 

If you are not comfortable in the open water - I’d suggest an alternative: to learn in a deep pool that allow freediving. Deep pools are becoming more popular around the world and even right here in Taiwan we have one called Divecube. There’s also K26 in South Korea, Nemo 33 in Belgium, Y-40 in Italy, Deep Spot in Poland and I hear the deepest one in the world is launching soon in the UK. And if anyone out there is interested in building one in the US, may I suggest my hometown in the US, THE entertainment capital of the world - Las Vegas. 

I’ve even heard some aquariums offer freedive courses. How cool would that be. 

If that doesn’t work for you, you can try researching exposure therapy which is a method used by Cognitive Behaviriol Therapist use to help people overcome fears and anxiety. 

So I recorded this episodes several weeks ago when I was in quarantine but just two weeks ago the deepest pool in the world opened in Dubai with a stunning depth of 60 meters.  The Guinness Book of World Records already certified it as the deepest pool for diving as of June 27th and not only is it the deepest but has the most interesting interiors which you should really check out on their instagram called Deep Dive Dubai. And it's already attracting major celebrities like Will Smith. 

As we talk more and more about taking a freedive course in the coming episodes, there is one piece of equipment I always suggest my students consider buying before a beginner course rather than renting and that’s a wetsuit. 

It’s been said that there are two kinds of people, those who pee in their wetsuits and those who lie about peeing in their wetsuits. The physiological changes that happen in freediving causes a diver to want to pee A LOTmore, its called immersion diuresis. I have no issue with peeing in wetsuits, but for me, it’s kinda gross even with deep cleaning, but that’s just me, I don’t even like using hotel towels. So, if you’ve decided to buy a wetsuit consider one of our affiliate partners  Waihana Wetsuits from the great state of Hawaii. Their wetsuits are comfy, stylish and eco-friendly. It ticks a lot of boxes for me. Head over to freedivepodcast.com/wetsuit to have a look at their awesome wetsuits. 

And that’s it from me, dive safe, never dive alone, and really consider taking a freedive course.