7/2/2023 0 Comments Ducky dive in head firstI felt clumsy and had no idea how to move my body. Somehow I felt very stupid and kind of ashamed to try. During the level 1 course, in the first couple of sessions, I kept asking the instructor to show it to me again so that I could procrastinate doing it myself. I had absolutely no idea how to do it, and even after my instructor explained it to me and after watching others do it several times, I still felt very intimidated to practice it. Somehow I was very awkward when it came to duck dive. How does one do it?! It was only when I took the SSI level 1 training that I realized if there was one reason I was not going down, it was because I didn’t know how to do duck dive, at all. I exhaled and still struggled to go down, and then I needed to breathe again before I managed to go anywhere. It was so shockingly horrendous that they’d happily talk about the anecdotes whenever they have the chance, and give testimonials on my prehistoric lack of ability to dive down even 0.5cm.įor a long time, I always thought it was perhaps because I have high body fat which makes it difficult to go down. In fact, I have two friends who had the privilege to witness my pathetic attempts of “diving down” at sea (once in Croatia, once in Barcelona). It always seemed so cool to me, even if it was just 4 or 5 meters. At sea you see swimmers and snorkelers plunge into the blue so elegantly, cruising around and touching down at the sandy bottom before heading up for air. One of the reasons why I thought myself to be the opposite of a talented freediver was because I was pathetic at going down underwater before I took my first freediving class. Please seek professional guidance from properly trained instructors wherever needed. But please note that I am not trained to provide instructions and do not intend for my story to be a professional guide in any way. I hope my story helps a few of you out there. I really enjoy freediving, learned a lot both about the sport and myself, met some really cool people, and had a ton of fun in the process. ![]() But even if you don't have the best genetics or have yet to master related skills, you can still learn and make progress pretty quickly and have a great time. To those thinking about dipping their nose into freediving but unsure if they are made for it - I for one, was probably not made for it. ![]() The intention is to share my story with family and friends, and perhaps it can serve as a data point for fellow freedivers who are going through similar challenges that I had gone through. I even became an athlete officially by participating in a competition just 2 months after completing my Level 1 (although this was not my plan)! Even though pretty much anybody that can freedive can participate in a general competition, and being registered as an athlete doesn’t mean anything in terms of my ability to dive, I still thought it was pretty funny since I had never associated myself with the word “athlete”.1Īs I get more questions and interest from friends and fellow freedivers, I thought I’d write a little trilogy to document my experience breaking into freediving. ![]() Since then, I’ve had a lot of fun learning about this sport while traveling worldwide. But I fell in love with freediving as soon as I took the first lesson (which was not even so successful to start with). And in fact, I’ve never been serious about any sport since childhood. I am not a strong swimmer and still cannot swim front crawl or backstroke. I wasn’t a natural at doing Frenzel equalization. I consider myself to be the opposite of a “talented freediver”. I am using all my holidays and taking advantage of the flexibility of remote working to explore this newly found passion. My family and friends could hardly find me in my London home these past 12 months. Since I did my first SSI Freediving Level 1 training in August 2021, I’ve been hooked on freediving.
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