Your Essential Freediving Gear Guide
Freediving is the fastest-growing segment of the dive industry today. The oldest form of diving, core gear for freediving hasn’t undergone any major revisions lately — it still consists of a mask, a snorkel, fins, a wetsuit and a weight belt — but there have been subtle changes that have led to exponential evolutions in the sport. Michael Sumlin provides a detailed guide to freediving gear.
Photo by Stephen Frink
Freediving is the fastest-growing segment of the dive industry today. Robert King, vice president of AIDA International (Association Internationale pour le Développement de l’Apnée/International Association for Development of Apnea) estimates an annual growth rate of 20 percent. Notwithstanding this recent popularity, freediving is the oldest form of diving. The core gear hasn’t undergone any major revisions lately — it still consists of a mask, a snorkel, fins, a wetsuit and a weight belt — but there have been subtle changes that have led to exponential evolutions in the sport. Most notable among these are the design and materials of the fins.
Fins
The most recognisable element of freediving gear is those crazy long fins. Long blades are very efficient with a slow, steady kick. The length adds to the flex and responsiveness of the blade, creating a perception of propulsion with less effort. Many freedivers believe long fins offer the best balance between low effort and high thrust. Less effort means conserving energy and oxygen and, thus, extending dive time. While long-blade fins could be used in scuba diving, they can be unwieldy and aren’t designed to maximise torque, which can be a handy feature to scuba divers for starting, stopping and manoeuvring while wearing their much bulkier equipment. Long fins offer the greatest potential benefit to streamlined freedivers, who often seek to cover long vertical distances relatively quickly compared to gear-laden scuba divers.
Fin blades are made of plastic, fibreglass or carbon fibre. Plastic blades are easy on the wallet and extremely durable, but they are heavier than and typically not as responsive as the others. Fibreglass blades are more responsive and lighter, and they are in the middle of the road in terms of price. Carbon-fibre blades are superior in performance and are the most lightweight of the three, but they are also the priciest.
There are also options for blade stiffness. In most cases these are classified as soft, medium and hard. The desired stiffness will be a product of individual fitness, body weight and the type of freediving that suits you. Most long blades on the market come with full foot pockets. A full-foot pocket that fits correctly will transfer energy better than an open-heel design. Some fins feature interchangeable foot pockets that allow you to replace a broken blade or match the best-fitting foot pocket with your favourite blade. Fin rails are another feature to be aware of — rails help keep the blade straight through your kick cycle, improving efficiency.
Some freedivers choose to channel their inner mermaid and use a monofin. As with bifins, monofins are available in a range of materials and degrees of stiffness. Manoeuvrability is greatly compromised with a monofin, however, making these best suited to either competitive diving or recreational depth diving.
MASKS AND SNORKELS
The masks and snorkels used in freediving are designed to maximise breath-hold performance. A low-volume mask is preferable for breath-hold diving because it takes less air to equalise at depth, which conserves oxygen. The lower profile also means improved hydrodynamics. Some divers prefer low-volume masks simply because having the glass closer to your eyes can make for great peripheral vision.
With regard to a snorkel, a basic “J” style with no purge valve tends to work best. They are simply less bulky, and more streamlined means more efficient. See a trend here? In freediving the snorkel is spat out before descent to prevent it from keeping the airway open in the event of a blackout.
OPEN-CELL WETSUITS
Most wetsuits are neoprene with a nylon or Lycra liner on the inside and outside. Open-cell suits, which are favoured by freedivers, don’t have a liner on the inside, which increases flexibility. This enhanced flexibility allows divers to “breathe up” with less restriction on the diaphragm. Breathing up is the process of preparing yourself for a dive while breathing through your snorkel at the surface. Steady breathing from your diaphragm will help you relax and slow your heart rate before you take your peak inhalation and make the dive. Because they lack an inner lining, open-cell suits stick to you like glue and keep you warmer than fully-lined suits. Open-cell suits are more fragile, however, and require lubrication to put on. Don’t be intimidated by the lube; it actually makes donning an open-cell suit even easier than putting on a conventional suit. Most open-cell suits are two pieces, including a top with an attached hood and a bottom. The hood enhances both warmth and hydrodynamics.
For the rest of this article and other stories, check out our latest Scuba Diver Issue 3/2015 Vol.82) here or download a digital copy here.