7 minute read
SIGNING UP FOR A FREEDIVING ADVENTURE?
There are some questions you may want to ask.
Text by Tamsyn Signe - images by Matt Stow
One of the easiest ways to enjoy the ocean is snorkelling or freediving, with shore access in many destinations opening up the experience to almost anyone. Visitors to our beautiful coasts are often drawn to the water and will look for an experienced person to guide them, turning to social media or Google to find a local expert.
In most outdoor sports signing up with a commercial operation is almost guaranteed to leave you in the hands of a trained professional. Sports such as scuba diving, skydiving or paragliding have rigorous training and regulation - particularly regarding commercial operations - to ensure the safety of paying customers.
What about freediving? While scuba diving is very difficult to enjoy without going through a school or presenting proof of qualification to rent or fill cylinders, freediving is slightly different. With easy shore access or through boat operators who are focused on scuba and view freediving as a derivative of snorkelling that doesn’t require any particular expertise, there is a large grey area around commercial freediving operations.
As the popularity of the sport explodes, so does the availability of instructors and guides. Unsuspecting newcomers are often lured in by ocean enthusiasts offering experiences backed by alluring social media accounts and mesmerising visuals, but how skilled and safe are they?
The reality is that it is difficult to know, and it’s all too easy to end up in the ocean out of your depth (literally and figuratively) in the care of someone who may not be able to keep you safe or respond appropriately to an emergency when the chips are down.
If you don’t know where to start, here are some questions you may want to ask before handing over your cash.
What qualification does your freediving guide or instructor have, and are they affiliated with a recognised agency?
Particularly in areas with easy shore access, there are a plethora of operators selling snorkel tours and freediving experiences. However, unless they are an accredited instructor that has gone through rigorous training with a recognised agency, there is the possibility that you’re about to pay your money to someone who might not be able to ensure your safety.
Additionally, agencies worth their salt have a code of conduct for instructors, reducing the chances of unprofessional behaviour that can taint your ocean experience, and offering recourse to the agency in the unlikely but unfortunate event of an incident occurring.
While the calibre of instructor is more related to the individual than the agency they’re associated with, the bottom line is that you want to trust your safety to someone who is formally trained - not an amateur who has turned their passion for the ocean into a profitable side project while skipping the training investment.
What emergency training do they have?
Everything is fine - until it’s not. If there is an incident in the water (panic attack, hypothermia, blackout, rabid seal attack, heart attack etc.), are they able to deal competently with it? Without formal emergency training that includes CPR and first aid, an incident can go from a minor inconvenience to a life-threatening situation faster than you can get your wetsuit on. To qualify as a freediving instructor with any agency, CPR and first aid training is a mandatory part of the process.
Have they asked you any questions about your water experience and medical background?
Trained professionals should make a point of understanding their clients and any potential risks, and if you haven’t been asked basic questions about your water experience and medical background, this should raise a red flag.
What is the instructor/client ratio?
The higher the number of students per instructor, the better the profit - and the higher the risk.
On a freediving course or in the open ocean, anything more than four students per instructor should raise an eyebrow. While limits on a formal course vary (with the average being four per instructor, and six with one assistant instructor), the reality is that informal ‘courses’ - particularly those where a boat launch is involved - may attract higher numbers simply to make the maths work.
Even if an instructor is accredited, there are no formal restrictions on student limits if there is no formal course underway, and professionals need to use their discretion to ensure that everyone under their supervision is safe, be it through competent buddy pairs or direct supervision. Larger groups mean less direct supervision, and a lower likelihood of a successful, safe intervention if there is an incident.
You have freediving experience, and are signing up for advanced coaching. What else should you ask?
This is where safety issues get real.
Once you’re diving below your lungs’ residual volume (for the average person, that’s around -30m), a whole new category of risk opens up, with lung barotrauma and hypoxia becoming considerations if progression isn’t carefully structured and adaptation methodically taught.
Risks are amplified when advanced equalisation is prematurely introduced, sometimes creating access to depths that were previously limited by a diver’s ability to equalise. Couple this with diving on an open line (where the line is set way deeper than the target depth of the diver in question), and the perfect storm is created for a blackout or incident.
Signing up for advanced coaching or depth camps with facilitators who are not both qualified instructors and experienced depth divers themselves potentially leaves you in the hands of someone who may impart fragments of secondhand knowledge that can abruptly find you deeper than you’ve been before, without the skills to safely and successfully complete the dive and - even worse - in the hands of someone who doesn’t have the skills to rescue you when things go wrong.
Equipment considerations (safe lanyards, correctly set up buoys, oxygen availability etc), safety training refreshers (practising of rescues) and buddy procedures are all imperative for safe deep training.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t!
Freediving may be one of the best experiences of your life, and knowledge is your friend. While it may seem intimidating to consider all of the risks, the reality is that you wouldn’t sign yourself or a loved one up to skydive, scuba dive, paraglide or go flying with an unqualified person, and freediving should be no different! You’re handing over hard-earned cash for the experience, and are entitled to expect safety and professionalism in return.
Armed with a few key questions and a bit of research, you can make informed choices around who you trust your safety to without being misled by the marketing glitter. If your questions are met with resistance or obfuscation, you may already have the answer. Professionals will encourage you to take responsibility for making safe decisions, and will gladly share the answers without taking offence.
So before signing up for your next adventure, do your homework, and then dive in to explore the magic of the ocean with the confidence that the professional guiding you is competent and likely to open up the wonder of a whole new world for you in the safest possible way!
Tamsyn Signe is an AIDA Master Instructor and depth competition safety diver that is passionate about risk management in extreme sports, coming from a background of flight and wingsuit acrobatics instruction and competition.
Matt Stow, founding member of Freediving Africa, is a freediving instructor trainer that has qualified through both AIDA and NAUI, and is also a depth competition safety diver that has worked at World Championship level, as well as an underwater photographer.
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