Freediving on Koh Tao

Before I ever went freediving on Koh Tao, as a child my family and I would take yearly trips to see my mafia family in Sicily, during which my father would take my ten-year-old self and my brothers out spearfishing. The thrill of being in the ocean wielding my very own weapon (a ferocious trident that was my absolute pride and joy) at an age when I was barely allowed to cross the street alone was incredible, and then to go on the hunt for elusive octopus, delicious passing snapper, aggressive eels and basically anything else that looked reasonably edible was something I’ll never forget to this day.

How can you hold your breath for so long?

What really had me fascinated was when my father would spend a bit of time breathing quite deeply on the surface for a minute or, take what seemed like a gargantuan breath and effortlessly disappear beneath the waves to impossible depths for a child to imagine – how did he do it? How could he hold his breath for so long? Why weren’t the fish scared away by him? I had so many questions, and that’s when freediving first piqued my curiosity.

It wasn’t till years later that I learnt that what we were doing (in a very amateurish fashion) was called ‘freediving’, and was becoming a very popular pastime for those wanting a little more from their diving. The 1988 Luc Besson movie ‘The Big Blue’ we’re named after then showed me just what freediving could offer with some training and what seemed like a lot of effort, and I was hooked.

Surely for people to dive to such depths on just one breath you have to be some sort of super healthy, non-smoking, yoga-loving athlete, right?

Wrong!

Freediving is for everyone regardless of age.

Freediving is something that everyone (regardless of shape, size, or fitness levels) can try and be successful at – as long as there’s no serious ear problems. In fact, the first man to free dive more 100 meters was 65 years old when he did it!

It starts with learning about the mammalian dive reflex and controlling the urge to breathe (those contractions you feel in your diaphragm) which we all feel when we’ve held our breath underwater for a while. You learn relaxation procedures to help not just hold your breath for a minute or so but to really push the limits of your body and mind away from their comfort zones, control the feeling that you need to breather and before long enter into the realms of proper freediving – to be able to breath-hold for 2 minutes plus whilst gliding silently around the reefs, without a care in the world.

It’s not so much physical exercise, but more about knowing your body, mastering the psychological effects felt and strengthening our mind’s ability to live the moment peacefully, whilst in full control of the situation.

So what are the benefits of learning how to free dive?

The freedom felt whilst underwater without the heavy scuba equipment is really quite exhilarating. Scuba diving is wonderful when you want to spend a long time underwater exploring every nook and cranny, but with freediving, the beauty is in its simplicity and silence.

When freediving the marine life you encounter aren’t as skittish as when you’re scuba diving – bubbles from scuba regulators are noisy, and there isn’t that much sound underwater other than the communication of the different creatures down there so it inevitably disturbs everything. Freedivers, on the other hand, appear to be less of a threat, so the creatures down there let you get closer to them, and they also come closer to you – after all, you appear to them to be just a new, big fish so they’re also very curious. Of course, you are always limited in the time you can stay down there interacting, but it opens up so many places for exploration where it just isn’t feasible to go scuba diving – maybe there’s no dive centre to rent equipment or get your tanks filled, but with freediving, all you need is to don your mask, grab some weight and a buddy and you’re good to go!