Freediving
Freediving has grown rapidly over the past few years, as a recreational activity is widely practiced and differs significantly from scuba diving. Freedom from bulky & heavy equipment; low cost; peace & tranquility are often sited as key draws of the sport.
Freediving in its simplest form is diving underwater on a single breath and breath holding until you resurface. It is something that has been practiced for thousands of years, before mechanical scuba equipment was available.
As Freediving became more organized and competitive, two worldwide associations have risen to the top AIDA International (International Association for Development of Apnea) and CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques – World Underwater Federation). Training courses provided by them are the most respected. Scuba diving agencies like PADI, SSI and so on do offer freediving courses but most will stick with the apnea focused agencies.
World record depths in competitive freediving have exceeded 200m, even 300m in some cases which is astonishing on a single breath when considering scuba divers generally restrict themselves to 30m.
Training and certification is relatively new with level 1 introductory courses teaching basic skills, technique, science & safety, with opportunity to dive upto 20m, level 2 introduces advanced techniques with opportunity to dive upto 30m.
As freediving is a related discipline we added a section of the dive shop, lists English speaking freediving outfits you can reach out to if you are interested in learning more.
Check out the list of freediving resources in Taiwan in the menu to the left.
Feel free to drop me an email at diveshop@diving.tw if you know of a freediving resource located within Taiwan. Better if you offer freediving yourself get in touch.
