Giving You the Best Odds of Passing a Freedive Course

Everyone Passes a Scuba Course, Not So with Freediving

Compared to a freedive course, a scuba course is easy. Ok, maybe not everyone passes their scuba course on their first shot, but I've haven't met anyone who hasn't. Well, ok, I know one person who didn't but that was due to her sinuses being completely blocked up due to a cold.

In Dive Training Magazine on a Q&A blog post - a question was asked about whether scuba was hard to learn, here's what they said:

"As active recreational pastimes go, scuba diving is one of the easiest to learn. While you’re gliding around enjoying the underwater sights, you’re engaged in only three basic skills: floating, kicking and breathing. Of course, there’s more to it than that — becoming proficient at using the equipment and developing knowledge of scuba concepts and safety procedures — but if you can breathe through your mouth, chances are you can learn to scuba dive."

People who sign up for a freedive course, much respect to them, they are a different breed. For most people, the thought of holding your breath for an extended period of time is terrifying enough, then on top of having to dive 12 meters. 

So let's say for arguments sake, the first time pass rate of a beginner course is 90% in scuba is 90%. The pass rate that I hear from several fellow instructors are around 20-40%.  That's a huge difference.

And it's understandable, there is so much to learn: hold your breath, proper finning technique, duck dive, relaxation, head position, equalization (harder in freediving than scuba), buddying, rescue etc.

With my one-on-one courses, or at most, one-on two, my pass rate is 75%, ie no need extra sessions to pass a course.  And the math below will help explain why.

The Simple Math of a Freediving Course

Each open water session is typically 1.5 - 2 hours not including the time to set up and breaking down the set up at the end of a course. I’m

Each dive involves relaxation period before the dive typically taking around two minutes, the dive itself is about 1 minute including recovery breathing, and about 2 minutes of the instructor going over what you did well and what you need to work on. That's a total of about five minutes per dive.

As stated before, each session is 1.5 -2 hours. 2 hours is 120 minutes divided by 5 minutes equals 24 dives.

So, if you are on a typical course where the student:instructor ratio is 4:1 then each student will only get 6 dives per session. Each course is typically 3 open water sessions or 18 dives in total.

There are a bunch of skills to become proficient in to become a certified freediver in the open water and 18 dives is simply not enough for most people to get to a level of proficiency.

What can go wrong?

As said before, there is a lot to learn in a beginner freedive course.  Below are some of the typical areas people get hung up on in the open water sessions.

Duck Dive

This is one of the more complicated movements your must learn to pass your course. The duck dive is a quick movement that gets you down 2-3 meters deep quickly without expending much energy and thus oxygen. There are a multitude of movements to string together in in the 2-3 seconds it takes to perform this move.

First you need to take your one full breath, take the snorkel out of your mouth, equalize, point your hands to the bottom of the ocean, bend your hips, tuck your chin in, do a breast stroke, bring one hand to your nose to equalize, align yourself properly to the line and then start finning. And to do it with proper timing.

I've never had a student not pass a course due to not being able to do a proper duck dive, but it does take some time to become proficient and can be very frustrating for some. Some people can get it in 5-10 minutes, some people take the whole session but most people are somewhere in between.

Equalization

This is the number one reason beginner freedive students are not able to pass a course, because of equalization.

Equalization is much easier in scuba diving aided by the slow descent and the fact that your head is up thus the air is naturally traveling upwards through your sinuses and ears.

I've had some quick learners take the course, they pass the pool requirements quickly but then can't equalize.

If you can equalize on land, in theory you should be able to equalize when diving to depths, so long as you are relaxed enough. That's why we usually check your equalization during the online theory course.

But some students are not able to achieve a level of relaxation quick enough due to anxiety from being in the ocean, holding their breath while diving or thinking of a number of things to get correct on their dives.

Even if you have the mechanics of equalization correct, sometimes students won't be able to equalize due to the soft palate shutting due to anxiousness.



That's why going to a deep pool like Divecube is a good idea to take your first course so you can eliminate the fear of being in the ocean while taking your course and be more relaxed.

Open Water is Scary

The ocean, for those of us who grew up watching Jaws, is a rather frightening place. I know people who get anxiety when they can't see the bottom of the sea because it terrifies them what may be hidden there.



Even if you are not in full panic mode,  just floating vulnerably on the surface is enough to ruffle up some anxiety. I've had some students who needed up to 30 minutes just hanging onto the buoy and floating focusing on their breathing to calm down. And if you are in a group with other students, you may not feel comfortable taking that time to feel comfortable first which can be detrimental to your learning.

And finally...

Freediving is an activity that requires a lot of practice to become proficient.   And as you can see from the math above, getting enough practice in during a typical course can be tough. Of course, there are some people who grasp it right away and can easily pass the course and get certified with those limited dives, but the majority don't and have to return for some extra sessions to pass. If you want to stack the odds in your favor of becoming proficient in freediving and getting certified, try my one-on-one course and it doesn't even cost 4x the price of a regular course, more like 2x or so.

If you are on a tight budget, I suggest you check out my blog about English freediving courses in Taiwan for courses that are more at market rate.

If you are interested in taking a freedive course with me, email me at ray@freedivenomad.com or give me a call at 0981163838 or schedule a call with me here.