If you take it down to the absolute basics, all you need is a mask, fins, snorkel and possibly a gun or spear. Of course then there are things that then make life easier or more comfortable like a wetsuit, weights, knife, dive computer, floats, lines etc etc etc. But the core essentials list is pretty short.

Within that list of core essentials the mask is possibly the most critical but thankfully, once you have one that fits, there isnt much to upgrade there. I still use a mask that you can get for ballpark £25 and it can go as deep as i do.

However, the fins are the one bit of kit that you really need to get right. Nothing you will buy will affect your diving more. A good set of fins that fit well, that are the correct stiffness and move well for your style can make the diffence to enjoyable dives and good progression, to cramps and pretty exhasting sessions.

So, youre starting out and you need to get some fins. Your choices fall within 3 basic groups, Plastic blades, fibreglass blades and carbon blades. Although plastic blades are the obvioius place to start as they are cheaper and more robust, dont feel like you have to, there are fins out there made from the more exotic materials that wont destruy your bank balance and if you are commited to the sports then they may be a better option overall.

Lets look at plastic fins first. 

Plastic freediving fins are really tough, i have plastic fins still going in the school that are 15 years old! If you aare really concerned about breaking fins, then plastic may be your best option.

They are cheaper than the other options. Even the fanciest plastic fin will probably be cheaper than the most affordable carbon fin, so if you are looking to minimise your expenditure, for whatever reason, plastic is the way forward. One thing to pay attention to thoug is manufacturers claims of their plastic fins being significantly better than others. In my experience this is all hyperbole, plastic is plastic and thats it, Sure some will be softer or stiffer than others, and one foot pocket may fit better than another, but not one will be much better performance wise than the other.

Its worth looking out for companies that sell a soft version. Plastic blades are generally stiff, much stiffer than the carbon blades you will migrate to in time. So the irony is, that when you are starting out, and need the most help, you are probably using the stiffest and least forgiving fins. A soft blade will give you legs a rest and allow you to have longer sessions. Sure, stiffer blades may make you faster, but they will sap a lot more energy and oxygen from your system. Remember, there isnt a single recognised competition discipline that is related to speed. Slow and steady wins the race. As a general rule look for soft or medium stiffness (plastic or carbon).

Removable blades may be something you want to consider. Some companies that offer a variety of blades may have foot pockets that can accept different blades. This may mean that you save some money in the long run, or may mean that you can get used to a foot pocket that you like. In my experience it tends to be a false economy, or at least kinda annoying. Most interchangeble blades need to be glued in for reliability on the dive, so the idea you can swap them in and out all the time may be unrealistic.

The foot pocket is incredibly important. If you can, go to a real shop and try some on. Just like shoes, they vary in size massively and even if you follow their size guide you arent a guaranteed fit. So it can be an exhausting, expensive and longwinded experience if you are shipping back and forth to retailers. Youll need it to be snug, and fit well regardless of the fin sock you are wearing (which id recomend no matter where you are diving, as the chance of blisters and cuts are high without a sock).

Upgrading

Its fair to say that a lot of us are gear-a-holics, if you have heard of the term G.A.S (google it if not), then thats probably you! Even if you arent a gearhead, then you may jjust be interested in making your life easier when starting out. This is where we talk about carbon fins. Carbon is a more efficient material than plastic, it transfers more of your energy in to the water, rather than lose it to the blade itself. Its a really big difference too, after using carbon, plastic blades feel like lead weights. Not because of their physical weight but because of their action in the water.

You can get carbon fins for approx £125-£150 these days but also anything up to £1000. You will be paying for personalisation, better carbon, better resin and smaller production runs with the expensive ones. Some of which is good, but you have to realise that you be affected by the law of diminishing returns here. A £500 fin is not 5x better than a £100 fin.

SO, i hope thats helped a  bit, if you have any questions post a comment and ill answer when i have a moment! dive safe. Ian

in 2014 i wrote my book, Underwater foraging – freediving for food, and it became a bestseller on Amazon within the year. In fact it was the bestseller for all diving books for that year, so just from that we know that its not just me thats interested in finding food underwater.

Why the interest?

Well, seafood has been in our makeup since the dawn of man, the Aquatic ape theory states that mankind developed its most enduring qualities on the estuaries and shoreline of prehistory. The ability to stand on two feet, our large and well developed brains and of course our incredible ability to hold our breath for longer than a purely land based mammal should be able all may come from adaptaions created during our journey to become the speacies we know as ‘man’ today. So hunting for food in the sea really is in our dna. You don’t need to do too much to unlock the skill.

What do you need to know?

Well, what to find and where to find it is the first thing, and thankfully (in the UK at least) there is loads to gather. Most of it can be found from above the low tide line, so you don’t even have to get your face wet if you dont fancy it. So that really opens it up to people of all abilities. If you think you need to be an expert diver to do well, think again. A keen eye is your greatest asset. 

Know how to freedive, or at least ‘deep snorkel’ will open up a lot more options, primarily things like brown crabs, lobsters, scallops, larger mussles and certain seaweeds. This is more important on neap tides, where the water doesn’t retreat far enough to find the good stuff.

Why is underwater foraging good for you and the sea?

Commercial fishing is unfortunately very destructive, and when we engage in recreational fishing we have to be careful not to add to that problem. remember, just because you may get your seafood sustainably, doesn’t mean that you aren’t adding to the overall problem. So by underwater foraging we can approach the collection of marine seafoods in the most sustainable way possible. 

We can chose to not take a fish (via spear), we can see if the local population of crabs and lobsters is healthy enough to take one for our dinner, we can choose seaweeds that grow well in our area, in fact we are given so much time and choice to make the right call it really can relieve the pressure on an area. 

So not only can you leave your impact to a minimum, you get the chance to collect some of the healthiest foods available to us. Seaweed, or marine algae, has very high levels of a variety of vitamins and minerals, iodine, protein. It has been shown to reduce cholesterol, blood pressure and the risk of diabetes. Superfood doesn’t do it justice. 

So come and join me on an underwater foraging course here in sunny (sometimes) Cornwall, so i can personally show you the hidden treasures of the sea.

Probably!

Its such a common question, something im asked about all the time, and its totally fair to ask. So lets go over the basics, what does a big gun do and what does a smaller gun do.

Small guns: Lets call this everything under 95cm.

• Easier to load. If you have a limited reach, then a shorter gun will be a great deal easier to load. Its also of course easier to load for taller people too.
• Easier to manouver . Underwater, the lateral pressure and drag on a long gun is quite hard going, moving a smaller gun side to side ius much easier!
• Less embarrasing. This sounds silly i know, but you know the old adage ‘All the gear, no idea’ ? This couldnt be truer here.  A long gun is often the sign of a spearo that is going for larger fish in clear water, something thats hard to do, so it tends to display a level of experience. If you are flapping about in the water as a newer spearo (which is normal by the way, we all start somewhere), and then walk out with a 120cm carbon gun, id be surprised if you didnt get some less than complementary comments from other divers (be kind people!).
• There is no commonly found fish in the uk that wont be speared by a gun thats 65-85cm. Fish are very soft, even their bony heads are quite soft. An accurate shot at a reasonable range is all you need.
• Range isnt as important if you cant see far. Big guns give big range, which is great in the Med, but in 4m vis in the English channel then you dont need more than a couple of metres range.

Big Guns: Everything over 95cm

• More power. A longer gun shoots further and straighter as it delivers more power to the spear.
• Better for travel. This may make no sense, why would a bigger gun be better for travel? Due to the foish we hunt in warmer, clearer water. We need a longer gun for clear water where the fish may be more wary of a diver that they can see from 20m away. Also anything over 15-20lbs will need a gun with more penetrating power (In the uk anything over 10lbs is considered a very good catch). Also, many pelagic fish (even small bonnito, a type of tuna) have a much harder skeletal structure and thicker skin than uk fish.
• Will grow with you. If you are happy to have a slower start and liley struggle with a long gun in the first seaso, after a year or so youll be more used to it and you may not need to upgrade for a while.

So what shoud you go for. I strongly advocate an 85cm gun for taller beginners, and a 75cm gun for anyone less than about 5ft8 (ish). Then after a year or so, maybe get a 95cm gun, which if you dont plan to go and hunt Tuna , will serve you well for absolutley anything in the UK.

Its really easy to be swayed by the manufacturers of these guns, telling you that yoiu must have the biggest carbon gun or you wont catch anything, its just not true, they just want your money!!! Spearguns are not really precision instruments, they are massively basic, even in their most advanced form. Its not like a rifle, or a handgun, or even a crossbow. The accurate range of a gun is not measured in hundreds of metres, its measured in a handful of metres. The variables that a gun provides at such short ranges are minimal to be honest. Its your skill in handling it, planning your shot and understanding variations in fish movement and magnification etc. Good luck everyone!

Several years ago, we were contacted to help in the design of the some freediving kit for Fourth Element. That range is now available and is called the RF range. Click here to check it out!

Whats started as a meeting in our office and a sketch in my notepad, has now become the best range of off the peg freediving suits that you can buy. This is something that i am totally sure of and very proud of. Obviously it wasnt just me, the team at Fourth Element did all the hard work. I just told them what I liked, what freedivers needed and what would work in my opinion.

We have incorporated everything that i wanted in a suit, particularly in the 3mm RF1, which has every feature that i wanted in a warm water wetsuit. Easy to don, warm, flexible and adaptable. Its perfect for warmer waters, in fact ive used the suit and vest in June in Cornwall for nearly 2 hours (ok, i got cold at the end, but it was surprisingly effective!). It feels fast, doesnt restrict movement and works for all disciplines.

The thicker RF2 is slightly more conventional, as a 2 piece feediving suit, but its packed full of features and is mega flexible, but rugged where you need it. Fast in the water but without compromising usability. This is what youll need for the majority of UK diving. Its mega lux!

The suits are squarely aimed at active, training freedivers. Freedivers who want performance, but dont want to risk wearing a delicate competition suit everyday.

Take a look at the gear, its great.

Oh, and the new dry robe is amazing!

Click here to be directed to the fourth element site

Unfortunately we have had to make the decision to pass on our boat fees to our clients commencing 8/6/22.

As im sure you are all more than aware, fuel prices have skyrocketed and therefore the boat charters that we use have substantially increased their prices. What you may not be aware of is we havent changed our prices in 10 years! So with the two factors combined, we now have to ask our students to pay for their boat spaces if the conditions are suitable and the group agrees. This cost is £45 paid directly to the boat operator on the day.

We will continue to include the quarry and pool entry fees as these have not changed.

We thankyou for your understanding!

Ian and Emily

Anyway, if you are struggling to come to some kind of regime to keep your freediving on point, but you cant get to a pool or to the ocean… then read on.

Here are some ideas to keep you busy.

1: Apnea walks: Its an oldie, but a goodie. Don’t waste your next government sanctioned exercise break by walking like a normal human being… breathing all the time. Pepper it with some breath holds.

2: TV apnea: Who hasn’t done this? Breath holding whilst watching the tv is a staple of all free divers! Try to breath hold the advert break.

3: Hill running apnea: This ones a bit of a tricky one, but it really pushes you. Find a grass hill (or a sand dune). Walk up it holding your breath and stop when you cant manage any more. Mark that point with a stick or something. Now walk back down (breathing). At the bottom, turn around and walk quickly back, whilst breath holding … aiming to get to your stick. Then walk quickly back down (breathing/recovering). Keep repeating this until you reach a steady pace,  close to a jog up and jog down.  Its a progressive exercise that will push you capacity and give you a marker of progress generally. Id do this for a time rather than an amount of repetitions. Half an hour perhaps? Whatever suits your fitness level and available time.

4: Rope apnea: Get a length of rope, the longer the better, say 30m . Tie a weight to the end (this could be anything), something which provides steady resistance and is appropriate to your strength level. Then lay it out in a straight line, sit down and start to pull whilst breath holding. This one is particularly good for those who enjoy free immersion  dives. Repeat until youve had enough!

5: Rope puzzle: I did this one with Joey Essex and Ben Hanlin on Love and Deadly and its harder than it looks. Now that you have your rope ready from the previous exercise, tie a row of overhand knots in the rope, at even intervals. I cant say how many exactly , but do plenty. Then sit at one end, hold your breath and try to undo as many as possible. The goal is not to panic under pressure, to try to pace yourself to complete the series. Its all about judgement and relaxation.

Ok, that’ll do for now. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you soon!

Bad posture is normally where the diver hyperextends through their entire body, essentially bending backwards, normally looking towards the sea floor. This is common in all divers, even the best will have moments of bad posture and whilst it cant always be remedied in all situations, it can be an easy fix when we are lone diving, or at the very least diving straight down.

Here is the fix.

Whilst you are equalising  (assuming you hold your nose when you are doing so), try to keep the elbow of the arm/hand that’s doing the equalising close to your chest. That’s it…. simple. Pinch your nose, tuck your elbow in!

Why does it work and what does it do?

If you hold your elbow out whilst you are equalising and diving you are creating an inefficient form in the water. This is an easy mistake to make, just watch your buddies next time you are in the water. It also allows you to pull your head back and arch your back to create drag there too, plus it causes problems with equalising as it causes restrictions to airflow to the middle ear and sinuses.

As soon as your tuck that elbow in, whilst still pinching your nose, it fixes all of those issues! It forces you to keep your head level with the horizon as the moment you pull your head back, you will lose your equalisation pinch.

So try it next time you are diving. It will help.

Spearguns don’t come with laser sights, or even something that could even be called a sight really. Some manufacturers have little notches carved out of the butt of the guns in an attempt to create a sight of some sort, but really they are not particularly useful.

When we are freediving with a speargun or polespear our body and mind is focused on all manner of things. Being quiet, smooth, finding cover, getting set up for a shot, our weighting, our breath-hold, our equalising. Adding aiming in the traditional sense of the word to the mix often creates tension and a sort of performance anxiety that tends to scare the fish away. So we have to start to aim instinctively.

What does that mean exactly? Think of it this way… When you throw a ball at a target, do you aim for that target or do you just look at it and throw the ball? Im guessing its the latter right? But how did you do it without ‘aiming’?  Its a combination of muscle memory and the millions of tiny calculations that your body and mind collaborate on to get that ball to the target, or as close as you can manage. our two eyes can judge distance, we take in to account wind and the weight of the ball, the elevation of the target, the ground we are standing on, our posture… plus a tonne of other things that we don’t even realise.

In spearfishing there are just as many variations, and the environment and the equipment simply does not allow us to make slow and considered ‘aimed’ shots. Even a fancy top end speargun is in fact a very primitive bit of kit, it’s basically a bow and arrow! They are accurate but they are not easy to aim like a gun above water… So we shoot instinctively!

Instinctive isn’t shoot ‘from the hip’ per se , but simply something more deep rooted, something based in the subconscious rather than the conscious mind. We look at the fish, we bring our gun or spear to bear and we release, and most of the time… it hits.

When i started spearfishing i had a Cressi speargun that had a notch of sorts that could be used as part of a sight window. The combination of me being a rank amatuer and the time i used to take lining up my shots meant i missed more than i hit. In fact one of the things i try to remember to tell my students is to stop thinking, to not try to aim and to not wait too long before you take the shot. If you lay there and ‘aim’, the chances are you will stiffen up and scare the fish or simply give the fish chance to get away.

To learn the true art of instinctive aiming underwater, get yourself a polespear. It doesn’t have to be a fancy carbon Evolve polespear , you could even make one yourself, but what it will do is force you to ignore the rules of ‘aiming’ and think a little bit less, and believe it or not, but the less you think whilst you are spearfishing, the more fish you will get!

If you are interested in learning to spearfish then why not join one of our courses?

Last year i was on the hunt for an affordable automatic dive watch when a student rocked up with a Pantor Sealion. My interest was peaked and no less than a month later i was awaiting delivery of my very own!

Please note, that although i love a nice watch, im no watch expert!

So…. The nitty gritty. Whats it got?

Basic specs

Stainless steel case

Unidirectional bezel

Screw down crown

Date

Sapphire glass

Helium release valve

300m rated

Automatic movement

Metal strap

Build quality, looks and size

The watch feels very solid in the hand and weighs as much as you may imagine a solid lump of steel of equivalent size to weigh! For me thats a good thing, but perhaps if you wanted a light weight dress watch this may be too much. Its not too big though, So many dive watches are enormous, and wearing them everyday ends up being a hassle as they knock in to things, tear chunks out of friends and family and catch on clothes. Everything feels solid and well put together, nothing rattles or squeaks, all you can hear if you shake it is the auto winding movement spinning in the case.

The glow in the dark markers, which i am told by the Internet are called ‘Lume’, are amazing. It lasts all night and is really bright after a few seconds under a light or direct sunlight.

Ive worn it everyday for 6 months without being overly careful with it, except for taking it off to do some slightly unnecessary pickaxeing in the garden and shoving my hand between a brick wall and a fence!

It looks really great. Very similar to many other classic dive watches but with a nice retro edge thanks to the ‘turtle’ shape case (thanks again Internet for that one) . I do love the little sealion on the crown and back, it’s a nice touch. Most of the metal is a rugged brushed steel with a few polished accents. You can choose between a rubber dive strap or a metal strap, both come in the package , which by the way is lovely, a nice leather zip box, which I can’t imagine I’ll use for anything but its cluttering up my shelf of random stuff in a classy way that I appreciate (of course it’s useful if you have lots of watches… I dont).

Timekeeping

Pretty important i guess? Can it keep good time? The watch loses id say about 5-10 seconds over the course of a week or so, although I haven’t measured that. So at the end of a month you will be a bit behind schedule. From my experience this is about what to expect with an automatic . Obviously if you spend loads more (or a lot less and get a digital!) then you gain a bit more accuracy …. but you will never need a battery so quit your whining!

Dive practicality

The ‘feature’ i use the most is one of its only ‘features’ , the bezel. I find this really easy to use for timing statics, although its never going to be as good as a stopwatch. Not bad though. The bezel could be a bit looser though, as when wet its hard to turn and i find myself digging my nails in to the grooves on the bezel to get purchase. With gloves it would be useless. So if you are listening Pantor, loosen it up a little and add some more grip please!

Depth wise its clearly enough,  rated at 300m. Basically its enough for commercial divers and sat divers, who happen to be the only people in the world who would utilise the helium release valve! I always think its a weird one, having a helium release valve as genuinely the numbers of people who need one must be so ridiculously low, in the hundreds worldwide I’d imagine, that it’s kind if pointless . Its a ‘tough’ badge really, shouting… ‘im a real dive watch!’ Ive taken it to 30m so far, but im sure it will go deeper with no problems.

The great ‘lume’ and big hands and markers makes it very easy to read underwater, and above water!

Price

This is where any slight faults fall by the wayside as you consider the price for a 300m, sapphire glass, stainless steel automatic dive watch! It retails full price for £599 which is already a bargain but can be found for less when its discounted on Amazon etc (at the moment its at £450!). Im not on the Pantor payroll so i wont add a link to buy it or anything, ill leave that to your expert Googling!

Conclusion

If you are on the hunt for an affordable-ish (sub £1000), tough, reliable, good looking dive watch that should last a lifetime then look no further, you will not be disappointed.

Dive safe!!!

Ian Donald, AIDA instructor trainer