What I Learned Training in Freediving

Before my first course in Bali, the idea of holding my breath underwater scared me a little. Like most beginners, I wondered how long I could stay calm, how I would feel at depth, and what my body would do with something so new.

So what did I learn training in freediving? Mostly that it is not about numbers. People talk about freediving in metres and minutes, but almost everything useful I learned had nothing to do with depth. It was about slowing down, respecting safety rules that exist for very good reasons, and noticing what was really happening in my body, not what I imagined was happening.

Is the urge to breathe a warning or a friend?

The first real lesson was learning to feel discomfort without panic. The urge to breathe can feel urgent and total. What surprised me is where it comes from. The Divers Alert Network (DAN) explains that it is driven mainly by rising carbon dioxide, not by falling oxygen. DAN calls this urge a preservation mechanism, because it is the thing that tells you to go up.

That is also why the most important safety lesson is a warning. Breathing very fast and deep before a dive, called hyperventilation, lowers carbon dioxide and delays the urge to breathe. DAN warns that oxygen can then drop too low to stay conscious before you feel any urge at all. That is how blackouts happen, often in the last metres of the ascent, which is why people sometimes call it shallow-water blackout. A good course teaches relaxed, normal breathing before a dive. Never forced breathing to “stretch” a breath-hold.

What I discovered is that a lot of my early discomfort was nerves and anticipation, not a real limit. Learning to stay calm gave me a kind of steadiness that followed me out of the water, into normal days too. But calm never means ignoring your body. And it never means diving without someone watching you.

Doing less, with a quieter mind

Saving energy mattered much more than I expected. Tense, rushed movements burn more energy. Quiet, efficient technique uses less, and slowly dives stop feeling like effort and start feeling like floating.

Moving slowly made me notice my body: where I was tense, where I was holding on for no reason. Freediving rewards patience over force, almost every time. Most of my real progress came from doing less, not more. Long, soft fins help with that too. If you are curious, our freediving fins list shows the kind of blades freedivers often use, although a course can start in whatever fins the centre gives you.

Instructors talk about the mind as much as fitness, and now I understand why. In my experience, a distracted mind tightened my body, and a focused mind let it relax. Before dives we practised visualisation: imagining a calm descent, easy equalisation, a slow turn at the bottom. It sounds too simple, but rehearsing the feeling in my head made the real dive feel less strange.

Training also teaches you to watch your thoughts without reacting to every one. That small gap, between noticing a thought and acting on it, turned out to be useful far beyond diving.

A quieter way of seeing the ocean

Long, slow moments in the water change what you notice. Small things that disappear when you move fast become obvious: a change in the light, a current pulling gently to the side, the way sound travels.

Moving slowly and quietly also seems to change how some marine life reacts. This is my own observation, not a study: fish that dart away from splashing often stay closer to someone who is not rushing. It is never guaranteed, the ocean does not perform on request, and it is never a reason to approach an animal. The animal decides.

Wanting more of that quiet is part of why our ethical freediving retreats are built around small groups, no more than four guests per instructor in the water, and slow days instead of ticking boxes.

Safety underneath everything

None of this works without a strong safety base, and good freediving training takes that seriously. The core rule: never freedive alone. Training agencies teach a buddy system often called “one up, one down”. One diver goes down while the buddy stays at the surface and watches, especially during the last part of the ascent, where blackouts are most likely. The second diver only goes once the first is back, breathing and clearly okay. So there is always someone ready to help.

Even a good buddy system has limits. In poor visibility, a buddy at the surface can lose sight of a diver in seconds, so instructors often use a line or a buoy to keep everyone close. Understanding your own body, how equalisation works and how pressure changes on the way up, makes the whole thing feel less like guessing and more like a skill you build on purpose. It is also why we work with vetted local instructors and dive centres who hold proper certification and follow disciplined safety routines.

Freediving training and the ethical layer

Freediving can be one of the gentlest ways to be in the ocean. No bubbles, no engine, no tank noise. That gentleness is a gift, and also a responsibility. A calm freediver who can hold a still position can watch a reef without touching it, and can stay back when a turtle or a ray simply wants to pass.

The same patience goes for animals. Training taught me that chasing anything underwater is a bad idea, for my oxygen and for the animal. The encounters we hope for are the ones where the diver stays still and the animal chooses. That is the standard we ask of ourselves, and of every operator we work with.

Slow progress, and the ocean’s own rhythm

Nothing in freediving happens fast. Most sessions are about technique and comfort, not a new personal best. My progress came in small, almost boring steps: a slightly easier equalisation, a slightly calmer exhale before going down. Being consistent did much more for me than pushing my limits ever did.

Freediving quietly changed how I think about progress. Depth and time became much less interesting than how calm and aware I felt during a dive. One moment of easy floating, mid-water, with nothing forced, started to mean more to me than any number.

The ocean also has its own schedule: tides, currents and weather that do not care about your plans. Freediving teaches you to work with those rhythms, not against them. Reading the conditions well, and sometimes deciding not to dive at all, makes every session safer. That feeling for natural cycles stayed with me on land. It changed how I think about travel and timing: waiting for the right window instead of forcing a plan. Small practical things help on those days. A roll-top dry bag keeps your phone and towel dry on the boat while you wait for the sea to settle.

Training in freediving did not just teach me a skill. It changed how I pay attention, in the water and out of it, and none of it needs to be competitive to matter. Some of the moments I remember best were not dives at all, just a few seconds of stillness between breaths. What I learned is still growing, honestly. Today it is less about how deep I can go, and much more about how attentively, and how safely, I can be with the ocean while I am there.

Questions people ask

What makes you want to breathe during a breath-hold?

Mainly rising carbon dioxide, not low oxygen. DAN describes this urge as a preservation mechanism, because it tells a freediver when to go up.

Why is hyperventilating before a freedive dangerous?

It lowers carbon dioxide and delays the urge to breathe, so oxygen can drop too low to stay conscious before you feel any warning. DAN lists it as a key risk for blackout.

What is shallow-water blackout?

Losing consciousness from low oxygen, most likely in the last part of the ascent, when falling water pressure makes oxygen levels in the lungs drop faster.

Can I freedive alone if I stay shallow?

No. Blackouts can happen near the surface, and a diver who blacks out cannot rescue themselves. Freediving is taught with a buddy system: one diver down, one watching from the surface.

Do I need to be very fit to start freediving?

Courses focus on relaxation, technique and safety more than strength. Schools ask you to fill in a medical questionnaire first, and some conditions need a doctor’s approval before you dive.

If this made you curious to meet the ocean this way, you can explore our upcoming retreats.

Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.

Sources & further reading

1. Hypoxia in breath-hold diving. Divers Alert Network, Alert Diver, accessed 2026.
2. One buddy up, one buddy down (freediving safety principles). Freediving Instructors International, accessed 2026.
3. Safety in freediving. DeeperBlue, 2025.
4. Diver Medical Participant Questionnaire (form 10346). PADI / UHMS, 2022.
5. Hyperventilation and serial breath-hold dives (European Journal of Applied Physiology). PubMed Central, 2023.

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