Snorkel, Diving and Free Diving; What is the difference?
Snorkeling would be using mask and snorkel; you may or may not have extremes. Normally, divers stay on the surface and cruise looking at the fish and corals below them. Many of them will want to dive underwater and see the fish up close.
Those who break the surface and use the ends would be considered free divers. Many are now taking this to some real extremes, with the record going over 80 metres! For most free divers, the normal range is 6 to 20 meters. If you’re going to try to become a serious freediver, it’s in your best interest to get professional training for a couple of good reasons.
1) To maximize your skill, which will make you more efficient and allow you to descend deeper and deeper. PADI, SSI and most dive certification agencies have specific courses for this.
2) Blackout in shallow water, which can be deadly! Shallow water blackout is caused by the changing partial pressures of the air at depth, which mostly only affects free divers and is why getting some training is recommended, and why serious free divers forever dive with a buddy who understands about the shallow water blackout and what to do if it happens. It is standard operating procedure that one of the two friends is always on the surface, to help the other if there is a problem.
Freediving fishing is a completely different and quite exciting sport as you are looking for the fish, then you have to hit it with some sort of spear, and then you have to bring the fish and yourself to the surface. In Hawaii it has become an art form as they latch onto fish 40 pounds and larger and can have a real man-on-man fight. nature battle which is quite intense as the fish will do their best to escape which means you have something fighting you, trying to stop you from going to the surface when you need a breath of air right now. Other than fighting bears or boxing kangaroos, I can’t think of a fairer fight. Hunting fish with scuba gear is illegal in most places and, in the eyes of all sportsmen, is considered unethical.
Diving would be using a mask, fins and an air tank, they will usually have a diving jacket attached to the tank called a “BCD”. regs” or “octo’s” which will normally have 2 hoses with regulators and one or 2 low pressure hoses as well as an information pack containing 1, 2 or 3 different gauges and depth gauges, compass and computers. Divers will also have other equipment such as weights and knives (to free yourself from underwater tangles), lights, underwater cameras, and underwater video cameras are common accessories to see on divers – we hope to see you underwater soon, no matter how you get there!
