Dahab the Mekka of Freediving

About Freediving in Dahab

Freediving is a sport with increasing popularity. It is synonym with breath hold diving and when you start getting professional lessons you will probably increase maximum depth and also how comfortable you are at depths. When I first started training i had problems reaching 10 meters, but after a week i was able to reach 25 meters. When you start taking lessons you will probably find out that everything you did before was wrong and potentially harmful.

Dahab has become one of the most important places for freediving in the world. It has held neumerous competitions and world record attempts. Most important is the Blue Hole where you find the Arch where William Truebridge freedived without suit, fins or assistance. You can see the video here.

The Blue Hole is 110 meters deep and 150 meters wide and is a center point in the Red Sea for water sports.

There are not that many freediving centers in Dahab, but the one we use are a world famous one. It is led by Lotta Ericson and Linda Pernelli. Lotta Ericson is a previous world record holder in static apnea. In this freediving center you can find different courses for all level from starter to competition diver.

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The Theory of Freediving

The Body

The human body is a quite interesting fenomenon when it comes to freediving it is almost as we have a programming in out brain that takes affect when your face gets emerged in cold water. The hart slows down and you release extra bod cells. The blod vessels in your skin and large mucels constrict and this function reserve the blood for more vital parts specially the brain and hart.

There is alot of things to consider when attempting a freedive. The first thing is the theory and this is something you should learn from a professional like in a freediving center. I was attempting alot of freediving on my own for a long time and after some time i think i was getting quite good without knowing that the things i was teaching myself was holding me back and even putting me in danger.

Breathing Properly

The first mistake i did was that i was hyperventing extencivly before going down. The reson why i was doing this is beacuse this is something i was told as a child from my swimming teacher and then again when i was starting my career as a scuba diver. The perpose for doing this is that you clear your lungs of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is a part of the respiratory system thats triggers your breathing. When your levels of carbon monoxide is high your brain knows it needs to take a brath, so when you hyperventilate you trick the brain into believing that it does not need to breath so you can stay longer underwater. The only problem is that the sub-conciosness of the brain is probably smarter then the concius part. The problem with doing this is that as the preassures of gasses changes from shallow to deep and this causes something called a shallow water blackout. You can pass out at around three to five meters depth and that is the reason why you should never freedive dive alone.

The second mistake i did is not really dangerous, but it makes it alot harder to freedive. What i did was that i was inhaling to deep so i had a full mouth of air when i was going down. This might seem ilke the logic thing to do so you can bring more air down. I noticed the effects of the problem with this, but i dident know why i was having a problem. The stomack starts cramping up and you feel quite uncomforatble as if you were chocking or like when you have to through up on an empty stomack.

Equalizing and going down

There are also may different techniques for equalizing and going down. When you go down you are firslaying flay down in the water and you take your breath. Then you bend your uper body down into the water. Follow up by lifting up one leg and you should start to go down and this should happen quite effortlessly.

Equalizing is something you have to do because the preassure is higher the deeper you go. The preassure will make the air in your sinus compact and create a big preassure on it. This is a bit painful but very easy to prevetn. Keep your mouth closed and then you pich or block your nose and try to blow through it. Dont blow to hard and do this before you feel uncomforatble keep doing this for almost every meter or so. What happens when you do this is that you take the air from your lungs and move it into your sinuses so that you equalize the preassure that your sinuses are exposed to.

This may sound a bit complicated, but im not really a freediver and definetely not teaching this, but it illustrates that there is a need for a course for beginners with an instructor. The tecneques are quite simple and take short time to learn. I used long time learning this on my own and it is so much better and safer when you dont need to figure it out your self.

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Specializing in a genre

There are several categories in freediving and they are called disiplines. And there are two main categories.

Pool Disiplines

Depth Disiplines

Dahab Restaurant Info

The Nightlife in Dahab

The Dive Sites in Dahab

The Saint Catherine Monastery in Dahab

The Safaris in Dahab

Wind Surfing and Kite Surfing in Dahab

Weather and wind forecast for Dahab

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