NAUI Freediving and Mermaid Festival 10 April 2022

On Sunday 10 April 2022, NAUI held their first competitive freediving competition at the Hillcrest Pool in Pretoria.

It was with great anticipation that the local freedivers came out to support this competition. Many of them competing against their own personal bests. The joy of freediving is you aren’t competing against other competitors, but rather what you have been able to achieve in the past. One of the greatest dangers of freediving is pushing yourself without capable safety divers to watch you closely, as black outs do occur. But while at a competition, there is someone within centimeters to help you, should you get into trouble. During NAUI freediving courses safety is drilled in, to such an extent that it is always top of mind.

The disciplines that freedivers could compete in for this competition were Statics ; how long you can hold your breath, Dynamics ; how far you can swim under water holding your breath, while fully submerged with bi-fins (a pair of freediving fins), Dynamics in a monofin (one fin which looks like a dolphin tale) and Dynamics no fins.



A particular surface safety protocol is required in order the get a ‘white card’ . This includes coming to the surface, holding on the side, without dipping your chin below the water surface, taking your mask off, making an ‘ok signal’ at the judge then saying ’I am ok’, all done within a time period of 20 seconds. This was a huge learning curve for many of our divers who had not competed before. Qualified freediving judges have to make the call of white, yellow (penalty) and red (disqualified). There are also other rules which need to be adhered in order to achieve a white card. There were some amazing performances including a 6 minute 22 second static by Charles.



To make the day fun, we included a mermaiding event organized by Kylee Nel of Moonsong Magic Mermaids Tails. She made an obstacle course which was a sprint of 25m. This brought out a competitive side in both mermaids and competitive freedivers alike. With some of the men donning some rainbow wigs for the race. While the graceful mermaids looked beautiful in their elegant tails .



Unfortunately the weather did not play along and it was rainy and a chilly which is not the best weather for an outdoor pool. Unfortunately, in Gauteng there is a real lack of indoor heated swimming pools. Regardless, there were some lovely stalls including food stalls, diving gear stalls, DAN -Divers Alert Network stall and some mermaid and clothing accessory stalls. There were amazing prizes for winners of categories to spot prizes.



At the end of the day, everyone just had fun and that was what the day was all about. As an instructor at Freediving Johannesburg, the most rewarding for me, was to see how far my students had come. Not everyone did a personal best due to the weather, but to see them doubling the distance they did during their course and tripling their breath hold is very special. I honestly feel so privileged to part of each students under water journey.

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha Dec 21/ Jan 22

In December we ran a course in the friendly city, or rather the windy city.

We thoroughly enjoyed the indoor Olympic sized swimming pool, as well as the heated diving pool. Gloria at the entrance always greets you with a friendly face and Twice, the life guard runs the Newton Park pool with such pride. No wonder, this pool is the venue of choice for Freediving and swimming nationals. Kylee Nel from Moonsong Magic Tails, brought some mermaid tails with to play in. We even had the South African Freediving Men’s record holder, Gletwyn Rubidge, join in with eloquence & for some glamour we had Lindi Eksteen, an under water model in a tail too. We seemed to attract a little attention from the local swimmers.

The sea was her usual self in the Eastern Cape, completely unpredictable. So we had to wait for a gap in the weather between gale force winds and big swell. Eventually, we found a decent day, in PE terms, with not too much wind, just a little swell. We went out with Wildside Divers, at Noordhoek. We were driven to the beach on Horris, the wooden rebuilt bakkie, who has a face painted on in front & a silicone dolphin on the roof. A very rustic drive which adds to the Wildside character and charm. We were taken out to sea by Morven Maclean , on the Blue Pearl. A rubber duck in mint condition- clearly dearly loved. Once out at sea, the water was a pleasant 17 degrees with about 5m visibility, which it not bad for PE. Actually quite refreshing and great to be back in the Indian Ocean. Some of the girls (Stacey & Kylee) decided the fish were hungry (sea sick), while the rest of us were able to practice depth training and rescues and Jaques Wuis qualified as a NAUI freediver. At the end of the day, it was great fun. A course and trip to remembered by all.

Thank you to everyone who joined! We had a blast.

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What is Freediving?

Freediving is about experiencing the underwater world while holding your breath. It’s about looking within yourself rather than looking around you. It’s more athletic than scuba diving, about learning about your body’s limit, how long you can hold your breath and how deep you can dive on apnea. It’s important to learn these techniques, using proper methods in a safe environment with a trained buddy/ safety diver. You are able to get a lot closer to nature, as it is not disturbed with your silent approach. The benefits of freediving include:

• Stress relief: For me this is one of the greatest benefits. When I dive, I am in the moment, I think of absolutely nothing, other than when to equalize. It’s like an escape from reality, or a trip to another universe. I return to the surface with my worries a distant memory.

• Fitness: to Freedive you have to swim. Swim to the dive spot, swim to depth and return again. Swim to practice doing dynamics in the pool. (Swimming under the water in a pool on one breath to achieve distance.) You can do other exercises that benefit freediving in combination as a part of your training programme. Yoga, stretching, breath hold walking, swimming & weight training helped me when I was training for competitions.

• Relaxing tight and sore muscles: Freediving and swimming are great low impact sports. There is no jolting movements, and movements are slow to conserve oxygen while freediving. This is a great exercise to loosen up muscles, and build up injured muscles slowly.

• Setting goals: Being a freediver you set your own goals to compete against yourself to improve your own personal bests. To dive a little deeper, to swim a little further, to hold your breath a little longer, as you train with the safety of a buddy. I never worry about anyone else’s dive, I strive to do my best. We celebrate each other’s PB’s together.

• Healthier lifestyle: When you know you will be waking up early, you go to bed early. You eat good food and stay hydrated. You don’t overindulge in alcohol, leading to an overall healthier lifestyle.

• Making friends: It’s amazing to meet like minded people. I long for fresh air and wide open spaces. In JHB this can be a challenge. While some love shopping in the malls, that’s definitely not my idea of fun. Meeting folks who also like staying healthy, having a weekly freedive together & then chatting together over a toasted sarmie or a braai to discuss the days dives is a real bond, after a few months, your dive buddies feel like extended family. As you safety with the watchful eye of a parent watching their child, your dive buddies become very important people in your lives. Diving holidays to different destinations, lead to special memories that are shared by only those present. Over the years I have had wonderful interactions, that felt supernatural with whales, dolphins, seals and beautiful marine life.

Contact us to book on the next Freediving Johannesburg course.

Janet Rudman 29 Dec 2021 Blog freedive, freediving, freediving joburg, freediving johannesburg, johannesburg Published by Janet Rudman 3 responses to “What is Freediving?” קמגרה says: 22 Mar 2022 at 11:41 pm Everything is very open with a precise clarification of the challenges. It was really informative. Your website is useful. Thanks for sharing! Reply

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