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Quick answers
Which local rescue or training agency should I check first?
Use the local lens: coastguard/federation norms and the shop briefing for that bay — not a blog visibility claim.
What is AIDA?
The International Association for the Development of Apnea, a major sport and education body for competitive freediving.
How deep do recreational freedivers go?
Many club divers spend years in the 10–20 m band. Depth is not a personality.
Is a course required?
Not by most beaches. It is required by anyone who wants a safety culture. This page is not a card.
What is shallow-water blackout?
A loss of consciousness from hypoxia, often near the surface on the way up. The safety chapter covers the culture; this is not a medical text.
Can scuba divers just freedive?
Equalisation and lungs work differently. A scuba card is not a freedive education.
Freedive kit is light: a low-volume mask, a snorkel, long fins or a monofin, and a wetsuit with a little weight. A computer that understands freedive mode is useful; a scuba BCD is not.
The expensive item is the course and the club, not the carbon blades.
Core kit
- Low-volume mask — Less air to equalise.
- Long-blade fins or monofin — After a course says which.
- Snorkel that detaches — Many ditch it on the dive.
- Wetsuit — Warmth equals longer comfortable dives; not a buoyancy miracle without weighting.
- Weight belt or neck weight — Taught, small, ditchable.
- Freedive computer or watch — Surface interval and depth, not a scuba no-stop toy.
Optional
- Lanyard for line diving — A competition and club tool.
- Nose clip — For some equalisation styles.
- Monofin — A later, sport-specific buy.
- Safety float / dive site buoy — Visibility to boats.
Care
- Rinse long blades — They delaminate if stored salty and bent.
- Do not heat carbon in a car — They become expensive kindling.
- Check belt quick-release — A stuck belt is a problem.
- Mask skirt care — Same as snorkeling.
Budget bands
- Start — Course, rental long fins, own mask.
- Regular — Own blades and a wetsuit that fits.
- Sport — Monofin, lanyard, club fees.
- Skip — Carbon blades before a course.
Buy the course first. Carbon is a later sentence.