News 2017: Freediving courses
Orca Diving Ustica now offers freediving courses for those who are attracted by the underwater world in a different way.
Freediving is about inward power, discipline and control. If you’ve always wanted to enter the underwater world quietly, on your own terms, staying as long as your breath allows, then freediving is for you. Taking the PADI Freediver course is your first step toward discovering why freediving is becoming a popular way to explore beneath the waves.
To enroll in a PADI Freediver course you must be at least 15 years old. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health. No prior experience with snorkeling, skin diving or freediving is required.
Orca Diving Ustica offers two entry-level freediving courses. In both of them, beside learning the theoretical bases that are mandatory to be part of the freediving world, you will discover that with proper breathing and relaxation techniques you will be able to hold your breath much longer than you expected!
In the PADI Basic Freediver course you will apply these techniques to two of the freediving specialties: static apnea, i.e. breath-holding done at the surface in total relaxation, and dynamic apnea, i.e. breath-holding with the aim to cover the longest horizontal distance at a few meters depth.
In the PADI Freediver course, for which the minimum age is 15 years old, you will add to the PADI Basic Freediver course content, the specialties associated to the descent, which is always performed through a vertical line: free immersion, where descent is performed by only pulling through the arms, and constant weight, where descent is performed by kicking. Furthermore, you will learn buddy and rescue procedures in order to dive safely.
PADI Freediver courses include a theoretical exam and set some minimum goals:
- 1’ 30“ for static apnea;
- 25 meters for dynamic apnea;
- 10 meters, up to 16 meters, for free immersion and constant weight.
You can autonomously go through the theoretical learning before coming to Ustica through a modern digital manual which, after download, can be used offline from any tablet or smartphone.