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Freediving off the Gili Islands

What a sport! Prior to signing up to a two day course with Freedive Gili on the little island of Gili Trawangan, I had thought free diving was more about how long a person can hold their breath than how deep they can go. I had expected this course to train me to stay underwater for longer (ultimately, it did) so that I could extend my snorkel trips and explore a little deeper for a little longer in that sense. I had no idea that the main purpose of this sport was to go as deep as possible. It involves a lot of skill in dealing with the changing pressures and the effects of those pressures on your body as you swim deeper and deeper.

The course was great. A super laid-back instructor, Valerio from Italy, took the four of us into the pool where we practiced some different breathing techniques and completed some induction tests, and then straight out into the open sea. A buoy was laid out that we could hold onto. It had a rope with a light weight attached that we were to use during our first dive attempts to help pull ourselves down while equalising.

I made it to 10m!

Back on the land, we had been taught some breathing and relaxation techniques and were to practice them now before we went down as far as possible. Sadly, I had terrible sinus problems the whole time I tried to descend which was such a shame because I couldn’t get much farther than 5-6m on the first day due to horrific pain in between my eyes and in my sinuses. Who knew, but I seemed to have a cold or some sort of congestion in any case that was holding me back. It was deeply frustrating to realise that I had far more breath to keep me down there but just couldn’t manage to go deeper due to the pain. On day two, I just about managed to get to 10m (as seen in the video), but it was a very slow descent due to the equalising and I didn’t manage to do the required tests and activities to pass the level one test :( We needed to swim down 10 10m using only our fins, then using only arms, swim down and take our mask off, rescue another person from 10m and also make it down to 25m and up again. Gosh.

Despite being severely disappointed by the fact that my sinuses weren’t playing along, I had such an incredible time. I had no idea what an intense and competitive sport this is and how, each dive makes you feel more and more competitive with yourself as you try to go deeper and deeper each time. I will definitely be giving this sport another go and hopefully soon!

Naughty Boy Ft. Beyoncé - Runnin'

Interestingly, around the time I did this course, Beyoncé released an incredible music video in which the actors/dancers/swimmers (!) use free diving to give a beautifully choreographed and incredibly impressive performance.

Gili Trawangan


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