England

Andy Torbet and Beth Sadler having freediving fun

Aquacity Freediving’s Georgina Bradley and Daan Verhoeven introduce another group to the wonders of apnea off the Cornish coast – Andy Torbet helps out on the instructional front, while keen teen Beth Sadler was a most-willing participant, as they explain

Photographs by Daan Verhoeven

Andy Torbet: I’m known more for my technical and cave diving exploits involving huge amounts of underwater, expedition and caving equipment than the minimalist world of freediving. However, I find the freedom and ease with which I can still access the underwater world a pleasant change and an often much-needed break from the effort and logistics involved with some of the other things I do.

I have been diving with nothing more than a mask and snorkel since the age of about six, when we’d visit the coast north of my home in the Grampian Mountains in Scotland and I’d brave the North Sea in my pants. I snorkelled around the UK, in rivers and lakes, mountain pools and bog, shipwrecks, plane wrecks and caves, on my Britain By Snorkel project in 2011. Since then I have done more and more freediving, including both AIDA and SSI courses. I made use of my time off during the COVID pandemic to study to become a SSI Freediving Instructor and we finally ran my first official course recently. But with a difference.

Many see freediving as a purely completive sport, which is hardly surprising as a great deal of the attention the sport attracts is during world championships or world record attempts, when divers with incredible talent are doing dives below 100m, ten-minute static breath holds or swimming hundreds of metres under the ice on a single lungful of freezing air. However, freediving at its heart is simply holding your breath and going underwater and need not involve great feats of depth, time or distance. As soon as one has left the left the surface, one is freediving. Many delineate snorkelling from freediving by the act of breath holding - if you’re breathing via your snorkel, you’re snorkelling; once you hold your breath and the tip of your snorkel is submerged, you are freediving. So, if such simple acts qualify, and clearly would be of little use in the competitive world, what else can freediving offer?

I do not compete at freediving. It’s not what draws me into the sport. I doubt I have the aptitude to make much of an impression on the sport if I did compete. I am an explorer at heart, it’s what offers the largest draw for me. More and more often nowadays to investigate unknown, undived shipwrecks, map new submerged cave systems or flooded mines, or plumb the depths requires a growing amount of equipment and logistics. However, the aims and needs of the dive should drive the kit list, we should look for projects which inspire and interest us and not look simply what matches our current equipment.

I have used freediving to explore places that I’d never take scuba, let alone a rebreather. Sometimes it’s because the site is too far from any road and man-packing anything more than a wetsuit, mask, snorkel and fins would be impossible. Often it is because the nature of the site, its shallowness, means diving equipment is unnecessary and in some cases would be more difficult to use than freediving.

Sometimes because the unknown nature of the water means, until I have more information, it isn’t worth any more gear. I’ll do an initial reconnaissance by freediving and if it turns out to be something promising but outside the scope of freediving, I’ll return with a different set up.

And, penultimately, I’ll often freedive with wildlife as it is a more-inobtrusive way of interacting with the other inhabitants of the ocean. The lack of unnatural noise has meant that I have had closer encounters with the large species of the underwater world - seals, sharks and dolphins - on a single, held, breath than with all my other diving technologies. The final reason is because it’s fun!

So how was this first course of mine different? The

I have been diving with nothing more than a mask and snorkel since the age of about six, when we’d visit the coast north of my home in the

Grampian Mountains

Beth on her way back to the surface Freediving plus scooter equals big fun!

Andy T chatting to Andy the Northern Diver

Freediving into a cavern system

Humans are believed to have been freediving a long time in search for sponges, fish and shells making freediving most probably one the most ancient sports of them all!

training offered by myself and my friends from Aquacity Freediving, based out of Porthkerris Divers in Cornwall, was the SSI Basic and Level 1 Freediver courses. The syllabus, covering techniques, safety and how to improve normally takes a couple of days. However, freediving courses tend to use systems borrowed from competition as training aids. This is great as, much like knowing one’s time, distance or weight is useful to progress and train when in the gym or running, etc. I use these techniques to train and improve and, much like hitting the gym with friends, can be fun. But it is, as I have already described, not only what freediving is about and not what it is to me. I wanted the students to leave understanding the main purpose of freediving is simply to get out there, enjoy the submerged world and see stuff. So, we tagged on an extra day, hired a boat and headed off around the Cornish coast, armed with our newly developing skills, to have an adventure.

We were accompanied by Risso’s dolphins, swam in and out of sea caves (with safe air-space above), discovered hidden beaches at the back of these caves, dived around headlands, through kelp forests, between life-covered submerged cliffs and over sheltered lagoons. The views underwater were spectacular and the frequent visits back to the surface to catch our breath allowed use to appreciate the topside landscape as well the one beneath. It also gave us the opportunity to chat, share observations and feed off each other’s energy and enthusiasm. No one form is diving is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than another, but I do find freediving is, at least in the water, a more shared and social experience. When we had exhausted one site we simply hopped back on the boat, headed along the coast until we spotted a part of the coast that looked interesting and jumped back in. Freediving may not offer as much time underwater as other forms of diving but it offers its own freedoms. I even brought along a DPV and gave people rides among the gullies. Although I think everyone’s favourite part was the number of times we were approached and followed by seals at our various dive spots. I see many more of these freediving than I do on scuba.

Diving is, for me, all about adventure and freediving is no different. If you dive, or wish to learn, then there is an innate sense of the adventurer within you. Even the world champion freedivers are, relative to true aquatic creatures,

I have used freediving to explore places that I’d never take scuba, let alone a rebreather

Andy and his trusty scooter

poorly designed for a life underwater. Yet we seek to enter this alien world to explore another universe unlike our own inhabited by strange creatures who move through their world little effected by gravity. Freediving offers the most natural way of interacting with this realm where one can feel, albeit for brief moments in time, not an outside observer, but part of that that blue planet.

From a teenager’s perspective

Beth Sadler: What do you get as a 16th birthday present for someone who loves the ocean? A chance to learn to freedive with Aquacity Freedivers and Andy Torbet! And so it was I found myself at Porthkerris full of excitement!

I already loved the feeling of being in the sea and scuba diving had allowed me to discover an amazing world, but I couldn’t wait to feel free of kit. On Instagram, they make it look so easy!

At first I was apprehensive, I knew I’d be the youngest by a long way and really didn’t want to be outcast from the group, or hold anybody back. As soon as I arrived and met everybody, it began to feel like a little family, and most of my nerves were eased. The next step was to be taught some good old-fashioned theory, we sat and laughed at George’s ridiculous drawing of divers and fins, and were in shock at how small someone’s lungs could become. Most of us were also scuba divers, so the theory was strange, but not difficult, although this was only SSI Level 1.

I wasn’t used to having to use a shower and conditioner to get a wetsuit on, so it was a bit of a struggle at first, but the trick seemed to be a little ‘wiggle dance’ under some warm water and I was nestled in perfectly and ready to get in the water! Entering the sea without a cylinder on my back felt strange but freeing at the same time. I felt light and ready to explore. Duck diving propels you straight down into the water so by the time you get your bearings, you’re down and ready to go, no messing!

Holding my breath came quite naturally but I couldn’t equalise doing the frenzel method - my tongue wouldn’t do as it was told - so I had to rely on my scuba skills and pinch my nose, which meant I was a bit slower, so I am determined to practice frenzelling in the bath. I didn’t dive that deep, but my competitive mentality kicked in and the voice in my head was ‘swim swim swim’, until my ears said ‘no no no’ - I was happy to listen to my body and to the instructors, who all stressed the importance of not putting stress on our ears. I took it easy, I didn’t want to end up with blown ears or anything that could prevent me from doing this as often as I can!

Soon came the rescue skill and, of course, they gave me the biggest victim. I had to rescue Alex from depth - he’s very tall and very sinky, which made it quite a challenge, but I finned hard and managed to bring him up to the surface, blow across his face and try not to slap him too hard!

The swim out for the depth skills was pretty challenging - at this point the sea was choppy and seemed intent on drowning me through my snorkel. It was at this point I realised that freediving wasn’t all sunlight, bubble rings and Instagram moments, but it only made me more determined.

Skills over, adventure day arrived and as Andy loaded the underwater scooter onto the boat, my nerves disappeared

Andy coming back from a dive

Cornwall offers stunning conditions for freediving

Less recognized examples of freediving include, but are not limited to, synchronized swimming, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater hunting other than spearfishing, underwater target shooting and snorkelling.

We kitted up with fins and mask, and entered the water - almost straight away, we spotted a seal, a big seal with a white polka dot on its eye

and excitement took over - we were off to explore! We were headed for Kynance Cove - a route that took us round the Lizard Point - a destination that could only be accessed once or twice a year, due to extreme currents. We were so lucky to have a hot day, calm seas, great visibility and a boat at our beck and call!

On the boat, I wanted to spot dolphins - I’d been told there might be one and I was desperate to see one for myself. My eyes were getting tired from scanning the sea when suddenly there was a shout, Daan pushed me to the front of the boat and wow, three Risso’s dolphins literally jumping in the air ahead of us. I couldn’t believe it, I’d never seen real dolphins before! This was quickly becoming the most-amazing day ever - and we’d only just started!

When we reached Kynance, we kitted up with fins and mask, and entered the water - almost straight away, we spotted a seal, a big seal with a white polka dot on its eye. I watched from the surface for a little bit, trying to get a feel for how friendly he was feeling. When I built up enough courage, I dived below the surface, got a little bit closer, then completely bottled it and headed back to the surface like a bullet – well, it was a big seal!

When we reached the swim-through, I got excited all over again - the crevice between two rocks looked inviting and intriguing, but I quickly discovered that the current was doing its best to keep us out. I had to take a big breath and kick hard to get through, but it was worth it - the sand and the kelp that greeted us was calm, peaceful and absolutely beautiful. This was definitely my favourite part of the day, even more than the dolphins, it was so zen and I felt properly comfortable with my breath and my diving. I practiced blowing bubble rings with Alex and George and it felt like it was time to play, to swim with the fish, to expand my boundaries.

The next time I surfaced, Andy was waiting for me with a grin and a scooter! He showed me how to hold on and with instructions of what to do when I ran out of breath (basically, let go and swim to the surface!), 3-2-1, we were off! It was like freewheeling down a hill on a bike, only underwater, exploring the rocks and over the kelp, flying through the water without any effort at all. Freedom!

Our final boat stop was Cadgwith. I’d been here with friends many times but never knew there were so many sea caves to be explored. When we went in, I realised why I hadn’t explored them before - the caves stank of old seaweed and dead fish! Not content with smelling them, I immediately swallowed the stagnant water through my snorkel - it tasted as it smelt! I felt a bit claustrophobic - cave divers must be mad!

The whole weekend opened my eyes to a new passion. I had worried that as I was younger, I would be intimidated but everyone was so friendly and encouraging. I want to get really good so I can glide and dance with the fish, and enjoy their freedom and their world. I’m going to carry on freediving, to train, to improve. This, for sure, was the best 16th birthday present ever. n