It’s necessary before learning how to free dive that a person first know how to snorkel. The more advanced technique is called free diving where you dive down to the bottom of the water, this can be a few a meters or two, up to 100 meters. The free diving record is held by Martin Stepanek who dived 106 meters in 3 minutes and 45 seconds off the Cayman Islands in 2010. But don’t expect to free dive down that far any time soon, first you have to learn how to free dive.
Once you are snorkeling on the surface of the water you want to take large deep breathes inhale as much as you can, at least three breathes then hold them for a few seconds. When you’re ready to go, take a fourth breathe and start to face down towards the bottom while sticking your feet and legs up in the air. This helps to drive your body down so you can get started towards the bottom.
As you begin to go down farther and farther you will feel water pressure building in your ears causing discomfort, so you will need to learn how to clear your ears to relieve this pressure. To clear your ears, you simply pinch and hold your nose through your mask if you’re wearing one, and then try and blow air out through your nose. This will cause a small popping sound and bring instant relief from the discomfort feeling.
After clearing your ears you will be able to continue downwards toward the bottom, you need to start clearing your ears as soon as you start free diving down, it will take a bit of time to get used to it, afterwards it will become second nature. Equalizing the pressure in your sinuses is the only real obstacle to learning how to free dive, other than snorkeling, and your ability to hold your breath long enough to get down as far as you want to go.
WARNING:
NEVER deep free dive alone, especially in strong current.
Never free dive at night.
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