Freediving in Malta

Malta is an amazing country, a small island in the Mediterranean with some amazing history and dive sites. Although Vivian and I both love scuba diving, on this trip we had decided to stick to Freediving, a sport which is a personal favourite of mine and which has gained a lot of interest recently. Although the sport is becoming increasingly popular, freediving in Malta or at least the AIDA and SSI courses are still gaining momentum, however, if people get the experience we had I’m sure the area will become one of the best in the world!

Freediving

Freediving is totally different to scuba diving. Instead of carrying a tank of air and extra kit down with you, freedivers rely soley on their own bodies during immersion. Freediving requires physical ability, confidence in the water and crucially, mental control. It’s linked to meditation in that freedivers slow their oxygen consumption through relaxation, they then dive to impressive depths by pulling on a rope attached to a weight or using fins. I knew Vivian would adopt well to the sport since the mind games it involves are very similar to those of rock climbing. Neither of us had any qualifications in freediving so to practice it safely we decided to undertake the AIDA 2 course. There are two training and regulatory bodies in freediving, SSI and AIDA each with their merits, One Breath Freediving the first and only centre for freediving in Malta currently uses the AIDA system and so we decided to learn there.

AIDA 2

The first day involved practicing our breathing techniques and covering a bit of theory before heading to a local pool for dynamic and static breath holds. The requirements are a 2 minutes static breath hold and 40 meters swimming without a breath (fins allowed). The next 2 days involved dives in the ocean, giving us a chance to get to the required depth (16m constant weight) and practice the skills we needed to act as safety divers. Vivian had some difficulties on the first day with equalising but after our instructor David gave her some tips she got it for the third day.

On the 3^rd day went to dive on the wreck of a tug boat which was scuttled just outside St Jullian’s bay. We parked at the point and swam out to the dive site which is marked with a large yellow buoy. The visibility was great and we could clearly see the whole ship from the surface, about 20 meters above.

When we first arrived there were a few scuba divers about but by the time we set up our line we had the site to ourselves. We started with free immersion, descending down the rope to the ship below. The tug sat square on the sandy bottom, its engine cover doors and the windows to the wheel house had been removed, creating some excellent swim through spaces. One of the benefits with freediving is that you are much less restricted with your movements than in scuba diving, none of those bulky BCD and tanks to restrict you.

By the time we switched to constant weight dives we started to hear a strange noise. It was like nothing I had heard before underwater, intermitted whirling’s. They sounded a bit like the noise a drill you would use for DIY makes. When we had arrived at the site David spotted a ship with a submarine loaded on it and sure enough it was this sub making the weird noises. We noticed it on the surface first of all, being towed over by a RIB. It soon descended and began exploring the wreck beneath us. It was very surreal to be so far underwater and see this guy, sitting in a bubble, totally dry. At one point I waved, he waved back. He then produced a camera with a telescopic lens and took a photo of me. Now I know how the fish in the aquarium feel! Very odd!

“Now I know how the fish in an aquarium feel!”

The submarine hung around for the rest of the dive while we got to practice some safety aspects of free diving before heading ashore for the day. I would recommend anyone considering taking up freediving to do the AIDA 2 course, especially if you are already comfortable in the water. It’s a great way to get the basics down and make sure you begin learning with a good and safe technique.  I’ve been told that switching between SSI and AIDA at a later stage is also possible so if you are having difficulties finding a dive centre with the system of your choice, don’t stress about that too much.  I’m sure the freediving scene in Malta will grow pretty fast, it’s the perfect place for it – warm weather, typically good visibility and an abundance of suitable, unique dive sites which are accessible without a boat. Stay tuned for some further posts on freediving in Malta including “The Blue Hole” and video from our wreck dives.

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