Freediving Club

History of Freediving

In terms of our more recent history, we know for a fact that humans have been freediving for food at least 8,000 years.

Archaelogists investigating the mummified remains of the Chinchorian, an ancient peoples that lived circa 6,000 B.C in what is today Chile, found them to have suffered from exostosis, the condition where the bones of the ear canal start to grow across the opening to help protect the eardrum from repeated exposure to cold water. It's a condition known in modern parlance as 'surfer's ear', though divers, surfers, and kayakers are equally like to suffer from it - as is anyone who's repeatedly dunked underwater. The Chinchorian and their ilk weren't freediving for pleasure, though, but for food and goods to trade. Pearls and sponges were among the first underwater items to find value amongst in-land societies and those without the skills with which to dive for them. In 332 B.C, Alexander the Great famously used freedivers to dismantle the underwater booms preventing his ships from entering the harbor during the siege of Tyre.

Sponge Divers and The Birth of Modern Diving

Bob Craft, a U.S Navy diving instructor, spent 25 hours a week in a 30m deep tank teaching submariners how to escape from stricken submarines. There he began breath hold training and could soon hold his breath for over six minutes. These amazing abilities got him a job as a guinea pig for Navy scientists looking to discover if the phenomena known as 'blood shift.' Which had been witnessed in diving mammals, could happen in humans too. Croft also developed the technique of lung packing, forcing extra air into his lungs prior to a dive or breath hold.

Encouraged by his colleagues, Croft establisehd three depth records over a period of 18 months and in 1067 became the first person to dive beyond 64 meters. He would go on to reach a depth of 73m in 1968 before retiring from freediving competition.

Enzo Majorca, an italian, achieved his first world record in 1960 with a dive to 45m and in 1962 became the first person to break the 50m mark. He continued breaking records until 1974 when, during an attempt to reach 90 meters, he collided with a scubar instructor.

Upon re-surfacing, Majorca gave vent to his frustrations with a torrent of foul language. He was subsequently banned for 10 years. His official return to the sport in 1988 was marked by a dive to 101m.

As you can see, the standard of competitive freediving rises each year, along with the number of recreational freedivers attracted to such a wonderful sport. Nowadays, there are many agenices providing high-quality freediving courses and tuition -something that could have been imagined even ten years ago.