SETT Tank, HMS Dolphin.

A quick report on our freediving course this weekend. Frances, Ian, Jane-Marie, Simon, Daf and I turned up at the SETT tank at 8:30 Saturday, as instructed. After the safety brief we went to the tank top to meet Howard, expecting some theory lecturing. Howard (the instructor) wanted to know why we weren't changed into our trunks yet. Cool!

We started in the tank with just a mask (no fins, no snorkel) doing three shallow dives to see how long we could hold our breath for. Between each dive we had to wait 9 minutes - it takes this long to replace the O2 in your body.

Next we did three dives to see how deep we could get, pulling ourselves down the fixed lines. Still mask only. Still no formal theory, just Howard talking to us between each dive.

Tea break.

Back to seeing how deep we could get. We then took some time out of the water to learn about how to breathe prior to the dive. This took about 45 minutes and was our only formal theory session the whole weekend. Back into the tank. Still mask only, pulling ourselves down feet first and then head first too see how deep we could get.

Lunch.

After lunch we were allowed fins. I was expecting this to make it easier but oddly the opposite is true. You use up more O2 finning down then you do pulling yourself down the lines. Our maximum depths halved!

The rest of the day was spent practising; learning how to make yourself as streamlined as possible (e.g. holding your head up to see where you are going uses a huge amount of o2!).

Sunday we started at 8:15 and spent the day perfecting the techniques already learnt. Some excellent diving techniques were learnt and demonstrated by everyone and we all had a very easy day. Howard was there gently talking us through technique all the time and he was an excellent teacher.

Those who could clear their ears quickly enough (not me!) took free rides down towed on a weight belt, which Howard then swam back up with (very impressive).

So; an excellent course. It's a shame it's a rather expensive £170 but it's well worth it - you do get two FULL days in the water and learn an awful lot. Compare that to the £25 for a 15 minute dive with scuba gear that Ryan runs for us.

If anyone else is interested then there are more courses - you can get info off Howard's website.

Howard is a really down-to-earth trainer and didn't mention yoga once (which surprised all of us). Also surprising was that for most of us the limiting factor is how quickly you can clear your ears and NOT how quickly you run out of air.

How deep did we get? Well, to the bottom of course!

Keith