By David Watson, AIDA & PADI Master Freediver Instructor and Owner & Founder at One Breath Freediving, based in Malta

The snorkel has to be one of the most maligned or taken for granted piece of equipment in the kit bag of a freediver. It is great for buddying or extended periods of waiting, watching or relaxing on the surface, and although some freediving agencies and some individual instructors seem to teach freediving with little or no snorkel use, for me it is one of the pieces of equipment that can make the biggest difference to the experience of our wonderful sport, especially to beginners and relatively inexperienced freedivers. But, its correct use is not often taught it is just assumed that it is known!

​5 Tips for good snorkel use and control:

• Hold it loosely in your jaw, not clenched (there is no bonus for biting through it!) And let the tip of your tongue sit at the entrance to the snorkel mouth piece (between your teeth), to sense any water that enters before you inadvertently breathe it in
• Angle it correctly so it points up (not forward) when you are relaxing and lying face down on the surface before your dive. Turn more with your whole body if you need to look a long way to the sides. This avoids dipping the top of the snorkel in the water
• Always inhale a little more cautiously than normal and remember to keep the breathing slow and calm, using the diaphragm, with longer exhales
• Take it out the mouth during the dive! It is no use underwater and can in fact be dangerous to leave it in your mouth as it is a passageway for water into the lungs if you black out
• Use it! I often see people during the session, such as when putting on fins, and they struggle for breath and to complete a task when they could be using the snorkel to breathe AND be face down in the water doing what they need to do

By David Watson, AIDA & PADI Master Freediver Instructor and Owner & Founder at One Breath Freediving, based in Malta

Octopus is a company producing innovative freediving equipment, and is owned by Swiss freediver and designer, Pascal Berger. Best known for their high quality products especially the nose clips which have proved to be extremely popular, the Octopus line now includes lanyards, an equalisation tool and the newest product in the range, the pulling system.
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The pulling system is a smart product designed to allow you to pull up or let out the freediving rope in a controlled, safe and more energy efficient manner. Made from the strongest and lightest and strongest possible materials (including aluminium and carbon fibre), the first thing you notice is the size and the quality of the material. It is significantly smaller than other similar pully systems that are now on the market, and much more compact. The ergonomic triangle shape allows one handed, handling using a ‘trigger’ hand position as you release the line. Pull the trigger and the line flows through and release to let the tension stop the rope dead. 

To pull up you can put one foot on the carbineer (that the tool is clipped on to under the buoy), lean back and pull the rope towards you in a ‘left/right’ alternate pull. The great thing here is that with every release of the tension after each pull, the weight is taken back by the locking mechanism, allowing you to take a break every so often.  This is a huge improvement on the traditional bottom weight lifting method of climbing on top of the buoy and lying face down pulling the rope up, with no chance of a break and the potential of falling off / getting tangled in the line / swallowing sea water / losing your weight belt (as you get on or off), all of which I have seen happen or experienced myself!

Post dive maintenance is minimal and it is advertised as requiring very little care: “It is so resistant that you can just leave it hanging under your buoy. No real need to rinse in fresh water.” Says the marketing, and so far this has proved absolutely true.
 
PROS:

• Great energy saver, especially when pulling up rope from depth
• Small and compact and ergonomic design (one handed use)
• Very easy to adjust the depth of the rope up or down
• Added safety for deeper divers (250kg load capacity)
• Works with ropes 8-12mm

​CONS:

• Can pull off the rope length markers that are electrical tape
• Not so easy to transfer it between ropes
• Can make for a lazy freediver! :D  

​Final Thoughts:
A great addition to a freediving buoy set up. Very easy to use and requiring little or no maintenance, it is easy to have and forget about but adds a lot to the organisation of a freediving. Overall, a great solution for much easier rope handing for freediving training and a very well designed product.
 
The Octopus Pulling System is available now at One Breath Freediving
RRP: €50

We are super pleased to announce that One Breath Freediving has been awarded the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence for 2019 - the second year running!
A big thank you to all freedivers and customers that have dived with us, past and present. We could not have done it without you!
David

Freediving in the Maltese Islands has lots of wonderful features that make it spectacular; the stunning underwater visibility of up to 40m, the cliffs and caves that are prevalent across the islands, the deep blue colour of the water that is unique to the Mediterranean Sea. But one thing that really draws freedivers to Malta is the chance to dive on ship wrecks. Malta has a LOT of wrecks, some sunk by nature (storms), by humans (wars), or on purpose to create artificial reefs. The P-31 wreck falls into the latter category.

Since being purchased by the Maltese Tourism Authority and sank as an artificial reef attraction for divers, the P-31 now sits upright on the sandy seabed West of Comino( just South of Blue Lagoon and just West of Crystal Lagoon), approximately 200m from shore. The depth on the bottom here is 20m and the top of the wreck is at just 10m deep. In fact the P-31 sits so shallow that it was necessary to cut off the mast of the ship before sinking her so as not to obstruct boat traffic. The wreck can often be seen clearly from the surface when you arrive by boat and I have even seen it occasionally from out of the airplane window when arriving or leaving Malta on certain days! In the summer months you will see a yellow ‘X’ marker buoy above to indicate the wrecks position.
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Since her sinking, the P-31 has had to weather some rough storms as the prevailing winds on the islands are from a NW direction and sitting this shallow in the water means that waves and swell have had an impact, but considering that she has been underwater for 10 years already the wreck is still in very good condition. Before sinking she was thoroughly cleaned and made safe for divers. This means doors and hatches were removed and obstructions such fixtures, wires and cables were cleared out. There are a number of levels to explore and for a freediver it is normally clear and obvious which direction it is possible and safe to go in.

Monofin Training Drill:
Here Jose is using a kick board to help stabilise the upper body and a front snorkel to allow him to breath during the training exercise. This takes away the 'apnea' element away from this particular drill and allows him to focus on technique over breath hold while he adjusts to using the full sized monofin.

​How do you think he is doing?

The freefall can be one of the nicest aspects of depth freediving. The moment on the descent when you become 'negatively buoyant' and start to sink independently of effort. This of course has it's advantages, most prominently; saving energy (and therefore oxygen) and aiding relaxation (saving oxygen and facilitating ear equalisation).
So what is involved in a good freefall? Let's take a look:

• Correct weight: This allolws you to stop kicking at the correct point of the dive to start the freefall. Too light and you wont freefall early enough. Too heavy and you will waste energy on the ascent.
• Body position: Tucked in (elbows and knees), legs together, looking ahead (not down), and relaxed shoulders and neck.
• Equalisation: Remember to equalise! Use the movement of the lanyard or your fingers on the line to help judge the speed you are falling. Equalise frequently and before pressure is felt.
• Turn: With the correct hand position to turn, the momentum of the freefall can mean very little effort is needed to make a smooth turn at the bottom of the dive.
• .....and not forgetting..... The Way up!: Using POSITIVE buoyancy to finish your dive by stopping kicking in the last 3-8m  before the surface.

Those of you following One Breath Freediving on your social media channels will already know that I have been using the Paralenz dive camera quite extensively already, for both photos and videos, so for this review part 2 (part 1 is un-boxing and initial impressions),I wanted to look at it's use in the water. More than numbers such as pixels and frame rates, I wanted to discuss it's functionality and how well it works specifically from a freediver's point of view. 

Firstly, it's primary mount method that I have employed so far with the Paralenz dive camera has been the mask mount. For me this has been the most convenient as I am normallly using it while teaching or guiding. Once the mask attachment is threaded to the mask strap, you clip the camera on using the 'T-Rail' mount system that gives a reassuring double 'click' when properly secured.

The first thing you notice while wearing it in the water is.....that you don't actually notice the camera! Despite feeling substantial and solid when held in the hand, once attached to the mask I can honestly say that I forget that the camera is actually there. Being so non-intrusive is a huge plus for freedivers as we take in the water minimum equipment and definitely don't like things that create drag or resistance.

Functionality from this position is another massive plus. The feedback loop of vibrations of the camera unit, mean that you do not need to remove the camera (and mask) at all to know what setting you are in! For example, rotate the selector ring clockwise while turned on gives one vibration for video, two vibrations for camera, three for settings etc. And then long or short holds of the activation switch can start or stop recording or offer other functions. This creates a simple user and selector operating system and excellent hands free usability.

Now lets look at the quality of photos that Paralenz is capable of (for videos, check the OBF YouTube channel). All the snaps in this review were taken from the mask mount position, so just a reach to the side of the head and a short pull on the activation switch can give you some great photos. While primarily a video camera, the photos are surprisingly clear, sharp and lacking in distortion at the edges (as can be common for extremely wide angle cameras). In these photos I had Depth Colour Correction (DCC) turned on and Depth & Temperature overlay turned on. The photo above from 5m displays nice blue water and clear white logos on the wetsuit hood. The first photo handles the reflecting light from the shallow water very well and also created a shot that is not blurred or distorted from the divers movement.

Initial in water conclusions:

• Mask mount is very useful for hands free use
  
• Unit vibration feedback is a great idea and super useful with mask mount 
• Photos lack distortion and are very sharp
• DCC is perfect for multiple depth change diving (such as freediving)

Look out for part three of the test where I will review the features of the Paralenz App.

One Breath Freediving is now renting a full freediving set up (buoy/rope/bottom weights) as well as weights and weight belts, to certified freedivers (AIDA3 certified or above).
So if you are visiting Malta and want to do your own training and exploring, we can now accommodate your needs. Contact us for more information, or find the price list, here.

TripAdvisor has awarded One Breath Freediving a 2018 Certificate of Excellence! Thanks to all the freedivers that learnt and trained with us and especially a big thank you for all the wonderful reviews, it is greatly appreciated. 

So what initial conclusions do I have:

• Great package, well designed and feels very high quality
• Nice extras included
• Easy and intuitive to use

Very much looking forward to testing it in the sea! Coming soon will be part 2 of the test when I will use it for the first time freediving in the Mediterranean sea, Malta :)