Who Writes Deeperience, and What I Am Actually Qualified to Tell You
I am AG. I have been an SSI Rescue Diver and Master Scuba Diver since 2006, and I have been freediving since 2015. I am not a freediving instructor, I have never competed, and I hold no freediving certification. I am an experienced recreational freediver who writes about the gear, the technique and the places from the inside, and who tells you when something sits outside my experience.
That distinction matters more in this sport than in most. Bad advice about a camera lens costs you money. Bad advice about a breath-hold costs you consciousness.
What Are My Qualifications, and What Are They Not?
My certifications are in scuba, not freediving. I was certified in 2006 and worked up through the SSI system to Rescue Diver and Master Scuba Diver. Rescue Diver is the level where you stop learning how to dive and start learning what to do when a dive goes wrong, and that is the part of my training that carries across into freediving most directly.
What I do not have is a freediving certification. I started freediving in 2015 the way a lot of people do, in the water, alongside divers who were better than I was. That gives me eleven years of practical experience and no formal teaching credential. I would rather write that plainly than dress it up, because you should know whose advice you are reading.
So use this site to choose your gear, understand a technique and plan a trip. Do not use it instead of a course. The safety side in particular, rescue procedure and how to look after a buddy, should come from a certified instructor in the water with you.
How Deep Do I Actually Dive?
My deepest freedive is 98 feet (30 m). My longest breath-hold is three minutes, held at 16 feet (5 m). I have never tested a formal static, so I have no pool number to quote and I am not going to invent one.
Those figures put me in recreational territory rather than competitive, and that shapes everything on this site. Most of what I write is aimed at divers working between the surface and around 100 feet, because that is the range I know from experience rather than from reading. If you are training for a national record, there are better sources than me, and I will point you at them rather than pretend I belong in that conversation.
It also means the gear I recommend is gear that suits that range. A recreational freediver and a competitive one want different fins, different suits and different masks, and a site that recommends the same kit to both is not paying attention.
Where Have I Dived?
Fifteen destinations so far, across five regions. This is the reason the location guides exist, and the reason I can tell you what a site actually feels like rather than what its tourist board says.
Egypt is the one I keep going back to. Fourteen trips to the Red Sea, which is enough to know how a site changes between seasons rather than how it looked on one good week.
Both the Bali guide and the Florida guide come from dives I made there. Where I write about a site I have not personally dived, the article says so.
Americas and Caribbean
- Florida
- Mexico
- Cayman Islands
- Aruba
Southeast Asia
- Bali
- Lombok
- Thailand
Indian Ocean
- Maldives
Mediterranean
- Croatia
- Italy
- Greece
- Spain
- Malta
- Cyprus
Red Sea
- Egypt
How Do I Test Freediving Gear?
Two ways, and I try to keep them clearly separated in the writing.
Gear I own and dive. Masks, fins, wetsuits and belts I have used across those destinations, in cold Mediterranean water and in the tropics. For these I can tell you what actually happens underwater: which skirts leak on a wide face, which blades punish a long surface swim, which suits ride up when you duck dive.
Gear I compare rather than test. For models I have never owned, I work from manufacturer specifications, long-term reports from freedivers and spearfishermen who use them heavily, and the complaints that keep recurring across many reviews rather than appearing in one. That is comparison, not testing, and the wording in those guides reflects it.
If a recommendation comes from other divers rather than from my own hands, the article should say so. If you ever find one that does not, tell me and I will fix it.
What Will I Not Do?
- I will not teach you to freedive. That needs an instructor and a buddy in the water, not a web page.
- I will not give medical advice. Breath-hold interacts with heart, lung and ear conditions, and that conversation belongs with a doctor who knows your history.
- I will not claim to have dived somewhere I have not. The list above is the honest one.
- I will not call myself a professional. I am experienced. Those are different words and the difference is the point.
Never Freedive Alone
A blackout is survivable with a trained buddy at the surface and usually fatal without one. Learn freediving from a certified instructor, use gear that fits, know your limits, and always dive with someone who can bring you up.
How Do You Reach Me?
Send me a question and I will answer it from my own experience. If it falls outside what I have done, I will tell you that instead of guessing. You will get a more useful answer if you include your current depth, the gear you own and what went wrong.
Disclaimer
Deeperience does not offer freediving education and is not responsible for how the equipment and products featured on this site are used. Deeperience publishes freediving information and gear guides based on personal experience and on the reported experience of other divers. For your own safety, learn freediving from a certified instructor, use proper gear, know your limits and never dive alone.