years (just think of pearl hunters in the Pacific Ocean),
but many people today probably associate the termwith
those insane feats you sometimes hear of, where
enthusiasts descend to depths of 200m or more, holding
their breath for over 10 minutes. Of course, you don’t
need to be an aspiring endurance athlete to enjoy
freediving: at its simplest, it’s just a pure, relaxing way
to explore the underwater world.
So why isn’t it more popular? One reason is that
most training – especially in colder, northern European
climes – has traditionally been confined to shallow
swimming pools or chilly inland diving sites. However,
these days, thanks to the rise of easily available flights,
freediving is coming in from the cold. Its popularity has
grown dramatically in recent years, as increasing
numbers of freedivers travel the world to get their fix.
Some come to Egypt to train at Dahab’s Blue Hole,
a 130m-deep underwater sinkhole with a deadly
reputation. Freediving centres have sprung up in the
dive resorts of El Gouna and Hurghada too, while Sharm
El Sheikh regularly hosts world-championship events.
But now, for the first time, freedivers can book a
bespoke holiday afloat in the Red Sea – and that’s where
we’ve been spending a glorious week. For this new
venture, UK dive operator Scuba Travel
(scubatravel.
com)
chartered a luxury liveaboard boat and recruited
instructor Emma Farrell
(emma-freediver.co.uk)
to
design a seven-day freediving trip combining serious
training and fun dives. The liveaboard, a sort of seagoing
hotel, has been a mainstay of the Egyptian scuba-diving
industry for decades. Diesel engines thrumming, these
purpose-built vessels can shuttle divers rapidly between
distant dive sites in a few hours, giving themmore to see
and more time in the water.
One of the world’s top freediving instructors, Farrell
has taught more than 1,000 people, including actor
Terence Stamp, telly chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
and… me. I learned with her five years ago, on the Greek
sponge-diving island of Kalymnos, where the water
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