Free Diving

The Red Sea is not only famous for its snorkelling and diving - it's also becoming reknowned for a new kind of extreme sport, free-diving. Made famous by the 1988 Luc Besson film The Big Blue, free diving involves attempting to reach great depths on a single breath, without the cumbersome equipment used by scuba divers.

How does it work?

The human body has several ways of adapting to being underwater which enable the human body to endure depth and lack of oxygen far beyond what one would expect. These include the ability to slow the heart rate and to direct blood away from extremities and towards the heart, the lungs and the brain. Free divers effectively adjust their bodies to be able to hold their breath for anything up to five minutes. Yoga is particularly useful technique here. Pranayama, or breathing exercises, stregthen the lungs, slow the heart and allow greater control of the breathing reflex. Many free-divers practice yoga to increase their depths.

When diving for depth, there are sevearl categories. 'Constant Weight' is self-propelled, no weights or lines are allowed. This category is also divided into sections for fins or without fins. 'Free Immersion' is self-propelled ascent and descent along a line, while 'Variable Weight; uses a weighted sled for descent, the diver then ascends by pulling themselves up along the line. 'No Limits' allows the diver to descend with a weighted sled and ascend with a buoyancy control device, usually an air filled bag with a tether.

Dahab is home to several leading world free divers. The men's world record was set in the Red Sea - an incredible 209m. The unofficial women's record is held by the late Audrey Mestre who drowned in the Dominican Republic in 2002 whilst trying to set a world record of 171 m.

MAGAZINE

About Egypt

EGYPT - history
Red Sea history
Did Moses cross the Red Sea?
Who was St Catherine?
The monks of Mount Sinai
Was Jesus resurrected?
Nasser - Egypt's failed strongman
Bonaparte: 'don't wash I'm coming'
Mohammed Ali
A history of St Catherine's monastery
A Short history of the harem
Lawrence of Arabia
Ancient Egypt's most prolific king: Ramses II
Egypt's Christian minority

EGYPT - Red Sea
Red Sea bans shark fishing
Wrecks and ecology
The Red Sea and its coral reefs
Red Sea wrecks 1
Red Sea wrecks 2
Jacques Cousteau, Red Sea pioneer
Djibouti: the least-heard-of place in the world?
The Bedouins of the Red Sea

DIVING
Dahab dive sites
Diving overview
Freediving
Diving in Dahab (a testimonial)