leve-leve freediving & yoga中文
A freediver resting at the surface buoy, with distant islands

Learn

Equalisation

1

The first real wall most beginners hit.

  1. 01Practising Frenzel at Home — Three StepsNo water needed. Three steps that get progressively harder, why freedivers need Frenzel at all, what happens when the air in your mouth runs out, and a simple test to check you are doing Frenzel and not Valsalva.

Breathing

1

Breathing here is not what you would guess.

  1. 02Chest breathing and the intercostals: why a full breath starts with the bellyThe order of a full breath is not arbitrary. This covers the two separate ways ribs move, why the diaphragm has to go first, why flexibility matters more than capacity, and a reason most people never consider — training the ribcage is not only about taking in more air, it is about being able to compress gently at depth.

Technique

3

How the movements actually work.

  1. 03The Duck Dive in Three Steps: You Are Not Going Down on Your Arm PullFold, pull, kick — in that order. Most beginners pull too early and too hard, believing the arm stroke is what takes them down. What actually sinks you is the moment your body goes from horizontal to vertical. Includes a way to check whether your duck dive is straight.
  2. 04The AIDA confined water sessions: what each level has to do in the poolHow long the static has to be, how far the dynamic has to go, and which rescues you have to practise. The confined water requirements for AIDA 1, 2 and 3 in one table, plus the fact that buddying has its own defined technique, and a certification most people do not know exists.
  3. 05Breaking Down the Pool Turn: The Physics Decides Where Your Momentum GoesSix steps, worked out from Alexey Molchanov's demonstration. The point is not to turn fast — it is to avoid braking away the momentum you arrived with. Plus a counterintuitive one: pushing off the wall too hard can mean you came in too fast, or too slow.

Equipment

6

Choosing, maintaining, and the brands behind them.

  1. 06How Do You Actually Say Beuchat? And How It Differs from "Beau Chat"Two syllables and you have it. BEU is not BEAU — one letter changes everything: one is the start of the French word for butter, the other means beautiful. Plus where the surname came from.
  2. 07Choosing CETMA Composites Fins: PRANA, EDGE, MANTRA and DYNAMI-TECH ComparedSort by use case first, stiffness second — not the other way round. Where each of the six models sits, the official weight ranges, and the overall comparison chart. Plus why I will not endorse the DRS system on the MANTRA.
  3. 08Where Cressi Came From, and How to Say ItIn 1938 in Genoa, the Cressi brothers started handcrafting masks and spearguns. The brand name is their family surname, and the first mask was called Sirena. Also: the double S is not decoration.
  4. 09Choosing your first freediving mask: fit, and the part that actually stops Asian facesYou do not need to try on twenty masks. One suction test tells you whether it fits. But the thing that actually stops most Asian divers is not the fit — it is the nose pocket, because almost every low-volume mask on the market is moulded for European faces.
  5. 10Three Knots Worth Knowing for FreedivingTying a bottom weight, making a stopper, rigging a kettlebell — three knots cover it. What matters is knowing which one tightens under load and which one still comes undone, because getting that wrong leaves you fighting a knot at the surface.
  6. 11A Scratched Plastic Mask Is Not Rubbish: Replace the Lens YourselfPlastic lenses are light and low-volume, and they scratch easily. The good news is that on a moulded mask the lens was fitted afterwards, so it comes out. Includes a video walkthrough and a way to guess which masks share a lens.

Terminology

1

Making sense of the abbreviations.

  1. 12Freediving discipline abbreviations: where do the letters actually come from?STA, DYN, DNF, CWT, CNF, FIM, VWT, NLT — none of these are arbitrary. Every letter comes from somewhere, and once you see the pattern you do not have to memorise them. Also: why it is "weight" and not "mass", and what actually gets checked at a competition.

Things worth knowing before you start

  1. Take buddy practice seriously: get a proper night's sleep beforehand and do not drink. Both of you need to be ready to perform a rescue.
  2. Develop a feel for current. The moment finning starts to feel like hard work, head back towards shore.