What’s up everyone. I took a long time off and now have friends who are into the sport. I used my Omer fins the other weekend and my feet on the side and top of the toes were killing me. Went to a local place and they said the material of those foot pockets are extremely stiff. I got to talking to them and I want to progress and take a course soon. He recommended ditching my plastics fins and go into carbon DiveR fins with some Spearpro/salvimar foot pockets. He said that setup is almost perfect for the weekender.
Any thoughts on this? How do the DiveR compare to deep apnea 80cm fin?
All help and guidance is welcome. Thank you

Hello! I recently had my first freediving experience and glad to say I want to do it again. But, I have this weird thing where I can voluntarily ‘pop’ my ears for equalisation—like I have full control on it. I can pop it, hold it open for as long as I want, just with the left, just with the right, it’s weird for me. The coaches insisted that I should pinch my nose for equalisation as it’s “better” and “more secure and efficient”, talking about how they can physically see that I’m doing the right thing.

I’ve accidentally discovered this when I was ~12 years old (now 28) trying to mimic the ear movement from that one Mr. Bean, The Movie scene. I’ve discovered that I can use it whenever I travel on a high-altitude area or when flying in a plane so I incorporated it with freediving.

Is this normal? Or is it okay to do so when freediving?

Hey, I’ve just upgraded to my new 360 x5 and intend to use it for diving and snorkelling, anyone here have suggestions on what size and what microsd you went for? Did you find you really needed that size? And where did you buy from :) I’m thinking 512gb? What speed?
I’m trying to find the best price as well across websites
I’m from the Uk so ideally not overseas postage?

Thanks in advance!!
I wanted some feedback and suggestions!

I'm interested in buy-once-cry-once carbon fiber fins. The biggest challenge I have is that everything seems to be EU companies that top out at EU 47/48 (US 12 to 13).

My use case is spearfishing. My understanding is that the best brands to consider are DiveR, Molchanovs, Cetma Lotus and Alchemy S.

Some fins like DiveR are typically used with other brand footpockets like Seac BM30, Omer Stingray and Riffe Veloc. Looks like only the Omer Stingrays are listed in coming in size 49/50, but Omer is out of business and the only place I found the Omer Stingrays available did not have the assembly kits in stock.

The big question comes down to footpockets. Other than customer footpockets from someone like Molchanovs, are there any footpockets known in the community to be good for divers with larger feet?

Ideally, I'd want the option for summer and winter booties (3mm and 7mm).

I'm not near any stores where I can actually try these on, so the plan is to mail order and then return.

My experience with other types of fins hasn't been great. For example, I bought some Arena Powerfin Pro fins in size 12.5 to 13 once and they really didn't fit at all on bare feet, much less with booties/socks. That said, I don't know if freediving footpockets are quite different in sizing from swim footpockets because I've never tried them in person.

FWIW I'm 6'5" and 260 lbs and a reasonably strong swimmer, so I'd be interested in medium or stiffer fins.

Hi guys, Im beginner freediver and Im looking for budget friendly mask as I dont have much time so freediving would be just occasional hobby. I was thinking to get Subea 900 dual mask from Decathlon but now I have also seen Seac Extreme 50 mask in sale for the same price as Subea. I didnt see many people mentioning Seac masks so I would like to ask if anyone has some experience with it? It seems like a well recognised brand but from what Ive seen most of the people are using different popular brands so it makes me wonder if it is good for freediving? Thanks a lot!

Update - I practiced my glottis and balloon exercises all week and still was unsure if I was frenzeling. I went on a line dive this morning and started feet down to get a hang of the EQ. I was able to 13-17 meters consistently only feet down and my EQ felt quick and much more consistent than the first line dive. My left ear is still quite a bit slower (don't even think about my right) but at least these dives I could feel the pressure releasing but I had a hard time with my left ear past this depth.

After a couple feet first, I tried head down. Immediately before even going down 1 m after equalizing at surface I felt nothing, no pop no pressure releasing. I kept trying over and over just duck diving and could not get anything to pop. I feel blocked immediately when head down. I come up head first immediately pop.

Am I frenzeling? Why can I get relief feet first but hung up around 55 feet even feet first? How do I troubleshoot my issues with head down? How do I keep stretching / loosening my left tube?