Snorkeling and scuba diving are both enjoyable activities that involve exploring the underwater world, but they differ in their level of difficulty. Scuba diving allows for greater depths and requires more experience, such as certification, training, equipment, and gas supply. Snorkelers can swim on the surface with a curved tube in their mouth, while scuba divers can float on the water by wearing a life jacket, mask, snorkel, and fins.
Snorkelers savor the underwater geography while floating close to the surface (3-6 meters depth), while scuba divers stay underwater longer and breathe through a snorkel. They also have a greater chance of harming the reef than snorkelers. However, solo diving can be much more dangerous than buddy diving, and it is generally safer.
Scuba diving is a safe, fun, and low-risk activity, as long as proper training, guidelines, and safety measures are followed. Solo diving can be more dangerous than buddy diving, but it is generally safer. To ensure safety, divers should invest in proper training and follow the rules.
SCUBA, or Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. In addition to the equipment for snorkeling, divers also need to wear a flotation device to avoid energy waste and stay afloat.
In conclusion, both snorkeling and scuba diving involve exploring the underwater world, but they differ in terms of depth, experience, and safety measures. Proper training, safety measures, and understanding of the risks associated with each activity are essential for a safe and enjoyable experience.
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📹 Scuba Diving VS Freediving Which is Better?
Scuba Diving and Freediving are completely different activities suited for different locations and different styles of diving.
“Ultimately they are both fantastic ways to explore the ocean and I believe that all freedivers should learn to scuba dive and all scuba divers should learn to freedive.” This. Absolutely, spot on. I freedive and am SCUBA qualified. Love doing both, but each for its own reason. I like the challenge of freediving and freedom of not being encumbered with lots of equipment. But equally with SCUBA, I like the ability to stay under longer than I can hold my breath.
There’s no “better” thing between the two. It’s what suits you the most and under the specific circumstances each time. For me, scuba is “exploring”. You can stay underwater more, you can watch more but you also need to prepare and calculate more before the dive. Free diving is “feeling”. You can feel like a sea mammal. Practically you do exactly what a dolphin, a whale or a seal do and it is naturally simple. It is more of a sport too, rather than activity and also less expensive. 🙂
Very good and well explained article Adam, thanks!! Unfortunately I’ve never had the oportunity to scuba diving, But I really apreciate it!! I don’t know exactly how to explain the reason why I like more freediving!! Maybe because of the way it looks like freedom, like a natural thing, like you’re always trying your best and getting fascinated about what your body is able to do!! Unfortunately I didn’t take neither a freediving course nor a scuba, but I’ll certainly do both!!
This was a great and needed article. You hit a lot of true points that needed to be clarified for a lot of people. I personally always try to do both on any dive trip if it’s possible. As you know it can be not possible though. Haha there are always gonna be more Scuba charters then Freedive (at least in the near future). I personally enjoy both, and as you said, that’s the way it should be! Also congrats on this awesome growth of your website! (It’s all because of the sexy green wetsuit)
I must say that with my current short bottom times I do envy scuba divers, but perusal them get ready to dive really puts me off – here in the UK they are wearing A LOT of kit. I really enjoy going out for hours at a time to enjoy the meditation and swimming of free diving, but I will be giving scuba another go in the future. Great article.
Haha! Awesome vid. Although I have to say as a scuba instructor, I love teaching freedivers to scuba. They are just so comfortable in the water! I found that doing a lot of freediving actually increased my air consumption on scuba, not sure if anyone else has experienced that? Couldn’t agree more that if you love the water, learn to do both. Thanks Adam!
saw your 104m freedive yesterday.. unbelievable man… props to you. !! subbed ! .. keen to get into this freedive thing… im from wellington nz. have u ever been in the water here ?! im looking to start spearfishing and getting kai around here ( fish, paua, mussles, kina, crays…) keep up the good work! love your vids cheers !
If you are new to diving in the ocean I’d suggest starting with scuba, when you go on a scuba excursion with a good dive guide you will see so much wildlife that they will point out and then you can ask questions about stuff at the surface. Ultimately I learned a ton from dive guides… but now I love free diving
I actually started out freediving and scuba diving right around the same time (within about 2 months of each other). While freediving, I could only valsalva. Because I was diving down so fast and couldn’t equalize quickly. But with scuba, I slowly learned to frenzel since I had more time while descending. Now I’m doing frenzel for both! I’ve only been diving for about 9 months now. Freediving depth – 55 feet Scuba depth – 100 feet Both on frenzel 🙂
Did scuba diving in Roatan a couple weeks ago and it was so relaxing being underwater for so long as we cruised around. Also got to experience equalizing up to 40 feet. I know 40 is laughable to most of you guys but it was amazing. Im still working on my breath hold. Most important rule in scuba is don’t stop breathing.
Skills that transfer from free diving to scuba: Comfort underwater Learning not to panic Mask removal Learning how to keep warm Correct weighting Streamlining Skills free diving hinders in scuba: Moving to fast Equalisation Over confidence This may be different for different people, but that’s what I found going from 20+ years of free diving to scuba
Believe me, i’m a scuba diver (i don’ t do scuba diving since quite a long time) but i think freediving is better !!!! Yes, you read right ! freediving let you know your body, your limits, it’ s more natural and more complete, so congratulations to all freedivers…. i should do a freediving school one day.
I feel that scuba diving is more accessible to beginers, because you get the the results and enjoy the evironment more quickly in scuba diving. In free diving i feel you need to develop breathing techniques and swimming technique before enjoying yourself. Or maybe that’s just because I am addict to my air tank and feel naked without if on the water 😉
I was thinking I’d take a freediving course, but then I realised that I wouldn’t learn much, really. I can only do a beginner freediving course, but I’m already comfortable with Frenzel, finning, breatholding, and I only avoid going to depths greater than 10 m because I don’t have a buddy, nor a wetsuit to keep me warm. So I think I’ll do a scuba course
Well, I’m pretty interested in freediving not to compete, but to explore the underwater world, which you said it can be done by SCUBA. In fact, using freediving to explore the underwater world like coral reefs can actually beat SCUBA for several reasons. Number one, recreational freediving costs less than SCUBA. B, freedivers barely exhale bubbles underwater that would scare the fish. C, it has much fewer equipment needs than SCUBA because to freedive in a tropical area, all you need is a mask, preferably, low volume, and snorkel, meaning you can freedive while on snorkeling trips. D, there are much fewer decompression worries for freediving than for Scuba. I don’t want to freedive for competition, though pushing my breath holding time and acting competitive will surely help my breath hold dives and breathing for SCUBA dives. I have never went diving, neither freediving nor SCUBA. But I know all this because I’m attracted to the ocean and I’m studying for Marine Biology, not to mention that living in Florida makes it a big plus. Plus, I kinda practice freediving by doing long underwater swims during my swim workout. So far, I could do 25 yards underwater without fins and 50 yards with fins.
Ive had animal interaction as a scuba diver I had a huge moray swim up to me and let me rub its head it was super Its true you are slower while scuba diving but I like to take it all in its sort of a zen experience for me I think freediving wouldnt fit the experience I am looking for but very well put together article
I really like this article, although I think it portrays the relationship between freedivers and scuba divers as excessively adversarial than it actually is. Most freedivers I know are also scuba divers. As someone who recently became certified for both, and enjoys both, I’m often faced with the question, “Do I want to freedive in this situation or would it be better to scuba dive?” I think you only partially addressed the question in that article. Instead of asking “Which is better?” It makes more sense to ask, “When is one a preferable approach over the other? Or have advantages?” Freediving is probably not the best way to go about macro photography, for example. On the other hand, it might be a great skill to have when you’re on a boat and the prop is fouled, or if the dive site is difficult to access with a boat and it’s better to hike in. Who wants to carry 70 lbs of gear up and down hills? For people who love to explore underwater, freediving and scuba are complimentary techniques.
Hey, Adam! I love this article. I haven’t taken courses for either (yet), and I know you kinda explained how freediving doesn’t enhance your scuba time, but… Would you be able to enhance your freediving with something like those smaller “spare air” tanks? Would you be able to use one of those in stead of going up to the surface? As ever your articles are great, thank you for everything you do!
#Myth Freedivers are those guys who are constantly going up and down while scube diving lol 📈. Nah joking, very nice article! I love both, freedivng and scuba diving, even though I’m more snorceling than freedivng (never got much deeper than 10m)… But I feel like you should take a course before going deeper and where I life arent any opportunities for that 🙄
“neither is better” *youtube name says freediver, 😛 hahahah I’m jk, I was initiated into the underwater world with scuba but I want to learn freediving cause I think it’ll make me a better scuba and snorkeler since my breathe hold is really short, as well as my equalization skills lacking, but I see its not technically the same. Thanks Adam for such a great website! keep up the good work bro! Still want to learn both 🙂
I’d have to disagree with the breathing. I previously DRANK air for scuba diving. Then between dives my dive instructor mentioned he did free diving and gave us some tips. immediately I went for my second dive and the air consumption was significantly better because I remembered what he said about free diving. Since then I’ve been really good with my air consumption
I feel like they are different but the basic kit a freediver uses is much more efficient than what a scuba diver is influenced to buy. That being said, each group could learn a thing or two from each other and come out better for it. I love that the efficiency factor of wetsuits, fins, and masks is starting to slowly creep into the scuba gear. There’s so much we teach each other. I’ve done both but I feel I get more time in the water with freediving. And added advantage of that is that 60ft is not so deep to me anymore. Now CCR diving gives you the advantages freediving gives you by being silent underwater but you’re encumbered by a bulky, expensive, rebreather rig but you stay down much longer than on open circuit. Spearfishing is a whole other animal and Spearos have their own language. Would probably not be a Spearo but I love to all the camo gear they wear!! 😎
Hi Adam, I just came back from Mauritius island, lot of scuba diver have turned to freediving, recently the discover the causes of death of many among them, and were not accidental but was due to the compressed air in the tank, it appears that compressed gas is like smoking cigarette, one dive equals to 4 packs of cigarette, so overtime the lungs got busted, well homework for you to do and let us know your thoughts. Saleem
Thanks so much bro ;)..i like free diving more than scuba for me.. I did’t try scubd but maby some day I’ll try…Knowing that I’m Not good on both :/ .. before 8 years ago i was live in Palestine..I received a bullet from an Israeli soldierin in my chest…at the end I have only one lung. .I can’t really shut my breath for 30 seconds only.. hope i can in next life ^_^
Breath control is possibly the most important skill a scuba diver can master. This is not holding your breath but breathing with full or emptier lungs as well as timing your breathing to work alongside buoyancy control and adjustments in attitude underwater. I believe that mastering this control is made easier by honing your free-diving skills and some breath control meditation. Just my 2 cents worth from thousands of instruction scuba dives at all levels.
I see a couple of commenter have hinted at the things we learn from each other…….counting myself as a pure scuba diver at the moment…….Adam, would you mind clarifying one thing for me please……..why don’t scuba divers use the longer more efficient free diving fins? I know scuba is supposed to be a slower pace but that’s to conserve air so surely better fins would fix this. Obviously the drag issue of the equipment is a concern, but again, better fins would reduce the effort? Is it purely a matter of space…in bags or on boats? Or is it simply that other scuba divers would look at you funny if you arrived on a trip with long fins? I’m looking forward to hearing your take on this.
While freediving I have learned to be more relaxed. Applied to scuba my air consumption was actually better. Also equalizing is transferable IMO.. at least to depths that I am comfortable with. When starting with scuba you will be shown how to equalize from your belly and once you start doing freediving you will find out that this is not the best way…then you will learn frenzel…. and use it while on scuba because it’s just more efficient and easier. At the moment though, scuba is just too “complicated” … 50kg of equipment, tanks etc… I have lost the interest… nevertheless it’s good to be certified especially if you are going to some places that are beyond your freediving capabilities OR you just want to have way more bottom time (wrecks and stuff I guess).