Customer Reviews

Manual of Freediving: Underwater on a Single Breath

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book will work instead of a freediving instructor, even if we are afraid to say so. Not only does the manual cover everything that a freediver must know about physiology, physics, techniques and safety, but it also contains a practical training guide given by the one of the best, for those, who want to experience the athletic side of the sport.
I went beyond -40 m. in constant weight, 100 m. in dynamics and 5:30 in static, before I met my first freediving teacher. I was exacting student, but my teacher was the great one, he gave me the knowledge structured and detailed in the very same manner how you'll find in the book.
Analyzing the chapter about training I found that my techniques are very similar to those described in the book, though I spent years looking for some of them! For a beginner I would recommend to read the book instead of inventing things that are already there. This great book helps me to reorder and complete the structure in my mind.
I would recommend the book to all the people who love freediving or want to know what freediving is.

I've been practicing Freediving a lot over the last 3 years. This book covers it all, from history to physiology. It is well explained, and almost every aspects of the sport is covered. I especialy felt in love with the yearly training program at the end of the book. It's bee 2 months now and I realy did improve my statics and dynamics. The book was writen by a profesionnal freediver, and a profesionnal sport educator, so you'll learn all you need to practice and improve yourself.

The only reason why I don't give it a 5, it's because it's even too complete... there are sometimes way too many details, so it gets long and heavy to read. Anyhow, the first and perfect freediving bible for anyone.

I just received this manual yesterday. It is the manual I've been looking for. I have hunted (and printed) many web pages to find detailed techniques for freediving. This book will save you the tiring hunt and get you started in freediving. The manual provides a brief history of freediving, a succint review of the physics of freediving, and a concise, pertinent review of anatomy and physiology. The authors spend the rest of the book going into great detail on how to freedive: equipment, relaxation, breathing techinques, equalizing, entrance, finning technique, and safety.

While this book is a good precursor to taking a professionally taught class on freediving, it does not substitute for hands-on training clinics like Umberto's or Performance Freediving. It is an excellent book for a freediving group to use for training. I am recommending this book to all my friends who have expressed interest in freediving.

As a freedive instructor, I feel that this book should be manditory for ALL freedivers who wish to learn from a master of the sport.

This is probably the most complete book on all aspects of freediving, and is manditory reading before taking one of Umberto's Apnea Academy courses.

I have trained with Kirk Krack, Pipin Ferarras and Aharon Solomons and can tell you that each has taught me something, but it was the combination of Aharon's teaching along with Umberto's book that took me to a new level of freediving. Since Aharon is an Apnea Academy Instructor, it was only natural to have this book be my required reading. As far as I am concerned, it is the best source available outside of taking one of Umberto's courses for learning how to freedive correctly, efficiently and effectively.

Do yourself a favor - get this book, forget about the hype - it is an instruction manual - learn from it - you won't regret it.

It's always difficult for a beginner to review a textbook, because there's always the chance that your reactions are entirely offbase. It is possible that some people, trying to learn to hold their breath longer while underwater will value 360 pages of advice as "Getting Dressed. Start by putting on the trousers: insert the legs, first one then the other," and "We complete the scaling of the existential levels by passing to the colour violet, where we stabilise a contact with our most intimate reality, that which we call the spiritual dimension," while foregoing any significant discussion of strategies for dealing with the sensations of holding your breath.

To me, this book is infuriatingly short of relevant information. Not only do you get advice on how to put on pants, there are sections that seem relevant (the 2.5 pages on the circulatory system, say), that jump between streams of grade-school exposition ("The heart is a hollow muscle that has the capacity to function like a pump; expanding and contracting, it sucks blood that is delivered continuously by the veins and pushes it to the peripheries of the body through the arteries....") and trivia ("...[blood] is propagated by their elastic walls at a velocity of 9 meters per second. However in the arterioles of the periphery the velocity drops to one millimetre per second....") without actually introducing any relevant facts (does blood velocity have something to do with freediving? Maybe. I wouldn't know it after reading this book. And the book is packed with clearly irrelevant information, such as 2 pages on the Beaufort wind scale).

To reconcile my reaction with the 5 star reviews from those who can do statics of 5+ minutes and so forth, I can only say that perhaps they skipped the trivia, don't need practical advice on breath holding, and valued specific advice on, say, finning technique.

The 30 pages of chapter 11 "Training for Apnea" will _possibly_ take less time to read than finding equivalent advice on the Web, but are hardly worth $40. For me, this book was an utter waste of money.

In Europe freediving is an art form. It is against the law to spearfish using tanks therefore spearfishermen have had to dive deep in the cold waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea hunting their quarry. More than that, freediving is the building block upon which good diving and underwater skills are based.
In the U.S. quickie scuba courses seek to get uninitiated postulates into the system as soon as possible. This in theory is laudable, and often in resort teaching environments with the ocean at hand to make practical lessons feasible, diver training can be adequate.
There is of course a big difference between a French beginning diver certification that requires 40 dives and turning out certified divers under American certification programs with only five.
In this new book, MANUAL OF FREEDIVING, UNDERWATER ON A SINGLE BREATH, two champions share their knowledge of breathhold diving. Umberto Pelizzari coauthored the manual with Stefano Tovaglieri.
Pelizzari is a graduate of the University of Milan with a degree in informatics. In Italy and throughout the world Umberto Pelizzari is renown, not for work in his degree area, but for his 17 world breath hold records. His legendary deep dives include 80 meters in constant weight, 131 meters in variable weight and 150 meters in no limits freediving. Freediving with one breath of air to those depths and returning to the surface.
Coauthor Stefano Tovaglieri has been a member of Italian apnea teams that have won world championships. Like Pelizzari, Tovaglieri is active in the Apnea Academy (www.apnea-academy.com), a school for instruction and research into subaquatic breath holding. He holds a university degree in physical education.
The authors are not only champions in their own rights but instructors and coaches whose teaching skills draw upon their years of experience in breath hold diving.
The book is illustrated with sketches by talented artist Nicola Refolo. The drawings make following the text easy and form an integral part of the manual. Every exercise is illustrated with a clear drawing.
Every diver can benefit from this most amazing manual. Ways to clear the ears are covered. Many methods developed by freedivers, who must descend quickly on one breath of air, are described as are exercises that make ear clearing work better. Ear clearing exercises and techniques are not only explained, they are clearly shown by illustrations.
Finning is explained in detail. The economic use of the fin stroke, a requirement for effective free diving, is so often overlooked by scuba divers that the bicycle kick is a norm even among some scuba instructors. Proper use of fins as the basis for scuba diving is a must and the MANUAL OF FREEDIVING provides extraordinary insight into the methodology as well as the proper alignment of the body while finning.
"I haven't been diving in a year-and-a-half because I was pregnant," a woman told me on today's boat dive. "Now that I'm a Mom, I'm concerned and want to be extra careful," she added. The woman was nervous. It was an ocean dive in the Gulf Stream. Stress.
The authors of the MANUAL OF FREEDIVING discuss the issue of stress in diving in great detail. How stress occurs and how stress can be reduced.
Talking to the woman before our scuba dive and explaining what she would see, descending with her, maintaining eye contact, holding her hand below and pointing out creatures, like the large sea turtle she had hoped to see as her `favorite creature," helped take some of the stress away.
"That was the greatest dive I ever had," she said back on the boat. Seasickness took a little of the elation away but the enthusiasm returned back at the dock. Instructors and divemasters can learn similar techniques to change a stressful situation to a great dive from this book.
The manual covers stress in detail with good pointers instructors will find helpful for their students.
Freedivers who pit themselves against the elements with one breath of air, cognizant of the risks involved, need to channel stress properly. They need to be aware of safety precautions and their own limitations.
For insights about stress alone, the MANUAL OF FREEDIVING, is well worth reading.
The book is well written, informative, translated from the original Italian professionally and a must for every serious diver's library.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: John Christopher Fine is a Master Scuba Instructor and Instructor Trainer. He has authored 23 books, many based on his experience and training as a marine biologist. He has served as an member or officer of many international bodies whose goals are ocean conservation.

The intent of this book is to help you become a better freediver. It contains excellent teaching to help improve your freediving skills. There is practical advice to help you relax and learn to be in tune with your body. This book will help you to reach new levels of performance, dive deeper, stay longer, with more comfort and ease.

However, you will have to sift trough some pseudo-scientific explanations and descriptions before you get to more practical helps. There are plenty of references to evolutionary development. Some people still accept the science of Stanley Miller's experiments in 1953 or Ernst Haeckels creative fictional drawings as fact. The writers of this book accept many of these types of theories as fact. If you can overlook these references and get to the more practical sections you will find helpful materials.

This book is quite large and not quite what I was hoping for. I already knew a few exercises and techniques but found some of the extra ones in this book were awkward and proved to be a waste of time.

The book is quite touchy feely and doesn't excite you as you read. I don't know. You might enjoy it - I did learn some stuff from it, especially if you want to get right into the science of it all. Just didn't give me any improvement over my pre reading performance.

The most comprehensive book on Freediving "Apneists" that the world has ever seen; scientific and readable, it not only covers everything you'd need to know -- but also contains exercises, cautions, interviews and diagrams for total immersion into the world of underwater breath-holding.

I am new at free diving and wanted a "beginners book". In my opinion, the is for intermediate divers as half the book was over my head with quite a bit of mathematics.

( I returned the book with no problem).