Manual Of Freediving: Underwater On A Single Breath

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.

I live in the Florida Keys - and I try to be in the water as much as possible. I free dive for lobster and to hunt lionfish (our invasive exotic that is eating our native fish). I am not interested in competition diving at all - I just want to be able to stay down longer, dive deeper and be as safe as possible. I just started reading this book - although I've flipped forward and skimmed over some of the "meat" - the information on how to dive longer and safer. The book is well written, easy to read, and so far seems to have all the information I'll need to be a safer diver. It starts off with a lot of history of the sport of competition free diving - which is interesting reading. I am just getting into the "how to" part. I highly recommend this book to anyone who goes beyond snorkeling on the surface.

Awesome Book! Very thorough and descriptive...down to the precise workings of the eyeball and inner ear. There is so much to learn from this book it amazed me. 4 stars because I thought it could use a few more basic techniques for breath holding, but it did have a lot of intermediate techniques I immediately started using. This book is designed for serious deep divers.

This book must be on the shelf of every serious freediver. In order to be successful in freediving one must focus on efficiency. This book provides a vast amount of information to help one become more efficient. Every move you make or don't make underwater will effect your bottom time and have an impact on how safe your dive is. Manual of Freediving goes into great detail teaching proper finning technique, a critical chapter since it is finning which most heavily influences your oxygen usage. There is information which at first might seem over explained. Manual of Freediving is though a textbook and a reference book. It is not a story. It is not specifically designed to entertain but rather to educate. The details about our physiology might seem at first ponderous but as you advance in the sport and begin to scrutinize every aspect to progress you will find yourself returning to those chapters. This is a fabulous reference book. Five stars all the way.

Surprisingly thorough info on physiology, which I found interesting and comprehensive at just the right level. Worth picking up just for that, IMO. I didn't expect a history of the sport, but that was cool, too. And the translation from the Italian is hilarious at times. They use the word "neonate" over and over again when talking about newborn babies (in the context of their natural, effortless affinity for water, naturally). It's like Mr. Spock describing the human species... So it's educational at the level of "manual." Great. And it's entertaining if you are a word nerd or want to improve your scrabble skills or something. Odd bonus!

This book is awesome, the history part is a great read, and the book covers everything you could ever want to know about free diving. However, This book is a great reference but is definitely no substitute for a real Freediving class, Fii or immersion. Take a class, and this book will be 1000x more useful to you.

I love this book!! I've thought about trying free diving for a long time. I used to be a very competitive synchronized swimmer and have done just about every other water sport, including SCUBA. I didn't want to start with expensive lessons to understand the sport. This book is exactly what I was looking for!! It starts with a fascinating history of the sport, goes into pretty good detail of the physiology involved so you understand what your doing, techniques, and training suggestions. This book is the perfect stepping stone to guide me into my new sport!! If you're interested in free diving, get this book!!

This manual is very comprehensive and contains a lot of useful information. However, the author's writing style is not exactly, "easy reading". He uses a lot of complex terms and descriptions that required my review, several times, before I could understand what he was saying.

Meine Überschrift sagt es eigentlich schon. Umberto Pelizzaris "Manual of Freediving" beinhaltet alles was man über das Freitauchen wissen "muß" und kann. Sämtliche Aspekte werden angesprochen. Daß, trotz des wirklich großen Umfangs, nicht jedes Thema haarklein besprochen werden kann sollte jedoch auch klar sein. Zum Thema Atemübungen/Yoga gibt es z.B. nicht umsonst spezielle Literatur. Wünschenswert wäre eventuell eine deutsche Version des Buches. Jedoch, so denke ich, gibt es nicht genügend deutschsprachige Interessenten. Jedoch sollte einen die Sprache nicht abhalten dieses Buch zu kaufen. Auch meine Englischkenntnisse sind nicht die besten, und doch hatte ich keine Probleme beim Lesen dieses Buches. Einige Spezialbegriffe muß man vielleicht nachschlagen (wer weiß schon was Zwerchfell auf Englisch heißt?), aber das war es auch schon.

Great Dive book, if your interested, then this IS the book

A superb manual full of usable and practical material to make you a safer freediver. It is easy to read and has many illustrations to make the information more clear.

Awesome book. This books covers all the essentials - and goes well into detail. I have been diving for many years, and find this book extremely useful. On top of that, its a great read!

Débutant en apnée, j'ai adoré ce livre, lu et relu plusieurs fois. Contient de nombreuses informations générale sur ce sport, sur l'anatomie humaine qu'il est nécessaire de bien connaître pour pratiquer. On apprécie également toutes les séries d'exercices proposées. Bien évidemment, la pratique de ce sport peut-être dangereuse, et ce livre ne remplace pas un moniteur !