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The importance of keeping a freediving log

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As we progress throughout our freediving journey it becomes quite important to keep a freediving log as it offers a great insight in tracking progress, especially for those of us with a freediving brain.

My journey in freediving started in the cold lakes of England, armed with a 5mm spearo suit and 4 kgs on my belt to fight the icy waters. 

That’s the same equipment I have been using when I first moved to Dahab to train last winter and throughout my first two competitions in Egypt. 

With that setup I managed to dive to 73m in CTWB, and set two Italian National Records in CTWB (Aida) however my deeper dives were affected by hypoxia or light sambas.

Once back in Europe I entirely changed my set-up, starting from my new Alchemy V3-30 fins, 1.4kg Alchemy neck weight and 0.5 kg on the belt and a super smooth 1.5mm competition wetsuit. 

The results have been pretty astonishing, as I gained 10 seconds in speed on my deepest dives, I progressed to 76m depth and most of all I haven’t been struggling with any hypoxia with perfectly clean exits. 

I have recently moved my journaling of dive logs from scattered pieces of papers to a more organized excel sheet and that gives me a great advantage when looking back at a particular performance, when increasing depth or working on technique to have a reference on dive time. 

Diving computers

Most dive computers allow you to transfer dive information from the computer to an electronic log, and the amount of data available in some models can be astonishing, as some of them now include GPS and compass functions, thermocline information and heart rate at depth.

Some dive computers like the Atmos Mission 2 have an incredible amount of data ready for download.


How to build your freediving log

What to log is personal, and I have compared my own log with those of other professional freedivers, but generally I like to keep track of:

  • Date

  • Location

  • Water temperature and thermocline

  • Wetsuit thickness

  • How many weights

  • Number of dives in a day

  • Depth

  • Dive time, touchdown time and ascent time

  • Competition or training dive 

  • How was my exit and feelings about the dive

To get your 5% discount off Alchemy products, use my code: x2ax9p

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