Preparing For Dive Trips - Building Your Freediving Checklist

Preparing For Dive Trips - Building Your Freediving Checklist

Proper planning prevents poor performance. Having a solid freediving checklist, whether mental or written, is a great tool for helping to ensure that you have a good trip. Before every trip you will want to double check that you have everything you may need, because there are no dive shops out where you dive. There is nothing worse than getting 10, 20, or even 100 miles offshore to realize you only have one dive fin.

The Basics

For essential pieces of gear, it is not a bad idea to keep a spare in your dive bag. This may not be realistic for every piece of gear given size or expense, but it does make a lot of sense to keep a spare mask, snorkel, and weight belt in your gear bag. A spare pair of carbon fiber fins may be out of the cards, but a spare pair of plastic fins may be more realistic. The same challenge persists from keeping a spare speargun with you. That may be unrealistic while you are starting out, but a spare shaft may be more reasonable. There are only a few unfortunate situations where a spare wetsuit would be necessary. Remember to double check your freediving checklist and equipment before any dive trip. 

Some equipment just takes up a lot of space or makes a dive boat cluttered or disorganized. As a result, you may not want everyone on the boat to bring a spare set of something. It may make more sense to have a spare for the entire boat instead. Things like floats, floatlines, or other blue water spearfishing gear. That means you may need a personal checklist as well as a communal freediving checklist with your dive buddies. 

Sample Freediving Checklist

Your specific style of diving may require different equipment than is listed below. You may need to make your own judgement calls on what you need or want in you kit. Every diver has their own preferences. 

Here is a version of a freediving checklist you may find helpful: