Freediving duck dive technique with bi-fins

A good duck dive can be the difference between a comfortable and successful dive and an absolute failure.

Its easy to get right, but also just as easy to get wrong. In this post I will take you through the basics. Obviously this cannot take the place of real world training, so if you want to get your duck dive looking super slick, enroll on one of our courses!

Its one of the very basic elements which really can differentiate between a trained diver and an enthusiastic snorkeler. Calm and seemingly effortless, a freediver should break the surface and disappear with minimal fuss and  with elegant simplicity.

Just like many things in freediving we can break the dive down in to a few basic elements, follow these and you will perform a duck dive that anyone would be proud of. Below is a VERY basic diagram… gotta love the stick man huh? …and a step by step guide to a nice duck dive.

1. Lie on the surface, take your final breaths and extend your arms in front of you.

2. Bend at the waist and point your arms to the seabed or down the length of the dive line.

3. Raise your legs so that you are in a ‘superman’ position… flying toward the seabed. This gives you a low surface area and relatively high gravitational pull, so you will now start to sink with no effort.

4. Do a strong single breaststroke towards the seabed.

5. You fins will now be in the water so you can kick effectively. Keep your arms by your side except for equalisation.

 This a a very basic overview. There are lots of minor details that will make a big difference to your duckdive… but for that you really will need to come on a course! 😉