Springtime diving in the Mediterranean
All seasons come with their pros and cons. In summer the water is warm and beautifully clear, but also full of people and boats that scare the fish away, as well posing an actual threat of running you over. In spring, the water is cold, but on the other hand you have it more or less for yourself. There’s plenty of fish around too, and that we all like, freedivers and spearfishermen alike.
Diving in colder waters takes a little more preparations. But if you do it right it’s truly enjoyable. First of all you need to make sure you have a suitable wet suit to keep the cold out for the full time in the water that you have planned for. Ideally you dive with a two piece open cell suit to maximize thermal efficiency without needing too much neoprene, which would require a lot of extra weights in turn. Long John pants is a good way to get extra warmth around the torso without adding too much neoprene.
Personally I’m diving in a 5mm open cell suit in April and May where temperatures range from 14°C early April to about 19°C late May. Come June and the temperature climbs above 20°C I switch to 3mm which is good throughout summer and fall till the end of October. Earlier than April I prefer 7mm if I’m planning for more than an hour in the water.
Make sure you wear warm enough dive gloves and socks to keep your extremities warm and functional.
But apart from bringing the right gear, keeping warm on the way to the dive site and while you’re getting into your suit also has a big impact on your dive experience. Especially on boat trips it’s important to protect yourself from cold air and winds with a warm jacket and a hat. Equally important is to make sure that you keep fingers and toes warm during transport. They won’t warm up as you get in the water, quite the opposite.
A big bottle of warm soapy water is gold worth for donning an open cell suit without cooling down in the process. Bring enough and keep it warm if the transport is long.
After diving get out of your suit and into warm dry clothes as soon as possible to avoid getting cold down by winds and cold air.
Do it right and spring offers some of the best dive experiences of the year.
Common Octopus
The octopus is one of my favourite Mediterranean creatures. They’re intelligent, abundant and truly fascinating with their astonishing camouflage skills. Just take a look at this video I shot while out snorkling.
Freediving Wetsuit – The ultimate buying guide
Cold and rainy or hot and sunny. No matter the conditions, a dive suit is always a wise choice to protect yourself from cold, sun burn, stingy marine life and scratches from rocks or reefs. But did you know that your choice can greatly affect your experience and improve your performance?
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The Great Mediterranean Barracuda Confusion
In Pollensa Bay schools of Barracuda are a fairly common and appreciated sight, if you’re lucky you might see more than a hundred juveniles swimming together. Barracudas come in many versions and spread over large parts of the globe in tropical and subtropical waters. Some spices grow up to 2m in length, though the European Barracudas are smaller.
So what spices are we actually seeing here in Mallorca during our dives?
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Spearfishing Alcudia Bay
The sun is out. The bay is flat. No work on the agenda and a growing excitement in the body. It’s spearfishing time!
Say hello to the PJ Freedive Bulletin!
That’s right! PJ Freedive now has a newsletter! But why would you subscribe to yet another newsletter you might ask yourself?
First of all, through the monthly issues of the PJ Freedive Bulletin you will get access to interesting articles & information on things that matters to you, such as all aspects of freediving, equipment, marine life and announcements of interesting activities.
Secondly, we are trying to create something great on Mallorca, something new and different, something that you might want to be a part of. We want to be your local freediving club away from home and this newsletter plays a part in that.
CMAS European Apnea Outdoor Championship 2017
The World Underwater Federation CMAS’s inaugural European Apnea Outdoor Championship took place in Kaş, Turkey from October 3rd to 7th 2017.
CMAS has been strengthening their profile in competitive freediving in the last couple of years and I am happy to see them challenge AIDA for the big competitions. The European Championship attracted many of the biggest names in freediving, spearheaded by the two AIDA world record holders Alexey Mochanov and Alessia Zecchini.
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The Inaugural Mallorca Freediving & Yoga Week
September 25 – 29 Actionsport Prodive Mallorca, PJFreedive and Lydieyoga proudly co-hosted the inaugural Mallorca Freediving Week.
It turned out to be a fantastic week of line diving, fun diving, UW photography, yoga and hours of interesting discussions. The overwhelmingly positive response strengthen our believe that we are on to something very good with a perfect mix of training, line diving, fun diving, exploring and fun.
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Meet the Two Banded Seabream
If you have been diving the Balearic islands, or basically anywhere in the Mediterranean, you will have encountered the Two Banded Seabream (Diplodus Vulgaris). Though arguably not the most exciting sea creature we may encounter it still deserves a proper introduction. It is one of our most frequent dive buddies after all.