Freediving is the latest scuba craze

Mountain climbers have for long been trekking along the Himalayas and climbing to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro for decades while enthusiastic divers have been diving in The Great Barrier Reef for years, but there is a new kind of water sport adventure that's hitting the scuba diving holidays market. It's called "freediving" and was launched and developed in Australia last year by Scuba Schools International (SSI).

As The Great Barrier Reef itself has been a Mecca for scuba divers from all around the world; what better place to bungee jump in water than at the place it was invented? These are the conclusions of Australian freediver champion Mike Wells, who wrote the plan to insert this new scuba diving modality.

Well's freediving programme is currently being rolled out to other scuba diving destinations around the world, including America, Asia and Europe.

Future freedivers looking to make the most of their scuba diving holidays in these exotic destinations will be able to travel to do their course onsite at destinations suited to the sports, such as Vanuatu or the Philippines, or can complete their course at a place closer to home prior to travelling to their freediving holiday destination.

Mike Wells has personally trained every SSI instructor in Australia and plans to do the same overseas. At present he is also working with dive travel company Dive Adventures to create freediving trips, both for pleasure and training.

One reporter that has experienced freediving with instructor Mike Wells says of his experience and the level of training required: "A freediver relies solely on himself or herself. The preparation is mental, rather than mechanical. No busted o-rings to fix, computer batteries to check or decompression times to consider.

Mike pulled off the dive with ease, rocketing down to the stern and posing for photos before heading back to the surface."

Worldwide locations for practising this sport are varied, and many of these attract divers because of their calm, crystalline, deep and warm waters in which are also popular holiday spots around the world. Luckily they're also often tropical and cheap. And just like in scuba diving, a diver can  be trained and certified at various levels of freediving.

Our reporter from Byron Shire News highlights the biggest difference between the two types of diving: freediving and scuba diving, and he explains that the difference "is about breathing".

"Scuba diving is all about constantly breathing in and out."

"One of the first things new scuba divers learn is to 'never hold your breath'”.

"Freediving is exactly the opposite. It's about how long you can last, and how deep you can go, on one breath."