The Evolution Of Freediving

Tracing the journey of our relationship with the sea, through the ages and around the world.

- Terence Koh

With the constant innovation of diving gear enabling us to go deeper and longer underwater, it’s easy to forget that diving began as the simple act of holding your breath and kicking your legs. Indeed, with the advent of modern underwater breathing apparatus, this most primitive form of diving is now typically differentiated from its more mainstream cousin with the moniker “freediving”. But breath-hold diving in humans began more than 8,000 years ago, evolving through the centuries to its present-day status. And now, freediving is constantly taking on new extremes that have risen in popularity especially over the past three decades.

ANCIENT TIMES

The first recorded evidence of freediving humans can be traced back more than 7,000 years to the Chinchorro1, an ancient people who lived along the coast of the Atacama Desert in what is present-day northern Chile and southern Peru. In a study of Chinchorro mummies, archaeologists discovered that the bones inside their ears had started to grow across the ear canal’s opening to protect the eardrums from recurrent exposure to water. It was clearly exostosis, a condition that afflicts people whose heads have been frequently dunked underwater. Exostosis is a common condition among people who surf, dive and kayak. The Chinchorro were people who dived for seafood. Shell midden fossils and bone chemistry tests on the mummies have proven that their diet consisted of 90 percent seafood. Besides the Chinchorro in South America, seashell fossils found at the coast of the Baltic Sea also revealed ancient people living approximately 10,000 years ago who dived for clams.

EGYPT, GREECE, MESOPOTAMIA & PERSIA