100m freediving record holder shares his knowledge with other freedivers at Freediving Johannesburg School

After breaking the South African record by freediving to 100m on a single breath, with no scuba equipment, Gletwyn Rubidge hosted a freediving course at Freediving Johannesburg School in Linden for local freedivers.

Read more: International freediver shares valuable knowledge with locals

In order to pass the course, the freedivers needed to hold their breath for three minutes while lying in the water face down, swim under water in the pool across the length for 50m without coming up for a breath, and do repetitive dives to 25m plus.

Technique and safety were a big focus. Many locals did personal bests and learned a lot from their local hero.

Blairgowrie-based mermaid Janet Rudman, a freediving instructor, admitted that the course was indeed very physically, as well as mentally, challenging.

“This is incredibly important for our local divers to have a diving instructor, such as Gletwyn. He is the best freediver in the country and comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience.”

Rubidge is the only South African to ever dive to 100m on a single breath. He shared equalizing techniques, which helps divers to dive deeper while holding their breath, as well as stretching, hydrodynamics, fitness for freediving, breath holding exercises, warmups for depth, and pool exercises.

Divers received online learning, which was completed before starting the course. Rubidge did two lectures, over two days. This was followed by a pool session where statics, breath hold, and dynamics was taught. The following day depth was completed at Miracle Waters.

Rudman explained that the divers did incredibly well, with most students passing the pool. “Depth was more of a challenge, but the students got progressively better with every single attempt. With most of them reaching the 25m depth mark.”

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She added that the sport is growing well in Gauteng. “When I arrived in Johannesburg, five years ago, I battled to find buddies to dive with. Eventually, I decided to start teaching, so that I could have reliable buddies to dive with. Today there are over 140 freedivers in our group in Johannesburg.

“Most of the growth comes through word of mouth. Our community is so close and so passionate about freediving, that it’s often referrals by friends and sometimes from social media. We run regular freediving courses to keep the group of qualified freedivers growing,” said Rudman.

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