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In this episode of The Complete Guide, John Prins, a competitive freediver, instructor, and founder of Fins And Foam Freediving School, looks into freediving in California. Which are the best diving locations? How's the weather & visibility? What sort of marine life will you encounter? What equipment & techniques should you use?
First of all let's talk about pure freediving, in the sense of line diving, going deep. There aren't that many spots up here to do that, but the spots we have are great. Top of my list is a lake called Lake Berryessa. It's in the middle of California wine country, this lake gets sunshine 300 days a year. At the spot in the lake where we go, we get over 200 feet of depth in warm, calm conditions. Because this is a body of fresh water there's not much to see in terms of marine life but the freediving here is so peaceful and meditative. It's the perfect place to train to freedive deeper.
If you're looking to freedive in the ocean, the Monterey Bay Area is the place to be. There's a beach called San Carlos Beach, where Fins & Foam does its beginner classes, where you can freedive in a 70-foot kelp forest, just like the one out of My Octopus Teacher. On a sunny day, lying on the bottom, looking up at the sunlight filtering through the kelp forest, is awe-inspiring. This area is a marine reserve, so there are hundreds of fish as well as sea lions that will jump out of the water in unison on the way back from a successful day's hunting. Pods of dolphins, cute otters lying on their backs and friendly seals that will come up and play with your fins.
Finally, if you're looking for something a bit wild, something that's really testing the boundaries of what's possible in freediving, there's a spot we've been calling the Mavericks Of Freediving, it's right under the Golden Gate Bridge (DISCLAIMER: we don't recommend diving in such places, it is extremely dangerous and can have lethal consequences), so there are giant tankers going past, there are great white sharks around, zero visibility, current can get up to three knots. But coming up here from a 30 or 40-meter dive and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge up there on the one side and the whole city of San Francisco laid out on the other, gives me this gleeful feeling like "huh maybe it really is possible to freedive anywhere if you just want to enough".
If you're looking to forage, California's coastline is a treasure trove of tasty snacks. Anywhere you jump in the water along our rocky coastline here, you'll straight away see clouds of blue and black, what we call Rockfish. These fish are nothing exciting or amazing to spot but they actually taste delicious and even most surprisingly and effortless of all, they taste great at ceviche. Don't go foraging for abalone here because their population is protected but do the abalone and the kelp a favor and grab yourself some spiky purple urchins. These urchins are the source of that delicious creamy orangey-yellow paste that every fancy Japanese restaurant serves as uni. Jump in the ocean, grab yourself some uni for free, eat it raw or cook it up with pasta right there on the beach.
The gear you need in California is a little different from your typical tropical freediving spot. There are currents welling up from the Arctic here which makes the waters really nutrient rich in accounts for all the fish and marine life that you see, but also makes it pretty cold. You're going to need a seven-millimeter wetsuit and because that makes you really buoyant about to want some fins with some serious power to help you get back up easily. My fins of choice, Alchemy V3 Pros.
Top-of-the-line carbon fiber, so makes it easy to carry all the weight you have, but also short, which makes them less likely to get scratched in a rocky entry and easy to navigate through a kelp forest. These babies you've got to buy direct from Alchemy but for the rest of your gear check out the Fins & Foam store. I hope this video has given you a taste of one of California's wildest adventures, freediving. if you want to learn to freedive come and see me at Fins & Foam Freediving.