Why is it important to know how to collect and how to store your freediving rope properly?

It’s just a rope, right? Yes it is, but did you ever experience, or witness this scenario?

A freediver enters the water with his buoy to set it up for a training session; takes out the rope, and realizes it is all tangled…his buddies (or even worse, his freediving students) are waiting for him to disentangle it, but it is taking a while because there are multiple knots everywhere. They keep waiting, and now they are starting to get cold. Then they begin wondering if the guy in charge actually knows what he is doing, and he can sense that and gets even more nervous… Everyone is getting frustrated, the atmosphere is tense, and the training session is already ruined before it even started.

Sounds familiar?

How many freedivers can honestly say that they never went through something like this at least once?

Once you pick up the freediving rope after a session, making a bunch and throw it in may seem the natural (and fast) thing to do. But chances are that the next time you will use it, it will have knots all over and you will spend precious water time to untangle it, and the dreaded scenario above will become reality.
Some will coil it nicely (as in sailing or climbing style) but this also won’t do, especially with a thick and long freediving rope such as those we use for deeper training.
Also, coiling a rope while in the water is not as simple as on land.

freediving rope

Also, in some places, such as the Blue Hole in Dahab, there are always many freedivers, and often training buoys need to be close to each other to make space for everyone; in situations like this, you don’t want to be in other people’s way with a big bunch of tangled rope drifting all over other buoys and crossing with their ropes while they are training!

So what to do with your freediving rope?

We call this braiding, or daisy chain.
It is a very simple technique, which can be learned only with a few minutes of practice.
We always teach this in our advanced courses, as we expect our trainees and master students not only to be good freedivers, but also to be independent and able to prepare and organize their own equipment and training sessions independently.

Follow the few steps below and practice how to start, how to braid and how to fasten it at the end!

freediving rope

If you are joining a freediving course, observe your instructor doing it, and ask him to try, so you start familiarizing yourself with this technique. Become a competent freediver, and one who is able to handle equipment and situations and you will see how your buddies will be more eager to train with you!