Freediving and spearfishing: ancient water sports

Spearfishing gear: from spearguns to camouflage wetsuits

Spearfishing gear has advanced quite a bit from the fire-sharpened stick paleolithic hunters used 16,000 years ago. Before the invention of the speargun, spearfishing was limited to very shallow waters (your range was determined by the length of your spear). Sport spearfishing with what we'd recognize as modern gear began in the 1920s along the Mediterranean coastline of France and Italy. In fact, many historians credit the development of modern scuba diving gear, including regulators, from the rebreathers used by Italian spearos. In the 1960s, spearfishing enthusiasts attempted to have spearfishing recognized as an Olympic sport!

Today's hunters typically shore dive to stalk their prey. Intrepid divers can harvest reef fish with triggerless spearfishing gear like a pole spear or a Hawaiian sling - however, most hunters choose a speargun.

Freediving gear: everything you need to dive deep

Freediving is breath-holding diving: no air supply beyond what you hold in your lungs. Freediving gear tends to be minimal: freediving fins, a wetsuit, a mask, perhaps a freediving computer. The essence of freediving is to encounter the ocean and to challenge yourself to dive as deeply, to hold your breath as long, as you can. Freediving doesn't have to be a race to go deepest or stay down longest. Every time you hold your breath underwater, you're engaging in freediving (whether or not you're decked out in the latest freediving gear).