My Freediving Equipment Pack List
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Disclaimer: I am sponsored by Alchemy, Hydra, and soon to be Elios and Polosub. However, none of them asked me to write this article and did not influence the content of this article. I had paid for some of these equipments before they became my sponsor, and the contents in this article are of my own honest opinions.
Having travelled to so many different places to freedive, and having to pack my diving gear so many times when heading out to the sea, I made a freediving pack list at some point to ensure I don’t forget any important equipment. Who said freediving doesn’t need gear… There are so many little pieces that it’s easy to forget one while packing.
My pack list is one big list, but I split the items into three categories below so that you can see what are essentials and what are nice-to-haves, and what are specific for boat trips. The ones in brackets might be relevant for certain types of trips or types of diving, for instance line diving, or spearfishing.
I started freediving in 2021, and I didn’t buy all the equipments from the beginning. But I quickly learned some lessons the hard way not having my own equipment... If you’d like me to write about what equipments to consider first for beginners, please shoot me a message.
Are you a seasoned pro freediver or looking to start your journey into the mesmerizing world beneath the surface? Take my Freediving Pack List as a source of inspiration, and curate your own list to ensure a smooth and exciting underwater escapade.
Essentials:
Wetsuit
Fins
Socks
Dive computer
Swimming cap
Mask
Snorkel
Weight belt (and weights)
Bikini
Flip flop
(Lanyard)
(Nose clip)
Nice-to-Have Additions:
Neck weight
GoPro/camera
Quick dry towel
Poncho
Thermal bottle
Snacks / a tupperware for snacks
Wetsuit glue
(Drone)
(Headband)
(Gloves)
(Rashguard)
Boat-Specific Gear:
Wind breaker
Thermo bottle with a drinking cup cap
Dry bag
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More details on a selection of my diving equipments:
Alchemy V3-30 carbon fins: Beautiful design. Powerful kicks. Light and mighty. I LOVE them! Also pretty happy with the simple yet meaningful custom design. What would you put on your fins if you could design your own? My fins have the c400 pockets. I like them, not so hard to put on like the c300. My usual shoe size is 39, I ordered C400 37-38. They turned out to be too big for barefoot but perfect with 1.5mm socks. I always wear socks with them. I chose the medium soft blades. Alchemy did a video on comparing the different stiffness if you are not sure.
Hydra socks: I love these socks! I had looked for 1.5mm socks for a long time, and tried a few different ones but these are the best. They have the perfect length - not so long like most of other neoprene socks that would bundle up under the wetsuit pants, and not too short so they protect the back of my heels from the fins foot pockets perfectly. They are also beautiful (what can I say, I love beautifully designed things!) They come in 1.5mm and 3mm, and I use Size 0 EUR35-36 (my usual shoe size is EUR 39, I also have another pair in Size 1 EUR 37-38 and they become slightly too big after wearing for a while as they are stretchy.)
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FreeXperience lanyard: My favourite lanyard! Super easy to clip and unclip with a big and lightweight carabiner. The metal line is wrapped in green plastic which is high viz and nicer to touch. It’s also softer than many other metal lines (including the popular Octopus one) so it doesn’t curl up in an awkward way (this is the main reason why I love it - I noticed that it actually affects my FIM dives a little bit when I use other lanyards!) The wrist velcro is just the right width and easy to handle. I’ve tried many other lanyards and I haven’t found another one that is quite as nice in one or multiple aspects mentioned above.
Alchemy neck weight: So many times I forgot to take it off after a freediving session - that should tell you how comfortable and natural it feels on the neck. I particularly love how easy it is to handle it. You can put it on and take it off with one hand, easily bend it into any shape that is comfortable for your neck. It looks so nice too! They come in different sizes and weights. The one I have is 40cm 1.23kg in white. I also used to have another one in black that is 1.4kg, the heaviest of the 40cm. I haven’t had a chance to try the Heavy weight one yet.
Poncho: I love my microfibre poncho!!! Lightweight, fast drying, convenient, comfortable and super cool design! What’s not to love!? You can always see me walking around in it after a dive when I am too lazy to change.
Microfibre towel: Lightweight, fast drying and nice design are the main features. There are so many things to carry so I want to save as much weight as possible while not compromising what I need the equipments to do. I just realised that my microfibre towel is the same brand as my poncho. I guess they make some nice designs.
Wetsuit: Polosub 5.5mm and 3.5mm custom-made Forza Tres. Warm! Tough! Pretty! (Can’t believe I am saying a wetsuit is pretty but honestly these are probably one of the better ones I’ve seen…) They are open cell and smoothskin with a sandwich later in between - hence the warm and tough characteristics. I’ve been using them for more than a year and they are still in great conditions (I am clumsy and am not very gentle with them). I always struggle getting in and out of the 5.5 though because it’s not extremely stretchy. But it keeps me warm!!! (And I am usually always cold.) So it’s a compromise I am willing to accept as I get cold so easily!! The 3.5 unfortunately is slightly too big in a few places despite being custom made, and I get water in the suit, so it’s not ideal and I get cold sometimes. But all in all still a good suit. I communicated with Polosub and I think if you send it back they would alter it for you, but I was travelling so the comms dropped at some point. I heard quite a few cases where custom-made suits didn’t fit super well, not just with Polosub but also Elios, two of the top wetsuit brands in Italy. I’m not sure what’s the best way to avoid it, since the measurements I sent were almost identical yet one suit was very tight (almost too tight) and the other is a bit loose. I heard some people fly to Italy to get measured there. I guess you could make a wetsuit-making road trip out of it! I did try a Mares Instinct suit when I just got started - this was also not too bad for a non-custom suit. If you’re after a standard suit, this is an option. I also tried Hydra’s Queen 3mm and Ultimate 1.5mm. They are lined inside (so easy to put on without the need of soupy water) and smoothskin outside (so good hydrodynamic effect). I like them, and the Queen looks really nice and fits well, while the Ultimate has very soft neoprene. However I find myself prefer open cell suits, since they are warmer and more comfy on the skin. I also find the fit of my custom suits is better (understandably) compared to the standard suits. I use the Ultimate 1.5mm a few times in the pool, and it’s the perfect thickness and feels great to glide in the water.
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Octopus nose clip: I bought this after trying it during a dive session in Dahab. I strongly recommend trying nose clips during dives (or at least with wet nose) before buying them. I tried quite a few nose clips before and they all work alright dry but started slipping away as soon as I tried them in water. This one is big and ugly but it works! Everyone looks silly with a noseclip anyway, right? (To be honest after diving with it for a year I am so used to it now and even start to find it beautiful…!)
Mask: Mask is also something that I tried many different ones. With my flat asian face and nose, it’s hard to find masks that fits well. The first mask I owned was Omer Alien mask - a second hand mask from my first instructor Jonathan. It worked most of the time, but it’s not super low volume. The second one I bought was Mares Tana, after trying one in Dominica. It was already a bit difficult to find them online, and some of the ones listed have ridiculously high prices - I wonder if it’s because they stopped producing them? But I managed to find one with reasonable price so got it. I like Mares Tana more than Omer Alien because the nose part of the silicon is softer, and it takes less effort to pinch when equalising. It also fits quite well, seals well, and has lower volume. So Asian divers out there, if you are struggling to find a mask, you can try these ones.
Alchemy Weight belt: I mostly use the 5mm one which I bought two years ago. I like the level of elasticity of them - perfect for pulling the weights down to the right position without too much effort or discomfort. Some other belts I tried before were very inelastic which makes it quite difficult and uncomfortable to pull down to the hip. I do lose it (weight belt come off my hip to my waist) sometimes though because of the 5mm buckle design being individual holes (Marseillaise buckle). They also have the 3mm one that allows it to lock anywhere (Cam buckle).
Dive computer: I’ve used three dive computers for freediving: Suunto Zoop Novo, Suunto D5, and Suunto D4f. I had Zoop Novo as a scuba dive computer, and used it briefly for freediving when I started. It was very big and definitely not hydrodynamic, so I got a D5 a few months later. I really like some of the features of D5, but really don’t like some others (or the lack of). The colour interface is nice. I like the app that syncs the data and shows the diving profile (and lets you add a photo for the dive etc). But it’s difficult to use the timer function, the watch interface switch is somewhat inconvenient (you can create your own watch face to make it slightly easier), and it’s more difficult than necessary to see some of the stats. The app doesn’t allow much interactivity or custom analytics, and the data is hard to export - as an analytics person this is very frustrating. Many friends said the decade-old d4i has much better functionality than d5 in some areas, and I thought the same about the Zoop Novo. Not sure why Suunto would take away some of the really good features that were in older models… Also D5 is known to have issue logging the start of a dive - it needs certain depth to trigger a dive, which made it not useful in a pool training. After seeing some of the Garmin descent computers, I thought that might be the next dive computer to try. More recently I bought a D4f as my spare dive computer to put in the hood, so that I can be sure to hear the alarms during a competition/deep dive.
Fin bag: For a long time I didn’t have a fin bag, so I was walking through airports holding my carbon fins in my arms like a new born baby. Then I got an Alchemy standard fin bag last year which I’ve been using since. It’s light weight and it makes travelling with fins much easier. I also like that it can be folded into a small piece and stored away in my backpack - I do this sometimes so that airline ground staff don’t ask me to check in my “extra bag” (top tip!).
Thermal bottle: I always carry a thermal bottle with me when travelling. The vacuum insulation keeps the cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot. More sustainable and helps you stay hydrated! I have a collection of thermal bottles from all sorts of conferences and company swags, but the Alchemy bottle is the only one that is large volume - a whole 750ml :)
If you’d like me to write about any other gears, please leave a comment or drop me a message! If this helps you in any way, please let me know!
Happy diving!
