Introduction
There are many paths to discovering the beauty of the underwater world, including scuba diving, snorkelling and the lesser-known but exhilarating sport of free diving. SCUBA diving stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. I find scuba diving to be a fascinating and adventurous sport, enabling personal exploration of underwater depths for  extended periods of time. However, I must admit that I enjoy and admire the new sport of free diving much much more. Almost anyone who swims can learn this sport. For snorklers, just a breath and a kick begins the journey. What separates the well-trained freediver from the snorkler is that the freediver feels confident, relaxed even euphoric in water deeper than a few feet.

The key to free diving is the longer you can hold your breath, the longer you can enjoy the beauty, freedom and mobility of being underwater. You don't have to lug around heavy, bulky scuba gear, however you must make frequent trips up to the surface for air. With enough practice and training, experienced free-divers can stay up to several minutes underwater without having to come to the surface to breathe. After a summer of pool training with a buddy, I was able to remain underwater for three minutes and thirty-two seconds. However, my ultimate goal is not to have the max downtime, but to enjoy myself and explore the underwater world.

The rewards of freediving are as varied as the activities you can enjoy underwater - sightseeing, photography, underwater hockey, mono-fin diving and game gathering.

Brief History
The planet is approximately 71% water (97% salt, 3% fresh) in terms of surface area. While on land, life is generally confined to within a few thousand feet above sea level; however, life is found at all depths in the ocean. For example, scientists have discovered bacteria at a depth of 6.75 miles. While they appear similar to surface bacteria, these particular bacteria cannot survive at pressures less than 1000 atmospheres (the pressure at sea level is 1 atmosphere). It is estimated that 4/5 of all living things exist in the ocean.

I believe it is a basic human drive to explore life and to further discover the extent of the underwater world. Evidence exists that points to the fact that people have been diving in the oceans for a long time. Some of the earliest diving was done in the Aegean Sea area to harvest sponges from the ocean floor. Aboriginal North Australian wall paintings depict men swimming with spears and strings of fish. The original inhabitants of the Bahamas were accomplished spearfishers and pearl divers. The Greeks used divers in naval warfare. The Cretan civilization were also skilled free divers, collecting murex shells for their imperial purple dye. Archaeological evidence shows that natural diving was done off the shores of Korea and Southern Japan before the 4th century. Originally, the diving was for pearls, but soon developed into a source for food. Modern female divers from Korea and Japan, called Ama divers, harvest shellfish and edible seaweed from the ocean floor.