My daughter mentioned that she would like a "Freediving Watch" for Christmas. I started researching what those are, and found that this is a complex subject. So I was hoping for some advice (if anyone here is into freediving).

I guess my first question after looking at some of this stuff is, "Should I even be trying to research this on my own and buy something, or should I just tell her to go find what she wants and I'll pay for it?" Any advice on that question, or on specific watches to look at, recommendations, personal experience, etc. would be appreciated.

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Background: While my daughter is new to freediving (only a few months experience in that sport), she is not new to SCUBA diving. She's been doing that for years and has a bunch of certifications - currently certified at the instructor level. Also, her job is a commercial SCUBA diver in Hawaii. She has thousands of dives under her belt (she averages 4 dives every day at work - 5 days a week). She also already has a high end dive computer that she uses for SCUBA.

My guess is she probably knows what she wants in this freediving watch, and I would be a fool to try to find and buy something for her with me not knowing anything about underwater gear. I hate a Christmas present that is a note saying "I'll buy this for you later, after you pick it out", but in this case, that may be the more prudent move for me to make. Freediving is something that she has only recently started pursuing, so if anybody has recommendations for that sub-specialty, I'd love to hear those. Also, if there is any gear - unique to freediving that my daughter would not already have for SCUBA - then that might be something else I'd look into for an additional gift.

Thanks in advance for any info! I have no idea how popular freediving is, so there may not be a freediver within ten thousand miles of this forum post. I'm just trolling for help, in case by pure luck someone here might just happen to be into the sport.

First, WOW!!!

Your daughter sounds so very impressive. You must be a proud papa!!

Second, I'll agree with you that your daughter should be actively involved in the selection of the proper watch.

I've found that my young adult kids know much better than me what they want and what they don't want. My son would very much rather have nothing than something he doesn't want.

Talk with her about it. It sounds like this is NOT the time/place for surprises.

I am not qualified to give advice on this subject but I am going to anyway. The most critical aspect of freediving is to be with a partner who is always aware of you as you are of them. The great risk is losing conciousness from low O2 before high CO2 makes you surface. This usually occurs with prolonged breathholding after hyperventilation. My ex-partner's best friend died like this on a luxury vacation in Virgin Gorda. Horrible tragedy and they had trouble getting the body back to the U.S. as bribes were demanded to facilitate it. That said- I second letting her pick it out.

I still worry about my daughter, but she is an adventurer and there is nothing much I can do about it. Her normal day job has her swimming among dozens of sharks all day. They are mostly 10 to 12 foot Galapagos sharks. Those are "friendly", but even these docile ones have teeth and you don't want to get on the wrong end of their chompers. She says this time of year is Tiger Shark time however. Now those I worry about. 18, sometimes 20 foot long, aggressive, and known man eaters. This time of year she'll have a couple of those come up to investigate her and her fellow divers up close every day. They will get caught in the nets sometimes, and one of my daughter's jobs is to free them (all done underwater). While they are lunging and twisting and in a frenzy to eat the fish behind the nets. Doesn't sound terribly safe to me.

I think many times, every time I would hope!, they have a tanked rescue diver with them when they are freediving for a new personal depth record. I suspect that "every time" is not the case, although I wish it was. My daughter said that 80 feet is easy, and she has time to hang around at that depth for a while before resurfacing. I believe she has passed 100 feet now, but I don't know how much farther. She is being trained by a freediving instructor, at least part of the time (I don't know the details).

Now you know why fathers have gray hair! Cheers...