I never liked free diving. I prefer an 30 to 45 minute air supply, WAY more comfortable, plus you can stay down and get stuff done, instead of constantly surfacing. Blacking out from free diving is a real risk.
In a way the brevity of the dive is what makes the experience so special to me. Each time I go back down I have the sense that every moment counts, I need to be connected to the experience, and my senses take in every detail. I'm truly in it. The effort, the temperance, the calming of my nerves, the focus on the task is all so fulfilling and worth it.
I'm not saying scuba can't be the same for someone. For me, though, this is how I connect with my environment and feel truly present. It's wonderful. I couldn't achieve it with scuba.
It's a totally different practice. I do both and... they are both calm and stressful in difference ways :
- for SCUBA you NEED to trust your equipment. You have to check and still be ready to handle equipment failures
- for freediving you NEED to understand your physiology and your limits
- for SCUBA you do have time which also means you "waste" quite a bit but simply wondering and wandering around, in freediving you must be in the moment
- you can freedive anywhere, just take your swimsuit and that's it... yet in practice not so many places are interesting or enjoyable, depending on your practice. You can SCUBA also pretty much anywhere but you better know the closest barotrauma chamber and at the very least a compressor to fill up your tanks.
- blackout is definitely dangerous but I wouldn't be surprised if it's statistically less risky than embolism. If you dart up in SCUBA well you better hope the bubbles are just in right place.
So... I'm not saying one is better than the other in terms of safety or comfort, simply that they are quite different and enjoyable differently.
I find it very quiet and calm compared to when I'm near scuba divers - I can often hear them from 50+m away. I've never tried scuba myself though, so I can't directly compare them
I'm not saying scuba can't be the same for someone. For me, though, this is how I connect with my environment and feel truly present. It's wonderful. I couldn't achieve it with scuba.