A Bit of DIY

Like most girls, I occasionally enjoy a bit of shopping on a Saturday afternoon.

A typical shopping list might look like this:

1 iced caramel latte
1 new book
Assorted nice-smelling things from Superdrug
1 pair of sensible shoes for work 1 pair of utterly impractical shoes for an unspecified occasion


This was my shopping list for today:

1 roll of Duct Tape
50cm nylon webbing
1 Plastic snap clip
4 cable ties
2kg lead shot
1 inner tube for a mountain bike tyre


Can you guess what it is for yet? Neither could the guy in B&Q when I read it to him (to be quite honest, he looked a bit scared).

In fact, the shopping list above contains all the components you need to make your own freediving neck weight. I explained in my last post how a neck weight helps to correct the alignment of the body in the water during dynamic apnea. The upper body is more buoyant than the lower body, especially with full lungs, so a weight around the neck creates a more horizontal profile. Since I start my training with London Freedivers this week and am starting my AIDA** with Saltfree at the weekend, I thought it best to be prepared. I'd used Mark's 2kg neck weight during my Introduction to Freediving course and it had worked well, so I decided to stick with this weight for now.

Having ticked most things off my list, I headed to Mike's Waterfront Warehouse to find the lead shot and cable ties. Mike's is the place I used to get a lot of my SCUBA kit - I even worked there at the weekends before I went to university. As usual, the staff were friendly and helpful, providing me with exactly what I needed - at a discount! They also kindly agreed to help me raise awareness of the MS Society by featuring the challenge on their website.

Now I reckon I'm pretty handy at a bit of DIY but I somehow missed half of Mark's instructions on how to make a neck weight. Luckily, another freediver posted an idiot-proof tutorial on their blog, so I was able to use that for guidance. Here are the before and after pics:





I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself, even if I will be fishing lead shot out of the hoover for the next couple of weeks...