Before you spearfish — this comes first
- Get proper instruction before you spearfish. A recognised freediving or spearfishing course teaches the things that actually kill people in this sport, and reading about them is not the same as being taught them.
- Dive with a buddy, and dive one up, one down — one diver in the water, one on the surface watching them, every dive. A breath-hold blackout is silent and gives no warning; a watching buddy is the difference between an incident and a fatality.
- Stay inside your own training and experience. Depth and breath-hold times are personal, they change day to day, and nobody else's numbers apply to you.
- Understand the conditions before you enter the water: visibility, current, swell, tide, boat traffic and your exit. Conditions decide whether a dive is reasonable far more often than skill does.
- Use equipment you have been shown how to use, check it before every session, and be visible — a marked float and line are how boat traffic knows you are there.
- Never extend a dive for a fish. No catch is worth pushing a breath-hold, and the urge to take one more second is exactly what a blackout feels like from the inside — which is to say, like nothing at all.
Wetsuits, fins and masks for spearfishing
Explainer · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
Freediving equipment is built for a single breath: low-volume masks that waste less air to equalise, long fins that move water efficiently, and suits that trade convenience for warmth and camouflage.
Safety
Hypothermia — Can cause injury needing treatment
Inadequate thermal protection degrades judgement, shortens breath-hold and accelerates fatigue, contributing to incidents recorded as something else.
What reduces it: Choose suit thickness for the water and the duration actually spent in it rather than for the season, and include a hood in cold water.
Spearfishing equipment looks like diving equipment and is designed against a different constraint. A scuba diver has air to spare; a breath-hold diver has one breath, and every piece of kit is judged by what it costs from it.
That produces three visible differences. Masks are low-volume, because the air inside a mask must be equalised from the lungs during descent and a large mask wastes it. Fins are long and relatively soft, because efficiency over a whole dive matters more than acceleration. Suits are usually two-piece with a hood, often open-cell inside for warmth and fit, and frequently camouflaged.
The open-cell suit is the one that surprises newcomers: it must be lubricated to put on, tears easily, and is markedly warmer and better fitting than the alternative. That trade — fragility and inconvenience for warmth — is characteristic of the discipline.
Why warmth is a safety subject
Cold degrades judgement, reduces breath-hold, and accelerates fatigue, which means an inadequate suit is not merely uncomfortable but a contributor to the failures on the rest of this section.
A diver who is cold shortens surface intervals to keep moving, makes poorer decisions about conditions, and is more likely to push an exit that should have been abandoned. Those are the mechanisms by which cold produces incidents that get recorded as something else.
Suit thickness is chosen for the water rather than for the season, and for the duration actually spent in it. A diver in the water for three hours needs more than the same diver in for forty minutes.
Hoods matter disproportionately because of heat loss from the head, and because they reduce the ice-cream headache effect that shortens dives in cold water.
Practitioner consensus
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Guidance on thermal protection, cold exposure and its effect on breath-hold performance and judgement.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving guidance on thermal protection and cold-water exposure.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Fit, and the equipment that must not fail
A mask that leaks continuously ends a dive, and a mask that fits properly is worth more than any optical specification.
Fins are the largest single influence on how far a diver can comfortably cover, and long blades reward technique rather than strength — which is one of several reasons instruction changes outcomes more than equipment does.
The items that must not fail are the ones with safety consequences: the weight belt release, the cutting tool and the float line. Those are checked before every entry, not periodically.
A snorkel is removed from the mouth during a dive, which is standard practice for a reason: a snorkel in the mouth of an unconscious diver at the surface admits water.
Authoritative guidance
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Guidance on equipment checks, snorkel removal during descent and the items with direct safety consequence.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where to go next
Where it matters
- SpearfishingThe diving half of the kit, which is the half that decides whether a diver surfaces and floats.
- Freediving for spearfishingFreediving equipment differs from scuba equipment by design.
- Shore divingShore diving determines much of what a diver can carry.
What these connections rest on (3)
Authoritative guidance — 3 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Spearfishing
A membership assertion rather than a topical one: this record teaches the discipline or its equipment, so the discipline's mandatory safety posture applies to it.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing as a defined discipline with its own technical, equipment and safety standards, set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That the safety requirements of breath-hold diving apply across the discipline rather than to particular equipment or techniques within it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Suit, fins and mask are chosen against a single breath rather than a tank.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Suit, fins and mask are chosen against a single breath rather than a tank.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Freediving for spearfishing
Freediving equipment differs from scuba equipment by design.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Freediving equipment differs from scuba equipment by design.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Shore diving
Shore diving determines much of what a diver can carry.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diver safety guidance underlying this connection. Shore diving determines much of what a diver can carry.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Related reading
- A pre-dive safety checklistBands, wishbone, shaft, line, float, belt and knife — the components whose failure is discovered at the worst moment.
- Buoyancy that feels wrongA new or thicker suit changes buoyancy, so weighting is re-checked whenever the suit or the water changes.
- Cold hands, feet and crampFoot pockets sized without socks are too tight with them, which causes both cold feet and cramp.
- Equalisation, and the injuries that follow forcing itMask squeeze is an equalisation failure too, and it is the one a beginner meets first.
- Mask fogging, leaking and squeezeThree different problems with three different causes, only one of which has a safety consequence.
- Weighting, and the margin that keeps you at the surfaceA belt that cannot be released with one hand under load is a hazard rather than equipment.
What these connections rest on (6)
Authoritative guidance — 6 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
A pre-dive safety checklist
The list is assembled from documented failures.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on pre-dive checks, buddy checks and equipment verification.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Buoyancy that feels wrong
What triggers a re-check.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving education on buoyancy checking in water and weighting for positive surface buoyancy.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Cold hands, feet and cramp
An equipment cause of a physiological problem.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance on cold water immersion, its progression and its effect on capability and judgement.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Equalisation, and the injuries that follow forcing it
Equipment participates in the pressure system.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving medicine guidance on ear and sinus barotrauma and on ceasing descent when equalisation fails.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Mask fogging, leaking and squeeze
The equipment record and its commonest complaint.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment practice including mask fit, volume and equalisation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Weighting, and the margin that keeps you at the surface
Ditchability is an equipment property with a safety function.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving education on buoyancy checking and weighting for positive surface buoyancy.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How this compares
- Long fins, and what blade stiffness doesA long blade moves more water per kick at lower cadence, which uses less oxygen for the same distance.
- Low-volume masks, and why volume mattersAir spent equalising a mask comes from the one breath the diver has.
- Snorkels, gloves, socks and hoodsThe snorkel is removed on descent, because an open tube to the airway is a hazard in a blackout.
- Spearfishing equipment, and what each item is forFreediving kit is the foundation; the gun is the part added on top of it.
- Spearfishing wetsuits: open cell and closed cellOpen-cell neoprene seals to skin and is warmer, more fragile and harder to put on.
- What order to buy equipment inMask, fins, suit, weights, float and knife before the gun, because each is a prerequisite or safety equipment.
What these connections rest on (6)
Authoritative guidance — 6 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Long fins, and what blade stiffness does
Efficiency is oxygen, which makes fins safety-adjacent.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including fin design and efficiency.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Low-volume masks, and why volume matters
The reason freediving masks are a distinct category.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including mask volume and equalisation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Snorkels, gloves, socks and hoods
A practice that looks like fussiness and is not.
- AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including snorkel practice and thermal protection.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Spearfishing equipment, and what each item is for
The two equipment sets overlap almost entirely below the gun.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving equipment and safety guidance including exposure protection and surface marking.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Spearfishing wetsuits: open cell and closed cell
The equipment record and the thermal reasoning behind the choice.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance on cold water and its effects on the body and on judgement.States this directlyPassage read and verified
What order to buy equipment in
The equipment record and the sequencing decision around it.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving equipment guidance including exposure protection, weighting and surface marking.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment guidance including thermal protection and pre-dive checks.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.