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Early humans started hunting fish as a food source many centuries BC, even if they didn't dive.
This early Greek painting shows a fish shop in Sicily, around 400 BC. The fish monger cuts up two large bluefin tunas.
Aristotle describes the tuna hunt with harpoons and primitive nets in the straits of Sicily.
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Freediving in modern times started in Southern California, and specifically in LaJolla. Some of the
early dive gear was home made, like the ones shown below, on display at the Museum of Freediving History.
It is believed that Californians witnessed freedivers in the Pacific Islands and brought the sport
back to the US. Their gear were home-made, pilot-like goggles, garden hose snorkels, and crude spears.
The images above show some of the early gear of the pioneers in the sport. These are found in the Museum
of Freediving in Huntington Beach, California.
Guy Gilpatrick, a Californian, brought the sport to France. His book "the compleat goggler" chronicles his
first impressions of freediving and spearing fish in the Mediterranean.
Shortly after, European divers like Dumas and Cousteau got into the sport, and it was then all history.
In the post-war years the first dive gear became commercially manufactured, like dive masks, rubber
suits, and fins. Some of the legends of the sport like Al Schneppershoff below, got started in spearfishing and the sport
witnessed tremendous growth and popularity.
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