🌊 VARIABLE WEIGHT ISN’T MODERN. Long before freediving became a sport, Greek sponge divers were already using the principle of variable weight. The technique was called Skandalopetra. For centuries, sponge fishermen in the Greek islands used a heavy stone attached to a rope to descend rapidly toward the seabed. Instead of wasting energy swimming down, they let the weight and gravity do the work. Once at depth, they collected sponges before being assisted back toward the surface through the rope system. No fins. No dive computers. No modern equipment. Just breath-hold, a stone, a rope and an extraordinary understanding of the sea. One of the most famous examples happened in 1913, when Greek sponge diver Stathis Chantzis descended to around 83 meters while helping recover the lost anchor of the Italian ship Regina Margherita. His dive is often described as one of the earliest documented depth records in freediving. Today we call the modern discipline Variable Weight: using add...