# @akimapnea on Instagram - **Type:** Video - **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdUkYdFs9EV - **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70447951-akimapnea-instagram - **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/20f99749aa.jpg - **Posted:** 2026-09-15T20:34:48.000+00:00 - **Account Owner:** Akim Adhari (@akimapnea) β€” https://gondola.cc/akimapnea ## Caption 🌊 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 additional weight to assist the descent while conserving energy. Different equipment. Different objectives. But the principle is thousands of years old: βš“ Let gravity take you down. 🧘 Save your energy. πŸ‘‚ Focus on equalization. 🌊 Become comfortable with depth. Kyle is using that same basic principle here to descend toward a wreck at 43 meters for spearfishing but he did 56 m already Sometimes what looks like a modern training technique is actually part of a very old relationship between humans and the sea. #freediving #apnea #spearfishing #spearfishing_reviews #freediver ## Stats - **Views:** 33,294 - **Likes:** 671 - **Shares:** 0 - **Comments:** 23 ## Tags apnea, freediver, spearfishing_reviews, freediving, spearfishing --- Copyright (c) Gondola