Reckless divers risk their lives at Shellharbour, all for an Instagram post

Another experienced freediver has backed up those claims, explaining she was asked to freedive in a well-known sinkhole with someone who had "never even put a snorkel in his mouth before but who saw a beautiful picture and said 'I want to do that'."

Maxine McLaughlin, who is based in Shellharbour, fears a lack of education will result in a fatality if diving hopefuls continue trying to outshine each other on social media.

And with the sport booming in the pristine waters of the Illawarra since the COVID years, the lack of divers undertaking training before taking the plunge has her terrified.

"I want people to stop trying to do stuff they see on Instagram and be safe because more often than not they are out there on their own - and that's dangerous enough to start with," Ms McLaughlin, from the Shellharbour-based Adventure Free Divers, said.

The No.1 rule of freediving, which is simply diving without the use of breathing equipment, is to dive with a buddy.

But even the simplest of safety measures is often ignored as inexperienced divers make the most of the Bass Point Reserve, another experienced diver says.

Chrissy Pignataro, who also has years of experience and accreditation behind her, holds the same fears.

"It scares me," she said, "and amazes me at the same time.

"People have actually told me they have watched YouTube videos so are OK to dive alone."

As Ms McLaughlin said: "You're not going to go climb Everest by yourself. You're going to do some training beforehand.

"I've been now teaching for the last six years and I've been diving for longer than that and even in that time ... I've seen a lot of changes.

"When I was first diving there were a lot of blackouts, it was quite a normal thing," she said.

"But through a bit of research a bit of understanding the community growing and learning, there are way fewer blackouts now than ever."

Blackouts and hypoxic fits are the two biggest risk factors for freedivers. Both are caused by low oxygen levels in the body.

Basic training gives rookie divers an understanding of how to avoid both.

The pair fully understand the lure of the water and welcome the sport's popularity spike.

So much so that Ms McLaughlin, who became Australia's first female Professional Association of Diving Instructor (PADI) trainer, also wants the industry to look inward.

"You can become an instructor quite fast. You can do your first freediving course and if you are really solid in the water, you can become an instructor within a year.

"But would that necessarily be someone that you would want to dive with and train with?" she asked rhetorically.

Perhaps, Ms McLaughlin suggested, the rush to "normalise" is the sport has come at a cost.

"Because freediving has been deemed as this dangerous adrenaline sport for so long that maybe we're moving away from the emphasis of safety to make it a bit more normal and the safety message is getting lost in translation a little bit."

If the industry took a more vigilant to the "quality management" of its trainers, she said, some of these problems would be overcome.

Several companies in the Illawarra and on the South Coast offer training courses.

"For about $600 and two days of training you can save your own life," Ms Pignatro said.

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