Hi Matt,
I think with 1-2 months of training a few times a week you would easily get back to where you were. I had over a year off with no training and didn't really lose that much. The CO2 tolerance seems to be the worst after a break so everything feels hard, ie early contractions but actual breathold times if you can push shouldn't be that bad. ie your urge to breathe may come much earlier but doesn't mean that your limits are reduced by the same amount. I suspect your 3min static was limited by your comfort rather then really getting low on oxygen.
Thing is with freediving you are training the brain more then the body really. You don't loose this so much compared to say fitness when you stop exercising. I think performance is mostly about technique (brain - conscious and sub conscious), then the dive reflex (brain - sub conscious & lower level brain function) then possible body adaptations. Of course some may disagree
Fitness is a seperate thing, if you were really unfit it would make your dynamics & depth diving worse but seems to have little to no impact on statics. For depth diving there is more physical adaptation ie ears, chest flexibility so that does require more time spent at depth and adapting to it.
If you do some dry static training at least 3 times a week you should be doing some good statics within a month or so. Probably be best to combine some CO2 tables, exhale statics (quick & easy) as well as normal statics. . Best 1st thing in the morning, or late at night at least 2 hours after eating. With CO2 tables you need to do them 2-3 times a week initially to get some benefit from it.
Cheers,
Wal
