Freediving
A while ago I saw this documentary about free diving animals. That is, animal which hold their breath to swim underwater, as opposed to fish etc. which breath underwater. This was presented by a woman called Tanya Streeter, she seemed like just a random pretty, well spoken TV presenter, but it turned out she is a world class free diver too.
Cut for size...
The program was really amazing because, unlike scuba diving where the diver is this big, bulky, unnatural looking thing which regularly spews out a stream of noisy bubble every time you breath, a free diver, on the other hand, can swim around with the animals silently and naturally almost as one of them.
It's really amazing seeing a freediver like Tanya Streeter, she seems so totally at home underwater. Freedivers don't come dashing to the surface gasping for air, it's all very meditative and peaceful. The animals were all very cool, the sea lions especially, and seeing Tanya swimming around really made me wish I could give freediving a go.
However, in the next few days I totally forgot about it.
Then, much later, I was talking to a friend and the subject came up again. I got more and more into it and tracked down a reasonably local course and hope to take freediving up soon. My friend bought me a freediving book signed by the author too (who happens to be the person I'll be learning from) and reading it just enthralls me even more. It's a freediving diary by this very hippie like freedive, how she began, her spiritual development, over coming fears etc. fascinating reading and some really beautiful photos too.
Just to give some perspective, this isn't just hyped snorkeling. In the early 1900s they thought the human body would die unprotected below 30m, then freedivers swam deeper. Then scientists thought the thorax would implode below 50m, then freedivers swam deeper. Freedivers tried free dives (self powered dives) deeper and deeper, the record being 93m deep. The Tanya Streeter came along and did a "no limits" dive, which is where you're pulled down by a hydrodynamic sled and rise to the surface using a gas balloon, down to 160m deep. This was totally insane at the time, but in the following years people have pushed it further and further up to a current record of around 200m.
It turns out that the human body is more adaptable than ever realised. Blood flow to the limbs pretty much stops and blood moves out of them into your core. This not only prevents spontaneous implosion but boosts the amount of oxygen available to your brain by more than 10%, allowing for ever deeper diving. There's bound to be a limit somewhere, but it hasn't been found yet, I guess they'll keep going deeper till someones head pops...
At these depths scary things start to happen, like a heart rate of 6 beats per minute, narcosis and many other weird side effects, including, with time, "a more flexible rib cage" but still, it's very cool.
Unfortunately, the instructor is apparently so spaced out most of the time that she keeps forgetting to email me details back about the courses, but I will persist and soon I'll hopefully be able to hold my breath for 7 minutes straight...
Cut for size...
The program was really amazing because, unlike scuba diving where the diver is this big, bulky, unnatural looking thing which regularly spews out a stream of noisy bubble every time you breath, a free diver, on the other hand, can swim around with the animals silently and naturally almost as one of them.
It's really amazing seeing a freediver like Tanya Streeter, she seems so totally at home underwater. Freedivers don't come dashing to the surface gasping for air, it's all very meditative and peaceful. The animals were all very cool, the sea lions especially, and seeing Tanya swimming around really made me wish I could give freediving a go.
However, in the next few days I totally forgot about it.
Then, much later, I was talking to a friend and the subject came up again. I got more and more into it and tracked down a reasonably local course and hope to take freediving up soon. My friend bought me a freediving book signed by the author too (who happens to be the person I'll be learning from) and reading it just enthralls me even more. It's a freediving diary by this very hippie like freedive, how she began, her spiritual development, over coming fears etc. fascinating reading and some really beautiful photos too.
Just to give some perspective, this isn't just hyped snorkeling. In the early 1900s they thought the human body would die unprotected below 30m, then freedivers swam deeper. Then scientists thought the thorax would implode below 50m, then freedivers swam deeper. Freedivers tried free dives (self powered dives) deeper and deeper, the record being 93m deep. The Tanya Streeter came along and did a "no limits" dive, which is where you're pulled down by a hydrodynamic sled and rise to the surface using a gas balloon, down to 160m deep. This was totally insane at the time, but in the following years people have pushed it further and further up to a current record of around 200m.
It turns out that the human body is more adaptable than ever realised. Blood flow to the limbs pretty much stops and blood moves out of them into your core. This not only prevents spontaneous implosion but boosts the amount of oxygen available to your brain by more than 10%, allowing for ever deeper diving. There's bound to be a limit somewhere, but it hasn't been found yet, I guess they'll keep going deeper till someones head pops...
At these depths scary things start to happen, like a heart rate of 6 beats per minute, narcosis and many other weird side effects, including, with time, "a more flexible rib cage" but still, it's very cool.
Unfortunately, the instructor is apparently so spaced out most of the time that she keeps forgetting to email me details back about the courses, but I will persist and soon I'll hopefully be able to hold my breath for 7 minutes straight...