I am learning to freedive — this is why.

I am floating in the middle of the deep blue. My eyes are closed and I am holding on to a buoy. I just finished exhaling the last breath from my 5-minute breathe-up and I am taking two relaxed breaths before taking in a full lung of air.

Just before I do that, I find the line(rope) hanging below the buoy with my right hand and let go with my left one, tilting my body slightly backwards. I start sucking in the air for my final breath; controlling the flow with my mouth that is in an o-shape. First, I breathe in with my belly using my diaphragm to pull the air in and then smoothly switch over to my chest once the belly is full. Only thing I am thinking about is my breath. My lungs are full. I seal my mouth, swallow once while placing my left hand to my nose pinching it close. My eyes are still closed — I am fully relaxed.

The way down

I push air into my middle ears through the Eustachian tubes by lifting the back of my tongue up in order to put some positive pressure on the ear drums… (This is called Frenzel equalisation. If I don’t equalise, I’d burst my eardrums on the way down which would be less than ideal.)

I do that while pulling myself under the water with my right hand... head first. My eyes still closed; my head slightly pointed to my chest; spine is straight.

I extend my left hand in front and place it on the line — I feel the line passing through my palm as I pull with the right one. The thought in my mind has shifted — I don’t think about breathing or holding my breath. Only thing I think about is how to pull myself down the line. I release the right hand as I have extended it fully and grab onto the rope with the left one and start pulling while moving my right hand to my nose to equalise. This continues to the bottom — pulling with one, equalising with the other hand.

12 meters depth

This is where I become negatively buoyant — my lungs are less than half the size that they were on the surface as the pressure of the water is compressing my body; there is no more force that would counterbalance my own weight plus the 4 kilograms of led wights on my hips.

So pulling myself down becomes easier and easier. I open my eyes and look at the yellow rope passing by my face. I am having some trouble equalising my right ear. I just take it a little slower — there is no rush. I close my eyes again; I feel relaxed.

18 meters

I feel my diving mask sucking into my face as the air inside the mask gets compressed to a point that it’s uncomfortable. With the next equalisation I let some of my air into the mask through the nose to counteract the suction effect… but not too much that s**t is f**king precious down here. All good, I carry on.

21 meters

I feel my hand hitting against something solid. I open up my eyes.

These are the weights hanging at the end of the line — I have reached my maximum depth. At this point my lungs are compressed to a volume that is more than 3 times smaller than they were on the surface.

I let my body fall down while holding on to the end of the line. I look around to see if I can spot a fish or two and give my instructor a hand sign that everything is OK. I close my eyes again*.

The way up

I start pulling myself up the rope now. I aim to be as energy efficient as I can by gliding through the water extending one hand followed by another. Feeling the line passing through the palm with the hand extended upwards until the movement stops and then start pulling with it. I just have to repeat this until the surface — no need to equalise on the way up as the air can escape the middle ear way easier than it can get into it.

I feel as graceful as Maddie Sparkle while the water is passing through my hair and face. I never look up — the head is always pointed a little downwards, with the spine straight.

It get’s easier as I near the surface — there is a micro-grin on my face. It has been there for the most of the way up.

The surface

I reach the buoy with my hand and emerge beside it. I let the air out of my lungs while grabbing onto the buoy.

I then take a fast breath in, followed by passively letting the air out again. I do this 5 times to recover the oxygen levels in my body and then give my instructor a big OK hand-sign followed by a burst of laughter and a big high five — this is the deepest I have ever been on a single breath of air.

Of course on the buoy next to me there is a hairy German dude and a Californian fisherman with a kick-ass moustache diving to 50 meters.

WTF just happened?

What I just described was the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline in the sport of freediving… Also, the 3rd day of my beginners free diving course on the island of Utila in the Caribbean. I’ll stay here for another month to learn how to freedive.

*There is no reason to keep the eyes closed — I just enjoy it this way.

The why

“You are killing your brain cells.”
“This is too dangerous — why do you do it?”

These are the most common questions/worries that I have received from my friends and family.

The truth is that I don’t do it in order to “find my limits” in any way. Far from it. I don’t care how deep I go nor how many minutes I can hold my breath. I know that I’ll never reach the level of William Trubridge anyway. I train in a safe environment, under the guidance of some of the best in the world; always staying in the limits of my capabilities and hence, I’ll never push myself to a point where my brain is deprived of oxygen for them cells to die.

I do it because what I described up there is one of the strongest sensations I have ever experienced — being able to learn how to control my mind, understand my body and focus… Growing old without experiencing things like this is dangerous.

Not to mention that it is really f**king cool.