Free Diving
:: Monday, February 28th, 2005 @ 1:25:19 am
:: Tags: General
While I was visiting Jim Watt last week in Kona, I discovered that I really like free-diving. We were out on his boat for eight to ten hours at a time, and would occasionally moor up at a local reef and hop in the water, just to take a break from what we call, “expedition mode.”
I’ve never really free-dived just for the sake of free-diving. Normally, I have my camera with me, which both prevents me from both seeing how deep I can go and from focusing on the actual act of diving. In the Bahamas, it’s common to have to dive down twenty-five feet or so to photograph dolphins feeding in the sand, but as a photographer I would never think to ditch my camera and just go swimming. :)
This time, I decided to go in without my camera. I had my big free-diving fins with me (which I prefer for open-water work, even when using a camera), and after relaxing for a moment on the surface, I took a few large breaths of air and plunged downward, kicking with long, slow strokes. After descending down past twenty feet or so, the most amazing thing happened: I became engulfed in whalesong. It’s no secret that the wistful moans of humpback whales can be heard for hundreds of miles underwater, but these whales were probably just a few miles away — and there were many of them singing at the same time. To say that it was overwhelming is an understatement, and I repeated dived down just to immerse myself in its layered eerie-ness.
The reef floor was at 45′, and I made it down to that depth on my second dive. By my fifth dive, I could stay with my fingers stuck in the sand for more than ten seconds before heading back up to the surface.
It’s addictive! I’ve heard that most people can be taught to dive down to around 60′ in a single day, and from my experience, that seems pretty reasonable. Can’t wait to do it again. The problem is, you aren’t supposed to mix free-diving with scuba diving. Something about nitrogen bubbling up in your blood, blah blah blah. :)
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Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun - peaceful even. Especially in nice warm water :)
another reason for you to come to cayman .. dive tech have a great teamto teach freediving .. some of whom have been to worldwide competitions … I used to freedive everyday whilstworking for the semi submarine company, it is very serene. It takes you away from everything. I never really went below 40ft as that is the sand limit on our tours maybe 50ft, but i liked grabbing hold of some weight or dead coral or a tire and closing my eyes and relaxing until the urge to breath overwhelmed that. I have done a couple of minutes before, but i had a few days off drinking for that to happen. I have also dropped my scuba gear off the side of the boat without inflating it, luckily i was over sand and not the Cayman north wall which drops down to 6000ft. I freedived down to 70ft and truned my air on and breathed, lucky and stupid move really as there is little chance i would have made that back up without passing out and i had been diving all day but i was fairly confident i was going to make it, but that i do not advise. ;) i would love to freedive and photograph some big critters though, i have never tried that. I will mostly be sticking to my scuba though.
i just noticed you are doing bonaire shootout this year. I am sure i could do with some lessons now i have been out the game for 3 months.
giles — are you going to come to the shootout? :)
eric i wish i could .. but with me moving back to cayman money could be tight although for once I will be lucky with time off the summer is perfect for me. If there are any last minute cancellations that may be when I would be able to tell for sure. I would love to come though apart from meeting you and hearing your workflow talks and whatever else you let out of the bag now adays I would like to see how a shootout works and see how people teach uw digital photography as I did it myself a good 3 years ago but very basically as I too was learning as well. I am still learning how to use digital to the max as opposed to film .. so would like to but by the time I can commit (always the case) i imagine it will be full, i’d even like to just hang out near by while everyone else does the shootout !