Freediving
Posted: Wednesday, 31 October 2007 |
Freediving is something I have always felt drawn to. As a child my mum used to take me swimming every friday afternoon in the local pool and somehow i learned to swim under the water before i could make headway above it. Years later this led to me learning to scuba dive in that very same pool. The irony was never lost on me as i spent those happy hours practicing in the clear warm water.
A few years ago i got the bends, a combination of factors meant that the nitrogen in my blood was not down to a safe level and when i surfaced i developed DCI - Decompression Illness. After this i needed tests on my heart as if you have a hole in the septum of the heart (one in four people have, which is scary) this can allow bubbles to pass and result in the bends. The long wait, over six months for this test meant i was unable to dive, something which really destroyed me. Diving for some of us is far more than a sport we do at weekends, it becomes a part of our identity and suddenly i had lost this.
A friend of mine, Mark, could see how sad i was becoming, that i was losing sight of what i was waiting for. So one wet and windy day in January we headed to St Abbs to see if i was any good. Entering the water in my semi-dry i did wonder if i was slightly mad, the freezing water gradually finding its way inside like fingers of ice. My first dives were shallow, 5m or so (15ft) but according to Mark I was a natural. Suddenly i was hooked, i had a new focus, something new to allow me back into the underwater world.
Successive weekends were spent honing my skills, getting it wrong and blacking out and generally getting very used to the huge long fins.
After moving to Orkney I was lucky enough to be given a monofin, as well as getting a custom made freediving semi-dry suit. I'm no Tanya Streeter, more a cross of Dawn French and Tanya, so i am very self conscious when i am dressed in the suit, but other than that, the only thing limiting my diving was me. A freediving training programme which runs through the PC helped me extend my breath hold times to over four minutes.
Eventually i became the first person (as far as we know) to freedive on the wrecks of the German Fleet.
A few years ago i got the bends, a combination of factors meant that the nitrogen in my blood was not down to a safe level and when i surfaced i developed DCI - Decompression Illness. After this i needed tests on my heart as if you have a hole in the septum of the heart (one in four people have, which is scary) this can allow bubbles to pass and result in the bends. The long wait, over six months for this test meant i was unable to dive, something which really destroyed me. Diving for some of us is far more than a sport we do at weekends, it becomes a part of our identity and suddenly i had lost this.
A friend of mine, Mark, could see how sad i was becoming, that i was losing sight of what i was waiting for. So one wet and windy day in January we headed to St Abbs to see if i was any good. Entering the water in my semi-dry i did wonder if i was slightly mad, the freezing water gradually finding its way inside like fingers of ice. My first dives were shallow, 5m or so (15ft) but according to Mark I was a natural. Suddenly i was hooked, i had a new focus, something new to allow me back into the underwater world.
Successive weekends were spent honing my skills, getting it wrong and blacking out and generally getting very used to the huge long fins.
After moving to Orkney I was lucky enough to be given a monofin, as well as getting a custom made freediving semi-dry suit. I'm no Tanya Streeter, more a cross of Dawn French and Tanya, so i am very self conscious when i am dressed in the suit, but other than that, the only thing limiting my diving was me. A freediving training programme which runs through the PC helped me extend my breath hold times to over four minutes.
Eventually i became the first person (as far as we know) to freedive on the wrecks of the German Fleet.
After coming to Orkney in May 2006 for 8 months, somehow I am still here. Running the MV Valkyrie in the summer and helping on the farm in winter is now my life. 
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