The Other Half
Posted By Paul Kotik on 4 July 2005
My own experiment in relearning freediving will enter a new and dramatic phase in two weeks or so, when I do a Performance Freediving clinic as a student. I took a year off from freediving and all manner of other activities not involving a couch plus a book or a television set. I lived the Normal Life, the way the greater number of my fellow humans do. I moved not, when not absolutely neccesary. I grew a belly only slightly smaller than that of my Performance Freediving colleague on Grand Cayman, a few weeks before she gave birth to her gorgeous baby girl. Too bad her home was pulverized by the hurricane.
So now, nearly a year has gone by since I last set eyes on an ocean, although there is a very large one ( the Atlantic) 15 minutes away, and another ( the Gulf of Mexico) an hour or so in the other direction.
Freediving, it turns out, is not exactly like riding a bicycle. It does not all come back to you. Now, 70 days into my re-entry, I'm stuck. I can't do the static apnea drills I used to run through with ease. I do my 50m dynamic apnea repeats in the pool, but they don't get any easier and I don't see any way to get beyond this. My last blood chemistries were all in the 'normal' range, but still well below the richer numbers I always tested before becoming a couch potato.
Static apnea is, perhaps, the First Pillar of Freediving. There's no air underwater, so unless one is able to hold one's breath, it just doesn't work. I may have to update that observation if early rumors of an Israeli invention which actually does enable a diver to exploit the oxygen dissolved in water are true, but for now, my friends, static apnea is the key. It is the best single predictor of how deep you can go, or how far you can go. Work on it. I will. But I will be in Israel later this month on the trail of this newly-patented non-scuba underwater breathing system !
I certainly have gained a lot more understanding and sympathy for all those marvelous, intrepid people trying to break into our sport. It's harder than it looks. They deserve the admiration and respect of veterans. Our German friends have a lovely, complimentary term for newbies : Senkrechtstarter, literally, a 'vertical starter', an up-and-comer ( hat tip to Sam Kirby, International Woman of Mystery). Especially well suited to our sport, isn't it ?
Mid-summer in South Florida. July 4 is the American Independence Day, so everything of a productive nature has ground to a halt for 4 days. Floridians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, so as soon as it became clear that Independence Day would fall on a Monday, everyone immediately marked the preceding Friday as a personal holiday. There is a certain admirable symmetry to it, a balance that is good.
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