The Eighth Wonder of Freediving
Posted By Emma Farrell on 6 April 2007
Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, has a vision. Governed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai boasts the largest building in the world, the largest aquarium in the world, the most expensive hotel in the world, an indoor ski slope with real snow, and a series of man-made islands (The Palm Islands, and The World Islands) the latter shaped into the continents of the world and that can be seen from space.
As you drive down six lane highways, dwarfed by construction on the most incredible and inventive scale, you pass billboards announcing the next project as ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World’. It seems unfair to bestow this label on just one building or one project; Dubai itself is, arguably, the eighth, ninth and tenth wonder of the world, all tossed into one giant, fizzing, melting pot of nationalities, technology, artistry, and money.
I had arrived for a six-week stay, a wide-eyed West Country girl drinking in a country and culture that has its foot firmly on the accelerator, at the invitation of Sara-Lise Haith of ‘DivasinDubai’. I was the first ever freediving instructor in the UAE and was to teach AIDA courses of all levels. I had also been invited as a guest of the Emirates Diving Association to represent freediving at DMEX, the Dive Middle East Exhibition, and to give a presentation on freediving a couple of weeks later.
The teaching was six days a week and classroom lessons and pool training were conducted at Sara’s building, which was a fantastic location. The pool was open air but always offered some shade and plenty of room for stretching sessions. The waters off Dubai are too shallow for deep freediving, so for the open water training we headed to The Divers Down Centre at Khorfakkan on the east coast of the UAE in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
My twenty-two students were as varied as Dubai itself, with Emiratis, Kuwaitis, French, Lebanese, South Africans, British, Australians, Indians, a member of the Omani Royal Family, and even the bodyguard to the Crown Prince of Dubai. Many were spearfishers, some scuba instructors, and some completely new to the water, with a fear of sharks to boot…
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