I have so much to tell you guys! I just had a life-altering weekend and I’m still buzzing about so thought I’d share it with you. All my life I’ve been average at every sport I tried, cross country running, high jump, netball, horseriding, rollerskating, ten-pin bowling... I can hold my own in them all but I never found a sport that loved me back the way I loved it. This weekend I think I finally found my sport... Freediving.
With a trip to the Bahamas on the horizon and a possibility to swim amongst wild dolphins, I figured that as I could be about to realise a life-long dream so I wanted to make the most of it. I wanted to learn how to stay down longer, how to twist and turn and play with them. I wanted to free myself of the scuba gear that seems to have me so clumsy and, if I’m honest, a little intimidated. I wanted to know how to be in the marine environment on their terms, not mine.
I’ve always looked at Tanya Streeter in awe and wonder, the way she seems to be part-woman, part-fish... I always found myself saying ’If I could be anyone else I would be her’. So finally I decided to do something about it.
I found a course on the internet with a company called DeeperBlue, a weekend in Porstmouth at a Naval base, training for my AIDA* qualification. This stands for Internationals Association for the Development of Apnea (apnea being the art of breath holding). The qualification was to take place in the incredible SETT tank (Submarine Escape Training Tank) the largest diving tank in Europe.
My first view of the tank had my stomach sinking into my boots and suddenly the reality of what I had taken on hit me...
Here are the views from the 8th floor...(the windows were dirty hence the poor quality pics!). The first day was so stormy!
The SETT is a 10 storey-building - a beautifully lit hole that goes down 30 metres and is filled with 34 degrees C water that felt as warm as a bath. I had no idea how I’d feel with all the space below my feet but thought it would be a scary experience.
Standing at the top looking down into the abyss I was surprised to realise I had not a single butterfly, not a single fear, just a desire, a longing to get in there and explore just as soon as possible... it’s going to sound strange but I felt... well, home! We had classroom sessions to get out of the way first.
a picture from a newspaper article...
us contemplating our fate!!....
On my first day we tried free immersion (feet first and inverted), pulling ourselves down a rope without fins. Getting used to equilising my ears was the most difficult part, those depths can cause a tremendous amount of pain if you miss an equilisation. I hit 7 metres first, then 10, then 12, then 15 increasing slowly whilst I got used to all these new sensations. On my last dive of the morning I got to 20 metres.... it seemed as though the bottom of the tank was within reach. The instructors told us that we were an exceptional class for the depths we were reaching within our first day.
More classroom sessions followed in the afternoon followed by the last session of the day in the tank. As this weekend was about finding out about my body, it’s physiology and what it could or couldn’t do, I soon found out that diving on a full stomach surrounded by tremendous pressures was an uncomfortable experience! As my body squeezed in and the food had nowhere to go, it felt as though I had swallowed a large rock that now threatened to implode my insides! Note to self ...*eat less tomorrow*
A curry with the boys (I was the only girl in our class) and an early night was a wonderful way to celebrate a tiring first day.
I woke at 6am and could NOT wait to get started. After a long hot shower I warmed up with yoga, visualising reaching the bottom of the tank. I stretched my diaphram by breathing and moving the way I had been shown the day before and prayed I would have a day to be proud of, that my friends would be proud of - they were all keeping their fingers crossed for me.
The classroom sessions began and then the tank session followed. I had learned from the previous day that everything feels easier in the mornings so if I was going to make it ... this would be the time to do it.
We put our fins on for a constant weight descent and started with the static apnea warm ups - staying still on the surface, holding our breath, bringing the heart rate down, trying to get lost inside the silence not in time with clock or the count. The peace I felt when everyone around me was mediatating together was an unforgetable experience.
Then the first dives... 10 metres, 15 metres, 20 metres, 15 metres... then I made up my mind this would be the one. I let the instructors know I was going for gold so they could be the ones to buddy me and meet me halfway on the way back up in case I got in any trouble. The breath-up began... 2 minutes of slowing the heart rate, focused breathing, meditation....
A deep breath and down I went, I got to 23 metres and thought ’that’s it, I really must turn back now’ but then looked down and saw the top of the cameras at just 27 meters... I hadn’t come all that way to turn back then.... I pushed myself and heard Tanya saying ’redefine your limits’ ... I made it! I touched them quickly, turned efficiently and started heading back up.
The swim back up can seem like a really long way when you swim, and swim, and swim and there goes the 20 metres mark... still so far to go...swimming and swimming, there goes 15...questions racing in your mind ’will I make it?’.... You know at that point the mind-game is kicking in.
You have to keep heart rate low, not panic, ignore the spasms in your diaphram trying to force you to breathe... you have to over-ride it all and find peace somehow or the heart rate escalates and you run out of that last tiny bit of oxygen and black out in shallow water or have a hypoxic fit. So it’s really comforting to see the face of your buddy looking into your eyes for any signs of confusion or panic, following your eyes all the way to the surface. Right there and then underwater, they become your family, the closest friend you ever had, your life line.
I burst through the suface took my deep fast breaths to the sound of the normal protocol ’Breathe! Breathe! and breathe Hannah’ being spoken by the instructors, and as I grinned like a lunatic, some of the guys were there congratulating me. I had done it!! YES!!!
On the next dive I not only made it to the top of the cameras but also slid off the sides and found an extra 3 metres to the ’real’ bottom of the tank. Back at the surface one of the guys called me ’our little mermaid’ and I never felt so warm and wonderful.
We took the exams in the afternoon which we all passed and mused how none of us had ever sat an exam in dressing gowns before.
Then back to the tank for our last session and a play with monofins...here we are!...
To put it in perspective, I googled ’30 meters’ and realised that I had swum to the depth that was the equivalent height as the Chirst The Redeeer Statue in Rio, Brazil.... I KNOW!!! I can still barely believe it myself!
So here begins a love afair... watch this space.
The wetsuit and monofin is on order and I’m off to Kalymnos (a Greek island) in July for the diving festival and to attempt to get my 3 star qualification. I’ll be diving on the rim of sunken volcanoes and wrecks and trying the ancient freediving method of Skandalopetra - hanging onto a stone that takes you down deep.
Who knows what’s next... maybe even joining the elite Navy SPAG submarine rescue, Double-Hard Bastard team (one of whom was looking after us during the course)! If only I could look as hot as this in my wetsuit!! haha!!