Yup, you read correctly: we took just one breath of air and dove underwater to 20 meters deep…. We're not crazy, we just took a freediving course.
According to Wikipedia: Freediving is a form of underwater diving that does not involve the use of scuba gear or other external breathing devices, but rather relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing.
And before we go any further, here are some equivalents to help visualize how high/deep 20 meters is:
- 66 feet (for those of you still using imperial)
- a 6.5 story building
- 14 VW Jettas stacked on top of each other (1.43m)
- 4 male giraffes (5.5m)
- 6.5 basketball hoop heights
- 24 baseball bats
- 7491 tennis balls (2.67cm)
- 15 lightsabers
- 10 Darth Vaders
- the length of a 10-pin bowling lane
- 2857 common household ants joined head to tail
Ok, back to the beginning...
While researching things to do in Bali, we noticed a place that offered "Freediving" courses. We had heard of Freediving before but thought it was just a recreational activity, rather than an actual competitive sport with certified courses! Seeing that it was a recommended thing to do here, it peaked our curiosity... but it was on a different island (Gili Trawangan)... and was.. a little too expensive for our budget.
Weeks later, in Tulamben…
We met Guy and Lucy, a French-Canadian couple who are both scuba dive masters and have been coming to Tulamben to scuba dive for several years. By chance, Guy had recently run into a Freediving instructor who recently opened a school in Tulamben called Apnea Bali... and what do you know, Guy was also interested in doing the class too!! Guy negotiated a small group discount... it all seemed like such luck, so we jumped at the opportunity to register as well.
1 Breath... 12 meters
On the first day, we met up with our instructor, Lukas in the Tulamben office. He explained the history, equipment, what freediving was all about, and showed us videos of the sport and competitions. We then learned and practiced some breathing techniques and a bunch of other theory necessary before hitting the water.
In the afternoon, we drove to Amed (where the sea is a bit calmer) and proceeded to our dive spot. Lukas set up a buoy and 12 meter rope with a tennis ball attached to the bottom. Despite the water being pretty clear, you could not see the tennis ball from the surface... the rope just looked endless as it disappeared into the deep blue darkness below.
We started out with a few practice dives to work on our duck-dive and fin-kick techniques. Jen immediately had trouble equalizing her right ear, so it became apparent that she wouldn't be able to dive using fins (since this descent is faster than her ears could equalize). Jen removed her fins and Lukas showed her a different diving technique using the guide rope to go down (allowing for a much slower descent and more frequent equalizing).
We took this course to challenge ourselves and were initially both quite apprehensive about it. We were super pleased that the course was really focussed on having fun, and at no point did we ever feel any sort of pressure to reach the tennis ball. Lukas made the experience super reassuring and relaxing - on each dive, he followed us down and back up to ensure that everything was safe, that we were having fun and not panicking, and that we were well within our limits of not passing out. He worked with us on techniques for movement efficiency, and staying calm & relaxed in order to conserve as much oxygen as possible during each dive.
After only a few attempts, we all surprised ourselves and each reached the 12 meter mark several times!!
1 Breath… 20 meters
Reaching the 12 meter mark was not exactly easy... so for Day 2, we were wondering how we would possibly reach 20 meters. We started the day learning and practicing more breathing techniques, then learned the steps for rescuing free divers who pass out during a dive (not that it would happen to us today... but better safe than sorry). Lukas set up the buoy and 20 meter rope. As with the previous day, we took turns diving down the line, one after the other, as far as we could/wanted to go. Dom finally reached the 20 meter mark using both "Constant Weight" and "Free Immersion" techniques. Jen, still having problems equalizing, reached around 17 meters, which was really good since her rate of descent had to be really slow so she had to hold her breath longer.
In the afternoon, we returned to Tulamben for some play time. We practiced recreational freediving around the USS Liberty, whose shallowest point is only 7 meters deep. The main difference from our practice dives, is that we didn't have a guide rope to show us the most direct path down. Who would have thought that the rope made such a difference! The rope made a big difference with helping Jen go down slowly to equalize, and also really helped Dom to not panic during the dive. What was easily attainable while following a rope, suddenly seemed so out of reach when diving freely.
Since Jen's ear was still blocked, she just snorkelled around a bit and then called it a day and relaxed by the pool. Dom managed to go down to 12 meters to see a turtle hanging around, and then dared to dive under one of the ship's trusses (this was a big swim-through hole, but just knowing there's an obstacle between you and the surface really makes you panic!).
Day 3...
Ok there wasn't a day 3... but for Dom, there was definitely a night 2. In the night after our second day, Dom kept waking up in a panic thinking that he was drowning - he was repeatedly having dreams/nightmares of drowning while freediving :).
Conclusion
This was a great experience, and we are hooked. Even though it was scary at times, we had lots of fun and definitely enjoyed it. Unfortunately, for us, it'll be a little tough to practice back home… though maybe not impossible.
Additional Reading:
For those of you who are keen to read more, we decided to include our personal accounts of the experience (mainly for our own future interest), and some cool freediving video links that they showed in the class :).
Dominic
"I am not the most comfortable person in the water. I can't really swim for very long and I probably can't normally hold my breath for more 40 seconds. Regardless, traveling is about putting yourself in different situations and experiencing new things: Let's say that this was definitely outside my comfort zone. The first day went pretty well, I managed to reach 12 meters in Constant Weight diving and about 9 meters in Free Immersion diving. I felt good about myself and this gave me a bit of confidence. The next day, was a totally different experience: 20 meters. It was only 8 more meters than the previous day, but the things that I experienced impressed me: The human body is well done. Here is what I mean: When I reached 20 meters for the first time. I did my duck dive, and started paddling down with my eyes closed, trying to relax. Eventually, I started feeling like I am running out of air, but, since this is suppose to happen, I continued going down. When I felt that I could not take it anymore, I looked up (or down) and saw the tennis ball just 2 to 3 meters away… so I relax again and pushed for it. By that time, I needed to breath hard, the only problem was that I was still 20 meters under the water. So I turned around and made my way up. On the way, my body spasmed and tried to take a breath of air (which did not happened, since my body forced my airways shut). At that point, I panicked and started to kick wildly, trying to go as fast as I can (BTW, this is retarded, because I was not going faster but I was definitely burning more oxygen). I then saw Lukas calmly beside me telling me to slowdown. Remembering what he told us before, I calmed down and made my way slowly up to the surface and what do you know….I made it. It was incredible and the best part was, I was to do it again and each time it was a bit easier (and mainly without panicking). Once you understand how your body works and that you will make it, it's a lot easier to do it again….I think I may be hooked……..This was pretty cool."
Jennifer
"Before this course, if someone had asked me how long I thought I could hold my breath, i'd probably have guessed 30-45s (without physical exertion). I'm pretty sure I even remember trying to figure it out with friends before.. these "who can hold their breath the longest" contests always ended with me bursting out in a giggle fit within 20s …apparently holding my laughter is far more difficult than holding my breath. Diving into the deep blue darkness is no laughing matter… so (fortunately for me) the apprehension and undertones of fear did a good job of keeping the giggles at bay (well.. most of the time).
I had surface-dived many times before while snorkelling and always ran out of breath within 2-3m of the surface, so... I had a pretty good idea of my limits.
My goal: I certainly didn't have any grandeur ideas of actually reaching the 12/20m maximum depths! I just hoped to pick up some tips to improve my depth a little.
My game plan: I'm a fairly strong swimmer (or at least I used to be). Not believing that i'd be able to hold my breath for very long, I figured my best chance of reaching a decent depth would be to use strong swimming strokes to race to my max depth before my short breath-hold ran out.
My demise: Our initial warmup dives were only a couple of meters deep and sadly revealed that my right ear was too plugged to equalize quickly. My game plan was thwarted before it began. Lukas told me to take off my fins... I was feeling pretty defeated, despite his promise that there were other techniques to dive to depth.
We learned that a normal/"good" rate of descent & ascent is about 1m/s. This means that a 20m dive would be done with an approximately 40s breath-hold (with physical exertion).
Free Immersion: In this technique, you use the guide rope to slowly pull yourself down to depth and back up to the surface.
Inching to Equalize: Using the guide rope allowed my descent to be much slower, but it still took several attempts to equalize. I'd begin descending, stop to try several times to equalize... when it didn't work, I'd have to climb back up a bit to try equalizing there, then proceeding down a little further repeating the process… it was VERY slow and rather frustrating. I'd have to do this every single dive, so my average descent rate was probably something like 0.1-0.2m/s.
The Squeeze: The deeper you go, the more water pressure there is on your body - you actually physically get squeezed! Internally, your lungs squish down to half their size by the time you reach a depth of 10m, so you can really start to feel the pressure of your diaphragm being pushed right up into your rib cage.
My Dives
I became so focussed on slowly inching down the rope trying to equalize that it surprised me when I actually hit the end of the 12m rope.
On the second day, my ear was even more irritated, so equalizing was even slower. I did several dives, following the same super slow process… sometimes i'd get antsy and just want to go back up, but Lukas was always there just floating right in front of me.. patiently watching with such a calm energy... as if to silently say "you're doing great, just take your time, everything is ok…". His calmness was contagious and made me feel/realize that everything really was ok.. I learned to forget my brain's screams to breathe and the weird feeling of being squeezed. I'd refocus on patiently equalizing and inching my way a little further down until I couldn't equalize anymore, and was shocked to find out that I actually made it down to around 17m. I was even more shocked when Lukas told me that all of my dives were nearly 2 minutes long, and that since I reached the surface with plenty of oxygen he was certain I was still capable of much more.
I was super happy that I accomplished leaps and bounds more than I was ever expecting. I learned that our minds really play tricks on us to keep us bound within its lazy limits. This course was a great reminder that we are capable of pushing our limits even further than we think. It was a great challenge, a refreshing and inspiring experience, and addictively fun!!"
Current Freediving World Records:
Constant Weight with Fins Dive
Women - 101 meters
Men - 126 meters
Free Immersion Dive
Women - 88 meters
Men - 121 meters
Static (no physical exertion) Breath Hold
Women - 8min 23sec
Men - 11min 35sec
Cool freediving videos:
Our Apnea Bali Instructors Freediving the USS Liberty:
"Free-falling" Underwater:
Freedivers Parkour:
World Record Freedive: