For this blog post, The Scuba Diaries is diving in without a tank as I'll be talking about my experience freediving!
The beginner freediving course is something I've wanted to try since I arrived on Utila and started working in scuba diving 6 years ago. The island is certainly renowned for scuba, but the freediving community here is predominately growing. I've noticed how more and more friends and students of mine have enrolled in this course recently, and every single one of them have recommended Erin at One Breath Utila (@onebreathutilafreediving), operating out of Utila Water Sports. Erin is an incredibly experienced freediver and instructor, who fairly recently opened her own training school which has quickly become 'the place to go' to learn on Utila.
A few weeks ago I finished my role as Program Manager at The Whale Shark & Oceanic Research Center (WSORC - @wsorc_life), and leading up to my departure from the island I made it a priority that I would complete this course before leaving; so I contacted Erin immediately. Erin offers personailsed courses and shuffled her schedule around to suit my partner and I. Starting on day 1, we met for an introductory theory session and discovered that due to Erin's preferred smaller classes, we were receiving 2-1 teaching - lucky us!
Despite being a scuba instructor, I actually felt pretty nervous for this course due to a number of factors. Firstly, I knew that my partner, Asa, would be a natural; he is at everything he tries! And though I'm not typically a competitive person, I had an intrinsic urge to impress both him and Erin. Secondly, I tend to do this when I try something 'I'm supposed be good at', which is usually anything ocean-related: I wanted to make myself proud and push myself out of my comfort-zone, but also to perform well externally. There's no rhyme or reason to it - but this was certainly adding to my anxiety leading up to our first dives.
Erin introduced me to meditation, and not through an approach like "you could give this a go for fun", but more like "this will completely improve your life". It is clear that Erin doesn't share the same attitude towards competitive freediving as many others in the sport, though instead she choses to take a holistic approach to teaching, one which proves incredibly useful for an anxious students like myself. Together we explored different methods of relaxation, visualisation and breathing techniques; tools which I have since already utilised outside of the water in day-to-day situations. That's the unique thing about Erin's courses - what you take away isn't solely to do with freediving, it's about discovering your potential and changing your life.
Day 2 we headed out for our first dives, with the line set to 12m/ 40ft. I should say that leading up to this course, I had tried 'freediving' (or so I thought). Every month at WOSRC we head out on Ocean Safari's, a boat tour around the island in search of any wildlife which always includes a snorkel along a shallow coral reef. During these snorkel sessions I would duck-dive down to look at moray eels, stingrays and large coral colonies; maybe reaching a maximum depth of around 8m/26ft. Most of these dives felt tense as I hurriedly worked my way back to the surface, wondering "How do people know when to turn around? How do they know they have enough air to reach the surface?"
In Utila's crystal clear waters, the weights hanging at the bottom of the 12m line didn't look too far away - this looked achievable! Not wanting to compare myself to Asa, I went first. Erin encouraged me to warm up by only going as far as I felt comfortable, not immediately focusing on reaching the bottom. So down I went... I made it to about half way down the line before turning around, having experienced contractions fairly early on in my dive. This surprised me, as I didn't expect to feel those effects until much deeper, but it all came down to me not being fully relaxed on the dive or taking a deep enough breath before. Erin gave me some breathing pointers and every dive after was far more enjoyable, reaching 12m and feeling comfortable enough to 'hang out' down there without rushing back to the surface. I found that closing my eyes as I pulled myself along the line really helped, not craning my neck back to see my end-goal, but instead truly focusing on checking in with my body, telling myself "I took a really big breath - that was a good breath", and calmly counting my arm pulls: "one, two - one, two - one, two". I found that the more I was tuned in with myself, the quicker my hands reached the weights without them being the main focus.
After practicing different freediving disciplines: free immersion (FIM) and constant weight with bifins (CWTB), Asa and I moved over the the reef and put our newfound skills to use as buddy's. Exploring the reef on a single breath is something else. Everything seems to slow down, and at depth I could hear my heart rate ease. Marine life became more curious and I felt a new connection with the ocean, one which revealed a new definition of the term being 'weightless', than with scuba. I left this session feeling energised and encouraged, though the tiredness that later followed knocked me off my feet! That afternoon we met in the classroom to dive deeper into the beginner theory, walking through safety & rescue scenarios together and progressing further into physics, physiology, relaxation & breathing, mental techniques, equalisation and meditation. I can safely say that as a scuba diver, Erin's course covered a ton of theory that was new information to me!
[Freediving on the reef at Jack Neil Beach, Utila]
Day 3 and the final day fo the course - we set off for another diving session at a nearby plane wreck, this time the line being set at 20m/65ft. Although the nerves were still lingering, knowing that I was capable made the concept a lot less daunting. The waves were choppy which made my pre-dive body scan a little harder, forcing me to really work on relaxing, but we were joined by John Bodden (@johnsoceanjourney), AKA freediving national record holder for Honduras(!!!), and also my good friend. Being with John always calms me, so I was especially grateful for his presence at this time. Watching him dive is an art form. It is clear to see that his body holds no tension on his dives, moving with ease up and down the line, pausing comfortably as he chooses, displaying ultimate control. Thanks to him and Erin, I gradually became more and more comfortable at depth, repetitively reaching the end of the line and controlling my contractions through pre-dive breathing and relaxation checks on the dive. We then practiced our rescue procedures from 10m, getting familiar with the simple yet effective skills - again, varying somewhat from scuba diving!
[Reaching 20m at the plane wreck]
[Asa practicing rescue procedures on John, accompanied by two remoras!]
Feeling on top of the world after our dives, we made our way to the pool for our final session: a static breath-hold and dynamic swim. I found out that this was where I had been pushing all of my anxiety towards. Knowing that I experience contractions fairly 'early', I was aware that this breath-hold would be uncomfortable for me, and overall a huge mental challenge. The overarching pressure that I put on myself to get a 'good time' and to impress Asa and Erin remained, but this time the desire to impress myself outweighed it all.
Again, I opted to go first. The poolside bar was playing loud music, so my visualisation strategy of reciting the entire Lizzo song 'Truth Hurts' word for word wasn't going to work. Instead, I got into my car at my family home in England, and drove to my late Grandpa's house, a route that I have driven hundreds of times in my life. The 12 minute journey along winding country lanes, through quaint villages and into the driveway of this thatch cottage. As I lay face down in the water floating, Erin's soft voice appeared in my ear, telling me how well I was doing. At this point, my contractions were under control. I continued driving along my route. At risk of this sounding like a labour story, the time between my contractions were shrinking, and Erin's voice checked in with me more frequently, asking me to signal that I was ok and reassuring me of just how well I was doing. At this point, it was becoming harder to visualise the road, what I had playing on the radio, passing the village pub, and my grip on the steering wheel was tightening. Ok, this is now getting a little uncomfortable, and my contractions are massively interfering with my visaulisation. I lowered my feet to the ground to signal to Erin that I wanted to stop, and was ready for my 10 second countdown. Checking in with me constantly, Erin began the countdown, reassuring me of how much oxygen I still had, that I was completely safe and could stay holding my breath much longer than I thought. As she reached the end of the countdown, she said I can lift my head at any time, but encouraged me to push through one more countdown with her, "you'll be so happy with your time Abi". And she was right, I was so happy with my time, lifting my head after that second countdown at 3:00 minutes. Of course Asa lasted an amazing 4 minutes and 12 seconds, and absolutely beasted his dynamic swim with a distance of 66m/ 216ft. Wow, I was so proud of us!
[Final day of the beginner course, post-static breath hold & dynamic swim]
We were riding on a high for the rest of the day, and after reliving the events through writing this blog, I can feel that same overwhelming sense of achievement now. Erin created a safe space for us to push ourselves. To emerge out of our comfort zones and unveil our potential. Not only will I carry lessons from this course with me in everyday life and through to my next freediving adventures, but I have learnt techniques and concepts that I can apply when teaching scuba diving. I would recommend anyone, any scuba diver, to take this course! It is so important to step out of your safe bubble and to do something to feel proud of yourself. I've realised that recently I haven't made that a priority for myself, and this experience has equipped me with the belief that in doing so, you can't fail.
You can contact Erin through her One Breath Utila Freediving Instagram account here, or find her on the Facebook page.
All videos and photos taken by Erin (@erinfreediver).
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