Like all area of interest sport or subculture, the components that encourage folks to freedive are manifold, and deeply private: competitors, journey, neighborhood, self-expression, mindfulness, and self-realization, to call however a number of. For me, it’s all about connecting with the ocean, interacting with its inhabitants, and experiencing the profound, however paradoxical, sense of freedom and belonging that comes from visiting a world that, regardless of its alien shifts in gravity, colour, sound, and temperature, feels distinctly snug and acquainted. Once we freedive, we re-enter a website wherein we share a standard ancestry with all dwelling issues, and in doing so, unlock talents which have lain dormant in our genetic make-up since our evolutionary predecessors abandoned the oceans. It feels pure, instinctive and important. It’s additionally a variety of enjoyable.
Freediving is equal elements psychological and bodily, inner and exterior, meditative and thrilling. In quite simple phrases, it includes the usage of rest and respiratory methods to enter a state that enables a diver to spend prolonged durations underwater on a single breath of air, often within the pursuit of depths matching or far exceeding these reached by leisure SCUBA divers. It will probably get rather more technical, particularly for the very deep divers on the forefront of the game, however that’s not a facet of it I’m significantly concerned with, so I’ll go away any additional exposition to the specialists. You’ll discover me within the first 20-40m, the place there may be an abundance of sunshine, wildlife and scope for exploration.
Freediving is equal elements psychological and bodily, inner and exterior, meditative and thrilling.
My journey into the world of freediving was pretty atypical, and never with out its dramas. Though I’ll now absolutely come throughout as a fervent freediving zealot, SCUBA diving was my past love. What little data I had of apnea (freediving) was restricted to Luc Besson’s ‘Le Grand Bleu’ and a few stray on-line articles involved solely with the risks of the endeavor, depicting it as fringe and inaccessible. It additionally appeared to be incompatible with my then nascent profession in marine biology, which I used to be satisfied would see me SCUBA diving for work for the remainder of my days. Sadly, destiny had different plans.
Mexican Freediver Luza Cuevas taking part in in SCUBA divers’ exhaust bubbles.
I had traveled to the Philippines to help on a analysis undertaking run by famend shark scientist Dr Simon Oliver. After finishing my stint there, I moved south to coach and information at a dive middle in Moalboal, well-known for its resident inhabitants of sardines, which kind a large, writhing bait-ball, whose scale and synchrony is awe-inspiring. Days later, the thresher sharks I had been learning within the north would additionally arrive within the space for the primary time in a few years. What’s extra, they had been frequently predating the sardines utilizing their elongated scythe-like tails, a habits that till then had been very not often noticed. Positioning your self near the bait-ball assured a front-row seat. The sharks would cost headlong on the sardines and simply earlier than contact, decrease the top and pectoral fins like air-brakes, forcing the tail to whip ahead, scorpion-style. It was stunning and violent. The tail slap would stun a number of sardines directly, leaving them helplessly floating, their scales sometimes glinting within the solar, awaiting their now inevitable demise. After placing in a really excited name to Simon Oliver, who formulated a knowledge assortment plan, we set to work documenting the spectacle, twice each day.
This was an excellent begin to a marine biology profession, however issues would quickly cease going so effortlessly my means. Round 4 weeks into the work, after a superbly regular day’s diving, I used to be overcome by lethargy and my imaginative and prescient turned distorted – traditional indicators of decompression illness (DCS). Initially, I attempted to disclaim it, figuring out that will imply the tip of the journey. Respiration pure oxygen did nothing to alleviate the signs so I finally capitulated – it was time for a visit to the decompression chamber, recognized affectionately as ‘the pot’. Two six-hour periods within the coffin-like hyperbaric chamber at a navy facility in Cebu Metropolis had me just about fixed-up. As soon as again within the UK, docs defined that as a result of I had suffered Kind II DCS, the place nitrogen bubbles have an effect on the nervous system, any remaining scar tissue may very well be ‘sticky’ for nitrogen bubbles, making a second accident more likely. I may return to SCUBA diving, however I might have to be extraordinarily conservative and never pursue aggressive dive schedules. This beautiful a lot dominated out a profession in diving.
Crestfallen, I moved to Wales to undertake an MSc in Marine Environmental Safety, however my principal motivation and fervour had been pulled out from beneath me. I pored over articles, making an attempt to rationalize a return to SCUBA regardless of the dangers. Then it struck me that freediving may very well be the reply. Though DCS remains to be a consideration for freedivers who go very deep, or spend vital durations diving repetitively at shallower depths, it could actually, when achieved correctly, be a safer choice than SCUBA as a result of you aren’t respiratory compressed air at depth, which significantly will increase the quantity of nitrogen obtainable to dissolve into the blood. The truth is, opposite to widespread assumption, freediving could be very protected in the event you study with professionals, at all times dive with a certified buddy and respect your individual limits.
Julien Borde descending right into a varied cenotes within the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
I saved up and took a visit to Thailand to coach with a French teacher who by the way had additionally discovered freediving after a struggling a critical DCS hit while exploring Thailand’s underwater cave methods. I instantly fell in love with it. Unencumbered by cumbersome SCUBA gear, I used to be struck by the sensation of agility and freedom. Again in North Wales, I discovered a buddy to coach with within the native quarries. I moved to London to start out a PhD and job in marine renewable vitality. There I joined a freediving membership, Apnea Revolution, who observe twice-weekly in a swimming pool. They opened my eyes to myriad methods of bettering efficiency, and I used to be quickly holding my breath for greater than 5 and a half minutes (although I have to admit it by no means exceeds two minutes if I’m actively swimming). Maybe most significantly, they launched me to a bustling neighborhood of freedivers, even in landlocked-London.
At this level, I used to be compelled to select up a digital camera and doc what was taking place round me. £120 bought me a Nikonos V on eBay; a 35mm waterproof rangefinder initially launched by Nikon in 1984 (additionally the yr I used to be initially launched by my mother and father). The Nikonos line has a wealthy historical past, representing the evolution of a design first conceived, partly, by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It was later for use extensively by photojournalists within the Vietnam battle, who relied on its rugged reliability and amphibious capabilities to deal with the tough tropical environs. Its small form-factor creates little or no drag, making it preferrred for freediving, the place streamlining and effectivity are paramount. Much less preferrred are the handbook focus, 36 shot restrict and numerous spoiled movies you get if you find yourself with a barely dodgy winder like I did. However I used to be very glad to shoot analog, channeling the work of my heroes: Glen E Friedman’s documentary early day skateboarding and punk rock; Philip J Griffiths’ influential Vietnam battle reportage; Henry Horenstein’s summary aquarium undertaking; and Wolfgang Leander’s pioneering work with sharks in South Africa.
I shot with extremely delicate, grainy black and white movie utilizing solely ambient gentle partly as a result of I cherished the aesthetic, however partly as a result of I had no lights, and due to this fact, no different alternative. Years later I might incorporate digital into my work, however I’ve by no means been capable of tear myself away from this minimalistic method. I really like the main target it locations on bodily kind, the variations and similarities between animals which have developed to thrive in a liquid world. I additionally like the truth that it’s a geographic leveler, rendering photos taken in in the course of winter within the UK near indistinguishable from pictures from paradisal dive areas in far-flung areas all over the world.
A really inquisitive blue shark bumps the entrance of my digital camera off the coast of Conrwall, UK. This seasonal customer is extremely migratory. Analysis has proven that some people will journey so far as 9,200 km in a single journey.
I began taking each alternative I may to shoot; competitions, coaching, weekends and holidays. I might not often enter the water with out a digital camera. Taking pictures of freedivers is straightforward cash, figuratively anyway. They transfer in a sluggish, deliberate, balletic method, and make an arresting addition to any seascape as soon as the viewer realizes the little dot all that means down is, in reality, an individual with virtually no gear, save for a masks, wetsuit and set of outsized fins. Taking pictures as a freediver, however, could be fairly difficult, and you want to be very snug within the water earlier than you begin taking the digital camera. Brief dive-times require that you’re speedy, decisive, and know your gear inside out. Usually, I’ll have a reasonably good concept of the kind of shot(s) I’m going after earlier than coming into the water, however it’s a must to be ready to make changes.
An important reward freediving grants the photographer is diminished management. You don’t have time to sit down and look ahead to the completely good second to tug the shutter, so the affect of probability is amplified.
One other vital problem is exerting the self-discipline to return to the floor when you’re near your restrict, even when it means lacking one thing particular. Belief me once I say that is tougher than it sounds. One occasion that springs to thoughts was throughout a dive on a submerged mountain far off the coast of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, the place I caught a quick glimpse of a fin whale, the second largest animal on earth, cruising by while accompanied by two sea lions spinning and swirling at its facet. They had been deep and transferring quick. I did all the things I may to maintain up while descending, however I may really feel that I used to be very near my restrict and nonetheless a lot too far for a photograph, so I gave up and easily loved the view because the three of them pale away into the blue. It was a tremendous expertise that I’m extremely grateful for, however I can’t assist lament that it might have made a killer picture.
Left: A short glimpse of a fever of Golden rays as they flew previous us while freediving at Seymour North within the Galapagos.
Proper: Julien Borde taking in his environment while utilizing the unfavourable buoyancy that will increase with dive depth to face on the seabed in entrance of a C-59 wreck within the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.
In the case of photographing wildlife, there are a lot of cases the place apnea is advantageous. You’re quick, nimble and silent compared to your tank-laden, bubble-blowing counterparts. In my expertise, most animals will help you method rather more intently, tending to be both fully disinterested or mildly intrigued by your presence, cautious, however not often afraid. You possibly can attain a novel degree of stillness, projecting an indifference that encourages wildlife to behave extra naturally in your presence. It additionally lets you discover the three-dimensional house of the water column extra freely. SCUBA divers should comply with a strict depth profile involving an preliminary descent to the deepest level of the dive, adopted by a gradual however fixed ascent. Freedivers, however, are free to maneuver up and down at their leisure, albeit for a a lot shorter interval throughout every dive. This improves your means to maneuver with the wildlife, reply to altering terrain and hunt down distinctive vantage factors. In the end although, I believe a very powerful reward freediving grants the photographer is diminished management. You don’t have time to sit down and look ahead to the completely good second to tug the shutter, so the affect of probability is amplified. In most circumstances, the better the function of stochasticity, the happier I’m with the picture, it feels extra collaborative.
It’s been unusual scripting this piece as a result of all these years later, I seldom take into consideration that terrifying day within the Philippines when my life abruptly and violently veered from the anticipated course. Freediving and images are actually so tightly interwoven into the completely different sides of my life that it’s laborious to think about it was by no means a part of the plan. It has allowed me to develop a brand new, deeper reference to the ocean, to combine with a small however world neighborhood of like-minded folks, and has helped give my images a way of objective and narrative coherence. I hope that because the work continues to develop it’s going to encourage folks to expertise the marine atmosphere for themselves, and engender a way of duty to guard it.
