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Why freedive?
From the moment I tried freediving I quickly learnt that it was something I could really sink my teeth into. The experiences that you can have can not be found with any another hobby or profession, I cant begin to describe the harmony that you feel within yourself when you swim with a pod of dolphins and they want to swim with you too. Imagine swimming down a few metres and whilst you do, two dolphins do it either side of you, or swimming alongside a shoal of fish finning in time with the whole shoal. Words fall short when attempting to describe such a moment.
Man evolved from aquatic beings and we often find ourselves too far from the sea, we are semi-aquatic mammals, our bodies are designed to be able to freedive. Have you ever wondered why your fingers go wrinkly if you’re in the bath too long? Its so that you can grip things whilst underwater! Every mammal has what is called a mammalian dive reflex, it just needs to be awakened and exercised like a muscle.
I think the easiest way to give you a proper idea of what it is to freedive, I will run you through the session I did today. Once everything is set up and ready to go, I took my two students to the shade where we sat with our eyes closed and practising our breathing. It’s the best way to start a freediving session, calmly listening to the ocean and the birds singing as you breathe slowly. This lowers one’s heart rate and puts everyone in the perfect state of mind. Then it’s a quick boat ride out to our dive site since the ocean is flat shimmering blue mirror. We plunge into the water and gather around the buoy to start our breathe up. I take in a full breath of air and glide down the rope towards the bottom of the ocean. There are fish in all shapes and sizes in every direction; Sea Goldies, Schooling Coachmen, White bellied Snappers, Moorish Idols and many more. I feel my first urge to breathe and turn to the surface, after a few gentle kicks I start floating to the surface. I emerge to find myself starring across that shimmering blue ocean. Once I’ve caught my breath I prepare to drop again. Through-out the session I get the privilege to swim alongside turtles, a two-metre ray and we also picked up a few pelagic fish seeking shelter under the shade of our buoy. Its isn’t all about what you see though its also about what one can hear, I often find myself dropping to only a few metres until I’m neutrally buoyant and just hang in the mid water. A symphony of beautiful notes singing through the water, the crackling of healthy reef, the sound of a petroglyph shrimp breaking away at coral to build a home and most beautiful of all the Humpback whales singing as they migrate back south with their calves. The only sense that can’t really enjoy freediving is smell because I really wouldn’t recommend trying to smell something underwater!!!
I do hope reading this has inspired some of you out there to come to Sodwana and give it a try, it really is the best way to experience the ocean in the most environmentally friendly way.
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