Freediving & Spearfishing

One of my favorite ocean activities is freedive spearfishing. It all started due to a need for food while sailing away from civilization where you cannot just stop by the local grocery store for fresh food. Living off canned food gets old real quick, and we couldn't afford refrigeration and definitely didn't have a freezer. This meant our only source of fresh food would come from the sea. Fishing was my first avenue for collecting our protein, but that was always just blind luck and left us hungry too many nights. Getting in the water and being able to select your catch provided much better results. Not only was I able to select my catch, but I also avoided the unnecessary kills by gut hooking fish that were not desired. Selective hunting also resulted in bigger and better fish since in most environments I could take a toll of the fish in an area and come back to the ones that I wanted. No more random luck when you can see and chose your fish.
Freediving also gave me a chance to be active and stay in shape. Fishing is never a very active sport, especially compared to freedive spearfishing. It gave me something to look forward to by exploring the reefs and seeing things that are unlike the terra-firma world we inhabit. It made me push myself to go deeper and stay down longer to spend more time in such a beautiful environment. It also brought about an awareness to look inside and push my personal limits by listening closely to my body and controlling my mind to stay relaxed. Freediving noways is more closely related to yoga than it ever has been, and the zen-like state that one goes into when you enter the silent underworld is amazing and addictive. It has changed my life not only in the water, but how I approach everything. Your more conscious of your breathing, of your every movement and thought. You tend to be in a more relaxed state of mind out of the water since that is your main focus in the water. Umberto Pelizzari, who broke 17 world records in all disciplines of freediving sums it up best, "The scuba diver dives to look around. The freediver dives to look inside."
As you can see spearfishing and providing food on the table has developed into a deep desire to improve my freediving capabilities. Since in order to improve your spearfishing you must improve your breath holding abilities, changing my focus from spearfishing to "apnea" (breath holding) was a natural transition for me. In the beginning this process occurred simply through striving to reach new limits both in depth and duration. Along this journey of trial and error learning I was fortunate enough to meet an exceptional individual, William Trubridge (www.Verticalblue.net) who has broke many world records and continues to do so in the constant weight no fins division of apnea. William opened my eyes to the scientific view of freediving and showed me some simple techniques that when practiced correctly quickly improved my freediving. He also shared with me an extremely valuable book for improving my freediving, "Manual of Freediving, Underwater on a Single Breath" which he translated into English from the original Italian authors Umberto Pelizzari and Stefano Tovaglieri. (In another blog I will give a complete review of this invaluable book.) With this book at my side I continue to learn and push myself while participating in one of the most beautiful sports on the planet.
As my skills in apnea progress I have found once again that my enjoyment with the sport has taken on a new perspective. In the beginning it was as a means to provide food, as I became a more proficient hunter the focus of enjoyment came from learning about myself and pushing my physical and mental boundaries. This aspect will remain with me as long as I die since there will always be things I can learn about myself and a meter deeper to dive. The new perspective that I look forward to learning is underwater photography. I recently got my first digital underwater camera, an Olympus 1030 SW, and am extremely excited to hunt for the best images underwater to share. It was a purchase that I researched extensively in order to feel like I was getting the most value for my money without having to get a mortgage. The camera itself is waterproof to 35', shockproof, has a wide angle lens standard, able to take video clips, and has 10.1 megapixel's. With the optional underwater housing the maximum depth is 40 meter (131 feet) with all the cameras functions available. As my experience with this camera continues I will update this blog with photos and comments on the pros and cons of this setup.
I hope you enjoyed this post and get out there and start living your dreams