I'm not talking about paying more attention to the fit of Tanya Streeter's wetsuit than her conservation work. On a recent freediving course, the instructor made the usual point that freediving was a personal journey, a way of discovering oneself. Well, on a trip to Greece recently I discovered – or finally accepted – something about myself as a freediver.
I DON’T ENJOY DEPTH!
For years I’ve struggled to get down to any depth at all, mostly due to problems equalising. But now that I’ve solved those problems to some degree, I realise I was wanting to get deeper for the wrong reasons – mostly about achievement, being able to impress others, and wanting to see myself as a “freediver” rather than a “snorkeller”. On my recent holiday I was happiest not when getting down to a gloomy 20m (I only had scuba fins, plus I was alone
) feeling uncomfortable and coming straight up again, but when cruising round all the rocks and fish at 5-10m down, where there was more light, more life, less effort getting down there in the first place and less worry about when to come up. Because I was much more comfortable, I seemed to have much more air – once when finning around at 7m, I saw an interesting fish in an underwater valley and popped down to have a look, realising afterwards that I’d got to 15m without even noticing, whereas if I’d gone down there straight from the surface that would have been almost it for the dive – I would have spent so much effort and stress equalising to get down there, I would have felt the need to come almost straight back.
Don’t get me wrong – I love being underwater far, far more than being on the surface. But trying to notch up metres has lost its allure for me. I am shallow, and I don’t care. Anyone else?
