Growing pains
I wonder how many people even heard of freediving 5, 10, 15 years. Even with the watershed effects of the movie the Big Blue all those years ago I wasn't calling myself a freediver 10 years ago, let alone using terms like static or dynamic apnea, apneaist, constant ballast, breathing up, longfins, or any of the other neat words and phrases that we are developing to communicate that we are about doing something different and special and totally cool. I like the identity, the lingo, the techniques, and yes - the mystique of what we do. Part of the excitement is due to being part of creating a new sport and new awareness.
There is a growing buzz about freediving just as there was 35 years ago about climbing. Climbing is an old sport as is freediving if you consider that people have done it as far back as there were people around mountains or water. But the freediving of today, just as the climbing of today, is a very different sport than its historical antecedents. With this buzz comes the inevitable problems; the posers, the wanna be, those that are threatenned, the exploiters, and confidence peddlers. Back in the 60s and 70s when I climbed you could absolutely depend on male nonclimbers to make a disparaging remark; even worse if they had a female audience.
Those of you who have gone into the archive threads of Deeper Blue know that I have problems with process of the single person record setting dive and the various self appointed governing bodies who put their stamp of validation on such efforts. I think we need to be open to recognizing that people who are not invested in what we do may have valuable information and valid criticisms for us that we may not like. We to separate those from cheap shot artists, the ignorant, and those who have little of value. We to respond in an open dialogue with those who are attempting to communicate in a genuine and meaningful way.
I am not saying that the article or author whose writing initiated this thread had any of this. I have not even read the article. It is important to me that we don't react to or help foster a schism between freediving and scuba. Instead we need to be proactive in how we support freediving. I think we have enough work in our own membership that we need to work on.
Last night, on television, I noticed that there was a one hour show called Deep Dive. Long ago I learned not get my hopes up when I saw a title like this as it usually referred to submersibles, scuba, or aquatic life. So I was excited when the information said that this was show about freedivers. Unfortunately, Mehgan Heany - (I apologize but for the life of me I cannot remember the rest of her name), purportedly the first American recorder holder of an international freediving record (here is another opportunity for the history buffs to go at it) and two friends produced a horribly pretentious, sanctimonious, and narcissitic contrivance of a putative documentary. Their stated purpose was to swim with tiger sharks - MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE GREAT WHITE SHARK (pointed out again and again again) - to prove that these are just misunderstood animals. They want everyone to respect these animals. There rational is that by swimming with them without cages or scuba gear we would see them in a new and respectful way. This would then lead to us a species to quit hunting them out of fear and hatred.
Nice idea it were not so painfully obvious that this was show devoted to the message that these people were wonderful and we were not. We were then treated to such treats as watching Manny Puig (famous for appearing on the television show Amazing People back in the 1980s because he could swim up to wild alligators and pinch the skin under their chins and push them to the surface) swimming after a black bear in a lake, who was trying its damnedest to get away from him as he patted it on the rump, lots of alligator lifting, and shark riding in which he would grab hold and make the shark frantic in an attempt to get away. Meghan explained that Manny has an affinity for pretators and understands them more than anybody else. To further demonstrate this Manny showed us how a grouper could be tormented enough by him to eventually bite his arm. Who woudl have thought that a cornered predator would bite its tormentor?
My personal favorites were Manny explaining to the marine biologist, whose life work is studying shark attacks on humans in the Hawaiian islands, that, "Tiger sharks are smart." Or when visiting with an old surfer who had been attack by a tiger shark while on a paddle board crossing between two islands that, "The ocean is dangerous." Or when Meghan, in heartfelt tones, stated that she lives in balance with nature as she sat on a luxury sailboat that has more square footage than my house and changed from expensive bathing suit to another in just about every scene. I was moved to tears.
All the while Meghan and her cronies waxed rhapsodic about freediving and its vital role in this endeavor.
This not the image of freediving that I have nor the one that I want the sport to have. I shudder to think of all the sensation seekers who will be motivated by this demonstration to go out and torment these animals. But this is an inevitable part of growth. For me I would like us take a proactive approach with a perspective towards the long view. I have faith in the intelligence of people and trust that most people can tell the difference between what is valid and valuable from what is not. We will have some opportunists and exploiters but they will not last. And we have the ulitimate message, Freediving. The beauty and the majesty of freediving will be the voice that is heard best and longest.