Freediving Blog

To fully understand and appreciate where I am and where I am heading, I need to go somewhere, another world another place, and return. This has me challenge and question what I think I know. [...]

It was this time last year when I was in a remote Bedouin fishing settlement of the Sinai with guru Rowan Gillies, who asked me, “How long is your life?”. I didn’t know what [...]

All men who have turned out worth anything have had a chief hand in their own education. -Sir Walter Scott Today I’m 34 years old, so I’ve decided to spend a bit of time doing something I love [...]

One of the most magical things about freediving is it changes the way you view hardness. When you freedive, in a way you emulate water, allowing the soft water to override the hardness of your [...]

I freedived to 72 meters today which didn’t go as expected but was certainly an opportunity for growth and fulfillment in every direction. I guess I can’t win ’em all. [...]

I repeated the 70 meter freedive today and what success. The thing I like most about repeating dives is that the more I repeat the thoughts and the actions, the stronger, easier and more [...]

I freedived to 70 meters (230 ft) today, a depth I have yet to confront for a long time. Was it the easiest dive? No. Was it manageable? Yes, most definitely. I’ve been avoiding / denying [...]

Two meters deeper, four meters away from a personal best (not that that matters so much but still is very exciting!!) and in many ways surprisingly easier than any of my dives in the past. The [...]

From one extreme to the other. Yesterday – super challenging dive with contractions and strong urge to breathe throughout the dive. Today – same depth, actually a little deeper, solid [...]

I did an awesome dive today, which is funny actually. Truly my first thoughts this morning after doing some empty lung stretching was “God, I can’t hold my breath at all today, how am [...]

Not the easiest dive today but hey that’s ok! Freediving isn’t always easy and it isn’t always supposed to be easy, actually when I think about it, nothing worthwhile comes [...]

Super grateful for a beautiful dive today, my mind, body and spirit were all fully tapped into the flow state so the depth arrived naturally and easily. I enjoyed every second of it feeling full [...]

Relaxing isn’t something that comes naturally for me. My mentality has been programmed from a young age to keep going, to keep focused on forward progress towards achieving my goals… [...]

I read this excerpt “Imagine” by Ralph Marston today and it resonated with me, with every cell in my body. A designer at heart, I’ve always tried to design my life exactly the [...]

I find that some days are more beautiful without clear blue skies and a sun shining brightly, with the wind feeling good as it blows against my skin, I feel a sense of hope and wonder being that [...]

It has been what feels like forever since I last wrote a journal post, and I apologize for that. I let all of you, as well as myself down, when I allow so much time between posts. I spent time [...]

I’m excited to be training again with the Saint Raphael Apnee Club!! Being that I am spending most of my time catching-up on computer work these days, I really look forward to our Tuesday [...]

It has been over a week since I last freedived. Not being able to do the sport I’ve been addicted to for years and being restricted to rest, rest and, well, more rest, and not doing any exercise [...]

Why Do We Freedive? Anyone who has been freediving for a while has probably been asked the question, why? Usually it comes from concerned parents or loved ones back home, as soon as you progress [...]

Just because the whiteboard was 75% empty does not imply that this dynamic apnea training was not 100% full-on! Thursday night I was a bit under the weather, but I certainly was not going to miss [...]

Today is day seven, I'm to do dynamic apnea tonight with the Saint Raphael Apnee Club. My hamstrings and shoulders are sore morning from yesterday's yoga workout, but I'm getting accustomed to [...]

My swimming training program for freediving with interval & sprint swimming. This develops the endurance and velocity needed for freediving.

Training day two and day three with home workouts that train aerobic fitness and weight training. Perfect for freediving physical preparation.

After enjoying fine cheeses and delicious wines in the French Riviera, freediving in near freezing waters of Annecy Lake, seeing the beautiful green hillsides alongside snowcapped mountains in [...]

Being an avid freediver, water lover and creative type, I’ve arranged a collection of underwater photos to recall and share my earliest underwater experiences in Africa. The photos were taken [...]

It was 6:15 am when my alarm went off on August 25th, 2016, the first day of the 5th annual RedCcup competition. The day before, I had announced a 55 meter constant weight dive, which was [...]

Last training day before the competition, I woke up rested yet sleepy at the same time, I'd fallen asleep while listening to Erick Brown's Sports Hypnosis audiobook which had plunged me into a [...]

Today was the last day training free-immersion before the RedCcup competition, which would begin in three days. The session was to be a test run, to go through the same sequence I would on comp day […]

Was quite cold this training, as the patched hole in the right arm of my suit had opened, allowing a stream of water to flow into my suit. A chill in the entire right side of my body had me [...]

Breathing-up, I noticed tension along the small of my back and the upper part of my legs, I tried to relax and focus on my breathing... "long exhales" I reminded myself. Then, when ready, I took [...]

Feeling stiff and unflexible in my 5mm wetsuit, I walked to the edge of the water with monofin in hand. I maneuvered around groups of dazed, snorkeling tourists, and stepped my way through pebbly [...]

Woke up 7:15, feeling rested and strong, happy to have finally defeated the cold which plagued me for weeks 😀 The day started-out in the usual way… walked straight from my bed to the [...]

Woke up tired today, I slept little and we started diving one hour earlier in order to avoid the crowds and get back sooner to work. During my morning meditation, I noticed my mind was having [...]

I lean back to float Upon the still, bright sea Weightless and suspended Ready to break free Waves cradle my body In this place between two worlds One of breathless skylit air The other clear [...]

Deep in the ocean blue I’m alone with my thoughts, Sinking into an abyss Falling towards the edge of something… A desolate path But I travel it anyway Part of me wants to turn back [...]

Free-falling in Dahab’s Blue Hole, drifting effortlessly into the deep, I stare straight ahead, mesmerizingly at the line slipping past, alone with myself and my thoughts, focusing on relaxing, [...]

I‘m frozen, captivated by the giant, fluctuating mercurial creature before me, which appears to be dissolving into itself. The receding layered tenticals and a silken membrain coasts, radiantly [...]

I ascend from the ocean floor, Through shafts of wondrous sunlight. My mind dabbles in a state of pleasure, And in marvelous rebellion. Defying mind, breath and pressure, I’m enveloped, In a [...]

Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. – ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI (DISCOVERER OF VITAMIN C) I approach a superb and mystical universe, rippling with [...]

There is a silence to the wind as a motionless dhow with a dusty sail is consumed in the misty blue of the Indian Ocean. Dark clouds roll over and this spec upon the swaying sea, held captive by [...]

Breath Hold Exercises to Improve Your Freediving Why do dry breath-hold training? Breath hold exercises increase the amount of time the body can sustain apnea by improving ventilation, [...]

Nothing is more fantastic than free-diving in the waters of my own beautiful homeland. Floating face down on the surface of Walden Pond, in the world I forcibly left behind, instructor, Nick [...]

Face to face, in depths quite deep, we stare squarely into the other’s eyes, It is there where we see everything, where we achieve reality, and share in it’s kind existence. From a world full of [...]

The sea falls down around me, then lifts me to the top of a coral wall. I gaze at the underwater landscape, a scene where novelty never declines, and am caught in a metamorphosis. The world [...]

Landing on Pemba Island feels as though we’ve been catapulted backward in time. Apart from the occasional new model vehicle, it could easily be the 1960’s. Retro architecture juxtaposes the [...]

As the sun rays shine through, blue chromis viridis fish shimmer in the shifting shadows. I look at them, glinting and teaming with life, before remembering where I am. I inquire. The goal; to [...]

An underwater wall, of endless coral cities, silty textures and pastels, cradled by warm currents and vibrant fish galore. The scene of the fathom deep, beckons me, a butterfly fish shoal [...]

Nearby is no one, while I descend, into the blue void below me. The mossy mooring, my only visual reference into the darkening, silty depth. I coast deeper into the shifting play of light, [...]

I arrive at the emerald warrior of the sea, launched from its fortress of sand and stone with threatening fists of lightning, hovering humbly in readiness for a punch. Decorated with segmented, [...]

From ledge to ledge and reef to reef, I move slowly in the watery deep, where depth robs colors on descent and ancient rocks fade in silence. I pause and hover to gaze at a pufferfish, swimming [...]

It takes a swift break from his scurry as I approach, the fancy face and frisked up forearms, brave and motionless for the camera. In the shallows of a glinting grey ocean, the gleaming creature [...]

I‘m captured and held in place… a small, yet dazzling black saddle toby juxtaposed against a backdrop of unpolished coral. The ocean’s offering at the tail end of an adventurous drift dive off [...]

Submerged under a reef of coral with a tantalizing Moorish Idol. Now I get it, I really get why the Moors were glad to call this fish their own. The water flashes with a compressed body of black, [...]

The unrealized beauty and behavior of a shrimp, filmed during a night dive in Dar es Salaam. Fluorescent orange eyes glow in the distance and shuffle deeper into the sand as I get closer. I [...]

As daylight breaks over sleepy Bagamoyo’s coast, tired eyes open to greet a rare and glorious day. A break from weeks baring burdened clouds of mournful grey, we forge through crisp, foam waves, [...]

A lionfish, unquestionably one of the most photogenic fish in the sea, with an eccentric, gaudy profile, elaborate, vibrant stripes and a cantankerous, unhurried demeanor, glides along the reef [...]

Dark shapes emerge from the underwater shadows and glide like underwater kites, curiously toward me. Each batfish slips rhythmically sideways, this way and that, fluttering ever so gracefully. [...]