Freedive your way to peace of mind

[Mr T.]

Freedive your way to peace of mind

TIM ECOTT
Writing in The Scotsman, 16th July 2005

It LOOKS like a giant version of the hot water tank in my airing cupboard. It is a ten-storey- steel cylinder, nine metres in diameter, filled with comfortably warm, clear water. From the top, it is like looking down into a well.

This is Gosport, near Portsmouth, and I have come to spend a weekend at the Royal Navy's Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT), where they teach sailors how to get out of stricken submarines. For me, it is a unique chance to freedive (or breath-hold dive - swimming underwater on a single breath) in the only such facility in the world available to civilian divers.

A short flight of metal steps allows me to climb down and slip into the water. In the centre a thin steel cable leads to the bottom. I swim over to it, clinging on as I peer down through the water column with my mask.

There are lines and numbers marking off the depth: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and, barely visible, a final line at 30. Thirty metres - 17 times my height and a depth easily attainable wearing scuba gear - suddenly seems a long, long way.

Emma Farrell is my instructor. "Don't think about how deep you can dive," she says calmly. "Just focus on your breathing. Keep it slow, deep and steady. Use your abdomen. Take your time. Go down when you're ready and I'll follow."

I remember the routine we practised at the poolside, closing my eyes to stay relaxed. After four minutes I feel ready, and attempt what I hope is a neat "duck-dive". Hand over hand, I pull myself down the line, pausing every few feet to hold my nose and squeeze air into my ears to equalise the pressure.

The ten-metre line is just there, then I can see 15. I resist the urge to look back towards the surface as I begin to feel the effects of oxygen starvation. Two more pulls on the cable and I am at the 20-metre mark.

A couple more and the 25-metre line is almost within reach. For a moment I am tempted to go for the next line, but the training takes over, and I remember that I have to save some energy to return to the surface, 75 feet above.

I turn around and start kicking with the extra-long fins that freedivers use. At 10 metres Emma is there, watching my face to check for signs of distress. Back on the surface, I breathe deeply and break into a smile. I want to go again, but first I must rest and relax and stop thinking about setting personal records.

"Freediving isn't about record depths," Emma had stressed during the classroom sessions. "It's about extreme silence, mental focus and teaching your body to be flexible."

The other students are a cross-section, none of them with any freediving experience. Jim, in his sixties, is a retired civil servant from the Isle of Skye, Beatrice is a translator from Wales and Kevin is a construction worker from Hampshire. There are also two Australian friends from London, Justin and Marc, who want to hone their skills for spear-fishing. Everyone trains and practises at their own pace.

The SETT is heated to the temperature of the tropical sea, and there are ropes and ladders around the walls that allow divers to hold on and relax between dives. Video cameras are trained on the tank and the instructors can watch the divers from the surface and inside the tank at all times.

Classroom sessions explain the physiology of freediving, and stress the importance of correct breathing techniques to utilise our full lung capacity.

Freediving is said to trigger a physical response in human beings called the "diving reflex", which we share with dolphins and seals. As we immerse our faces in warm water our heartbeat slows and our blood pressure drops.

On Monday morning I wake up after a restful sleep. The physical challenge of the diving was fun, but it is the feeling of immense calm that persists. SM

• Tim Ecott is the author of Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World, £7.99, Penguin Books.

FACT FILE: FREEDIVING

Getting there

• Freediving courses at the Submarine Escape Training Tank in Portsmouth are available from Deeper Blue (0870 950 6589, www.deeperblue.net/courses). The next course is on 10 and 11 September and costs £299 (including access to the SETT, lectures, qualified instructor supervision, diving-equipment hire, a training manual and certification as well as lunch on both days)