Diving Without Boundaries

“Shouts of ‘Breathe! Breathe! Breathe!’ pierced the tropical air and echoed off the limestone precipice around Dean’s Blue Hole, a vertical cavern plunging 66 feet, a cobalt blue pool of seawater surrounded by crystal-clear shallows and white sand,” New York Times journalist Tammy Kennon describes. “The freediver New Zealander William Trubridge held his breath for more than four minutes to set a record at Dean’s Blue Hole. ‘Freediving might be considered extreme, because it takes place in an environment hostile to the human body, but at the same time, it is peaceful, natural and pure,’ said Trubridge, a world-champion freediver and trainer. Freedivers say their most critical skill is emotional control, the ability to stay calm and relaxed. ‘I try not to think,’ Trubridge said of his technique, borrowed from yoga. ‘I concentrate on the spaces between the thoughts. There are no limits other than those we impose on ourselves. There are no boundaries.’”