Free diving

Watch this deeply moving video (below) of free diving record holder William Trubrudge as he dives without aid to 88 meters (288 feet).

This is a constant weight dive, so he swims down at first until he reaches negative buoyancy and glides down. But, then the hard part, he swims up through endless black water to reach the surface and breathe again.

Here's what he says about his diving, quoted from Deep Blue Home:

I have a relationship with the depths
they beckon me beyond my means
cold dark vacant pressure
forever night, endless dreams

BTW, Julia Whitty of Deep Blue Home is my newly-discovered favorite ocean writer. Her words take me to faraway places and it's a bit of a shock to put down one of her books and realize I'm in land-locked and wintry Switzerland.

About this free dive video, I've never done anything like this enormous feat, although I have toyed around a bit with maximum breath-hold diving so I feel like I can comprehend what he's doing. I've stayed underwater for as long as 3 and a half minutes, but that was barely moving so I conserved my oxygen. I've never wanted to go deep like this, what I like is sitting on the ocean bottom holding a rock in 10 meters of water and trying to imagine being an ocean creature.

Freediving World Record - 88m without fins from william trubridge on Vimeo.

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