UAE | Leisure
Free-diving to a healthy living
There is a lot more to free-diving than just holding your breath under water and once you learn the right way to do it, it can open up a whole new world to you for underwater photography, spear fishing, or just moving comfortably under water.
- By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 March 24, 2007
- Static apnea is just one aspect of free-diving. Champion free-divers Farrell and Lise-Haith give a presentation on the sport at the Boat Show.
- Image Credit: Karl Jeffs/Gulf News
Dubai: There is a lot more to free-diving than just holding your breath under water and once you learn the right way to do it, it can open up a whole new world to you for underwater photography, spear fishing, or just moving comfortably under water.
Emma Farrell, 33, British and one of the world's leading free-diving instructors and one of only 10 Instructor Trainers in the world, believes that free-diving, when done properly can be healthy and help with breathing problems or panic attacks.
"It helps you control your breathing. If you do it safely it can be healthy. It invigorates every cell of your body with oxygen," she said, adding that everyone can do it with practice.
Demonstration
Speaking at the Dive Middle East Exhibition last week, shoulder deep in water and demonstrating static apnea - timed breath holding and lying flat and relaxed on the water surface - with Dubai Ladies Free-diving Champion Sarah Lise Haith, Farrell explained to a crowd of enthusiasts the technicalities of breath holding.
"You should always do this with a buddy. There is a countdown to each breath-hold and during the breath hold the buddy will tap the diver every 30 to 15 seconds to which they respond by lifting their finger - that way we maintain contact and can monitor that they don't fall unconscious," said Farrell.
Farrell started free-diving seven years ago. Her record for breath-holding is four minutes and 30 seconds and the maximum depth she has reached on one breath was 40 metres. "I basically held my breath all the way down and all the way back up again, it took about one minute and 15 seconds. I swam down with a monofin. I have a below average lung capacity for a woman but, Sarah, who has a personal record of over five minutes has a great lung capacity for a woman," she said.
"I know three people who can hold their breath for more than 10 minutes but the men's world record is about nine minutes and 47 seconds and the women's world record is seven minutes and 30 seconds," said Farrell.
Techniques
She has taught actor Terence Stamp free-diving and after her spell in Dubai she is heading off to Greece to teach Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzy, to free-dive as part of a television programme.
Free-diving is not essentially about depth although for some people it can be a challenge they set themselves.
Static apnea is just one level of free-diving and Farrell is confident that after a 30-minute lesson she can get anybody to hold breath for 1 to 2 minutes.
"The most difficult thing is to think about something other than 'I'm just lying here holding my breath', you need to be totally relaxed," she said.
Presentation
Emma Farrell will be giving an on-land presentation about free-diving and breath holding during the next Emirates Diving Association social meet on March 24 at the Godolphin Ballroom, Emirates Towers. For more info contact 04 393 9390 or log on to www.emma-freediver.co.uk or www.pynto.com/onebreath.
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