Very good article on a very special topic.
If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor/favour and watch the classic movie “The Big Blue” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Blue" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Blue</a><p>Some extra free diving movies: <a href="https://www.freediveacademy.com/best-freediving-movies/" rel="nofollow">https://www.freediveacademy.com/best-freediving-movies/</a>
I was lucky enough to dive Alexey and his mother 15 or so years ago.<p>I was terrified of swimming in open water so only joined the group for a deep dive once and my memories are mostly people talking and laughing on the boat, but I remember feeling crazy when people talked about air control. What do you mean I have to exhale into my mask at a certain depth? And I should inhale it back as I’m coming up? I need to take _too big_ of a breath on the surface so I can distribute it as the pressure increases?<p>With just a little coaching from Alexey’s mother and some encouragement from my family, a high school kid who couldn’t hold his breathe for much more than a minute spent almost 2 minutes underwater and dove to 19 meters on his first day.<p>I’m still terrified of deep water, but I gained a respect for the “weird” sports out there. It’s often a bunch of people just trying to have fun, and sometimes they turn out to be really, really good at what they do.
Alexey is an amazing human! I just took him freediving under the Golden Gate Bridge two weeks ago. <a href="https://instagram.com/freediversf" rel="nofollow">https://instagram.com/freediversf</a>
Great article.<p>Related: a BBC "re-imagining" of his famous mother's final descent.<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07z43ss" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07z43ss</a>