Diving is cool, the world underwater is fascinating. Although it is sometimes a hassle to enter the water with all the equipment. Silently, you dream of diving like a dolphin, just taking a breath of air and then dive into the depth. What comes closest to that experience is Freediving. We both have our Level 1 certificate now and it’s been a while since we’ve been freediving. Time to put on the naughty fins again.
We’re joining Blue Immersion and get some guidance from Jakob. The view is good, definitely about 15 meters. I’m doing well with my ears and with the Free Immersion technique (pull yourself down along the line) I easily get to a depth of 10 meter.
The bar is raised, or in this case lowered. The weight is moved down to 15 meters. I go down the rope again and reach my personal record: 15 meters. In the freedive world, this depth is nothing because, for example, Nanja van den Broek has reached 130 meters. But to me, being able to clear my ears and reach that depth means the world. It is possible thanks to the good instructions we had training with Nanja in the Netherlands. After reaching my lowest point, it’s time to practice other things. Constant weight: without hands. With a beautiful duck dive we go down into the depths. Well, diving or even swimming in a swimming pool has never been my strong suit and the duck dive still can be improved somewhat. Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I won’t break my record anymore.
Freediving in the ocean is a lot different than in a swimming pool. It’s nice to see the fish and you’re secretly hoping for a whale shark. According to the stories, such an encounter can really happen, but I have experienced that yet. But you would be surprised by what you see floating in the open ocean in terms of plastic. We take out as much as possible from the water and put the dirty plastic in the buoy. The diving school will be happy with us.
We are happy with Oliver Heldens, who together with Mission Live Foundation organizes the first underwater performance in the world: Dance from the Deep. They do this to raise awareness for the plastic soup. Plastic soup is the most deadly soup there is and yes, that includes Frank’s coconut soup. Oliver will give a show at 40 meters depth! What a hero! With this performance they focus your attention on the fact that something really has to be done on the plastic soup. The solutions can be very simple. E.g., the introduction of deposit money on all kinds of plastic packaging can already prevent a lot of waste production. And there are sufficient reusable alternative products available. We can get our living environment clean again, if we really want.
We wish Oliver a lot of luck! Unfortunately, I can not be in on the action, it’s still too deep for me.
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