Oxygen
Page 27
The sea has changed me, and I continue to change. I believe that the day we stop striving to evolve, or stop considering ourselves as beginners in all things, is the day when our bones really do begin to turn to coral.
I continue to train. The depths still beckon me. On that dive in 2016, when I turned 102 metres down, although my eyes were closed I could feel the pull of untold volumes of water yet below me.
What am I still chasing, one might ask, in that submerged realm? Shakespeare spoke of the lure of ‘unpathed waters, undreamed shores’. If George Mallory, who perished somewhere near the summit of Everest in 1924, had been a freediver, he would have justified himself with the words ‘because it’s everywhere’. My first teacher, Umberto Pelizzari, dived to ‘look inside’. These concepts have all rung true for me, too. As did the insight of the elderly Bahamian lady who was asked why she thought I dived, and replied: ‘He wants to see what he is.’
I don’t have to go deep — sometimes I dive just to be, as Mervyn Peake says, ‘at one with every swarm of lime-green fish, with every coloured sponge’. Long after my final record or my final competition dive, I will continue to frequent that ‘world of wavering light’ where it all began, for me and for life as we know it.
I dive to go home.
PHOTOS SECTION
On the bow of Hornpipe with Sam (middle) and our mother, Linda, during our crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, 1982. The sea was our family’s means of transport, our source of protein, our playground and our classroom.
Hornpipe at anchor in Sandbank Bay, St Kitts, soon after reaching the Caribbean, 1982. The sturdy steel-hulled 45-foot vessel that was to become my childhood home was built in Brisbane and named after an English sailor’s dance.
Climbing a coconut tree in Tonga, 1985. By the age of five I could shin up a coconut tree or the wooden mast of a friend’s boat.
The day of our arrival in New Zealand, sailing downwind towards the Bay of Islands. When we arrived, in the spring of 1985,I had no memories of a climate that wasn’t tropical. Woollen sweaters knitted by our grandmother were itchy, and the water was cold and murky.
Asleep in a shallow stream in Baie de Prony, New Caledonia, 1988. After living in New Zealand, Sam and I resumed our days of snorkelling and island-exploring as if we had never left the tropics.
Paddling an outrigger canoe with some new friends in Udine Bay, Efate, Vanuatu, 1988. We often traded fish we had caught trawling or spearfishing with the locals’ crops of fruit and vegetables.
Descending towards 82 metres in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, September 2006. My body was still recovering from the effects of ciguatera poisoning, long travel and jet lag. (Louisa Jane)
Disappointment after my second unsuccessful world record attempt in Egypt. Linda (left) travelled from New Zealand for the event, and it was her first experience watching me freedive.
Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas. At 202 metres of depth, it is the second deepest Blue Hole in the world and provided the perfect location for my 2007 world-record attempt.
The crew of the 82 metre Constant Weight No Fins world record in May 2007. Standing from left: Mike Lott, Paul Heinerth, Charlie Beede, Nic Rowan, Dimitris Vassilakis, Michael Trousdell, Brian Kakuk, Tyler Zetterstrom, Karoline Meyer.
Preparing for a world record attempt dive without fins. (Paolo Volenti)
Playing with an Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella frontalis) in the waters of Bimini, Bahamas. (Peter Zuccarini)
Ascending from a Free Immersion world record attempt, watched by safety divers Stephen Keenan (left) and Roberto Berto (right). (Daan Verhoeven)
Celebrating with the crew after the 100-metre world record in December 2010. From left in the water: Nic Rowan, Charlie Beede, William Trubridge, Brian Pucella, Alfredo Romo. Standing on the platform: Tomas Ardavany (Paolo Volenti)
Performing Uddiyana Bandha (diaphragmatic introflexion) on Ocean Beach, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The yogic texts talk about experiencing the body as the thin stem of a lotus flower. (Richard Robinson)
Descending by monofin in the waters of Messinian Bay, Greece, 2013. After the success of 2008, I felt that if I could make friends with the monofin, learning to use and feel it as an extension of my legs, then the world record in that discipline would be within my reach also. (Daan Verhoeven)
With Sachiko Fukumoto in the warm water of Roatan, Honduras, 2016. The only thing better than discovering the underwater world is sharing it with someone else. (Lia Barrett)
Freefalling into Dean’s Blue Hole in the purest discipline of freediving: Constant Weight No Fins. I still recall with clarity the morning that I walked onto the beach and came face-to-face for the first time with that lens of deep blue water in the corner of the sandy lagoon. (Igor Liberti)
At Kanchenjunga base camp in the Himalayas, with Sam and our father, David, 2015. The shade that fringes the icy contours of those mountains is the blue of the open ocean if, when ascending from a dive and still far from the surface, you look sideways across into liquid space.
Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, January 2017. (Richard Robinson)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No one operates in a vacuum, and just as we acquire the tools of our predecessors we also share the advances of our peers. It’s unlikely that there is a single freediver — whether training partner, crew member or competitor — who I have dived alongside and not learned from in some way.
So for everyone, named or unnamed, who has been part of this unfolding journey, I extend my gratitude for your contribution.
In particular, I have to thank both my agent, Jason Chambers, who made the writing of this story possible, and Marc Laureano, who has been relentlessly on my case to put pen to paper, and to whom I finally ceded!
Everyone at HarperCollins has done a terrific job with shepherding me towards the finish line of my first book, and I am indebted especially to Alex Hedley for his gentle and respectful guidance, as well as Teresa McIntyre for her assiduous editorial skills, against which my blundering grammar proved no match.
Michael and Frances Trousdell, Georgina Miller, Daan Verhoeven and Pamela Holtzman all gave me invaluable feedback during the drafting phase, and coaxed me through some of the more delicate areas of writing.
And my final, deepest thank you has to be to my family, Linda, David and Sam, who inspired me with their own writings as well as helped to fill the countless holes in my leaky memory.
GLOSSARY
AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea): the organisation created in 1992 that regulates freediving competitions and world record attempts.
AP (Announced Performance): the target depth in metres, declared by a freediver typically the day before competing. The bottom plate with tags will be set to this exact depth for their dive, and it cannot be altered or exceeded. Freedivers submit their AP in secret, and don’t find out what their competitors will attempt until the Official Top times list is released by the organiser.
apnea: in freediving, a voluntary breath-hold, typically performed underwater.
breathe-up: the preparatory phase before a freedive begins, during which the freediver is relaxed and concentrating on a specific breathing style or pattern.
counterballast: the system used in freediving to retrieve freedivers attached with a lanyard to the dive line. The counterballast weight is attached to the end of the rope opposite the bottom plate, and is much heavier than the weight used to weigh down the competition line. If it is released then it will drop down and pull the entire competition line, and the freediver, quickly to the surface.
CNF (Constant Weight No Fins): the discipline in which the freediver swims down and up, relying only on their own body for propulsion, and usually swimming with a kind of adapted underwater breaststroke. He or she cannot touch the rope (other than once at the bottom). Any weight worn as ballast must remain constant. The men’s world record is currently 102 metres, while the women’s world record is 72 metres.
CO2 (Carbon Dioxid
e): a naturally occurring gas waste product that results from human respiration, building up in the lungs and triggering the urge to breathe.
CWT (Constant Weight): the discipline in which the freediver swims down and up, wearing fins or a monofin, but cannot touch the rope (other than once at the bottom). Any weight worn as ballast must remain constant. The men’s world record is currently 129 metres, while the women’s world record is 104 metres.
DNF (Dynamic No Fins): the pool discipline, in which the freediver swims horizontally as far as possible on one breath, without fins or any other propulsive aid. The men’s world record is currently 244 metres, while the women’s world record is 185 metres.
DYN (Dynamic Apnea): the pool discipline, in which the freediver swims horizontally as far as possible on one breath, using fins or a monofin for propulsion. The men’s world record is currently 300 metres, while the women’s world record is 237 metres.
exhale static apnea: as for static apnea, but the breath is held after an exhale (i.e. with near empty lungs). This is normally a training exercise only.
FIM (Free Immersion): the discipline in which the freediver uses a weighted dive rope to pull themselves down to maximum depth and back to the surface. Fins are not allowed and, as for the other depth disciplines, any ballast worn must remain constant. The men’s world record is currently 124 metres, while the women’s world record is 92 metres.
grouper call/signal: the noise made in the back of the throat that mimics a grouper fish, and is typically used by safety divers to signal to freedivers when they have reached a certain depth in their ascent.
hook-breath (‘hook’): a technique of recovery breaths for after a freedive, with a pause and squeeze of the exhalatory muscles after the inhale, designed to return oxygen to the cerebral bloodstream quickly.
hypoxia: low concentrations of oxygen in bodily tissues, especially the blood.
hyperbaria: pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level, for example when underwater.
hypercapnia: high concentrations of carbon dioxide in bodily tissues.
lanyard: the safety device worn by freedivers as a way of tethering themselves to the dive line, so in the event of an emergency they can be retrieved by pulling the dive line to the surface.
lactic acidosis: a build-up of lactic acid in the tissues, due to prolonged anaerobic activity.
lift bag: a canvas bag that can be inflated at depth (e.g. from a scuba tank exhaust valve) in order to provide buoyancy and bring someone or something to the surface.
narcosis (‘narced’): in freediving, the state of drowsiness, euphoria or confusion caused by the high pressure in the bloodstream of certain gases (typically carbon dioxide and nitrogen).
negative buoyancy: when the diver weighs more than the amount of water they displace, and will naturally sink in the water column.
neutral buoyancy: when the diver’s weight is equal to the amount of water they displace, and they will remain at the same depth in the water column. In freediving this typically occurs at a depth of 10–20 metres, when the lungs have been compressed to ½–⅓ of their size on the surface.
Official Top time: the scheduled time of day after which a freediver has 30 seconds to begin their performance.
packing (glossopharyngeal breathing): a technique that uses the mouth like a pump to force extra air into the lungs after a full inhale.
positive buoyancy: when the diver weighs less than the amount of water they displace, and will naturally rise in the water column.
pranayama: the yogic practice of regulating the breath through certain techniques and exercises.
rebreather: a breathing system for technical diving, where the exhaled gas is recirculated through a device worn on the back that removes the carbon dioxide and adds additional oxygen.
samba: the name used by freedivers to describe an LMC (Loss of Motor Control), which is the hypoxic state that precedes a blackout, and results in involuntary shaking of the head and arms. So named for the samba dance that the shaking resembles.
static apnea: the pool discipline, in which the freediver attempts to hold their breath for as long as possible while their airways are submerged underwater. It is typically performed while floating face down in a pool, and the best times in competition exceed nine minutes for both men and women.
SP (Surface Protocol): the task that the freediver must perform after surfacing in order to validate a competition dive. In AIDA rules, the SP is described as follows:
After resurfacing the athlete must:
1. Remove ALL facial equipment (mask, goggles and nose clip).
2. Give 1 visible ‘okay’-sign to the judge.
3. Give 1 verbal ‘okay’ to the judge by saying ‘I’m okay’ or ‘I am okay’.
All the above items must be done in this specific order within 15 seconds of resurfacing, without any cues from the jury or officials.
sled diving: the mostly obsolete method of breath-hold diving, using a weighted sled to descend to maximum depth, and possibly a lift bag to return to the surface.
REFERENCES
Sam Harris, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion, Simon & Schuster, 2015
Jacques Mayol, Homo Delphinus: The Dolphin within Man, Idelson-Gnocchi, 2000
Adam Skolnick, One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits, Crown Archetype, 2016
Linda Trubridge, Passages, 2018 (forthcoming)
EPIGRAPHS
Lord Byron, The Two Foscari: An Historical Tragedy, John Murray, 1821
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Time, 28 March 1960
Harold Geneen
Hectometer, Matthew Brown (director) and William Trubridge (producer), 2011
Dalai Lama
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Richard Bentley, 1851
Swami Nikhilananda (trans), The Gospel of Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942
Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1946
Umberto Pelizzari, in Ocean Men: Extreme Dive, Bob Talbot (director) and Mose Richards (producer), 2001
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New Zealander WILLIAM TRUBRIDGE has reached depths never thought possible on the precipice of low oxygen. In a sport where failure usually means blacking out, it is a freediver’s daily life to contend with suffocation, narcosis, hallucinations, lactic acidosis, compressed lungs, and immense water-column pressure – all while diving into depths of ink black ocean.
Exquisitely written, Oxygen is a mind-altering and immersive coming-of-age story about a boy who grew up on a sailing boat, with the sea his classroom and playground. It is about fighting the trappings of life on land, and pushing the limits of human physiology, to become the world’s greatest freediver.
COPYRIGHT
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2017
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
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Copyright © William Trubridge 2017
William Trubridge asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. This work is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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