I'm Training For My First Freediving Competition

Christine Brophy, freediving, pearl, orato

Freediving is as old as the business of pearl diving (all photos by Christine Brophy).

For me, the thrill of freediving is that it's as close as you can get to being a mammal in the water; it's like being a mermaid.

Christine Brophy , Vancouver, BC

Date Posted: 06/07/07

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My passion for scuba diving began during childhood when I was growing up on Gabriola Island. I've basically been around water my whole life and I've always had an interest in marine life. I kept marine aquariums as a kid and started to scuba dive when I was 14 years old. When I was 20, I took it very seriously and consistently graduated courses until I reached the instructor level. Now I'm an instructor for Rowands Reef Diving shop, on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC.

While I've been scuba diving most of life, freediving is new to me. My boyfriend got me involved in it about a year ago and put me in touch with Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, who's the women's freediving champion of the world. Soon afterwards, I started doing research on the subject. At the diver's weekend, this past January, there was a freediving booth set up. I talked to them about their clinic course, which runs every year for three months and decided then that I would sign up for it. I finished in March and now I've been training twice a week in the pool and in the ocean for my first national competition in August.

For me, the thrill of freediving is that it's as close as you can get to being a mammal in the water; it's like being a mermaid. You just use your lungs, your body and your mind. It's more natural than scuba diving because you're not dependent on equipment. I also like the concentration aspect of it; it really teaches you to be very present and focused. When you're going headfirst into the ocean at deep deaths you have to have a great deal of mental control!

Another aspect that I like is that you're able to appreciate the marine life even more than scuba diving. When I went freediving yesterday, I really noticed how close you can get when approaching the marine life. In scuba diving, you've got all the equipment on and there's the bubbles, so you look pretty alien. In freediving you're silent; you don't move at all because you're holding your breath, so you can get right next to marine life and observe it all on a more interactive, personal level.