Atlantic Voice: The Halifax Freediving Club

Everyone has tried to hold their breath for as long as they can. Perhaps as a challenge with your friends or to see if you can swim underwater for the the length of a pool.

Few of us can manage much more than a minute. But a growing sport in Nova Scotia encourages people to push the limits of breath-holding. It's called freediving and as its name suggests, it means diving into the ocean free of scuba gear and air tanks and staying underwater for minutes at a time.

Tara Lapointe is a member of the Halifax Freediving Club. Formed just two years ago, it has a core group of 25 members. 

"It's very peaceful under the water," she said. "It's almost like a dreamlike state. You know, the way that the sea life and vegetation flows with the waves. It's just awe-inspiring to be down there."

90 seconds just the beginning

To be certified as a freediver, you take a course that teaches you how to override your body's natural urge to breathe. To pass the course, you need to be able to hold your breath for 90 seconds. But that's just the beginning. It didn't take Lapointe long to set a Nova Scotia record.

"I held my breath for four minutes and eight seconds. Now, free diving is a very new sport in Nova Scotia so there was no record to beat. But I was able to set a record and hopefully that'll encourage a good spirit of competition out here."

Competition is a big part of freediving. The roots of the sport go back thousands of years to when people dove deep to find pearls, sponges and food. It's a practice still followed in Japan, where female pearl divers, known as ama, continue to teach their ancient tradition to new generations of divers.

Today, freediving is organized, high-tech and imbued with a spirit of danger that attracts the kind of people who favour extreme sports.

Some of the records are extraordinary. Spanish freediver Aleix Segura holds the Guinness world record for the longest breath-hold. After breathing pure oxygen, he held his breath for 24 minutes and three seconds. That's a record that some freedivers don't like: they prefer to breathe just regular air. And the single-breath record on air is a still-remarkable 11 minutes and 54 seconds.

Plenty of mystery

Dr. Anthony Bain is an assistant professor of human kinetics at the University of Windsor. He's a cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory physiologist who works with some of the world's top freedivers to learn about the impact of extreme breath-holding on their bodies.

Just how they do that, is still a bit of a mystery.

"I guess the short answer is we still don't really know. But a lot of it just comes down to mind over matter."

Part of the reason we can hold our breath for so long and dive so deep is a hangover from our evolutionary origins in the ocean. Bain says that deep inside us, we retain something in common with water-mammals like whales and seals.

"One of the most interesting things we found is how the human body is really able to harness the mammalian dive response and how this seems to be heightened in these elite free divers.

"So in particular, they're able to shunt their blood, their oxygen-rich blood, towards the more essential organs. So the heart and the brain in particular. Also another thing, they're able to slow their metabolism. So just like a Weddell seal does when it goes down for a long dive. So these elite freedivers are able to conserve oxygen use by not using as much."

The world's top freedivers train constantly to push their bodies to new limits of time and depth. The deepest recorded dive is 214 metres.

Always pushing limits

Until recently, scientists thought such depths were impossible for an unprotected human body and that the water pressure would collapse the lungs and crush the rib cage. It took freedivers pushing the limits to prove them wrong.

But deep diving can still be dangerous.

Some of the world's top freedivers have lost their lives underwater, among them 53-year-old Russian diver Natalia Molchanova. She has been hailed by many as the greatest freediver of all time, setting multiple records. She still holds the women's breath-holding record, at nine minutes and two seconds. But she never surfaced from a deep dive off Spain in 2015 and her body was never recovered.

Most freedivers are not interested in pursuing such extreme challenges. Lapointe finds joy in the tranquillity of the ocean.

"It's quiet, it's dark, and there's a sense of peace there. And it's just you and your own experience and it feels like time stops. And then I do want to stay on the bottom when I'm down there. I don't want to come back up. But rational brain kicks in and you only have so much oxygen and then it's time, time to leave that behind."

Excitement, fear

She also speaks of the addictive nature of the experience, of wanting to come back to the ocean again and again. But she also recognizes that her relationship with the ocean is a blend of relaxation, risk and respect.

"There is always, you know, a sense of excitement, a little bit of fear there when you push yourself a little further and then relaxation into that when you realize, wow, I can accomplish that."

There's no doubt that many people are attracted to the sport precisely because it encourages people to learn their limits, then push them a little further. Members of the Halifax Freediving Club have already travelled to national and international competitions and have set records they hope will inspire others to take up the sport and write their own names into the record books.