The Blue Layer: Free Diving

In the modern everyday world, silence is rare. Cars, people, phones, and everyday background noise rattle our eardrums every hour, of every day of our lives. To those who are lucky enough to be able to hear (and it is without a doubt a privilege), the world is a constant sympathy of sounds. Constantly changing, intensifying, moulding the way we take in information and engage in every day life. But isn't it nice sometimes to be quiet?

To almost step out of the world of reality, leaving social media, traffic, talking and the constant hum of un-identifiable noise behind. To float effortless in almost another dimension, suspended in silence with the only sound your own heart slowly thumping away behind a cage of ribs. Sounds like fiction? Well fortunately the secret lies just off shore, off your local beach.

I lie flat on my back, motionless, about two metres from the bottom. Fins outstretched, I lie with my hands on my stomach looking at the other side of the surface. An ever moving crystal ceiling scatters rays of light over the sea floor, reflecting off the glass of my mask. Small waves on the surface cause dark fingers to strafe the sea floor, clinging to rocks and weeds with long fingertips, only to melt away as the golden light returns. Male Wrasse chase females between rocks and fronds of kelp dance in the current. All illuminated with he chandelier of natural light. I feel my diaphragm begin to pulse harder as my body tells me I need to realise the CO2 I've been slowly building up. This is an evolutionary warning and doesn't actually mean you need air, just your body panicking. I leisurely pull my legs to my chest and arch my back so I'm sitting upright, I then push down and my fins shift a layer of sand out from under me as I drift up to the surface. As I break the surface, my lungs relax as I inhale the air my body craves. The sound of waves, boats, people on the beach comes back, I leave my quiet watery paradise once again.

Free diving is the activity of diving without any equipment like scuba tanks, the only air you have the the air in your lungs. It's a physical and mental exercise that can often improve physical and mental health. It's two sides of a coin; one side you are trying to calm yourself and your body to a meditative state, to slow your body to a point where you use the least oxygen possible, and the other to physically push yourself to go deeper or stay there for longer. Or to find a fish working hunting for dinner or finding something worth photographing.

The use of scuba equipment, although fun and useful, does add an extra element to an afternoons swim. Free diving for me is the purest way to interact with the ocean, relying on nothing but you (and maybe a wet suit depending where you live). Interacting with nature, although briefer then using scuba equipment, is more natural and I feel more rewarding. This can be said for photography, each photo you take you have worked for and it makes the process more personal and memorable. Another advantage with free diving, over scuba diving is there isn't a constant stream of bubbles erupting from your regulator, alerting fish to your presence. Free diving I have generally snuck up to fish and taken a good few photos before they have seen I'm there. I have learnt everything I know from good friends who have been kind enough to take time out of their spearfishing missions to show me the ropes, and I would recommend this is the best way of learning. There are also plenty of instructional videos online but always make you go with someone as this is a sport where the results of making a mistake are large. But knowing your limits and having the proper training means this is a sport that you will quickly fall in love with.

Whether it is simply for fun, relaxation, getting to a photography subject or finding a meal, free diving is a great activity for anyone who wants to learn more about their bodies capabilities and accessing a world that not many people get to experience.