Freediver's record breath hold

Guy Brew & Kathryn Nevatt underwater; Photo credit Gemma Cookson

Freedivers from across the country met in Wellington over the weekend for the New Zealand Indoor Freediving Nationals hosted by the Lazy Seal Freediving Club and held at Porirua and Naenae pools. Kathryn Nevatt from the Queenstown Freediving Club took the women's national title with 265.5 points, 10.5 points ahead of the men's champion Guy Brew from Titahi Bay and Wellington's Lazy Seals. Women's second and third were hotly contested by Wellington's new Russian diver Daria Golub who won silver just a couple of meters overall ahead of Gemma Cookson of the Auckland Freediving Club. Men's silver went to Chris Marshall, Wellington, and bronze to Paul Smillie from Palmerston North's Breathtakers Freediving Club.

Nevatt set a new New Zealand record in Static apnea, holding her breath for 7 minutes and 45 seconds while floating face down in the pool, furthing her previous record by 5 seconds. The dive places her 4th in the women's all time world rankings.

The National title is decided by a combination of points over three events held daily Friday to Sunday. In the Dynamics with fins event where divers swim underwater with the assistance of a monofin, ressembling a mermaid's tail, Nevatt equalled her competiiton best with 194m. The final event was dynamic without fins, which is basically underwater breaststroke, where Nevatt achieved 151m. “I'm really pleased with how the weekend went. My dives were enjoyable, it was my first national record in two years and my overall points total was a personal best which will be hard to beat going forward. But one of the beautiful things about freediving is there are no limits, over time your body continues to adapt and you continue to improve, even if the improvements become fewer and further apart as you start to reach your maximum”. Brew completed a 7:35static, 201m dynamic and 127m dynamic without fins. Brew, proves that age does not matter in freediving and continues to compete a high level on the world stage into his 50s. Both Brew and Nevatt are former world champions and Nevatt is a former world record holder.

Freediving is a water-based breath holding sport, essentially snorkelling taken to an extreme. In pool competitions divers attempt dives based on horizontal distance swum underwater (dynamics) and time based breath holds (statics). Depth events are held over summer in open water where divers reach great depths and return on a single breath. The body experiences a Mammalian dive response which allows divers to naturally conserve oxygen due to lowered heart rate, spleen contraction and vasoconstriction, which enables them to hold their breath for long periods of time and emerge still conscious.

Freediving can be dangerous if practiced alone or without proper instruction due to the risk of hypoxic black out, and a course or introductory session with a freediving club is highly recommended. Clubs offer intro evenings for anyone who snorkels, likes the water or just wants to see how long they can hold their breath in a safe environment. For more information find them on Facebook. “Most beginners surprise themselves and can hold their breath between about two and four minutes in their first session. We build them up slowly and the time just disappears, so they’re always surprised when we tell them how long they’ve been under" states Nevatt.

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