Day Three

Up until now we had been freediving, today would be dedicated to static apnea... or holding your breath for as long as possible without moving.

It began again in the classroom. Monica was the most relaxed person I have ever seen in the water, she seemed like she belonged there. On land she was calm, quiet, strong and graceful. Eusebio on the other hand didn't really sit still, was always grinning and was into competitive balloon inflating -- static apnea was definitely his thing. Monica retired to the balcony with a book and a cup of tea. But I'm with Eusebio, seeing how long you can make anything is definitely a boy thing that women just don't understand, usually they tut and roll their eyes. Sometimes they even sigh.

Static apnea takes a totally different physiology and techniques. In freediving we need the warning signs of CO2 buildup to signal that it is time to ascend so that we do not get a ppO2 that is made artificially high by water pressure, only to drop through the floor on ascent. Static apnea is done at ambient pressure so the risk is much lower, but still there. In freediving, the blood needs to be acidic for these warning signals to occur, in static apnea it needs to be alkali to deliberately switch the warnings off.

In the classroom we start off by taking a breath and holding it to see how long we can manage. Shona gets 45s, I get about a minute. "Welcome the contractions," Eusebio says. When you hold your breath, eventually the spleen starts to contract in spasms, releasing extra red blood cells with every contraction. The more contractions you have, the more efficient your breath holding becomes. Top freedivers, he explains, can have many, many contractions. When they start, he advises, you should welcome them because it means your body is working better. Count them as they give a good indication of how much longer you can hold out.

To see how long it takes for contractions to start he gets us to hold our breath again with our t-shirts pulled up. This is not good, not only can I only hold my breath for a pathetically short time but my belly is white, hairy and, since I haven't done any exercise in six weeks, there is maybe more of it than there should be. I took a breath, everything went grey and swirly and I knew I was going to pass out. I exhaled, coughing, gasping for breath. Not good at all.

Eusebio then takes us through more breathing exercises. Never hyperventilate is the golden rule taught on the first day, however these exercises are like mild hypervetilation designed to lower the body's CO2 levels but are not as extreme as real hyperventilation, there should still be enough of a CO2 threshold to delay the warnings before the ppO2 level drops too far. After this we try breath holds in various positions to see what difference it makes and to see how much faster the contractions come.

The other aspect of static apnea is relaxation. Keeping the mind calm and clear is important. The brain consumes huge amounts of oxygen so keeping it in a switched off state can lower the demands it makes. Focusing on the heartbeat or contractions, exploring a pleasant childhood memory, singing a song or as Eusebio recommends, just letting your mind drift and take its own direction. Stress or being excited also has physiological effects, increasing blood pressure and pulse, this also consumes more oxygen and should be eliminated too. For relaxation the eyes are kept closed and no watch is worn but as the apnea gets longer, he tells us, you should open your eyes towards the end to make sure that everything is alright and that you aren't feeling the onset of a blackout.

As mentioned earlier, the pH of the blood is important on which type of apnea you are doing. Static requires alkaline blood, freediving requires acidic. Food and nutrition can have a big effect on the blood pH and can be used to advantage. Before a static apnea attempt the diver should eat alkaline foods. Surprisingly, superficially acidic foods like citrus fruit and some vinegars actually make the body alkaline, as do vegetables. Meat and pasta have the opposite effect, making the body acidic, and should be eaten in the run up to freediving. "The best thing for static apnea is a nice salad," explained Eusebio and with a grin added, "but it's got to be nice. It won't work if it isn't nice". All tyoes of freediving produce free radicals in the body so taking an antioxidant supplement is very important after freediving.

"So what are you going to have for lunch?" asked Eusebio.

I'd scoffed a huge trough of noodles for breakfast, I hadn't thought about it. Doh! Wrong answer.

"A nice salad," answered Shona smugly.

So after a nice salad we met again at Sairee beach at sunset. It was easy to see why he chose this site, a beautiful white sand beach ending at black rocks and palm trees on one side and the bright blue sea on the other with the pink sky and red sun above. We put on our wetsuits and got into the warm water and started with some facial immersion breathing (with no mask) whilst kneeling on the sand to stimulate the mammalian diving reflex. After a few minutes of this we started the breathe up. This began with diaphragm only breathing, five seconds in, five out for a minute or two. Then full lungs, five seconds in, five seconds out, shortening to four seconds in and four out. We put on our masks, Eusebio counted us down and on his signal we took a final breath and fell forward into the sea.

This was one of the most relaxing sensations I have felt. Actually, there was no sensation, no sound, eyes closed, floating, the water near body temperature. The only feeling was Eusebio's hand occasionally stopping us drifting away. I had no idea of time, I felt like I had been there forever when I felt Eusebio's signal to come up. Two minutes, he said.

After a minute or two to recover, Shona and I started the breathe up again, Eusebio counted us down and we fell forward again into the water. My mind really drifted this time, thoughts of the sunset mostly. Again I felt his occasional touch, and after what seemed like a very long time I heard some voices through the water. I stayed a little longer until I decided to come up. Shona had done around two minutes this time and I did about 2:45.

Shona got the same on our next attempt but I knew my final breath was a bad one so I had to come up sooner than I expected. We did the breathe up again one last time, this time Eusebio shortened the last cycle to three seconds in and three out, gave us the signal and we held our breaths. Again, the sensation disappeared, my mind wandered and I felt myself drift. During breath-holds on dry land, you are very aware of the air in your lungs putting great pressure on your neck. In the water you don't feel any of this, nothing but total relaxation -- if they could sell it, bored, middle-class women would make Eusebio and Monica into millionaires. This time felt much longer and was getting harder and harder. Eusebio started to show me his watch at 3:45 and my first thought was, guuuuuulp, that's a long time, need air, need air!!! And that was pretty much it. Without seeing the time I think I would probably have done another 15-20s. Shona did 2:15, Eusebio had promised us 3min each so on average, he was right. It goes without saying that girls are not competitive so obviously not getting spoken to for the rest of the night was nothing to do with my time being longer!