BREATHE

Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. This documentary chronicles the lifestyle of one of the most dangerous and physically challenging sports in the world - freediving. Placing the body under unnatural pressure, shutting down the instinct to fight for air, the diver repeatedly risks his life by plunging into the deep ocean on a single breath.

William Trubridge is a spectacular unassisted freediver. Already reaching depths of 15 metres by the age of 8, he is now a World Champion and holds two world records in his sport (see below). This dramatic documentary follows him as he relates what it is like to freedive and how we can explore our potential as an aquatic mammal.

However, freediving is often more about the ascent than the descent. With no weights or fins, William sinks into Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas (the deepest blue hole in the world); but upon reaching increasingly ambitious depths, he must always turn and use the memory of everything that he has left behind on the surface to inspire him upwards. While lungs burn and muscles ache, the diver edges his way closer to his next breath. But though the need to breathe may return, the ocean will always invite him deeper.

Did you know?

There are several disciplines in the world of freediving:

 

• Constant Weight Apnea – here the diver follows a guideline on his descent but cannot use it to assist the dive. The athlete is also not allowed to use weights but can use fins to aid them.
• Constant Weight Apnea without fins – the same rules as the above but without the assistance of fins. This is the youngest freediving discipline and Will Trudbridge currently holds the record for the deepest dive in this field.
• Free Immersion Apnea – the athlete is still unable to use weights for assistance but here the diver uses the guideline to pull himself down and back up to the surface.
• Variable Weight Apnea – the freediver uses a weighted-sled to descend and returns to the surface by either swimming (with fins) or by pulling themselves up a line.
• No-Limits Apnea – the diver is able to use any means to dive and return to the surface as long as a guideline is used to measure the depth achieved.
• The Jump-Blue – in this discipline the diver only goes to a depth of 10 metres, where they then have to swim around a square with 15 metre sides for as long as possible before they have to return to the surface. This is also known as 'The Cube'.

There is archaeological evidence to suggest that people have been free-diving since the 5th century BCE. It is thought that breath-holding divers would reach depths of 30m for up to 5 minutes at a time to collect sponges for commercial use.

William Trubridge's Records:

World Record for Free Immersion (freediving using a guide rope) – William reached a depth of 121 metres.

World Record for Constant Weight Diving without fins (where a diver uses no assistance except his hands and feet) – William reached a depth of 101 metres.