The World’s Greatest Freediver (2021)

Very good article on a very special topic. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor/favour and watch the classic movie “The Big Blue” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Blue

Some extra free diving movies: https://www.freediveacademy.com/best-freediving-movies/

I was lucky enough to dive Alexey and his mother 15 or so years ago.

I was terrified of swimming in open water so only joined the group for a deep dive once and my memories are mostly people talking and laughing on the boat, but I remember feeling crazy when people talked about air control. What do you mean I have to exhale into my mask at a certain depth? And I should inhale it back as I’m coming up? I need to take _too big_ of a breath on the surface so I can distribute it as the pressure increases?

With just a little coaching from Alexey’s mother and some encouragement from my family, a high school kid who couldn’t hold his breathe for much more than a minute spent almost 2 minutes underwater and dove to 19 meters on his first day.

I’m still terrified of deep water, but I gained a respect for the “weird” sports out there. It’s often a bunch of people just trying to have fun, and sometimes they turn out to be really, really good at what they do.

Related:

The World’s Greatest Freediver - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28652367 - Sept 2021 (39 comments)

Alexey is an amazing human! I just took him freediving under the Golden Gate Bridge two weeks ago. https://instagram.com/freediversf

Great article.

Related: a BBC "re-imagining" of his famous mother's final descent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07z43ss

Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28652367