20 years old! So sad! Pushing limits in a cave— wow! And he had buddies... but when you think about young guy psychology, how they might be tempted to one up each other, you gotta wonder if having buddies helped. The combination of that with freediving’s natural temptations could make a guy even more of a daredevil.
Freediving is a Siren for sure... there is something incredibly alluring about it— it calls you to go deeper and deeper, longer and longer. I am not a great freediver, but I love it. However I have not been able to find buddies, and so I break the number one rule of freediving and go alone. Yeah yeah, I know it’s wrong... what have you done wrong in your life? I’m over 50, have no dependents, and am slightly terrified of living too long anyway since I don’t drink, or smoke, I exercise, eat well, and come from long lived genes.
To limit my risk, I do short shallow dives, and I recently bought a watch with a freediving function so I would be reminded to GO BACK in time, and also to have a longer surface interval. My first LDS took me out with old school abalone divers and they did a “one up one down” buddy system, but you quickly lost sight of your buddy in the kelp. Being a buddy basically consisted of anxiously waiting on the surface hoping they’d come back. I know more now about how to rescue a freediver from the internet. It was dangerous. People died. But on my deathbed I will probably still be dreaming about that first glimpse of a giant purple anemone waving in the surge, completely indifferent to me, living in a fierce new world of beauty, mystery, and wonder.
If you want to come to Venice, Florida and freedive for shark’s teeth with me I’d still like a buddy!
