Tag Archive for: ocean

5 Top Tips from 3 Champion Freedivers

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Adam Stern, Australian Champion freediver, runs freediving “festivals” all around the world. Just recently, I attended my very first one in Bali, after the incessant raving from my housemate Mike about how amazing the experience is. He wasn’t wrong.

Legend Adam Stern enlightening us about what goes on within our noses, mouths and throats.

We spent 8 full days deeply immersed (pun intended) in the practical and theoretical world of freediving, surrounded, supported and led by some of the best in the world.

Aside from totally soaking up the chilled yet inspiring vibes, it was an incredible learning experience, and I came away with so much more than just a few tips on how to safely freedive. It was a training for life, with so many lessons, philosophies and skills transferable and applicable to an array of contexts.

What’s more, I personally discovered yet another natural mental health therapy in the mindfulness and calm required to successfully freedive.

Here are some of the top tips shared straight from the mouths of the best of the best!

1. Everyone Can Equalise

Adam held many-a-session on equalisation techniques, debunking equalisation myths, imparting knowledge and solving everyone’s issues with what goes on inside their noses and mouths. “It’s basic human anatomy” that everyone can equalise, Adam claims. If you’ve ever had equalisation problems in either scuba or freediving, this is certainly a great place to tackle and overcome them!

2. How we think is key

Especially when it comes to freediving, but also in life in general, if our mind is not calm, we won’t get very far. How I wish this idea was as easily to put into practise as it is to understand. If you approach a dive – or anything in life – thinking about all the things that you have to do, and all the things that can go wrong, it will always be harder to stay calm and take the steps you need to take, one by one. If you are faced with challenges whilst in a heightened state, good luck managing them. If you’re chilled and taking everything in your stride as it comes, everything seems to flow a lot easier.

3. Confidence is not at all a static trait

Confidence is key, but having confidence is not a simple decision we make. Our confidence fluctuates from day to day. We can wake up one morning and feel we are totally ready to take on the day, and we can wake up the next just not feeling it at all. It’s important to observe and reflect on our confidence and how we feel about ourselves and our abilities often. It’s important to recognise the difference between confidence and cockiness, and it’s important to allow ourselves to believe we can conquer anything we set our hearts and minds to.

4. It’s good to have idols

Having people we look up to as positive idols can be both helpful and inspiring. Watch how people speak and behave and ask yourself: do I want to be more like that, or less like that? They say we are the product of the 5 people we spend the most time with, so surround yourself with people you’d love to be more like.

Mike Board sharing some humble wisdom
5. Adaptation takes time

This is a basic rule of life, and of evolution! Animals, plants, and life on earth doesn’t evolve nd transform dramatically from one day to the next. A seed planted in the ground takes a good few days to weeks, even months, to even sprout out of the ground. If a coral were to adapt itself to changing temperatures, it’s not something that can happen from one day, or even one year, or even decade to the next. It takes time. “If tomorrow you told me you wanted to dive to 100m, I might say to you hmm, that’s maybe a bit quick. If you set a goal to dive 100m in the next 5 years, I’d believe it was possible to train and adapt the body – slowly- to be able to adapt and achieve this challenge. Patience is key!

Live and Travel with a Little Ecological Footprint

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I’ve set off on a voyage of discovery. What am I setting out to discover? New connections. Connections to the Reef, connections between people, connection to nature, and connection to self. It started with an invitation to a friends wedding in France. My first thought: I love this girl to bits, but I’m not so keen on flying all that way to Europe. Time, expense, and most importantly, a very significant carbon footprint (the level of love I have for this girl and the good times that have ensued were totally worth it!).

My total babe of a bestie, and fellow ocean loving super heroine, who was a HUGE inspiration to start Reef Connect.

When it comes to helping the reef, reducing our ecological footprint is HUGE. It’s clear that action from higher levels is essential in creating large scale impactful change, but whilst our governments dilly-dally around dodging and distracting us from their most pertinent and necessary responsibilities, we as citizens and consumers can act.  

“But I am only one person, how can I make a difference” I hear you ask. How many people are we on the planet? What kind of impact could we make if we all committed to changing a few little daily habits?

I often give presentations in which I use the below image – not to overwhelm the audience with how much there is to do, but to bring to light how much is possible. We don’t have to do ALL the things. Identifying and adding ONE little thing to what each of us is already doing is a good start. 

SOURCE: https://climatesafety.info/what-we-all-can-do/

 

So I started thinking to myself: how can I achieve what I’m setting out to do, whilst making my footprint as small as possible? Rather than getting a return flight halfway across the world for a single event (as significant and special as this person is to me!),

“how can I get the most bang for my carbon footprint buck?”

My first answer: don’t take aeroplanes. Unfortunately, given my time restrictions (due to work and other pre-standing commitments), I decided flying for the first part of my trip was most practical, and I’d just have to make up for it in other ways. Noone is perfect and we can do a LOT, but it doesnt always make sense to do everything.

So how else could I find solutions to this challenge? Well, I decided to set out to discover new ways of living closer to nature, with the smallest footprint possible. What’s involved? Permaculture, sailing, slow, on-ground travel (buses, trains, walking, hitch-hiking, etc) and most importantly, removing the hurry to get to my next destination as quickly and “efficiently” as possible (often to the detriment of the planet/reef!).

Stay tuned for a little summary of the destinations, adventures and challenges so far!