Written by Sophie Kalkowski-Pope
The rope glides gently between my fingers as I slowly pull myself down into the blue. I feel myself hovering on the boundary of negative buoyancy, and my pulls gradually slow. At around 25 meters, the sensations shift, and I let my movements come to a halt. Freefall. The water glides past my mask as I descend, motionless into the blue. As my body relaxes, I shut my eyes and let the bliss of the sensation come over me.
Before I realise it, I feel the gentle tug of the marker buoy at the bottom of the line. I’ve made it. I open my eyes, and am greeted by a tiny juvenile fish, hovering in front of my mask. Like the Ocean saying hello.
I carefully complete the turn so as not to strain my compressed air cavities. At this depth, my body is experiencing 5 atmospheres of pressure, compressing my lungs to a 1/5 of their usual size.
Now the hard work begins, as I slowly pull myself up through the negative buoyancy. I slowly sense the light changing as the colours return around me. My safety diver pops up beside me, slowly accompanying me towards the light. I break the surface, pulling myself close to the float, as I take my three short, sharp recovery breaths. I’m ok, I signal to my instructor.
I pause, glancing down at my watch, and look at my buddy Elle, wide eyed and grinning. 40 meters! The cheers and celebratory splashes echo from the people around me. It really is a giant Freediving family.
One of my proudest achievements from my year is that I can now freedive deeper than I can SCUBA dive.
Image | Adam Stern, Deep Week founder and scholarship host, myself, my best mate Elle and our instructor Tom!
Deep Week Taiwan was one of my favourite scholarship experiences so far.
For one week, the tiny island of Xiaoliuqiu or Liuqiu (Lambai Island) was transformed into a bustling freediving metropolis. People from all over the world gathered to learn from the world’s best. Over 110 freedivers attended this 8 day training camp and freediving festival. I didn’t think it was possible to learn and progress so much in just one week but we did.
Coming with no formal training, after 8 days of training I was able to reach new depths across all three disciplines, bottoming out at:
Free immersion | 40.3m
Constant Weight Bi-Fins | 36.5m
No fins | 27 m
Static breath-hold | 2 min 45 sec
A typical day at Deep Week looked a bit like this:
6:30 am | Yoga
8:00 am | Meet down at the harbour for shore diving or boat diving on the lines.
11:00 am Back to shore and time for delicious Taiwanese lunch
1:00 pm | First round of workshops or optional pool training to work on technique
3:00 pm | Second round of workshops
This was often interrupted by a much needed afternoon nap…
6:00 pm | Dinner with our wave group and an early night before training again the next morning! And REPEAT!
I want to extend a sincere thank you to my sponsors from Penetrator Fins who provided me with Clear Ghost Composite blades for my training at Deep Week!
I loved diving with these fins – not only do they feel great, smoothly cutting through the water, but their distinctive look meant I had people approaching and asking about them all throughout the week!
Freediving Family is the legacy of Adam Stern, the Australian Freediving champion. He started running retreats in Amed, Bali and since then Deep Week has grown into the worlds largest freediving festival, a global network of freedivers, with workshops and retreats run all over the world. In 2019, in partnership with Alexey Molchanov, they founded the Molchanovs education system. This is the certification system we are trained under at Deep Week, based upon Wave Certification Levels from 1-4.
Adam Stern has been a long-time supporter of the Our-World Underwater Scholarship society, having trained numerous scholars over the years. I’m so grateful for their continued sponsorship to be able to undertake this opportunity.
Image | Adam Stern in teaching mode
Adams’ friendly nature combined with his wealth of knowledge, and practical explanations, made him the perfect teacher. His infamous giggle had everyone laughing away!
The first few days of the week were dedicated to workshops covering the educational materials for our “Wave group”. This was the certification we would be gaining.
Image | Alexey Molchanov presenting
Each level required different depths, static times, and rescue requirements in order to pass and receive the certifications. In fact, we were lucky enough to have Alexey Molchanov join us as one of our key guests and instructors. This was alongside 4 Taiwanese record holders.
Later in the week, the groups divided into general workshops, targeted at everyone. These sessions on important freediving techniques anything from:
- Frenzel technique
- Mindfulness
- Mouthfill
- Sinus Care
- Breathing techniques
- Competition preparation
- Developing a pool training regime
- Packing (Wave 3+ only)
- The soft palate
- The body’s response to pressure
- Mammalian dive reflex
- The relationships between CO2 and O2 in the body
- Rescue techniques
- Hands free equalisation
There was also a variety of pool workshops focusing on physical exercises such as monofin, bi-fins, and no-fins technique. You can participate as much or as little as you want to… there is no pressure!
During deep week I discovering a new favourite discipline – free immersion. This involves pulling yourself down and up the the rope without the use of your legs or fins – you are effectively gliding the whole way.
Another breakthrough for me was gaining greater control of my hands free equalisation, where you don’t use your fingers to pinch your nose and equalise but rather use the muscles in your neck and throat to do so. I’ve always been able to do this but not reliably.
After a masterclass with Adam, he emphasised the importance of timing and feeling the differences in pressure, and how easy it is to “miss” an equalisation. This was really helpful and I was able to hands free much more reliably!
Freediving and conservation
I was also lucky enough to be given the opportunity to run my own workshop! In “Freedivers can conserve coral” we discussed all things CoralWatch, citizen science and coral reefs. To me, this just makes so much sense – we have a huge community of passionate, ocean minded individuals in freediving, people that could contribute so much to conservation if given the right tools!
I also had the opportunity to sit down and discuss with Alexey Molchanov the intersection of freediving and conservation. It was fascinating to discuss with him and hear his perspectives from such a leader in the world of freediving.
I believe the freediving community and conservation initiatives are perfectly intertwined, and it’s something I’m passionate about furthering in future.
One of the fun highlights of Deep Week in the infamous Underwater Ninja Warrior! This underwater obstacle course requires eager participants to jump over paddle boards and weave through a series of hoops underwater, all while holding their breaths.
It was so much fun to both participate in and watch, but nothing could trump the sheer athleticism of watching the world number one take on the course. While everyone else was awkwardly seal-hauling themselves across the paddle-boards, Alexey comes along in his mono-fin, and with a few powerful kicks, clean dolphin launches himself out of the water across the board. Woah! We had no chance…
To anyone considering delving into the world of freediving at Deep Week, I could not encourage you highly enough. You’ll have the time of your life and learn so much.
A big thank you to Adam Stern for his ongoing support of the scholarship, Brandon who worked tirelessly to coordinate logistics behind the scenes, all of our incredible instructors throughout the week, and the wonderful people I now call friends from around the globe.
This won’t be my last Deep Week!
I am so grateful to OWUSS for making opportunities I would not have dreamed of before and broadening my horizons to a global scale. A special thank you to the countless volunteers behind OWUSS, and the sponsors that make this scholarship possible at ROLEX. I would also like to thank my equipment sponsors at TUSA, Waterproof International, Reef Photo & Video, Mako Eyewear, Penetrator Fins, my camera gear sponsors at Reef Photo & Video, Nauticam, and long time scholarship supporters DAN, and PADI.
To follow along on my adventures, I highly recommend you follow me on social media!
My Instagram @sophie_dives is where I post most regularly.
You can also contact me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Tiktok, and the Australasian Scholar Facebook Page.
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