Free Diving

Tonight when I stumble into the locker room at the community pool after a tiring workout, I notice a woman standing there in a thick wet suit. "Training?" I asked her. "I'm a free diver," she says in an accent. The pool has introduced me to many new sports and athletes than my typical outdoor sports: swiming, water polo, triathletes, etc. This, by far, is the most extreme. Free diving is a competitive sport with three disciplines: time, distance, and depth. She's practicing today for time. She'll float with her head in the water for a l o n g time. Her record is 6 mins 2 second. She told me the reason she wears a wet suit is to keep warm, as her metabolism will slow so much in that time, she'll have trouble keeping warm. Remember the movie The Big Blue? That's a pretty good example of the depth division. Hold your breath and dive deep, pull a tag off the line and swim back up, hopefully without brain damage. Her name is Jade, she's from Switzerland originally. She heads off soon to the Free Divers World Championship in Egypt. Cool huh?