For me the best part of free diving is the glide.
A huge breath, a duck down with two kicks, and my negative buoyancy takes over. Angling down at a near vertical slide I drop through the water column and adjust for the ledge that sits at 100 ft. The water is clear enough for me to start making out details of the ledge at around 30 ft and faster and faster I glide down feeling the different currents move my legs and shift my torso. Then I see it! the current rushing over the ledge from the abyss of blue! It is shifting the sea fans and as I watch closely I can see fish ridding the upwelling. There are a few parrot fish that lazily duck into nooks and crannies as I approach the edge of the drop off. As I get closer and closer I wait and feel for the cooler water to engulf me and hopefully slow my decent. The top of the ledge zips by a bit faster than I want, but what I am waiting for brushes against me then the full force takes a hold. I angle myself so that I am no longer falling straight down and the current can hold me parallel to the wall. I feel so free cruising by the wall looking up at the surface far above, the top of the ledge casting a shadow to the depths below. I slip faster and faster by the wall admiring all the fish and fauna. Then with a tingle I realize I am due for the surface and with a steady kick I raise past the shadow of the ledge and then into the brighter blue. Looking down I see all the fish start to disappear into the haze and then soon enough I am no longer kicking and drifting to the surface. As I hit the surface and exhale my breathing is deep and slow, and having my mind calm for so long, I realize how awesome it is to glide amongst the fishes as if they were birds and to know that soon enough I will once again drift into that upwelling and be free-for a bit.
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November 5th, 2007
|CWF 22,4m
