The Oceans Breath

Ocean activities were a big part of my life growing up in Hawaii. Free diving, surfing, body boarding, spear fishing, the list goes on. The ocean gives life. To Hawaiians, the ocean is an integral part of the aina. Aina means land, but it encompasses all the natural elements that surround and make up the land. There's a deep, almost symbiotic connection the locals have with the aina, and with that comes a very humbling respect.

The ocean is revered for its beauty, bounties, as well as its dangers. For as much as it provides life, it can quickly and violently take it away. I personally have lost relatives and friends to the ocean. My Hawaiian grandmother was very strict as to what you should and shouldn't do at the waters edge. My Tahitian native father, an avid free-diver is also very much aware of the power and dangers of the ocean, and made it a point to teach his children at an early age the do's and don'ts of ocean safety.  Respect the ocean, or it will drown you!

Unless you're half fish or have the aid of an underwater breathing apparatus, you can't breathe underwater. You rely on holding your breath in order to function and survive under water. So holding your breath is one factor, and that can be developed, but it's not the only thing. There are many physical, psychological, and environmental parts to holding your breath underwater. It's one thing to hold your breath standing in the shallow part of a pool with your head underwater, and another when you are 100 yards from shore tethered to a board that's sucking you under while being tossed around at spin cycle in the Maytag of the surf. Breathing is an important part of life and knowing how to breathe or not to breathe by necessity or design, will make a difference in whether you live or die, win or lose.

Let's first look at the environment. Where you are and what you're doing matters. Snorkeling in a protected cove is different from a surfer paddling out in swells and duck diving huge waves to get out past the breaks. Razor sharp reef and pounding surf slamming up against the rocks make for grade A human hamburger. The environment will physically and psychologically affect your body's ability to breathe. The more factors in your environment that work to unstable your balance, breathing, and safety, the more it will affect body function and performance. Familiarize yourself with the environment.

General studies prove that bodies function better when they are in good physical condition. So physical conditioning aids in a body's function to perform optimally, coupled with proper breathing exercises to task, you can along with the proper training, start to measure performance.

We hear a lot about task specific exercises. Your activities and practice should mimic the real environment as much as possible. If you're learning free-diving, depth and pressure have to be involved in the training. Having only a few pieces to the larger puzzle will inadequately prepare you for what to expect. Free-diving with a weight belt and wetsuit will impact you differently than if you were without the weight belt and wetsuit. Add fins to the mix and your performance for depth range will increase as opposed to not having fins. A surfer with a surfboard and a sponger with a bodyboard are in quest for similar rides, but the tools provide their own unique challenges. Basically, your ability to hold breath at your task will be directly proportionate to the training, tools, and environmental challenges emphasized and prioritized.

Know your craft, equipment, or the activity in which you engage in. To attempt to jump head first into the ocean without checking it's depth can kill you; same with the activities you engage in. Understand the workings of the gear you use, have them in proper operable condition. Disregarding the importance of understanding your gear can put you in a compromising position, and the ocean doesn't compromise!  You shouldn't rush big waves if you haven't surfed before. You shouldn't go deep if you haven't prepared and tested your limits in free-diving.

It all begins in the mind. If you're afraid, fine, but how you deal with that fear is important. In the ocean, fear can kill you. Fear can turn into panic and panic will turn into death. BUT, fear can also knock sense into you and trigger that instinct to survive and do what's necessary. Fear can mean survival, and survival could pull you back to rational thinking, but more often than naught it does the opposite. We also have to look at what fears are triggered. If you're on a kayak and it capsizes, the event can trigger fear in different ways. You may be afraid of sharks and the fear of being bitten overwhelms you so you curl up into a ball and stop thrashing about, because you heard that's what attracts them, or you might not be a good swimmer and you fear drowning. Sometimes that reflex action of get me the hell out the water will overcome all rational thought and instead of swimming away from shore beyond the breaks, you swim in desperate to get to shore, and if it's a rocky shoreline with large sets of waves coming in...good luck, but you'll probably drown! Here's a tip, if you're trying to exit the water and the current and waves are strong, you need to swim out pass the breaks and allow the sets to die down first before you head in. If heading in isn't possible due to strong current, swim with the current parallel to the shoreline just outside of the surf. When the current and surf lets off, swim towards the shoreline if it is accessible.

 We fear that which we don't understand or have no or very little control of; so by getting the proper education we should be less afraid if something happens, right? Maybe. Education and preparation beforehand will help, but it may not take the fear away. What it should do is help by producing the proper reflex actions and reactions needed to deal with the probable problems (I like to call them "probablems").

There are many ways and techniques used to develop holding your breath. I'll cover some that I've learned in a future blog. In the meantime, there are websites and tons of videos on breathing you can find on the internet.

Have fun! Be SAFE!

So let's review:

• Respect the ocean! Otherwise it's going to chew you up and spit you out...head first!
• Know your environment. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the currents and layout of the shoreline. Count the sets of waves. Know where your access and exit routes are. Talk to the locals about the area.
• Keep yourself in good physical condition.  
• Know your craft, equipment, and the nature of what you're doing. 
• Train accordingly. Emphasize and prioritize your training and replicate the training environment to mimic actual conditions. 
• Educate, educate, and educate yourself in order to prepare for the coined: "probablems". By educating yourself, hopefully you'll have better control of your fear and react accordingly to produce a total positive outcome.
• Have fun!!