Free-Diving~ Fun Footage Friday 14

Free diving is something I started doing a couple years ago after visiting one of Florida's most incredible natural springs.  Blue Springs was like something you would only ever see in some kind of adventure film.  The mouth of the spring is pretty big and from the surface there seems to be no bottom.  It's like the underwater bottomless pit.  To be honest, the first time I saw it I was a little creeped out.  However, things that make me nervous tend to hold a high level of intrigue as well.  The next time I went to blue springs I was prepared with a dive mask and I swam down to the mouth of the spring and looked in.  All I could see was darkness still. I took several more trips that summer and each dive I would stay under longer and go deeper.  The next summer I did the same thing.  At about sixty feet down the pit turns off into underwater caves.  Now I am able to go down and peer into the blackness of these caves.

After these first experiences with free diving at the spring I started researching and found out that free diving is a sport with a lot of folks around the world free diving.  I researched the dangers and how to avoid them and started training myself with holding my breath.  I can hold my breath a lot longer now than I could before but my dives aren't getting proportionally longer.

What I found is that free diving isn't all about how long you can hold your breath but it's about mental strength.  Long dives require a sound and focused mind.  When you get down real deep you may feel like panicking but that can kill you so I just stay calm and work my way up to the surface.  I wish I could take my desire to breath and focus that same level of desire toward other things as well.

Free diving is a dangerous, exhilarating, relaxing sport that should be done very carefully.  As I always tell my mother, "When I do dangerous things, I do them very carefully."  I hope you enjoy this Fun Footage Friday!