Hello dear Steemian friends! Welcome to the 12th episode of:
#OneBreathOnePhoto
As some of you may know, two of the things that I'm deeply passionate about besides travelling, is Freediving and Photography. Freediving is a practice of diving underwater without a tank or any other breathing apparatus, gliding through the watery abyss on a single breath of air with nothing but you and nature.
My aim for #onebreathonephoto is to showcase the beauty of this sport and the beauty of the ocean, as well as to brighten up your day by sharing some of my favourite photos taken over the years.
ONE photo at a time, of ONE moment in time, on ONE breath of air
Episode #12: A Freediver's Ascent
This photo was taken by sir Craig Parry, a professional underwater photographer based out of Byron Bay Australia, whom I've had the privilege of learning from in his 2016 workshop. He took this shot of me as I was ascending from a 20m freedive at the beautiful Swallow's Cave in Vava'u, in the Kingdom of Tonga.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I'd like to use today's episode to describe in more details below what goes on during a freediver's ascent, for those who are new to this sport and wondering why & how anyone could possibly find any pleasure doing this so called dangerous extreme sport, putting themselves at risk enduring such fear & pain...
As you ascend from a dive and reach around the 10m mark, you can now let go of all movement and surrender to a natural underwater phenomenon called positive buoyancy for the rest of the way up. To put it simply, this is when your lungs begin to expand and your body begins to float due to the steady decrease in pressure. It’s as if the ocean is gently releasing you from it's almighty hug. Thousands of air bubbles escape from the mask due to this expansion, twinkling down across your face and body like a jacuzzi, cleansing away all doubts and worries, stripping away all excess air and unnecessary thoughts from you mind. Darkness turns to light, cold to warm and you see sparkles all around as you float towards the shimmers of light above. All that's left for you to do is keep calm, relax and enjoy the ride, embrace the change of pressure from within and witness the transformation of the surround in 3 dimensions. Trust your body to trust the ocean to bring you back up safe, and before you even know it, you are out of the the water, awakened by the familiar senses of sight and sound, and the touch of warm air brushing against your face. Air never tasted this good and you just can't stop smiling. You feel reborn, rejuvenated and feel happy to be alive. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The best thing is, the ascent is not even the best part about freediving. Can you imagine what goes on during a descent? Till next time :)
Have a great day! 😃
Previous Episodes:
11. ChasedByWhales | 10. UnderwaterSymphony | 9. PositiveBuoyancy | 8. TheFlow | 7. ShapelessWater | 6. WhatLiesBeneath |5. IntoTheAbyss | 4. WhaleStare | 3. FlyingTurtle | 2. MondayBlues | 1. Humpday
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© Picture by @craigparryphotography