TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
to accept things and it’ s dangers. Accepting the situation will free your mind and then tell yourself,‘ I’ ll do it now!’”
It’ s amazing how each freediver I meet has a different answer on how they get to that state of mind and why they freedive to begin with.
Jowi Uy, for example. Our conversation started during an early morning flight to Cebu. As a member of the Philippine Underwater Hockey Team she has legit answers to the question“ why do it?”
To her it’ s about balance, when it’ s all pushing and shoving during a hockey game she needs to find an activity that will make her relax. Being a water person, freediving gives her the peace and relaxation she needs.
As for Andy Moreno, a visiting Swedish underwater photographer I met watching a good game of pool in Chili Bar in Moalboal, it is to become a better underwater photographer. It helps him be part of the fragile underwater environment while making him relax enough not to disturb marine life.
Arriving at“ the zone” as quickly as possible is vital in freediving. Getting yourself to relax puts you inside the zone at the soonest possible time. Similar to running where during the first few minutes your mind plays a cruel joke that it’ s better to stay in the couch and fiddle with the remote, but when you survive the first few minutes your mind and body gets into a zone wherein you just float your way for the next 40 minutes or more, and then the rest is euphoric running.
How can you take your mind away from the thick deep blue water beneath you while knowing you’ ll be breath-holding your way there for several endless minutes while you swim your way up? Not to mention the weights wrapped around your belt, how could you not possibly think of the dangers and risks involved when your next available breath intake would be a long way ahead of you? This is where education and proper training comes in. It is also through education and training where you learn to know your limits, break them, and conquer new ones, in the safest possible way.
Freediving Training Grounds
Kite surfing in Boracay, downhill mountain biking in Dumaguete, and wind surfing in Caliraya, these are some of the places in the Philippines where learning a certain sport feels right because the land and water conditions are conducive to it. For freediving Moalboal is the place in the Philippines.
Wolfgang teaches freediving in Anilao as well, and recently in Taiwan, but mostly in Club Serena, Moalboal, Cebu. Moalboal is nestled at the southern part of Cebu surrounded by the region’ s mountain ranges. Our drive from the airport to the club was a classic exodus from the city to the mountains, then to the quiet and white sandy beaches of the province. The resort is also situated in an area away from the maddening crowds.
Andrew and Jussi doing breathing exercises before a freedive training
They proudly house Aquaholics, a dive operator that has skilled dive guides, complete line of scuba diving and freediving gears, outrigger boats designed for freedivers and scuba divers, and most especially a staff that makes you feel you are in a vacation within a vacation. For me, small talk is as comforting as a cold bottle of beer after a dive. The people there did that so well whereas up to now I still remember the stories I have shared with the staff, 90 % of them being scuba divers.
Club Serena is conducive to freediving because of its facilities. Protective north and south coves of the island cover the bays of Moalboal from strong currents and big waves, plus 80-100 meter deep waters and reef systems of Moalboal make it ideal for deep dive training.
Education, Letting Go, and Breaking Personal Records
A yoga practitioner and a Kung Fu artist, a dive instructor, an underwater hockey player,
and a rock climber, these are what composed the diverse group of freedivers I met in Cebu. I thought they were humans with a rare kind of gene pool, or a kind with gills behind their ears. But no, they’ re just as human as we are.
Wolfgang, since he is the first freediving professional to teach in the Philippines, would embark on students everything they need to know about freediving and most especially how to get in the freediving state of mind. Imagine learning how to lower your oxygen consumption, controlling your heart rate, knowing how to calm your mind to prepare your body for a different body language, splitting your body into two states, physical and mental, and then finally appreciating the nirvana of free falling. Imagine experiencing that firsthand, underwater, and while holding your breath. Imagine enjoying freedom in constricting conditions, a paradox only freediving can give you.
Students of Woflgang from all stretches of life swear to break their static breath holding records from a lame 30 seconds to a strong 2.5
His curriculum consists
“ of several hours in a classroom, in the swimming pool, then finally in the open sea... students also get a chance on hooking up with more experienced freedivers...”
44 7107 ISLAND TRAVEL