Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
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Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
Tanya Streeter is the current holder of the No Limits world record for women, at -160m, since 2002. In 2003, she also broke the men's Variable Weight (VWT) by diving to -122m and held it for over a year, until Alchemy's Carlos Coste managed to freedive to -135m in 2004. During a TedX talk in 2012, she described how she was hit by narcosis during her No Limits dive and how she managed to surface alive & well.
I'm standing here because I've set world records, in the extreme sport of freediving, and what that meant for me was getting outside my comfort zone, and really demanding more of myself, redefining my limits. For those of you that don't know, freediving is essentially taking a big breath, and diving as deep as you can in the ocean, and returning back to the surface safely.
I'm going to tell you about one particular dive. In 2002, I set myself this incredible goal, of breaking not just the women's world record, but also the men's, in the very mentally demanding discipline called 'No Limits'. I trained hard, I prepared well, and I surrounded myself with the best possible safety team. I was ready.
I was going to descent to 525 feet on a weighted sled, and return to the surface with the aid of a lift bag. For those of you that need to put it in perspective, 525 feet is 10 feet deeper than the Frost Bank building is tall, and it's beyond the crushing depth of second world war submarines.
At -2:00.00 minutes, I'm out on the water, and I'm surrounded by my safety team. It's important to me to make eye contact, with each and every one of them, because they are the ones who allow me to go on this journey of self-discovery, and really travel to the edge of myself, they are my safety net. In the final minute, it's completely silent at the surface, and the only person left there, is the most important safety diver for me – my husband. And on land, he jokes when I get stressed, he's like: “just look pretty and hold your breath babe”.
Out on the water, it's a lot more serious, and I just need to breathe. Breathing is about oxygenation. I need to put as much oxygen in my blood as possible so that I can hold my breath for the 3.5 to 4 minutes that the dive is going to take me. The last breath that I take is for volume. I need air volume as much as possible in my lungs to be able to equalize against the pressure as I descend.
Freedivers use a technique called packing, which means they take that deep breath but after which, they suck a little bit more air in and pack it into their lungs. It's risky but it's necessary. And on world record attempt day I screwed up. I packed too much air into my lungs and in doing so, I restricted my heart just enough so that it couldn't efficiently send oxygenated blood to my brain and I blacked out.
I came to a moment later and realized that the seconds were ticking by and my safety team was waiting for me at depth. I took a really quick breath, I packed a few times and I gave the signal to be released to the deep. It was the worst possible start.
Instantly there was a devil on my shoulder. "Today is not the day girl. Give up. Go back". And then there was an angel on my other shoulder who said: “Just keep going. Just see how far you can go”. It got difficult for me to equalize fairly early on because I didn't have the necessary volume of air that I normally would have. And the devil was right back. "Today is not the day girl. Are you crazy? You blacked out". "This is the unknown. Go back. Give up". I stopped my sled. I just needed to equalize one more time. And I had that angle on my other shoulder. "Just keep going. Just see how far you can go". Somehow I managed to equalize one more time. I released the break of my sled and I inched slowly and painfully to my goal depth.
Narcosis is something that scuba divers learn about, and they fear it like the plague. Narcosis is feared by freedivers as well, because even though we are not breathing gases underwater, we are subjected to the same symptoms, because of the rapid rate of descent and the extreme depth that we are going to. At 525 feet I was hit by narcosis and I couldn't think straight. I knew that I had three simple steps to get me out of there and back to the surface.
One: Put my hand on the lift bag.
Two: Open the valve and dump air into the lift bag.
Three: Pull the pin.
One. Two. Three.
But in my haze of narcosis, I remembered that I wanted to blow a kiss to the sea. My crazy thank you for letting me go down there. I did three steps but my third was the kiss and I forgot to pull the pin. And for a few very tense and terrifying moments, I was there alone, frozen, at 525 feet. The narcosis just gripped me more and more and I fumbled with my sled trying to get it to work. And then I had a very powerful clear thought. This is going to be sad. I was thinking about all of the people that were waiting for me at the surface. It was powerful enough that it jolted me back to reality and I remembered to pull the pin.
It was an incredibly quick ride back to the surface, but it was a new world record. It took me a long time to discuss the circumstances, not to drink the champagne, to discuss the circumstances of the dive. And this is actually the first time that I'm discussing it publicly. And yes it's also the first time that my mother is hearing about it.
To redefine your limits is to first accept that there are limits. They are just not where you think they are. I ignored the devil on my shoulder and I learned about self-integrity. I made it my mantra. if it's not something physical that's stopping me, then it's just mental. And I had to be honest about the difference.
In pushing so hard, I learned about limits. And I thought that I had found mine. And quite honestly, I was happy with 525 feet being my limit. But as I came to terms with the dive and I began to dissect it, I realized that it wasn't the case at all. If I could do 525 feet with such a rough start, what could I do under perfect conditions? I was outside my comfort zone and I was holding on despite pain and letting go of the power of negative suggestion. I made my mind my weapon, not my weakness. And that devil never stood a chance.