The Best Freedivers, According To Sheena McNally

28/11/2022

Who can be described as "the best freediver"? Most definitely the one who manages to go back home after a day at sea. What about Canada's female NR holder, Sheena McNally? Which type of freedivers does she admire and why?

Is Lack Of Fear Helpful?

"I have met a couple of people who they'll just try things, regardless of what they think the consequence would be. But actually, now that I'm thinking about it, those usually aren't the people I would choose to describe as "the best freedivers" I think. It goes back to the discussion about hypoxia, where it's sort of like what is your tolerance for risk, and is that an okay outcome for you or not? And for me, it's not, and, for me, the freedivers that I admire the most are, I'm not going to say they're afraid, but I think they just respect what they're doing and they respect the ocean and their own bodies. And for them, hypoxia is not an acceptable outcome, and if something isn't right they simply won't do the dive".

"And I mean not necessarily like something isn't right that day so they cancel, but the most successful ones that I've seen are the ones who can kind of set up their lives and their training such, that there's only one sort of path to success. They just get it so perfect, they just get all the factors controlled, as much as you can control them. And then, at the moment, they make the right decisions. So I wouldn't say it's a lack of fear. I guess it's like a really deep understanding of what they can and can't do, who they are and what things need to be in place for them to succeed. There certainly are divers out there who, I would say, absolutely lack fear and those are the ones that do go out and be like "well let's see if I can do it today" and sometimes they succeed and the results can be tremendous. But a lot of times they don't and then the result is hypoxia or worse would be like an injury, and then you have to take time off. So for me, that's not really the definition of like the best freediver, I guess".

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