Photo by Roman Castro
“The ultimate goal isn’t how long you can stay down and how big a fish you can shoot. The ultimate goal is to get back home safe and alive.” – John Griffith, freediver and spearfisher
It was an easy warm-up dive to 51 ft (15.5 m) so the last thing I expected to happen was a lung squeeze. At first my dive buddies and I were baffled at the blood I coughed up but we all agreed that it was probably just a little sinus squeeze so we began our quarter mile (330 m) swim back to shore. However, I knew something was terribly wrong when I realized that I was having an extremely hard time catching my breath. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and my body was going into survival mode. Had it not been for a float to kick back in on, calm conditions and dive buddies, I’m positive that making that swim back to shore by myself could have easily cost me my life. It was a rude awakening to what could have happened had I been alone.
My gut said, “Don’t do it” and all of the alarms in my head were going off. That’s why I chose to participate in the dive that may have helped two people avoid injury or worse.
It’s a good sign when you’re diving so much your hair never has a chance to dry. It’s been a while since I last wrote anything but that’s also a good sign that I’ve been in the water a lot. I figured I’d take a break and do a little catching up before the end of the year. With that said, I’ve spent 90% of my in-water time freediving and the rest on scuba, including completing a Rescue Diver course (which I highly recommend!).
Tranquil Deep 
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