Freediving is a personal journey...
Here on this video you see me coming back from around 17 meters back in May 2024. We’ve spent about a week in Dahab by then and thought about myself, that I had that diving thing figured out. Little did I know 🙂
What followed was an intense journey of unlearning and letting go. Of calming that inner achiever down and really focus on the journey than on the goal…
I made my first experiences with snorkeling when I was a kid, diving up shells from 4-6 meters. So I naturally thought, it can’t be such a problem to dive to 40 either.Don’t get me wrong. Some people on our courses did reach 30 meter within a week and most probably could go deeper in the following week, but for me it was not like that.
I came into deep troubles after this one really good day because I went deeper than me ears would allow me by that time. I was bleeding out of my nose and had severe pain in the sinuses out of nothing.
It was clear something is not running als planned.
It took a lot of patience and breaks, but by fall 2025, when I returned to Dahab for the second time, I started to get a better sense of what was happening in my mouth and ears. Things gradually improved. I can’t name one big breakthrough or a single tip that changed it all — it was more like a series of small improvements, with lots of help from Roberto and the other instructors.
I feel like sharing this story to show that you shouldn’t approach freediving with the mindset of conquering another challenge in the usual way. Freediving is different. It’s incredibly rewarding, because it forces you to do things in a new way.
The Blue Hole is an amazing place to discover freediving: no wind, no waves, and super easy access. Plus, great fruit shakes after the dives 😄
I’m already looking forward to diving back into the program in November — starting the day with some Hatha Yoga and then gently relaxing into the deep blue. I hope this story helps and inspires some of you. Maybe we’ll meet in Dahab or somewhere else along the way.
