Free-dive instructor pushes students beyond limits

Ally · 12-27-2007, 10:17 AM

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Jim Muscara briefly lost consciousness in Fort Lauderdale's Hall of Fame pool last week as he was learning to become a better breath-hold diver. The owner of the Spearfishing Store in Naples was quickly revived, resumed diving and had no memory of the experience.

''They had to convince me I blacked out,'' Muscara said.

His instructor, world record-holder Martin Stepanek, used the incident as a teaching tool for the 12-person class.

''It's something I prefer to see in a class because people will see it's a real thing,'' Stepanek said. ``Blackout is a protective mechanism against brain damage. You go unconscious when oxygen is low. Your brain shuts off functions so you go to sleep. The important part is to protect the airway, put their face out of the water, and the person will wake up. There's never a need to resuscitate anyone or send them to the hospital.''

Stepanek, 30, operates Fort Lauderdale-based Freediving Instructors and Trainers (FIT), teaching others how to enjoy the sport while extending their limits safely. To a nondiver, his claims might sound impossible.

''Every human being has the potential to hold their breath for three to five minutes and dive 80-100 feet,'' Stepanek said. ``It's genetically encoded. It's not that I've made them super athletes; I've just showed them what they can already do.''

Unlike other extreme sports, the key to freediving, Stepanek and other experts say, is not to get hyped up, but to relax -- slowing the heart rate, shifting blood to the brain and heart and conserving oxygen for working muscles. Known as the mammalian reflex, it is what allows dolphins, seals and otters to take a breath at the surface and swim underwater for extended periods.

MASTER DIVER

Few have mastered this cutting-edge combination of relaxation and athleticism better than Stepanek; he has held his breath for 8 minutes, 15 seconds sitting at the bottom of a pool, and two years ago, pulled himself down a line 348 feet deep without fins, then returned to the surface on one breath.

With business partner Paul Kotik, Stepanek has trained hundreds of students to freedive for fun, shoot more fish with spearguns, shoot more fish with cameras and become more physically fit.

Very few, Stepanek said, are interested in trying to break his or anyone else's freediving records.

'People say, `I just got tired of hauling all that crap for scuba diving,' '' Stepanek said. ``People in the [dive] shops will tell you scuba diving is not that cool anymore. For kids, [freediving] is the new extreme sport. Long-blade fins and a big gun is probably very appealing.''

Stepanek's four-day classes, taught once or twice monthly, include classroom instruction on diving physics and physiology; pool sessions; and two open-ocean dives. There are courses for beginners; intermediates looking to go deeper and longer; and advanced divers seeking to go 200 feet or more.

At all levels of instruction, Stepanek demonstrates how proper technique enhances deep and safe diving.

Most freediving deaths, he says, occur at or near the surface, so students are trained to stick with a buddy and watch for signs of waning consciousness. Divers are taught to weight themselves so that they will be able to dive down without struggling and become positively buoyant in shallow water, where they can be easily rescued.

In last week's intermediate class, four divers made it to 100 feet on one breath. Even Muscara, despite his pool mishap, made it to 90 feet.

Stepanek dived with every one of his 12 students in their open-ocean sessions off Hillsboro Inlet, observing their technique and watching for signs of distress that might require him to rescue them.

First, he and Kotik rigged a floating Maypole-like device with spokes for divers to hold onto and weighted measuring lines hanging down. The South Florida Diving Headquarters pontoon boat idled close by as the divers and their platform floated south in four- to six-foot seas.

Among the students were Fabien and Celine Cousteau, grandson and granddaughter of the late underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau. Fabien, 40, and Celine, 35, produce ocean-themed video documentaries with their father Jean-Michel Cousteau.

GETTING PERSONAL

The Cousteaus, both experienced scuba divers, said they took the course to get up closer and more personal with sea creatures. Celine managed to hold her breath for 2:46 in the pool.

''Diving and making bubbles is intrusive,'' she said. ``To be able to freedive is the purest form of interaction with animals.''

Added Fabien: ``For us, it's extending bottom time, not so much depth. Once you get deeper, you lose your light.''

Fabien made it to 66 feet on his second ocean dive -- ``the deepest I've consistently gone. Now I feel comfortable going that deep. This is useful for anyone. You don't have to be of a competitive mind to benefit from this.''

The class' deepest diver was Wilmington, N.C., yacht broker Kelly White, a spearfishing enthusiast who plunged 112 feet on his second day of ocean diving.

''If I can do 110 consistently, then I can hunt at 90 feet,'' White said. ``Fish can't hear you coming when you're freediving. Bubbles scare the hell out of the fish.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/351298.html