This past Wednesday in the early morn I found somewhat of a nirvana. I was out free diving at tunnel rock with twenty or so of my classmates, a few interns, some scientists, and the fish man himself Chris Maxey. For those of you who have never been to tunnel rock it is a huge coral head about a hundred yards off the coast. And its name comes from the huge L shaped swim through that runs through the entirety of the reef. It is an amazing experience fighting your mind against time so you can stay underwater for another twenty seconds. I personally find it exhilarating.

This particular dive however was almost life altering. I decided I was going to go through the swim through for the first time. So I dove down, everyone was watching and I went down and down until I reached the opening and found my way through it.  I reached the other side and was reemerged into the expansive ocean all around me. When my eyes adjusted to the light I could not believe my eyes there was a over a hundred year old ginormous loggerhead turtle waiting for me at the mouth of the tunnel as if it had chosen me for some greater purpose. I was already under water for about a minute but the second I laid eyes on my new friend oxygen was no longer a necessity. It swam all the way up to me and almost smiled. Something inside me changed inside at that moment I think I realized how much of an impact this world can have on you and amazing it really is; you just have to try.

-Ben Skinner

Of all the experiences I have been fortunate enough to have here, free-diving has definitely been one of the most satisfactory so far. It has been an area where I have achieved vast improvement since my start, as well as let me see so much more of the Bahamian waters and marine wildlife.

Every Wednesday and Sunday morning, if possible, I get up early to go free-diving instead of sleeping. On Wednesday that means waking up at six twenty rather than seven fifty. If it was not worth it, I would never forsake that much sleep, but it is. One of the benefits of free-diving is that many animals, such as sharks, do not like the noise that SCUBA equipment makes underwater. But in free-diving, you have no equipment, so some animals might not be as repelled as they would have if you were SCUBA diving. Whether because of this, or just out of sheer luck, I have been able to see as well swim with many amazing underwater creatures. Some of the more extraordinary examples include: a ten-foot Hammerhead Shark, an eight-foot wide Spotted Eagle Ray, a Hawksbill Sea Turtle, a Reef Shark, and much more. These amazing creatures have sparked a love of not just free-diving, but also marine life and the ocean that was not nearly as strong as before coming to the Island School.

Secondly, since my beginning of free-diving, I have been able to quickly notice my improvement. When I started, we were going out to Tunnel Rock Reef, where the water was about 35 feet deep. The first time I couldn’t even get to the bottom, then the next time I reached the bottom. After that I reached the bottom many times and was able to “chill” at the bottom for a time. Finally, after that I was able to do a swim through. While we were going to Tunnel Rock, we also went to Cathedral Reef every now and then. Cathedral is about 55 feet deep, much deeper and harder than Tunnel Rock, with an extremely long swim through. After working at it for a while, I can now reach the bottom and wait at Cathedral as well as Tunnel Rock. This large increase in my free-diving abilities has come through help of the instructors as well as pushing my limits. It feels great to be able to see yourself grow, and this theme is present in many parts of the Island School, but for me it is greatest in Free-Diving.

I am extremely grateful to have this experience, and it has been made even better with all of the work and fun of Free-Diving.

Nick Brittain

My experience at The Island School has been an onslaught of new activities and things to do.  That being said, one constant in my life here has been free diving. Ever since that first Wednesday morning I have been to every single one since then. I have found that it really relaxes me and clears my mind of everything except the task at hand. I have had a lot of fun seeing myself progress over the course of the semester and can’t wait to see where I end up.

The audience watched with amazement as he shared a video of his record dive, on a single breath using only his hands and feet (no fins) he went down into Dean’s Blue Hole. The deepest of all the subterranean caverns across the Bahama Banks, Dean’s Blue Hole is located on Long Island in the Southern Bahamas, 200 miles south of Eleuthera. His dive took a total of four minutes and eight seconds and the audience erupted in applause as he successfully showed the judges the tab that he carried back up from the darkness.

Great questions from the students allowed William to share the mental and physical challenges that he endured during this historic dive. It is inspiring to meet someone so humble and at the same time focused and determined to be the best in the world. His sharing left us all with important life long lessons—to follow your passion and do what makes you happy and know that mentally some of the most challenging days can turn into the most rewarding. William and Brittany are off to Europe on a tour that will allow them to share with other communities. Their goal is to build a training center on Long Island where they can both teach and help others push beyond personal limits and gain confidence for life.

Great news is that we plan to stay in touch and possibly host a course here at Cape Eleuthera. We have also offered to help in any way that we can as they work to design a sustainable campus on Long Island. Check out their current web site for more information http://www.verticalblue.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH4YHAphE9E

“This morning I dived with a loggerhead. The turtle was missing a chunk of its shell. On its right hand side a shark, I assume, had taken a bite out of its shell and left its flipper intact but withered. We had been diving at Tunnel. I had taken three dives and was concentrating on relaxing under water, minimizing effort without concern for depth, and finding the point at which my buoyancy would become neutral and I would hover in the water column while excerting no effort. I had not yet found that depth. My buddy Max swam through the tunnel. As he swam, I spotted the turtle in response to Alex’s cry. Max surfaced, we turned and followed the turtle. He was perhaps five feet long. Perhaps 250 pounds. Perhaps 80 years old. We trailed it. Max asked if we could dive down. We could. I was concerned that as we dove, the turtle would startle and flee. Accelerating in to the obscurity where the visibility in the blue diminishes. But the loggerhead is not a fast swimmer, and it did not scarper. All 11 of us trailed the turtle. Maxey, Max, Peter, Alex, Ben and I dove and dove as we followed the turtle into deeper water. As it continued to swim, a dive required the active effort of forward, as well as downward  travel. On the surface, we remained active between dives to stay with the turtle. There was no opportunity to cultivate that purity of patience and relaxation that I had set out with. The turtle kept us with him. We dove, and swam beside  him. His fins coming in to sharper focus – the small claw on the flippers. The girth of the neck. The action of the front fins, the size and brightness of the eye. The length of the dives. We must have swum with the turtle for perhaps 30 minutes. Long enough that the turtle had to surface twice for air. He slowly made his way towards the surface, followed by the attendant ramora. As the turtle came towards the surface, the light that seems to fragment into columns, radiating from a point on the surface, brought the turtle in to cleaner focus. Others of our group could dive and have a moment under water. A rapid exhale, a large bubble a moment at the surface and the turtle dives again. At 40 ft, swimming beside the turtle, close enough to touch.”