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Turn the wind around
1/2 a lifetime.
Freediving is under pressure
Every sport reaches a point where it must choose between integrity and spectacle.
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There’s a story that I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell, in part because I knew its telling would be arduous. One doesn’t just have a near-death experience and write about it…
The Underwater Marathon
I’m not an endurance athlete. I’ve never run more than 10km or surface-swum more than 4km. As a teenager I cycled a couple of 100km+ races, but finished slower than most of my friends. And…
World Championships.... again!
Someone’s got to say it. The “Freediving World Champs” has lost its charm.
A plea to FreeJuicers
For those looking for gossip or scandal I’m sorry to disappoint: this post won’t out any athletes, or point a finger. I spend most of my time on small islands, and I’m the last one to know…
Oxygen - a memoir by William Trubridge
It's available for purchase as an ebook from Amazon, and in paperback from Fishpond.co.nz
Mental Techniques for 102 meters
It was the first CNF dive beyond halfway into Dean's Blue Hole. 55 of my body lengths, or 9 meters more than the height of the Statue of Liberty. It had been 2040 days (5.5 years) since the…
Dread, and other stimuli
Dear weakest link, Today I discovered who you are and where you live. Rest assured that I'm going to be coming round very often from now on, to chat and get to know you better. With time…
The Breatheup
One of my pet worries as a freediver is that someone will call me out, and say “I heard you can hold your breath for eight minutes. Go on then, show us!” In fact, if you take any of the top…
Teachers
We stand on the shoulders of our forbears (especially the shoulders of whoever first spoke those words).
The bane of 'natural ability'
I once heard an anecdote about Russian trainers screening children to become gymnasts. They asked them all to jump off the highest diving board at the pool, and the ones who did so were…
Confidence
Every athlete will have experienced the day where, from the moment you wake up, each smallest thing that happens seems designed to throw you off, by means of frustration or distraction.