As I walked into the surf yesterday, under ominously grey skies, the first thing I noticed was that the water was cold. Monterey bay is always cold, but it seemed colder today. An upwelling of cold sea water from the Monterey canyon perhaps? The canyon, only a few mile off-shore from Moss Landing, drops to over 3 miles deep.
In waist-high water I turned and calmly kicked out away from shore. My goal was to simply freedive. No scuba tanks, no spear gun, just I, my lungs and my air.
Consecutive dives reached deeper and deeper, at first to 10 feet then 12, but it was not long before I realized there was a plankton bloom, the flourishing of puffy pillowing little clouds of green phytoplankton – everywhere. Visibility dropped quickly to 2 or 3 feet, and obscured even at that. Shapes and strange movement played tricks on my vision. My dive quicly deteriorated.
Had I been scuba diving I could have dropped below the bloom at 35 or 40 feet, but when freediving my normal depth limit is 40 feet.
Descending a column of seawater in these conditions is spooky. There is a primal fear reflex connected with the unknown that is still very strong in most humans. I considered terminating my dive, but I hadn’t dived all week and really wanted to be out there, so I continued.
The deeper I got, finally to 32 feet, the worse this feeling was until finally as I descended into the murky billowing green depths I was fighting a physical reflex of flight. Hand outstretched, the dark bottom of the ocean approached me terrifyingly slow. At this depth I found that the bloom cleared at around 30 feet, leaving one or two feet of visibility. For this I had to peer under the plankton, looking much like someone who had lost something under their sofa.
The tax collector prefers poor visibility for hunting sea mammals.
Fear of the unknown. That which protected our species in primordial times so easily becomes our spiritual straightjacket. Draw your own conclusions.
Rev. Greg, Freediver
Well, you hit most of my fear buttons...underwater, sharks, no visibility...
But then, on another level isn't this 'diving' what we all do to some extent by waking up each
morning and facing our life? I mean, our 'visibility' doesn't extend much beyond the next moment (space junk could land on us, disease enters silently and surprises us). And if we think sharks aren't out there we're fools.
Thanks for the excellent metaphor and for creeping me out (which is also fun sometimes).
Namaste, Patty
Posted by: Patty at June 12, 2005 03:53 PM
My conclusion is that primal fear is the essence of "fun".
Best regards,
Peter
Cool! I have a long-term Gakkai pal here in LA who has just taken up diving and is having a real adventure with it. I doubt after all those years of smoking if I could hold my breath as long as you seem to be able to do, though. Best, Byrd in LA
Posted by: Byrd in LA at June 10, 2005 11:25 PM