As regular swimmers at Balmoral Beach and Manly’s Cabbage Tree Bay, we’re constantly fascinated by the marine life we encounter. Some in our group can hold their breath underwater for impressive lengths of time, and we wanted to learn how to do the same. To deepen our skills, we reached out to Rosie at Eunoia Freediving for expert advice.
Rosie is a passionate freediver. With her we delve into the world of freediving, exploring its profound impact on the mind and breathing. We discover how this exhilarating activity doubles as a meditative practice, offering a unique and transformative experience.
Rosie is the founder of Eunoia Freediving and discovered freediving when she moved from London to Sydney in 2018 and since then it has become her world. After working as a high school teacher for almost a decade, her life was full of stress and anxiety. After discovering freediving she found a place of calm amongst the chaos - a place to quiet the noise of the everyday.
CATHY: I'm so pleased that you could join us here at Manly Beach today. We would have loved a big blue sky, but we don't have that but the water is beautiful. I've been for a swim already. I'd just like to start by asking...
How did you first learn about freediving?
ROSIE: I think for me, I've always been a bit of a water baby. So I used to be a competitive swimmer and I did a lot of scuba diving. And then when I moved to Australia in 2018, the first person that I met was a freediver. And so, yeah, that was my first kind of introduction to freediving. We used to dive together, and I just loved it as soon as I tried it.
I really like the fact that it's not restrictive. Unlike scuba diving, you don't have all the heavy gear. You can just have the freedom. Jump straight in.
You don't need to pre plan everything. So yeah.
CATHY: Perfect. Can you describe the moment or experience that made you decide to pursue freediving seriously?
So once you've sort of decided that, okay, this is something I'm going to do and I want to do it for my living.
ROSIE: So I think it was during the COVID lockdowns. I used to be a high school teacher and so we were working from home for a good few months. I lived by the beach and so the only thing I did, like, every day other than be at work was going and jumping in and freediving at the at the beach because we were only allowed out to do exercise, obviously.
CATHY: Yes. I remember that.
ROSIE: Yeah those fun times. And, yeah. When we had to go back to school and I couldn't do that every day anymore, I just felt like a big part of my life was missing. So I decided that I didn't want to work as a full time teacher anymore and I wanted to pursue something that I'm passionate about.
CATHY: Yes I can understand the passion because I know the freedom you get when you're out there in the ocean and I think it's so good for you.
ROSIE: Yep!
CATHY: However, were there any challenges or fears you faced when you began freediving?
ROSIE: I think for me, and this is probably a common thing for anyone, starting out freediving, is the fear of holding your breath for an extended period of time. I just didn't think that I could do it. And, it's once you take a freediving course, you realise that it's actually something that's really trainable. So you learn a lot of mindfulness and meditative techniques that help you to hold your breath for longer.
CATHY: So how long would you hold your breath for? Or actually how long can you hold your breath for?
ROSIE: I think the max that I've held my breath for is about 4 minutes, but I don't do that regularly. That was for my course. My instructor course. But every every time I free dive, probably the max I would dive down is usually like a minute or a minute and a half, something like that, really.
CATHY: Right. Okay. And in terms of fears, do you have a fear of what's out there in the ocean?
ROSIE: I don't really. No. But I do get a lot of people that come and do the course that have phobias of deep water or of sharks or whatever. But I think the more time you spend in the water, and you kind of see, you know, the marine life and all its glory. You realise it's not anything to be feared.
CATHY: It's actually wondrous, isn't it?
ROSIE: Yes. Exactly.
CATHY: It gives you a sense of, oh, wow, rather than it being, oh my god, that's scary.
ROSIE: That's right.
CATHY: Yeah. Yeah. No. I hear you. You talk about the awe and that wonder that you get from when you go freediving....How does free diving influence your approach to other areas of your life?
ROSIE: I think one of the main things with freediving is that it's really meditative and there's lots of mindfulness techniques that you use to conserve your oxygen when you're freediving. And I think that translates to your everyday life really well. So I can use those techniques to manage stressful situations or moments of anxiety. So I found it's really good for your mental health, essentially.
CATHY: Yeah. I can totally understand that as well. I think I get the same from when I do the swimming that I do.
What would you find most fulfilling about free-diving?
ROSIE: I think there's 2 main things that I really love about freediving. And one is the community. Particularly in Sydney, I found that there's such a big community of freedivers who have this shared passion of loving the ocean and marine life. And the second thing is the marine life interactions.
So I have had so many incredible marine life interactions since I've been freediving. And being able to just be part of that world and where you're not making loads of bubbles and distractions like you would when you're scuba diving. I find that the marine life kind of comes to you and interacts with you a little bit more.
CATHY: So I love the concept that you actually said that it's like a community. You and the sea life is a part of your community.
CATHY: I like that idea because I definitely, as a swimmer, understand the concept of the swimmer's community because we have that in our swimming groups. But I've never actually thought about the ocean and its sea life being a part of your community. I think that's a really nice idea.
ROSIE: You get to know the creatures. Like there's a blue grouper over at Shelly Beach that has this, like weird fin with a little nip in its fin. So when I see him, I'm like, "oh, that's that's him".
CATHY: Oh, it's like Nemo with the broken fin.
ROSIE: Yeah. Exactly. So it's kind of nice when you see them each time you get in. It's really lovely.
CATHY: What advice would you give to someone who is considering learning how to freedive?
ROSIE: I think my advice would be don't overthink it and don't worry if you think you can't hold your breath for long or you're not the world's best swimmer. None of that really matters.
When you learn to freedive, I think you take it at your own pace. There's no stress. There's no expectation to achieve certain things. And so I think, yeah, just removing any kind of stress or expectation is the best thing to do.
CATHY: Okay. What aspects of freediving do you think are often misunderstood or underestimated by other people?
ROSIE: I think a lot of people who don't really know much about freediving are under the impression that it's an extreme sport and it's really risky and dangerous. And that's just not the case for recreational freediving. I think when you move to really high level competitive freediving, then it becomes a little bit more risky. But for the average person who's just going out freediving at their local beach, there are very like limited risks. Especially when you do a course as you learn all of the safety requirements and things like that. And so it makes it really, really safe.
CATHY: And so with some of that safety, is that, like, that you would always do it with a buddy? Is it something like that?
ROSIE: Exactly. That's the number one rule. You never freedive alone.
CATHY: We're a bit like that when we swim too. So I can definitely understand that concept. Where are your favourite places to freedive?
ROSIE: Well, there's so many. But, Shelly Beach, in Manly is definitely one of my favourites because it's an aquatic reserve, so there's tons of marine life. I also love Little Bay in the eastern suburbs, which is I think a really underrated spot. Not many people go there, but it's got some really interesting rock formations. There's little swim throughs that you can do, and there's also a lot of marine life there, which is really nice as well.
And I also love Shell Harbour, a little bit south of Sydney. Lots of sharks, so that's a really cool spot. And also, Seal Rocks, which is a couple of hours north is probably my all time favourite because it's just stunning. Lots of marine life.
CATHY: So... Do you have a favourite sea creature?
ROSIE: I love octopus. Octopuses are my favourite.
CATHY: I love them too. I've been at Balmoral and seen an octopus and I didn't realise that it was rare. Like, relatively rare. That was probably 5 years ago, and I haven't seen one again since then.
ROSIE: They're hard to spot. But once you know what to look out for, you can kind of tell where all their hiding places are. But, yeah, they're my favourite because they're just so intelligent and, you know, inquisitive. And when they put that little tentacle out and stick onto your hand, it's magical.
CATHY: So you've obviously seen that film, The Octopus Teacher?
ROSIE: Oh, yes.
CATHY: Can you share a memorable experience or achievement from your freediving journey?
ROSIE: There's so many.
I would say I had one of my favourite experiences recently swimming with a massive pod of dolphins in Palm Beach. That was incredible. Me and my friends, we've seen dolphins there at sunrise on a few occasions. So we decided that okay. we're going to go tomorrow, sunrise, and hopefully swim with them.
And so we went down there and predictably, there were no dolphins there when we got there. So we're like, okay, let's just get in anyway. So we got in and we were snorkelling around for about half an hour and then this giant pod of dolphins just appeared like right next to us. And there were like little baby dolphins in there as well, like tiny ones.
CATHY: Oh my God...How amazing is that.
ROSIE: Yeah. And they weren't scared. They were just kind of like cruising past and then they came back to us 4 times during the dive.
CATHY: I think we've had the experience of of swimming with one dolphin before. We used to have this one at Balmoral, which we used to call the friendly dolphin and I think it had lost its pod. It would swim around you and it would come and swim with us at 7:30 in the morning.
ROSIE: Amazing.
CATHY: And it was amazing. But I've watched the video of that experience, and that many dolphins in one hit was extraordinary. Did they surround you?
ROSIE: They kind of did, like they were almost checking us out. So they just kind of swam around and then off and then came back around the other side.
CATHY: Did you find that they came up and under you?
ROSIE: We saw them first on the surface so we could see their little fins. And then when we looked down, there was just like a wall of them. Yeah. It looked like there were probably about 10 at the surface, but when you looked under the water, there were at least 50.
CATHY: Wow. You obviously take quite a bit of video, or photos when you freedive. How did you get that footage with the dolphins? Do you always carry a camera?
ROSIE: I pretty much always take my GoPro, at least.
Sometimes I take my camera, but it's like a big piece of equipment. So not all the time. But generally, I always take my GoPro. Although usually I find if I forget my GoPro, then I see the most incredible thing.
CATHY: That seems to be the case. I know. I understand that as well because we've been out there before and seen amazing stuff and we are annoyed as we didn't have the camera again.
Rosie, thank you so much. We look forward to doing the freediving course with you. And, thank you so much for coming to chat with us today.
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