Pro Surfer Mark Healey Lands A Huge Wahoo While Spearfishing From A JetSki Off Oahu

Deep-water spearfishing for wahoo from a JetSki in Hawaii is a thrill I have yet to experience firsthand. Thankfully, I’m able to live vicariously through infamous big-wave surfer Mark Healey.

Hawaii is arguably the best place in the world to live if you’re an all-around waterman. Pro surfer Mark Healey was raised on Oahu’s North Shore, one of the best-known surfing destinations on planet Earth.

Growing up on the North Shore helped Mark Healey become one of the most legendary names in Big Wave Surfing but it also led him down a path of deep water spearfishing, free diving, sky diving, filmmaking, a job as a stuntman, and other extreme pursuits.

Mark Healey has a growing YouTube channel where he just uploaded a video of his latest deep-water wahoo spearfishing adventure. Healey left Oahu on a JetSki and returned with a massive Wahoo (fish), or as it’s locally known in Hawaii, an Ono.

The wahoo spearfishing action kicks off around the 3-minute point in the video. You can skip the intro and jump to the wahoo spearfishing by hitting the ‘play’ button below. Read more

What Is Freediving? The Perfect Way To Explore Underwater On A Single Breath

 

Freediving is breath-hold diving, being in and under the water while holding one’s breath.

Today, most people associate freediving with images of superhumans plunging to the ocean’s darkest depths with only the air in their lungs, the power of their bodies, and the will of their minds to keep them alive and bring them back.

However, every time you slip into the water and hold your breath, you are a freediver, exploring our world of water from the shallows to the depths. Read More

By Emma Farrell

The Deepest Diver in the History of Free Diving Goes Below the Ice

Molchanov beneath the surface before the dive.Credit...Viktor Lyagushkin

For the past four years, Alexey Molchanov has been the undisputed best all-around free diver in the world. He broke yet another world record last week, this time beneath an icy surface.

This dive was more difficult than most. His wet suit was seven times thicker than normal, which made it more challenging to kick against the positive buoyancy found in the first 10 meters, or approximately 33 feet, of depth.

All that effort demanded he tap into his finite supply of oxygen. To keep warm, he wore a mask, something he typically avoids on deep dives, which meant he had to hold his nose between his thumb and forefinger to equalize instead of relying on a nose clip. Plus, cold water makes equalization of the sinuses, when a diver funnels air into the sinuses to keep them pressurized to prevent head pain and injuries like burst ear drums, extremely challenging.

Within 20 seconds he’d reached 20 meters (66 feet) and puffed his cheeks out to create a vacuum for the remaining air in his lungs to fill. On typical dives, he stores this “mouth-fill” and uses it to equalize without having to worry about leaks. But in water that was between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius, around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, his lips numbed quickly, and he had to clamp them shut with his fingers, his thumb and forefinger on his nose, his middle and ring fingers on his lips.

How Diving Can Improve Your Surfing, with Mark Healey

Hawaiian waterman explains the benefits of descending beneath the surface

Surfline January 29, 2020

These days, the virtual world is nearly as tangible as the good ol’ fashioned terra firma. There it is, constantly in our pockets, awaiting our scrolls and likes and hashtags. But Oahu’s own Mark Healey lives in the real world, unplugged à la The Matrix. He’s in the sea – surfing, diving, and fishing. He’s on land – hunting wild boar. He’s in the air – or, rather, he’s breathing it in ways to help him in his pastimes above. He’s a man of the physical world in all its material forms; although his Instagram account is still a solid follow. Just sayin’.

And one of Healey’s favorite side hustles – outside of his main muse, surfing – is diving. He’s become a well-respected free diver and award-winning spear fisherman, which, in an era when simply packing a bomb at Pipeline or hucking air reverses on repeat has become blasé, is important. You need to be more than just a good surfer to be recognized. You need to be an eco-warrior or a musician or a mixed martial artist or (in Healey’s case) an all-around “waterman.” And, more importantly, it also helps to have something else to do when the waves go flat.

But the best part is, Healey’s hobbies help him when big swells do arrive. And diving in particular. So, for another edition of our ongoing series on cross-training, we picked Healey’s brain about what it’s like to go beneath the surface, and how it helps when he comes back to the lineup.

Ashley Chapman Sets Two New U.S. National Freediving Records

 

Ashley Futral Chapman (photo credit: Ren Chapman)

American Freediver Ashley Futral Chapman this past week set a pair of Women’s National Freediving Records in Roatan, Honduras.

Ashley set a new Constant Weight (CWT) with Bifins record under AIDA International rules on May 18th with a dive to 76 meters/249 feet, beating Enchante Gallardo’s 75-meter/246-foot dive from last month.

A few days later, Ashley set a CWT with monofin U.S. record with a dive to to 86 meters/282 feet.

Other records that have been set recently in Roatan include Richard Collett for his Cayman Islands men’s Constant Weight with Bi-fins national record dive to 55 meters/180 feet, and Sayuri Kinoshita for her Japan women’s national record dive of 85 meters/279 feet in the same discipline.

By John Liang, News Editor at DeeperBlue.com

First genetic adaptation to diving discovered in 'Sea Nomads'

Researchers have discovered the first evidence that people can genetically adapt to deep diving, as shown by the unusually large spleens in indigenous people of Indonesia known as the "Sea Nomads," a study said Thursday.

The spear-fishing Bajau people regularly free-dive to depths of up to 230 feet (70 meters), with only weights and a wooden mask.

They spend up to 60 percent of their work day diving for fish, spearing octopus and gathering crustaceans -- an amount of time rivaled only by sea otters -- and can stay underwater up to 13 minutes at a time, said the report in the journal Cell.

Intrigued by this unusual ability, American researcher Melissa Ilardo, then a post doctoral candidate at the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, wondered if they had genetically adapted somehow to be able to spend more time underwater than other people.

She spent several months in Jaya Bakti, Indonesia, with the help of a translator, getting to know the Bajau and another nearby group that did not dive, the Saluan.

"I spent my whole first visit to Jaya Bakti introducing myself, the project, and the underlying science," she told AFP.

"I wanted to be sure that they understood exactly what I was asking of them so they could help to direct the project to reflect their interests. They were very curious and excited about the research."

Before her second visit, she learned some Indonesian in order to be able to communicate directly with the Bajau.

- Scans and gene tests -

She took genetic samples and did ultrasound scans, which showed that Bajau had spleens about 50 percent larger than the Saluan.

Spleens are important in diving -- and are also enlarged in some seals -- because they release more oxygen into the blood when the body is under stress, or a person is holding their breath underwater.

Spleens were larger in the Balau people whether they were regular divers or not, and further analysis of their DNA revealed why.

Comparing the genomes of the Bajau to two different populations, the Saluan and the Han Chinese, scientists found 25 sites that differed significantly.

Among them was one site on a gene known as PDE10A, which was determined to be linked to the Bajau's larger spleen size.

In mice, "PDE10A is known for regulating a thyroid hormone that controls spleen size, lending support for the idea that the Bajau might have evolved the spleen size necessary to sustain their long and frequent dives,' said the study.

More research is needed to understand how thyroid hormone affects human spleen size.

The findings could boost research in medicine by helping researchers understand how the body reacts to a loss of oxygen in various contexts, from diving to high-latitude climbing to surgery and lung disease.

"This really tells us how valuable and important indigenous populations are around the world that are living extreme lifestyles," said co-author Eske Willerslev, a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Willerslev admitted he initially urged Ilardo not to pursue the research for her PhD thesis, believing it was too risky and that she may find nothing.

"She said she wanted to do it anyway and that paid off. Melissa was right and our concerns were wrong."

Ilardo said she was aware of the risks but "believed so strongly in this project," that she had to push on.

"The Bajau and other Sea Nomads are simply extraordinary and I wanted to be able to prove that to the world," said Ilardo, now a US National Institutes of Health postdoctoral scholar at the department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Utah.

Melissa Llardo/AFP / Melissa Llardo

Natalia Molchanova, Freediving Champion, Missing and Feared Dead

Natalia Molchanova shows the minus-86-meter (-282 feet) tag that earned her win at the women's free-diving world championship on September 3, 2005.

Natalia Molchanova, 53, held 41 world records and was a 23-time world champion in freediving.

The woman billed as the world's greatest freediver is missing and presumed dead after failing to resurface from a dive off the coast of Spain.

Natalia Molchanova holds 41 world records and is a 23-time world champion in freediving. The sport requires divers to hold their breath rather than use scuba gear or oxygen tanks.

AIDA, the international freediving association, said that the 53-year-old Molchanova was "recreationally freediving" without fins on Sunday when she became separated from her group. She disappeared approximately two miles northwest of the port of La Savina at Poniente de es Freus.

"Search efforts have been ongoing," the association said in a statement.

AIDA said Molchanova's passion for the sport "burned so deep" that she had dedicated her life to freediving.

"She was an inspiration to all freedivers and despite being one of the fiercest competitors in the world, she was always calm and relaxed during competitions," the statement said. "The cause of Natalia's disappearance is unknown, but she was doing what she loved."

Molchanova — who could hold her breath for nine minutes and dive to a depth of more than 330 feet — had written freediving handbooks and trained thousands in the sport.

The Russian Freediving Federation — which Molchanova headed out of Moscow — called Molchanova's disappearance a "tragedy" and made clear it was unlikely she would be found alive.

“The search is still officially ongoing, but, to our deepest regret, the probability of success is small,” it said in a statement posted on the federation's website.

Kimmo Lahtinen, president of AIDA international, told NBC News that Molchanova was a "freediving superstar."

"Superstars will not die," Lahtinen said. "They will shine still after they are gone."

Fellow freediver William Trubridge was among those offering tributes to Molchanova following news of her disappearance.

Expedition Florida 500

Mother Ocean has launched a yearlong project in 2013 called Expedition Florida 500 (XF500) with numerous partners including Quiksilver, Tahoe SUP, Viva Florida 500, and more. XF500 is a modern-day exploration of Florida’s coastline, waterways, and aquatic ecosystem as seen through the eyes of the waterman. 2013 is Florida’s 500th anniversary since Ponce de Leon landed on Florida's coastline back in 1513; in celebration of this momentous occasion, the organizations will unite to embark on a yearlong journey combining the best of exploration, adventure, stewardship, science, and sport into a package that will include the full gamut of the waterman’s lifestyle.

Ashley Futral Chapman is Officially the Deepest (unassisted) Woman in the World

 

May 4, 2012 Ashley Futral Chapman breaks the Constant Weight No Fins World Record with a dive to 63 meters (207) at Performance Freediving’s Deja Blue competition in Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands. The women’s CNF record was previously held by multiple World Record holder Natalia Molchanova who made a dive to 62 meters in 2009.

With this amazing 63m CNF freediving performance Ashley becomes the deepest unassisted woman on earth. Watch her as she uses only the air in her lungs and her arms and feet to take the new world record.

By Francesca Koe with Deeper Blue