Claire Walsh can hold her breath underwater for five minutes 59 seconds and dives to a depth of 60m
Walsh is stunning in her descriptions of what this meditative, “extreme sport of relaxation” is like, and its appeal for her. The sound of slight dragging of the air through the snorkel is one she dreams about: “When sleep evades me, I think of this moment, this soothing lullaby.”
It is “an exercise in mindfulness like nothing I’ve experienced before. To be in just that moment, and then the next, and then the next. It is somewhere I’ve learnt a different definition of strong and, always surprisingly, the softness it takes to get there.” She describes adventures in online dating. “Oh sweet Jesus, I can’t believe I put on a full face of make-up for this. Lipstick, I’m wearing Lipstick, for feck’s sake.”There was the guy who really just needed a therapist. And the guy who spent the start of their date helpfully describing to her his perfect woman. .
While others settled down, Walsh took off on a long adventure in South America. On the island of Utila in Honduras, she discovered a sport she’d never heard of, and that was it, she was hooked.The rest of us see danger, but she’s no thrill-seeking underwater cowboy. For her, freediving involves calmness, control, power, softness and freedom. There’s elaborate messaging to keep safe and rules minimise risk, cardinal among them being Never Dive Alone.
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