During Alenka Artnik’s World Record dive at the Vertical Blue competition in 2018, the commentator remarked on her ‘perfect control, perfect technique’. It was the biggest competition of her career to date, and she was performing her favourite discipline –constant weight with monofin. She was there representing Slovenia against two other strong women, Alessia Zecchini (Italy) and Hanako Hirose (Japan). Her dive was flawless. She emerged fresh. The world waited for her to announce a next, deeper dive.
This is the principle of VB. Held at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas over the course of nine days, divers can make six attempts at their chosen discipline. If they start strong – as Artnik did – they tend to go deeper and deeper. Many records are set and broken, just to be set again the following day. So when all three women divded to 105m and shared a world record, Artnik shocked the community by stopping there.
“I just got this very strong message telling me, ‘You’re going to stop now. This is just a game of ego. Your body needs more time at this depth,'” Artnik says. “This is when I really showed myself how resilient I can be.”
She was alone at the competition and made the decision without consultation. Artnik has never had a coach. She learned early on in life, during a childhood marred by an alcoholic father and addict brother, to fend for herself and to trust her gut.
"To me, resilience means having control of your ego. The outside world wants battles and titles. It's not easy to be unaffected, but it's possible."
If you’re diving for yourself, it’s an extension of you, but not your whole identity. But if reaching a number represents happiness to you, then what? That’s where the trouble comes.”
Freediving is a unique sport: where mental strength has a greater bearing on success than physical, and age can be an advantage. When you fall into the depths of the ocean on a single breath, your heart rate drops to conserve oxygen. Blood shifts from the limbs to supply the vital organs and prevent the lungs from collapsing under increased pressure. Mentally, you must surrender to the ocean — not fight against it. You can train your body, slowly, patiently, to adapt at a cellular level. But the ability to stay calm, present and focused is key to success.
Yet, like many other sports, the conversation revolves around numbers and records. “We don’t ask ourselves enough, ‘why do want this certain thing? What is behind this need to achieve a result?'” says Artnik. “I see a lot of people achieve their goals and yet they are still miserable. They don’t feel accomplished.”
To Artnik, her recent World Record dive to 111m is simply the logical consequence of training consistently. During a typical cycle she will dive three days on/one off, then three days on/two off. For months. There’s depth in the morning, then dynamic (in the pool, for CO2 tolerance), strength, breath-hold static-cycling or a long stretch routine in the afternoon.
On her rest days, Artnik relishes normality: shopping, reading or simply putting on make-up and enjoying good food and wine with friends. “It’s about balance. Rest is important for the nervous system. If you’re sacrificing so much, you also have to give yourself pleasure.”
Of course, there will always be things in training, as in life, that we don’t want to do. In Artnik’s view, either we simply don’t need it, or it’s exactly what we need to work on. “Out of our comfort zone, we learn about ourselves. It can be as simple as saying, ‘maybe I’ll learn something’, instead of ‘uff, I have to do this thing'”.
Unlike many elite freedivers, Artnik, doesn’t train the mental aspects of the sport separately. “If I’m present in my training, don’t need to say, ‘ok for ten minutes after that I’ll meditate, or, for 30 minutes I will be mindful.’ Be present in your life. Care about what’s happening, not only in you but also around you. This is how to train mindfulness – not because you want to obtain a certain goal. But to enjoy the whole process.”
Artnik certainly does that. She is blissfully married and universally liked. She exudes a warm, gentle energy that’s completely engaging. She seems to have found balance, although the flipside to her hardwon mental resilience, she says, is a poor relationship with sleep.
"Be present in your life. Care about what's happening, not only in you but also around you. This is how to train mindfulness – not because you want to obtain a certain goal. But to enjoy the whole process."
A hangover from her unpredictable childhood, she is only able to succumb to complete relaxation when she dives.
“When I’m ready to perform a dive, the only focus is on my breathing. I put myself in this state where I am not myself anymore. Once I touch the line, I don’t feel like, ‘Alenka Artnik is about to perform a world record attempt’. My identity melts away and feel at one. It’s spiritual.”
She’s not the only diver who talks about approaching great depths as a kind of existential liberation. It requires letting go of control, trusting your body, being present and in a flow state.
“When you start to freefall, you feel instead of thinking. You must dive with feelings. The mind and the body are well-trained, they communicate without me interfering. I would describe it as unconditional love, which has nothing to do with love on the surface, because on the surface we condition it a lot. It’s a feeling of grace. Pure peace.”
Anatomy Of A Freedive
At the surface the air spaces in our body and the environment are at one bar of atmospheric pressure.
By 10 metres the volume of the air in our lungs, airways and mask has reduced by 50% and divers must equalise to protect the ear drums from pressure related injuries (barotrauma).
20 metres: the diver is now in negative buoyancy, and freefall begins. They will now streamline their body to fall efficiently, and create as little drag as possible.
30 metres: at this depth, under 4 bar of pressure, the lungs have been reduced to 1/4 volume – known as residual volume. It will now become hard to equalise, and most deep divers will have already brought air up above the glottis to begin constant pressure – mouthfill.
40 metres: falling at around 1m per second, the diver will be orientated on the line so that they can effectively sleep, in a meditative state, until they reach the bottom plate.