BBC Learnings · Section 9

The joy of free diving

Now Georgina, what do you know about freediving? Freediving is a sport where people dive underwater

Level: B2 · 126 sentences

Transcript

  1. Now Georgina, what do you know about freediving?
  2. Freediving is a sport where people dive underwater
  3. as deep as they can without carrying air tanks –
  4. so just by holding their breath.
  5. That's right. We're going to find out
  6. today about a world record freediver.
  7. But first a question – and this is a physics one.
  8. On dry land at sea level,
  9. the pressure or weight of all the air
  10. above us is known as an atmosphere.
  11. How far underwater do you have to go until the weight
  12. of water is equal in pressure to another atmosphere?
  13. Is it a 1 metre, b 10 metres or c 100 metres?
  14. What do you think, Georgina?
  15. Well, water is much heavier than air,
  16. but there is a lot of air above us – many kilometres.
  17. So I don't think one metre of water is heavy enough.
  18. Same for 10 metres.
  19. So I think 100 metres is the equivalent of one atmosphere.
  20. OK, we'll find out if you are swimming comfortably
  21. or completely out of your depth later.
  22. Herbert Nitsch holds the world record for the deepest freedive.
  23. In 2012 he reached a depth of 253 metres.
  24. Recently he spoke on the BBC World Service
  25. radio programme Outlook about his experiences.
  26. He spoke about how he trained himself to hold
  27. his breath for a long time.
  28. Lungs are the organs in the body
  29. that hold the air that we breathe
  30. in and he says that he trains himself not
  31. by starting with a big breath
  32. but when his lungs are already empty.
  33. Why is that?
  34. The reason why I do it on empty lungs
  35. is that the urge to breathe comes earlier
  36. And this is when the training starts.
  37. Because when you hold your breath on full lungs,
  38. urge to breathe comes like a few minutes in.
  39. But the time up to that point is no training at all.
  40. Only the time where you have to urge
  41. to breathe and fight against it.
  42. That's the time you're actually training.
  43. So why train with empty lungs?
  44. Because you have to practise not
  45. breathing when you need to breathe.
  46. Can you explain further?
  47. Of course. Normally our breathing is automatic.
  48. We don't have to think about it.
  49. If you hold your breath, there is a point
  50. where your body tells you that it's time to breathe.
  51. And at that point, most of us
  52. will take a breath, won't we?
  53. Exactly. Our body and brain is telling us,
  54. go on, breathe, take a breath.
  55. This strong feeling to do something is called an urge.
  56. To hold your breath for a long time
  57. you have to ignore that urge.
  58. You have to fight against it.
  59. So to train to do that, it's a waste
  60. of time taking a big breath
  61. because holding your breath when you
  62. don't need to breathe isn't difficult.
  63. You have to practice fighting against that urge to breathe.
  64. Nitsch did a lot of freediving
  65. in lakes in his home country of Austria.
  66. Diving in lakes is very different from diving in the ocean.
  67. Here he is describing the experience.
  68. In the beginning it's very spooky and yeah,
  69. it's not a pleasant feeling at all in the beginning.
  70. It's something actually quite intimidating.
  71. But after a while you get used to it
  72. and you learn to appreciate it actually,
  73. that it's so quiet.
  74. Quiet and you're deprived of all
  75. sensations except the cold, of course.
  76. And so you hear your own heartbeat.
  77. because it has absolutely no sound.
  78. How does he describe the sensation?
  79. It's very cold, dark and quiet when diving deep in lakes.
  80. And at first he says the experience is spooky.
  81. This means it's a little scary and mysterious.
  82. In the same way we might find a graveyard at night spooky.
  83. That kind of feeling.
  84. And he also says it's intimidating,
  85. which is a feeling of being frightened
  86. by something stronger and more powerful than you are.
  87. And you experience these feelings because you are deprived of all sensations.
  88. When you are deprived of something,
  89. it means you don't have it.
  90. It's taken away and sensations are the way we experience the world.
  91. So sound, sight and smell.
  92. Diving in cold, dark, silent waters,
  93. you are deprived of many of our usual sensations.
  94. That is spooky and intimidating. Rather him than me.
  95. I don't think I'd like that experience at all.
  96. Right, before we review our vocabulary,
  97. let's have the answer to the quiz.
  98. How far underwater do you have to go until the weight
  99. of water is equal in pressure to another atmosphere?
  100. Georgina, what did you say? I thought 100 metres.
  101. Well, that is actually the equivalent of 10 atmospheres,
  102. so the correct answer is 10 metres.
  103. Every 10 metres of depth in water
  104. is the equivalent to the weight and pressure
  105. of the air above us at sea level.
  106. There is a difference between fresh and salt water,
  107. but it's not so much as to make your answer correct.
  108. Well done if you got that right.
  109. Well, I was clearly out of my depth with that question.
  110. You were. Now vocabulary.
  111. The part of our body that holds our breath is our lungs.
  112. A very strong need or desire
  113. to do something like breathe is an urge.
  114. Something spooky is a little scary and mysterious.
  115. And it can also be intimidating,
  116. which means it's overpowering and frightening
  117. in a way that makes you less confident.
  118. And to be deprived of sensations means to have certain
  119. feelings like touch and hearing taken away.
  120. So, Georgina, do you fancy freediving?
  121. Well, would I like to go
  122. hundreds of metres down in cold,
  123. dark, silent water without any breathing equipment?
  124. Let me think about that. I've thought about it.
  125. No thank you.
  126. Not my cup of tea either.