PHOTO
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The interesting rooms in
Brody House were once
artists’ studios
was clear as vodka and, thanks to overfishing, contained
about as much life. The Red Sea, on the other hand, is still
very much alive. “It’s warm and sunny, there’s lots of fish
and coral to see, dolphins and amazing wrecks,” she
says. “Plus, it’s easily accessible from the UK, cheap to
get to and totally set up for diving.”
The first of its kind, the trip is a learning curve for
the crew of our liveaboard, the
Mistral
. Currents and
waves shrugged off by ‘scoobies’ (scuba divers) can
be risky for freedivers, so sea conditions are all-
important. “It’s not just snorkelling and it’s not just
scuba diving without the tanks,” says Farrell. “It has
completely different requirements.”
One dive session a day is dedicated to ‘line training’.
For safety, divers are tethered to weighted lines
suspended from buoys while honing their technique
and pushing to greater depths.
The practice pays off when we’re let loose to dive the
Red Sea’s famous wrecks and coral reefs. Ranked among
the world’s top 10 shipwrecks, World War II supply ship
SS
Thistlegorm
was blown in half by German bombers
and sunk in 30m of water. Boatloads of scuba divers
descend on the site every day, but the rare sight of
wetsuited silhouettes gliding through the blown-out
holds and twisted superstructure without a compressed
air tank in sight leaves themwide-eyed.
“Not many can say they’ve freedived on the
Thistlegorm
. That’s quite unique,” says Derek White, an
ex-North Sea oil-rig diver. At 55, White is one of the more
senior freedivers on board, but in many ways he’s not
typical. According to Farrell, most new freedivers
come into the sport with no previous diving experience.
“People are looking for a challenge and scuba diving is
not really young or cool. It’s mainly older people who
aren’t very fit,” she says. “Freediving is also emotionally
and psychologically challenging, and people like that.”
It’s more physically challenging too and – I say this
as a scuba diver myself – infinitely more stylish. A
proficient freediver is almost balletic in the water.
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