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World champion free diver Tanya Streeter is under a lot of pressure...and there's nowhere else she'd rather be. Tanya Streeter is a woman with a secret. She, and she alone, knows what it feels like to take a breath, ride a weighted sled straight down to 500 feet below the surface of the ocean, and then swim back up, with lungs that have shrunk to the size of fists and legs that are burning with lactic acid. On her world record-breaking dive (in the Variable Ballast class) in July, she held her breath for 3 minutes, 38 seconds, went 27 meters deeper than the previous women's world record holder, and two meters deeper than the men's. The next day, she broke another world record in a different class of free diving. Streeter now holds five world records in various classes of free diving, a sport most people have never even heard of. Streeter claims free diving is really just a deep form of snorkeling. That's a bit of an understatement for a woman who can hold her breath for longer than it takes some elite athletes to run a mile. But Streeter maintains that anyone who can swim can free dive. "Lots of people snorkel on vacation," she says. "As soon as they take a breath and dive down, they are free diving." Altogether, the thirty-year-old Streeter has held nine world records in the nearly six years she's been free diving. She does conditioning work for several hours a day, but can't run due to knee injuries (she's had five reconstructive surgeries), so she spends a lot of time on stationary bikes. Despite the death of one of her peers, French diver Audrey Mestre, who was killed on a record attempt in October of 2002, Streeter is adamant about the fact that her sport is safe. A dive gone bad can mean death, but, says Streeter, "Audrey's death only made me more determined to prove it was a safe sport." We were able to speak with Streeter, just days after her record-breaking dives in July, about what life is like 400 feet below the surface and how on Earth she manages to get there and back in one breath. What follows is an excerpt from our interview. Falconer: How would you describe the experience of being 500 feet under water? TS: It's the emotional side more than the physical side that's different...[When I'm down there] the weight, the magnitude of it, of doing something that nobody else may ever do... Falconer: It must be something like being the first astronaut on the moon. TS: I would never [flatter myself that much], but last year, when I got to 525 feet [in a record-setting No Limits dive], no one on the face of the Earth had ever been that deep. And the truth is, we didn't know [back then] that at the moment you set foot on the moon you won't evaporate or freeze or something... I also didn't know that I wouldn't evaporate or freeze or turn into a fish when I went beyond where anyone had ever gone. That feeling only comes with being the first person to do something. It's a different level of apprehension and I'll go as far as to say fear, but just fear of the unknown. Falconer: Can you hear or see anything at that depth? TS: At 500 feet, there are no [safety] divers. But at 400 feet there were divers [from my team] right there. I could hear someone say, "It's a new world record!" but because of the mixture they are breathing, they sound like The Chipmunks. [Laughs]. On all of my dives, they sing... "Crocodile Rock" [to me and]...they sound like The Chipmunks on acid... It's quite entertaining. Falconer: You said that your lungs constrict to the size of fists on these deep dives. Can you describe the sensation of that process? TS: It's just diving physics and human physiology. You can compress gasses but not fluids. The weight of the water around the lungs compresses them and shrinks them down... Residual volume is the point at which you could exhale the most. They used to think that if divers went deeper than that, the chest wall will collapse and the rib cage would implode and they would die. Scientists didn't understand that physiological adaptation is something we share with marine mammals. They exhale before they descend...there's a small transfer of fluid within the blood that moves through the lining of the lungs. The lungs are self-equalizing. What I feel is an increase of pressure until the fluid moves. And then I don't feel any increasing pressure (see sidebar at right). Falconer: Jacques Mayol [whose life was the basis of the movie "The Big Blue" and who committed suicide in 2001 at the age of 74] is perhaps the sport's best- known figure. He was certainly a pioneer. Have you been influenced by his training methods, life or philosophy? TS: I think every free diver today is influenced by Mayol's training. We all took what we could from people we knew succeeded... They lay the ground work, even if they are using things we don't believe in. But we investigate them and in that way we learn...there were a lot of people who were at the forefront, pushing their own human potential, who really got us all to look a lot more closely at certain things. I hope that in ten years they will say the same things about me. Falconer: Do you compete in any other sports at an elite or recreational level? TS: Not at an elite level, although I would love to. I would love to be a better golfer...I've started enjoying being on a bike more. I was hit by a car five years ago so I haven't really ridden on the road...Lance Armstrong lives just a few miles from my house. He inspires me to want to do more racing and road biking. Falconer: You just broke the Variable Ballast men's world record by two meters and the women's by 27 meters. Are there any physiological differences between men and women that allow men, in general, to dive so much deeper? TS: [Variable Ballast is] the discipline that is purely mental. In No Limits dives there are no physical requirements. You hold a sled down and a sled pulls you up. It's not the size of your muscles but the size of your balls. [Laughs]...I'm not even a big woman; I'm the biggest chicken in the world-I don't even like to go on roller coasters. But, here's me, this person physically and mentally doing this thing that scares some of the men in the sport. It's possible for women to surpass men because there's no physical challenge. Falconer: What's the best compliment you've ever received? TS: Any e-mails or conversations that I have with people that say that challenging myself and redefining my limits has inspired them to do the same. My free diving is always about overcoming limits and learning how much more there is to me than I originally thought. I'm constantly talking about it; I hadn't realized so many people were paying attention. Falconer: You've said that anyone could compete in free diving if they train properly, but I can't help wondering if you possess any special traits that make you especially well-suited for free diving? TS: No. I've been poked and prodded and tested, and really there are some things like VO2 max. That's a body's ability to use oxygen efficiently. Some of us, they say, are genetically designed to have a VO2 max which is higher than other people's, and there's not much you can do about that...but that's only one aspect of it...The key is balance. All the skill without opportunity is worthless, or if you're scared, it's worthless. What you lack in natural skill you might make up for in pure determination. Falconer: It was announced in February, just as you were beginning training for this July dive, that Audrey Mestre's death last October was the result of a problem with the sled. Did the news of her death, or the cause of it, affect your training or your approach to diving in any way? TS: She didn't die because there was a problem with the sled, she died because there was completely inadequate safety. She died because she spent eight-and-a-half minutes under water. How did it affect me? It made me determined for the sake of her memory and the credibility of the sport to go deep, make records and show that it's safe. It made me appreciate the team that I have around me. How much I respect what each of them was doing. No world record is ever worth jeopardizing someone else's safety... Falconer: Have you ever sustained an injury on a dive? TS: No, I haven't - touch wood - I never will. I have pushed my eardrums to the part where it hurts, but I've never done any damage. The compression of the lungs is a natural phenomenon. The buildup of lactic acid hurts like hell, but it goes away. Falconer: What does a failed dive look like? TS: [You] arrive at the surface and struggle to stay conscious... Your body protects your essential organs...The body is amazing. The minute the face is in air, it will allow the body to take a few sips before it takes breath. And then the body naturally breathes again. If the face is in water your body won't allow you to breathe again. That's why you never dive alone. If someone exposes your face to the air, you'll be okay. [If something happened to me beneath the surface], support divers would clip the lift bag to my suit and I would be at the surface in less than 60 seconds. My husband is a key safety diver for this purpose, and waits for me underwater. Then we return to the surface together. As soon as my face is in air, I'm okay. Blackouts don't typically occur at-depth when all goes according to plan on a dive. Because of the partial pressure of oxygen, on the way up as the lungs return to their full size, that makes us more susceptible to blackout. There's a concentration of oxygen at-depth...so much oxygen in the blood, that you're fine. But when you combine two things - moving and metabolizing - it reduces oxygen levels in the blood and then you can black out. Falconer: You have described your nose clip as a third arm. I wonder if you could explain that a bit more. The way you equalize pressure during a dive sounds very complicated. Was it difficult to learn how to do? TS: I need to hold my nose to equalize the pressure as the weight of the water increases as I go deeper and bends the ear drums. The nose clip allows me to force air up into the Eustacian tubes and against the ear drum and still have free hands to hold the sled and the rope. This is not attractive and it's very uncomfortable... Falconer: You're a person who is constantly setting new goals and challenging her limits. You've just accomplished an amazing feat. Have you already set your sights on a new goal, or are you basking? TS: No basking. [Laughs.]...I didn't save any lives or cure cancer. My biggest challenge is using my success to inspire other people...I would like to translate my career into something larger than a world record...I have always wanted to do something for the environment...[I want to] talk about the things I really care about. How can a free diver 'rocket' to the surface without getting the 'bends'? "When we are...on dry land at sea level, the air around us has a pressure of 14.7 PSI (pounds per sq. in.) ...Because water is so heavy compared to air, it does not take much water to exert a lot of pressure...If you hold your breath and dive down 33 feet (10 meters)...your lungs actually contract in size by a factor of two...[because] there is twice as much pressure around the air in your lungs...When you rise back up, the air expands again, so your lungs return to normal size. When you breathe from a SCUBA tank, the air coming out of the tank actually has the same pressure as the pressure that the water is exerting...therefore, when SCUBA diving, the air in your lungs at a 33-ft depth has twice the pressure of air on land. At 66 feet, it has three times the pressure...If a SCUBA diver stays under water...for a certain period of time, some amount of nitrogen from the air will dissolve in the water in his or her body. If the diver were to swim quickly to the surface, it is just like uncorking a bottle of soda - the gas is released [with dangerous results]." Tanya Streeter's World Records July 22nd 2003: Constant Ballast Without Fins to 115ft in 1 min 44 seconds. July 21st 2003: Variable Ballast to 400ft in 3 mins 38 seconds. (New men's and women's record.) August 17th 2002: No Limits to 525ft in 3 mins 26 seconds. (New men's and women's record.) May 11th 2001: Women's Salt Water Constant Ballast to 230ft in 2 mins 36 seconds. May 6th 2001: Women's Salt Water Free Immersion to 230ft in 2 mins 28 seconds. December 4th 1999: Fresh Water Free Immersion to 180 feet in 2 mins 48 seconds. (Beat previous men's world record of 170ft/52m. First time in history that a woman took World Free Immersion record.) November 28th 1998: Fresh Water Constant Ballast to 185 feet in 2 mins 10 seconds. (Broke previous men's world record of 175ft/53m. First time in history that a woman took a World Constant Ballast record.) September 19th 1998: Women's Salt Water Constant Ballast to 220 feet in 2 mins 48 seconds. May 9th 1998: Women's No Limits to 370 feet in 2 mins 32 seconds. Issue 24 - 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Engineered with Passion
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