Moments earlier than setting a nationwide freediving document in April, Lt. Col. Laurence Paik checked to verify his nostril clip was fixed, his flashlight was beaming, and his lanyard — connected to a line plunging deep into the Mexican cenote, or freshwater sinkhole — was secured.
The verify was akin to the inflexible pre-flight procedures Paik had discovered as a Harrier pilot within the Marine Corps. Now, it’s a part of a crucial routine he makes use of to arrange for diving into among the most excessive depths the human physique can endure.
Paik competed underneath the Worldwide Affiliation for Growth of Apnea, or AIDA — a French-born group that has judged freediving data since its founding in 1992. When he arrived on the Xibalba Freediving competitors in Mexico, his intent was to beat the “fixed weight, no fins,” or CNF, document of 72 meters.
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That class of freediving is taken into account probably the most difficult as a result of it requires the swimmer to dive with out the help of fins — simply pure swimming and one allotted maintain on the backside of a security rope that marks the transition between descent and ascent.
Paik, who’s assigned as a reserve intelligence and international space officer with the Marine Innovation Unit, beat that document on April 20, in accordance with the AIDA, by diving 73 meters into the sinkhole and thoroughly breaststroking again to the highest.
On the floor, he needed to verbally inform the judges he was OK and provides a hand sign, a requirement for a profitable dive to make sure that he didn’t go out. Paik brandished the tag that he collected on the backside of the road, exhibiting that he accomplished the document.
“It was — ultimately — a aid,” Paik informed Navy.com in a current interview. “I knew that this was going to be my final alternative in that competitors. … It was a validation of the work and energy and the arrogance that I had constructed within the preparation and all of the coaching.”
Paik had made an preliminary try earlier that week, however was unsuccessful. He had hit the 73-meter mark however had a “floor blackout” on the prime of the dive — passing out attributable to a trick of the sunshine that made him really feel nearer to air than he thought.
“I really hit the sunshine and thought I used to be near the floor and began my stretch as if I used to be going to be breaking the floor shortly thereafter,” he stated. “However that is after I realized it wasn’t as shut as I believed.”
He reset. He reviewed security digicam footage and information from the dive laptop that helps monitor his depth and progress. He adjusted his preliminary dive into the water so he did not splash as a lot, a transfer that helped retain vitality and effectivity wanted for the descent.
On the best way down, the chasm seems infinite. Shimmering streaks of sunshine from the solar above beam down, giving the cave an ethereal look not in contrast to science-fiction depictions of warp pace.
At larger depths, stress builds to the purpose the place a human being’s lungs can shrink to the dimensions of fists and harmful ranges of nitrogen can construct up within the physique, resulting in nitrogen narcosis, or “rapture of the deep,” as it’s identified in diving circles.
“There turns into a degree the place your lungs are at their minimal quantity, they usually mainly will not get any smaller,” Paik stated. “So, what it’s important to do is take some air out of your lungs earlier than that time and retailer it … in your neck, in your cheeks, in your mouth.”
As he descends, he makes use of a few of that air to “equalize” the stress constructing in his ear canals.
“That is one of many equalizers,” he stated of the game. “When you could be actually good at equalization, then you may get to your bodily potential. But when you do not have that equalization, then you definitely is perhaps an unimaginable athlete, however not be capable of attain that potential.”
On the opposite aspect of that hazard lies what Paik described as euphoria. That “rapture of the deep” introduced on partly by oxygen depletion and nitrogen has led to what freedivers have described as a sense of elation, which Paik stated is a part of the thrall over diving.
A longtime aggressive swimmer, Paik began freediving in 2019. He stated that he fell in love with the game by way of spearfishing the place he felt unburdened by the noise, bubbles and weighty gear that comes with scuba diving.
Off an island in Bali, Indonesia, Paik received his first style of pure freediving. He explored the wreck of the U.S. Army Transport Ship Liberty, which was torpedoed by the Japanese navy throughout World Conflict II.
“I had already scuba dived that very same wreck,” he stated. “Now, freediving the identical wreck was a totally completely different expertise — you do not have the valves and the bubbles and the noise. … Now, I’ve mainly received comparatively little or no tools. I can go vertical, I can do all types of maneuvers, and I can get actually near all that sea life.”
From there, he fell in love with the freediving neighborhood. A distinct segment group, he stated that the neighborhood itself “is without doubt one of the most engaging and enjoyable issues about freediving,” with a camaraderie constructed round an intense, typically harmful exercise.
Since Bali, Paik has freedived in solely three competitions, certainly one of which the place he broke the nationwide document. Whereas he is been a lifelong swimmer, getting time “in depth,” as he known as it, is usually a problem, particularly as he lives on the East Coast, the place deepwater sinkholes just like the one in Mexico are few and much between.
He stated that after the equalization piece of the puzzle is mastered, most freediving coaching could be completed on land. He trains with conditioning, stretching and respiration workouts. He spends a whole lot of time within the pool, swimming in preparation for this document specifically.
Paik attributes a few of his freediving success to his Marine Corps expertise. He joined the service in 2005 by way of the Reserve Officers’ Coaching Corps, or ROTC. After primary officer coaching, he acquired an air contract, that means that he could be put in an aviation position, which is the place he says he received the “guidelines mindset” he employs within the water.
He spent 12 years on lively obligation earlier than switching to the reserve, the place he now serves with the Marine Innovation Unit as a protection engagement supervisor, connecting completely different components of the Marine Corps and the Protection Division to “advance know-how adoption,” Paik stated.
“With my swimming background, with my aviation background when it comes to being put into completely different sorts of environments and being requested to carry out, I used to be form of already used to a whole lot of the issues related to freediving,” he stated. “So, it was only a matter of placing all of them collectively.”
Paik intends to proceed competing, probably for an additional CNF document, he informed Navy.com.
“I believe 80 meters could be doable,” he stated. “The world document is 102 meters. It is good to assume that possibly in the future that is within the realm of risk,” including that it might take a concerted effort to get to 80 meters.
“No matter whether or not I can try this form of stuff, the exercise itself is rewarding,” he stated. “There’s lots extra that I’ve but to discover in Asia and Europe and the Center East — so there’s much more left to do.”
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