If you don’t know, now you know!
There is a podcast for freedivers and it is called: The Freedive Café.
I think I’ve mentioned The Freedive Café before, but I can’t remember in which post. If I didn’t say it before: the podcasts are highly recommended (if not a must) for anyone who’s interested in or obsessed (;-)) with freediving.
The concept is pretty basic: every episode Donny Mac (McFarlane) interviews one of the bigger names in freediving and asks them about their history, their first contact with the sport, their progression, the obstacles they encountered, the lessons they learned, any plans they might have for the future, etcetera. To conclude the podcasts Donny usually asks them about their morning routine and a book recommendation.
Depending on the guest and their expertise, some podcasts will go deeper into training methods, the science behind freediving or the effective teaching and coaching of newbies to expert freedivers.
Below is a list some of my favourite episodes, but let me start off by saying that anyone new to The Freedive Café should – of course – begin with the first episode and let Donny (himself) explain what it’s all about.
The list:
The Italians What’s not to love about the Italians? Exactly: nothing! There is truly nothing not to enjoy about their accents, confidence, experience, slight hubris, brutal talent for storytelling and the fact that they are living freedive legends. Umberto Pelizzari is featured in episodes #20 and #63. Andrea Zuccari is featured in episode #51.
The freedive king of YouTube Almost everyone that has done any sort of search for freediving on YouTube knows who I’m talking about: Adam Stern (episodes #9 and #36). This hyperactive and funny Australian is not only a very popular online video maker (together with his partner), but a serious freediving athlete and organizer of the popular Deep Week events (usually hosted on Bali, Indonesia).
A Danish feel-good story Stig Pryds is a Danish freediver with an interesting back-story. Suffering from a condition known as psoriatic arthritis, he was condemned to retire earlier than he had planned and forced to use aids just to be able to walk. That all changed when he discovered that he could manage the condition through freediving, yoga and eating a plant-based diet. Stig is featured in episodes #4 and #65.
The expert freediving coach Down in Indonesia there is a place called Apnea Bali. You can go there to do the ordinary freediving courses or to get some serious high level coaching by Julia Mouce. We’re talking about elite freedivers that appreciate her guidance. Listening to this woman talk, you immediately realise this is an all around freediving badass. She has strong opinions backed by well thought-through arguments and she’s anything but a punishment to listen to. Julia is featured in episodes #28 and #52.
The oxygen advantage There are a couple of episodes that don’t feature freedivers. Episode #54 is one of those. Patrick McKeown might know little about freediving, he knows a lot about functional breathing and the science around this thing we do that’s so extremely critical to our (quality of) life. This episode is generally interesting, even to non-freedivers. And even though you might think: “what’s the use for freedivers, aren’t they explicitly in the business of breath-holding and not breathing?”; those two actions go hand-in-hand and are way more (performance-)interdependent than you might realise.
The World Champ The most impressive freedive perfomances in recent times have been achieved by Russian freediver Alexey Molchanov, son of the late Natalia Molchanova. This prodigy is the deepest self propelled human being on planet earth (vid below). This impressive fact is by itself reason enough to listen to his story and take on the sport. Alexey is featured in episode #35.
The old freedive Yoda His coaching style might not be as Zen-like and incoherent as Yoda’s, but Aharon Solomons is definitely a wise old man with many lessons to teach. Come to think of it: might be better to compare him to Rocky Balboa’s coach “Mighty” Mick. In two parts, episodes #15 and #16, Donny and Aharon discuss a whole lot of subjects: from equalization techniques and their origins, to residual volume dives, to mouthfill, to lung squeeze problems, to packing, to brain-waves and dreaming, and so forth.
I hope the (already) avid listeners of the podcast can agree with the above selection and if this is the first time you’re hearing (reading) about The Freedive Café podcasts: definitely give them go if you’re interested in freediving!
a journey from the surface to wherever 