Hello. This is 6 Minute English and I’m Neil. |
And I’m Georgina. |
Now Georgina, what do you know about free diving? |
Free diving is a sport where people dive underwater as deep as they can without carrying air tanks, so just by holding their breath. |
That’s right. |
We’re going to find out today about a world record free diver. |
But first a question – and this is a physics one. |
On dry land, at sea level, the pressure or weight of all the air above us is known as an atmosphere. |
How far underwater do you have to go until the weight of water is equal in pressure to another atmosphere? |
Is it: A: 1 metre, B: 10 metres, or C: 100 metres? |
What do you think, Georgina? |
Well, water is much heavier than air, but there is lot of air above us, many kilometres, so I don’t think one metre of water is heavy enough. |
Same for 10 metres. |
So, I think 100 metres is the equivalent of 1 atmosphere. |
OK. We’ll find out if you are swimming comfortably or completely out of your depth later. |
Herbert Nitsch holds the world record for the deepest free dive. |
In 2012 he reached a depth of 253 metres. |
Recently he spoke on the BBC World Service radio programme, Outlook about his experiences. |
He spoke about how he trained himself to hold his breath for a long time. |
Lungs are the organs in the body that hold the air that we breathe in, |
and he says that he trains himself not by starting with a big breath, but when his lungs are already empty. |
Why is that? |
The reason why I do the empty lungs is that the urge to breathe comes earlier and this is when the training starts. |
Because when you hold your breath on full lungs, the urge to breathe comes like a few minutes in, but the time up to that point is no training at all. |
Only the time you have the urge to breathe and fight against it, that’s the time you’re actually training. |
So, why train with empty lungs? |
Because you have to practise not breathing when you need to breathe. |
Can you explain further? |
Of course. |
Normally our breathing is automatic. |
We don’t have to think about it. |
If you hold your breath there is a point when your body tells you that it’s time to breathe. |
And at that point, most of us will take a breath, won’t we? |
Exactly. Our body and brain is telling us – go on, breathe, take a breath! |
This strong feeling to do something is called an urge. |
To hold your breath for a long time you have to ignore that urge, you have to fight against it. |
So to train to do that, it’s a waste of time taking a big breath, |
because holding your breath when you don’t need to breathe isn’t difficult – you have to practise fighting against that urge to breathe. |
Nitsch did a lot of free diving in lakes in his home country of Austria. |
Diving in lakes is very different from diving in the ocean. |
Here he is describing the experience. |
In the beginning it’s very spooky, and yes, it’s not a pleasant feeling at all in the beginning. |
It’s something actually quite intimidating, but after a while you get used to it and you learn to appreciate it actually that it’s so quiet. |
Quiet and you’re deprived of all sensations except the cold, of course, and so you hear your own heart beat because there’s absolutely no sound. |
How does he describe the sensation? |
It’s very cold, dark and quiet when diving deep in lakes and at first he says the experience is spooky. |
This means it’s a little scary and mysterious – in the same way we might find a graveyard at night spooky – that kind of feeling. |
And he also says it’s intimidating, which is a feeling of being frightened by something stronger and more powerful than you are. |
And you experience these feelings because you are deprived of all sensations. |
When you are deprived of something, it means you don’t have it, it’s taken away. |
And sensations are the way we experience the world, so sound, sight and smell. |
Diving in cold, dark silent waters you are deprived of many of our usual sensations, and that is spooky and intimidating. |
Rather him than me. I don’t think I’d like that experience at all! |
Right, before we review our vocabulary, let’s have the answer to the quiz. |
How far underwater do you have to go until the weight of water is equal in pressure to another atmosphere? |
Georgina, what did you say? |
I thought 100 metres. |
Well, that is actually the equivalent of 10 atmospheres! |
So the correct answer is 10 metres. |
Every 10 metres of depth in water is the equivalent to the weight and pressure of the air above us at sea level. |
There is a difference between fresh and salt water, but it’s not so much as to make your answer correct! |
Well done if you got that answer right. |
Well I was clearly out of my depth with that question. |
You were! Now vocabulary. |
The part of our body that holds our breath is our lungs. |
A very strong need or desire to do something, like breathe, is an urge. |
Something spooky is a little scary and mysterious. |
And it can also be intimidating, which means it’s overpowering and frightening in a way that makes you less confident. |
And to be deprived of sensations, means to have certain feelings, like touch and hearing taken away. |
So Georgina, do you fancy free diving? |
Well. Would I like to go hundreds of metres down in cold, dark, silent water without any breathing equipment? |
Let me think about that. I’ve thought about it – no thank you! |
Not my cup of tea either – and speaking of tea, it is time for us to go and get a cuppa. |
That’s all from us. |
Goodbye for now. |
Bye! |