Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
“When we can respond to suffocation with equanimity, we are truly on the path towards maximizing our aquatic potential.”
William Trubridge
About a month ago, a thought crossed my mind. A fleeting thought, one that might’ve slipped through my awareness had I not been amused enough to entertain it; “What would happen if I tried to get in touch with and learn from William Trubridge?”
William is arguably one of the best freedivers, ever. No matter what I say, or how I try to describe his accomplishments, I think nothing can come close to actually seeing him in action. I’ll leave you with this video. I’ve probably watched it close to 100 times. I know quite a few people that were inspired to learn freediving after watching it.
Over the past few months, I’ve been obsessively consuming every form of information by William I could come across; his autobiography, podcast appearances, YouTube videos, blogs and articles. Rather than try to learn everything from scratch through trial-and-error, why not stand on the shoulders of giants?
After lots of research, I ended up with more questions that answers. There were areas I really wanted to keep exploring, but I couldn’t quite figure out how. For example, William mentions a technique where he applies ancient yogic locks (also known as “bandhas”) to lower his heart rate — an incredibly useful skill if you want to preserve precious oxygen underwater. I dived into books and blogs about yoga and experimented on myself, but wasn’t quite able to make any meaningful progress.
I decided to get in touch with William through his website. He mentioned that he hadn’t done any remote coaching before, but was willing to give it a try for $300 / hour. I couldn’t believe it!
We’ve had two sessions since, and I’ve been fascinated by the knowledge and approach that he’s so openly shared. Having this invaluable opportunity to learn from William has been so surreal. Sure, partially because I’m a huge fan1, but also because I’ve been able to make tangible progress in such a short time.
In the graph below, William demonstrates being able to drop his heart rate, at will, down to 30 beats per minute! I used to think this was superhuman.
After two weeks of daily practice, something that seemed completely alien to me, is all of a sudden something I’m capable of, too.
Who is someone you aspire to be like?
Have you tried reaching out to him or her?
Disclaimer: There are two factors, I think, that definitely helped me in this case. The first is that the freediving community is still pretty niche. If freediving was more like basketball, trying to get in touch with William would be akin to trying to get a hold of Michael Jordan (i.e. a lot more difficult).
The second factor … freedivers are awesome people!
Sometimes, my wife gets jealous about the way I talk about William. It put a bit of a strain on our relationship.