Remember those long summer days in the neighbour’s pool taking turns with the other kids to see who could hold their breath for the longest? You’d manage a lap or even two, then burst up through the surface of the water puffing and gasping for precious air to fill your lungs. Now imagine swimming 101 laps of a 25-metre pool underwater in just an hour. Holding your breath for 42 minutes of that hour. Sounds impossible, right? Not for 44-year-old Newcastle freediver Michaela Werner. After years of dedication and training, last year Michaela became the first woman to claim the world record for swimming more than one hundred laps underwater in 60 minutes. But more on that incredible feat later…
Growing up in Slovakia, it was on a trip to the coast of Libya in Africa with her mother, that Michaela dipped her toes into the sea for the very first time. This moment, she says, changed her life forever. “I was eight years old when I first laid eyes on the ocean and after having the chance to experience swimming in it, something happened to me. It was like pure joy. I will never forget that feeling and that pull towards the ocean,” says Michaela.
After years of dedication and training, last year Michaela became the first woman to claim the world record for swimming more than one hundred laps underwater in 60 minutes.
Back in her home country, Michaela spent many hours of her childhood in a different body of water – the local pool. Swimming competitively as a teenager, thrashing out up to forty kilometres a week in the pool was normal for Michaela, but it wasn’t until she chased a life by the beach in Australia after finishing school, that her deep fascination and appreciation of the ocean was revisited. “The first thing I did after arriving in Australia was to volunteer as a surf lifesaver at Palm Beach in Sydney,” remembers Michaela. “I couldn’t believe that there was a place I could go and spend my entire weekend, where people would teach me about the ocean. I quickly learnt that just because I was a good swimmer, it didn’t necessarily mean I was good in the ocean. The beach was so unpredictable, and I thought I was young and strong, but I had so much to learn.”
After meeting her future husband Jochen at University and joining the local scuba diving club together, Michaela says the pair were on their first dive at Fish Rock Cave near South West Rocks, NSW, when they came face to face with a group of freedivers. “We swam through a cave and on the other side were all these grey nurse sharks,” remembers Michaela. “I didn’t care about the sharks; it was what I saw on the other side of them that I couldn’t look away from. A group of freedivers were taking turns swimming down to a shark that was tangled in rope and cutting it free while it just floated there in the water. I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen, and I knew from that moment that this was the sport I wanted to learn.”
“I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen, and I knew from that moment that this was the sport I wanted to learn.”
Immediately signing up to a freediving course with her husband, Michaela says it took her six months to be able to equalise properly during a dive, but once she could, there was no turning back. “There has never been any fear for me when I free dive. I feel much more comfortable under the water holding my breath, than I do on land,” says Michaela. Becoming one with the ocean, Michaela describes her time beneath the surface as peaceful and profound and says she feels like a fish when she is completely relaxed in the water. “There is this saying that scuba divers dive to look outside and freedivers dive to look inside. This is true for me because the deep feelings I experience when I free dive really have been life changing.”
So, what exactly is freediving and do those childhood pool laps holding your breath count? Michaela explains that when you dive down underwater without any breathing apparatus and simply hold your breath, then you are in fact, freediving. “For example, if you dive down with an underwater camera and take a photo while holding your breath, that’s freediving. If you duck dive and have a look around beneath the surface at coral or fish, then that’s freediving,” says Michaela. “You can take it easy or be as hardcore as you like but not many people are competitive freedivers – most just enjoy the experience of holding their breath momentarily and having a look around underwater because it can be so beautiful.”
“There has never been any fear for me when I free dive. I feel much more comfortable under the water holding my breath, than I do on land,” says Michaela.
Michaela is quick to warn that the sport of freediving isn’t without its risks and dangers and should never be undertaken without proper training and supervision. The greatest danger of the sport is having a blackout, where a freediver loses consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia during a breath-hold. “The risk of drowning if you blackout during a dive is certain death, unless someone sees you,” says Michaela. “That’s why freediving is not an individual sport, it’s a team sport – you need to be with someone at all times when you hold your breath. You may feel like you have things under control, but you don’t. You may be a little bit tired or dehydrated or you didn’t sleep so well or you’re digesting some food – there are so many variables that people don’t realise so it’s really important to dive with a buddy. There is a lot of trust involved.”
After switching from recreational freediving to the world of competition quite quickly, Michaela says despite her natural talent for the sport, the reality of the consequences of being inexperienced forced her to reconsider her decision. “On my first competition in Sydney, I experienced a blackout of two seconds which was long enough to shake me up and make me ask the question, ‘Why am I pushing myself so much?’” says Michaela. “I stepped away from competitive freediving for a while, then had another long break when I had my three children, so it was only a couple of years ago that I started to train again and get back to that level.”
“That’s why freediving is not an individual sport, it’s a team sport – you need to be with someone at all times when you hold your breath. You may feel like you have things under control, but you don’t.”
Inspired by the best freediver in the world, Alexey Molchanov, who broke a world record by swimming 120 laps underwater in one hour, Michaela questioned whether she might be capable of doing something similar. A fire was ignited within her, and she jumped in the pool the very next chance she had. “I did 24 laps underwater in 12 minutes and realised this was the same speed as Alexey but afterwards I was exhausted and could barely breathe!” says Michaela. Instead of giving up, Michaela called the Guinness World Record office which set the women’s world record target at one hundred laps in one hour. Next, Michaela set herself a goal: train physically and mentally for six months in the hope of breaking the record.
Making her record attempt public was an important tactic used to motivate Michaela towards her target, keeping her accountable and determined to give the world record her best shot. Training regularly at Charlestown Swim Centre, the community of regular pool-goers were fascinated by Michaela’s unique underwater style – the dynamic no fins technique which is essentially underwater breaststroke. “People would stop what they were doing and look beneath the surface to watch me, even though there’s actually a lot of nothingness when I’m under the water. People think its constant movement but there is so much stillness when I glide and that’s when the magic happens and I surrender and feel the water on my body and face – it’s a beautiful feeling,” says Michaela.
The rules of the world record attempt allowed Michaela to come up for air after each 25metre underwater lap, but only for a mere 10 seconds. When the day finally came for Michaela to put her months of demanding work to the test, her family plus a crowd of local supporters where there to cheer her on. “Jochen and our children, Kristina, Thomas and Lukas and my training buddy Joe Fairleigh (who helped me prepare for the challenge) were amazing. Joe helped me come up with focus words such as ‘grace’ and ‘gratitude’ to concentrate on while I swam, to give meaning to what I was doing,” says Michaela. “Ten years of preparing and six months of specific training went into that one hour and when I realised I could do it, I remember thinking underwater, “Just enjoy this special moment.” Hopefully, my journey in gaining a Guinness World Record has inspired my kids to realise that they can do anything.”
Training regularly at Charlestown Swim Centre, the community of regular pool-goers were fascinated by Michaela’s unique underwater style – the dynamic no fins technique which is essentially underwater breaststroke.
Freediving aside, the true power of this New Lambton mermaid, who can hold her breathe statically for six minutes, is her zest for life and her belief that if we learn to harness the power of our own minds, we can do almost anything. “I’ve always believed that life is an adventure, and every single day is an opportunity to do something amazing, you just have to believe in yourself,” says Michaela. “If there is an opportunity, I take it up. If there is a challenge, I take it up. Every challenge that you overcome makes you stronger and makes your life more powerful!”
With the dream of becoming the best freediving coach in the world, Michaela is now taking everything she has learnt throughout her underwater training journey and using it to create a comprehensive online training course so other divers and swimmers can perfect their technique and achieve their own goals. Along with a passion for teaching, Michaela plans to travel to Egypt this year to deep dive in the Blue Hole, a famous freediving hotspot. “I hope to dive as deep as the ocean lets me, without doing anything crazy or injuring myself – I promised my family that!” says Michaela. “For me, freediving is about seeing the beauty of the ocean and about doing hard things with the idea of mind over matter. Everyone can have a goal to work towards or challenge themselves by doing hard things. Then it builds up and you have this feeling that you can overcome anything… and maybe even obtain a world record!”
Words: Odette Tonkin | Photography: Warrick Eady
As seen in Swell Issue 20. Grab your copy here
