Alice Hickson
Depth becomes her The underwater world has helped this champion freediver make sense of her life above it Words JESSICA HOLLAND
Photography DAAN VERHOEVEN
Holding your breath underwater for long stretches of time, as freedivers do, is a mind game. As your body is starved of oxygen, the diaphragm starts to contract. Panicking will only spike your heart rate and accelerate oxygen use, and there’s always the risk of going too far and blacking out. But, for Alice Hickson, who has dedicated the last eight years to freediving, it’s life-affirming. Born in Doncaster but now Cornwall-based, Hickson signed up for a freediving course in Bristol in 2014, inspired by the Luc Besson film The Big Blue and a lifelong love of being immersed in water. She found she was a natural. In 2015, just eight months after taking up the sport, she won gold at the Pool World Championships in Belgrade, diving 174m in one breath, without fins. Hickson now holds the national record for all four pool disciplines and one of three in depth. That’s not to say it’s been easy. There was a failed relationship with a partner who wasn’t supportive of her freediving dreams. COVID hit just as she prepared to open a beach café to support herself financially while training. She also suffers from debilitating pain and sickness linked to her menstrual cycle, which prevented her from competing in the Depth World Championship last year. Hickson is now training hard for the Pool World Championships in Bulgaria this month – her first competition in three years – doing underwater sessions, gym workouts and mental preparation on top of working as an ad-hoc labourer and freediving coach to pay the bills. But, for the 32-year-old, it has all been
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worth it. “Before I found freediving, I was very lost,” she says. “It’s given me drive, meaning and a purpose.” the red bulletin: What does freediving feel like? alice hickson: I’m not very good at staying still, but in the water it’s like the flick of a switch. When you’re diving deep, you just feel completely insignificant; nothing else matters. It can almost feel like you’re flying. Did you expect to win gold in your first year of competing? No! I was working two jobs and at university part-time, so I had to start a crowdfund to get there. I went with no expectations. I did two disciplines: dynamic no fins (how many lengths you can do in one breath) and static (face down in the water, holding your breath). I was really anxious on the day of the dynamic final, but I ended up winning gold. In static, I got a PB and broke the national record. It was one of the best weeks ever. Do you worry about blacking out? I did black out in the 2016 World Championships, during static. It was only a little one, a few seconds. I was used to a warmer pool. When you’re cold and start shivering, you’re using energy, which uses oxygen. Now I know that I needed a thicker wetsuit. Does freediving cultivate an attitude of mindfulness? There’s the mammalian dive reflex, which slows down your heart rate when your face is in water. The blood from your extremities goes to your core to save energy. Everything feels calmer. You learn to let everything go. If you start thinking, “I’ve left the oven on,” it raises your heart rate and
you’ll use up oxygen through panic. This transfers into daily life: if you learn to breathe slower, calmer or deeper, it can impact on your emotions and help you manage everyday problems. How does it feel when you start to reach your limit and your body feels the urge to breathe? Freediving is as much a mental game as it is physical. It helps that I feel more comfortable in water than I do on land. For me, it’s meditative. You realise the contractions are just a signal from your body, and if you relax into it you can overcome that and go a bit longer. The best dives are when you’re in a state of flow and don’t even notice them. What’s it like to explore the ocean with no equipment? It’s a lot less cumbersome than scuba diving, and not as scary for the wildlife – we’ve had dolphins and seals join us. You might see spider crabs as big as footballs. There’s a reef nearby [in Cornwall] where you can see wrasse, sea bass, jellyfish… Then you come to a dark hole in the rock. You swim through and follow the light to the surface. You know when you visit an amusement park and you want go on a ride again and again? It’s like that. After not being in the sea for months because of lockdown, I went to the bottom of the line and lay down in the kelp. The sway of the ocean is like being rocked. That’s a really lovely feeling. How has freediving changed you? It’s helped me become calmer and more confident. When you’re aware of being a tiny drop in this huge ocean, it’s like nothing matters. Like a tide, things come and go. Nothing’s permanent. What’s next in freediving? Fifty years ago, they thought that no one could go past a depth of 50m. I don’t think the limits have been reached yet. Freediving isn’t like most sports – you get better with age. You get stronger mentally and your metabolic rate slows down. I’ve got loads more potential. I’m continuing that journey. Instagram: @alice_hickson_freediver
THE RED BULLETIN
