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With that phrase he introduces Miguel Lozano, a 43-year-old Spaniard who has two lives: one on land and the other in the water. On the surface, he is a Spaniard who has two daughters, works, spends afternoons with friends, enjoys his family and worries about the typical problems of everyday life. But, when he submerges in the sea, he changes and becomes an introspective being, who connects with his mind and evades negative thoughts, who can be free to move in any direction -like astronauts in space- and who can do without, at least for a while, breathing.
Miguel is one of the best freedivers in the world. This means that he is capable of traveling the underwater world without the need for an oxygen tank or any other help. Underwater, it can go 8 and a half minutes without breathing in a motionless state and has descended to 122 meters deep in the ocean. To reach such numbers, he needed to take an extraordinary turn by turning what used to be a hobby into a part of his life.
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It’s just that, as a child, he used to enjoy swimming pools and the beach like everyone else, until as a teenager he got bored looking for coins at the bottom of the pool and dabbled in scuba diving and spear fishing. His passion for the underwater world led him to jump into apnea in 2008 and become an athlete. Today he not only runs three schools in this discipline (in the Canary Islands, Tenerife and Egypt), but he has also become one of the best in this activity.
in dialogue with infobaeMiguel Lozano told what the life of a freediver is like and the secrets behind a unique sport.
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-On your page it says “12 people have stepped on the moon in the entire history of humanity, only 8 of us have descended to 120 meters”. Do you think there is a similarity between what an astronaut feels when he is on the moon and what you feel so deep under the sea?
-That sentence is a bit grandiloquent. Some seeks to put into perspective the difficulty of going so deep, not by technological means, but by the self-propulsion of our body. But to feel like in space it is not necessary to go very deep, in the water we are weightless, man has dedicated himself to going to space to feel that weightlessness, which is one of our dreams, but nevertheless that same sensation is perceived through 10 meters deep, where you don’t feel your weight, you can move in three directions… it’s a bit like that. And obviously at depth there are extreme conditions such as lack of oxygen, darkness, pressure. Our body falls into what we call free fall, in a state of negative buoyancy.
-Your beginnings were with underwater fishing and then you learned about apnea. What led you to venture into this sport?
-Since I was little I not only fished, but I was also curious about marine animals, playing with my body, holding my breath, or in a pool taking a coin and looking for it at the bottom, as we played, I think, almost all the children. Almost unconsciously he held his breath through games. At one time it was spearfishing that attracted me and over the years I wanted to improve and I got to know this sport that was dedicated to training and making everything I had done unconsciously more technical, and what attracted me the most were two things: firstly, the sports part , which seeks to go as deep as possible, and secondly, the therapeutic part, because for me freediving is therapy. There I discharge the tension, stress and noise of society. And breathing, relaxation, introspection, both in the sea and in the pool, you enter a state of lethargy of mental wandering in which there is a kind of chain of undirected thoughts and my mind completely evades and that relaxes your body. That combination of body-mind-nature is what attracted me and that’s why I dedicated my life to it.
-Is freediving training more focused on breathing and mental than physical?
-It is true that it is a very technical and mental sport, and therefore if you do not know how to breathe correctly or find relaxation or use the ear compensation technique, obviously no matter how much you train in the gym, you will lack everything technical that adapts you physiologically and mentally. But there comes a point where the physical part cannot be neglected in competition. But, in this progression from the beginning, perhaps the technical and mental part have more weight.
Miguel Lozano descended 122 meters without a scuba tank. According to the rules of apnea, for a mark to be counted, the athlete must not only descend to a certain point, but must also manage to get out on their own, without receiving any help, and once their head has risen to the surface. must be able to look at the judge, give an ok signal and then say “I’m okay” (I’m fine). Once those steps are completed, your record is recorded.
The best places to carry out this activity should be very deep places near the coast (for safety), where the temperature is warm or warm (27-28 degrees to avoid thick thermal protection suits), without strong currents or thermoclines and have good visibility (for more peace of mind for the freediver and for the safety team). Some areas that have these characteristics are in the Canary Islands, the Red Sea, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, although in reality this discipline can be carried out under any condition and also in swimming pools.
-There are very few accidents in apnea, but you suffered one.
-Accidents in apnea are almost nil, if we understand accidents as those that cause death. Syncopes are relatively normal in competition apnea, but the result is never fatal because there are security systems. It’s like sport climbing, climbers fall, but they don’t kill each other, because they have harnesses, ropes and so on that don’t kill each other and allow them to make mistakes. Our weak point could be syncope, which is a little more spectacular than a fall, but that’s not normal. I have lost consciousness three times in my career, but nothing has happened to me because we have a partner system, a person who goes up the last meters to help you if you lose consciousness. That is a big difference with spearfishing, since if a fisherman loses consciousness, he drowns because no one assists him.
– Going back to the comparison you make with the moon, astronauts and space scientists are hungry for curiosity about what is in space. Does something similar happen to you with the sea and with what lives in the depths?
-Yeah. I have depth attraction. When I get into the water in the middle of the sea and I see the rays that go down towards the depth, that attracts me. The greatest depth does not have to be associated with discovery, I am curious about anything in the sea at any depth, especially if there is marine life. I find the depth within me, think that in deep apnea we go without a mask, we go with our eyes closed as if we were blind and there we focus on the technical part, consumption, relaxation and concentration. That makes you investigate the most mental and emotional aspect of your own person.
-How would you convince someone to dabble in apnea?
-Mainly out of curiosity, to break with that negative connotation of holding your breath that obviously seems an unnatural act and suffering, but it’s the opposite. It is an act of learning to breathe, relax, postural re-education to relax muscle tension. It will give you advantages in aspects of daily life, also on the therapeutic side and that they give it a chance because it is an experience that leaves no one indifferent. This combination of the body and mind in a natural state like the sea, in an environment like water, induces relaxation as few activities on land allow you to achieve. On earth there is gravity, we are very connected to the sense of sight that distorts the rest of the senses… It is an introspective sport in which there is a very mental work that allows you to get to know yourself a lot. It also gives confidence in doing something you didn’t think you could do. Holding 2-3-4 minutes comforts all levels. Giving rise to this sport may surely surprise you since a priori it may not seem like a pleasant activity. That people give it a chance, because this connects you with your most animal self. The sea is part of the mammal that we have because it makes us return to our origins, to that amniotic fluid, to that state of peace and tranquility, and it is more natural than people think.
-Regarding your future, do you still aim to break the world record of 125 meters?
Since the pandemic the competitions have stopped, I have two little girls right now and for my work I travel a lot, and right now it is not worth being away for so long. The good thing about embarrassment is that it is a fairly long-lived sport, the best freedivers are between 35 and 45 years old and there is a lot of room for improvement. I feel that call on the one hand, more for the training than for the competition, being with friends in spectacular places where we can relax and rest, perhaps not so attracted by the competition now. But I don’t rule it out.
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