When Kyle Gion was growing up in Kailua, he was fascinated by the freedivers he saw emerging from the ocean. They wore no tanks of air but had still managed to spear fish. Lots of fish.
"I thought it was so interesting, and I wanted to know more," says Gion, now a 20-year-old sophomore at Brown University in Rhode Island. "It was such a sustainable way to harvest fish."
It wasn’t long before he had joined their ranks, hunting dinner below the ocean’s surface on a single gulp of air. But little did Gion know that holding his breath could land him a prize far bigger than any fish: national recognition for freediving.
In June 2013, Gion set a national record in the discipline of "dynamic apnea," which is measured by distance, not depth. With just one breath of air, Gion swam 200 meters while using a monofin at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex. It took him 2 minutes and 31 seconds. He became the youngest freediver in U.S. history to earn a record and the first American to swim 200 meters in dynamic apnea. (All of these competitions are done with safety divers in the water.)
Gion fell in love with freediving accidentally. He had no idea people competed in such an esoteric sport.
Although no stranger to fitness — he swam, played water polo and paddled at Punahou School — Gion signed up for a four-day freediving workshop to improve his spearfishing. The workshop, which was led by Daryl Wong, whose custom-made spearguns are prized around the world, intrigued the young diver.
The following year Gion was the youngest athlete to compete in Freedive Paradise, a freediving competition in Kailua-Kona. A year later he was selected to be part of the U.S. men’s national team to compete in the Team World Freediving Competition in Nice, France. He was the youngest member of the team.
His meteoric success appears to have more to do with commitment than natural talent. Gion trains all year to stay fit for freediving.
"A lot of the training is in the water, diving over and over again, mentally staying focused," Gion said.
But freediving is all about controlling the way you breathe and focusing your willpower when you can’t. So Gion started practicing yoga to work on that.
"It’s definitely helped me to be more relaxed," said Gion, who tries to do yoga a couple of times a week. "With freediving you become very conscious of your breath. And that’s something you do in yoga, too."
Stretching his lungs is also important. He does that by taking in a deep breath and exhaling all the way out while bending forward, which forces more air out of his lungs. Then he stretches with empty lungs, bending to both sides. Then he repeats the stretch after inhaling deeply.
Training helps only so much.
"That urge to breathe is always there, no matter how trained you are," Gion said. "Over time I’ve gotten used to it."
But there is always a moment when he feels he cannot go a moment more — and does.
"I guess it’s the same with runners when they hit the wall," he says. "It’s hard, but I push myself past that feeling."
Cardiovascular fitness helps a lot, but bulky muscles do not.
"For competition you don’t want to have too much muscle, but you want to have good endurance muscles in your legs," he said.
To achieve that balance, Gion jumps on a stationary cycle for 30 minutes of high-intensity training three to four times a week. When the weather is warmer, he’ll run from four to seven miles instead.
The competitions have really helped Gion’s spearfishing prowess, and he still dives whenever he’s home. Although he started with easy shore dives off Kailua and Waikiki, he now plunges into deep water.
He’ll go as deep as 60 feet, stay down for more than two minutes and bring back a 40-pound ono.
"I’ve learned that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish it no matter how hard it is," he said. "It’s really a competition against yourself."
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