Swimming With the Fishes

No Oxygen? No Problem. This Freediver Can Stay Underwater For Six Minutes.

If someone told you she could hold her breath for six minutes, would you believe her? Tanya Streeter is a professional freediver, which means she dives while holding her breath and without using oxygen tanks. She can stay underwater for more than six minutes.

Streeter has broken nine world records for holding her breath underwater. She does it several ways: diving in the ocean, swimming in a pool or floating. She can hold her breath longest when she floats because she's not moving.

Last year she set a world record by swimming 114 meters underwater. (All you swim-teamers out there, imagine swimming almost five laps without taking a breath!) But an hour later a Russian swimmer swam even farther!

Streeter holds the record for diving into the ocean 525 feet below the surface. How far down is that? For comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.

The sport of freediving is relatively new. The first formal competitions started 15 years ago. Now they are held all over the world.

Streeter loves the sport because it has taught her that it's almost always possible to do more than you think you can. When she first started freediving, for example, Streeter never thought she'd dive deeper than 100 feet.

Streeter also uses her underwater efforts to call attention to the beauty and needs of the undersea world. She works with conservation groups that help protect ocean life.

"I have a very personal and almost spiritual bond with the ocean," she said.

Streeter, who is 33, was raised on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea, the kind of place most people visit only on vacation. By age 7, she was snorkeling in the ocean for hours at a time. "It never occurred to me that kids anywhere else in the world weren't doing the same thing," she said.

When she was 24, Streeter began competing as a freediver. Now she's so well known that she earns a living doing television shows and commercials. Companies also pay her to use their products.

Streeter is able to hold her breath so long in part because she's extremely fit. She's also helped by the way the human body reacts when it's immersed in water, especially cold water. At first the heart beats faster; then it slows down, conserving oxygen by sending blood only to the vital organs and the brain. That's called the "dive reflex," and it's how sea creatures including whales and dolphins can spend long periods underwater.

A good freediver has to be mentally strong to fight the urge to come up for air. Freedivers always train with a buddy. Streeter knows kids love to see how long they can hold their breath, but she says no one should try to hold their breath underwater alone.

"Even at my level of the sport -- especially at my level -- I absolutely, categorically, have a buddy," she said.

-- Margaret Webb Pressler