Ashleigh Baird - Freedive Against All Odds (Take the Waters)

training for free Devin can be very tough you're training for you know if co2 tolerance and things like that so it can feel very painful at time when you don't allow your body to take that breath that it so desperately wants to it kind of feels like you're killing yourself literally like you're killing yourself the more you do that the more you suffer through that pain and the easier the dive guard [Music] when I was younger I picked up mono from school like most kids do I eventually had to get pulled out of school because I couldn't even attend school just trying to do simple things that I was used to doing would lay me out for days on it I was finally diagnosed with an immune disorder after being inactive not athletic for so many years just walking on a treadmill was really really difficult but just really slow progression over time I started to get I started to be able to be more physically active without having any of those dramatic repercussions [Music] I graduated in 2011 with my master's in architecture and started working with a architecture firm that was contracted by the military as I took that job at felt like I was selling myself out so it was very difficult emotionally for me knowing that I was not passionate about what I was doing freediving kind of staged me it was the only thing that I had to look forward to in terms of like some sort of a passion because obviously my job was not giving that to me [Music] for years I was just fantasizing about being able to do it professionally but then there's the big question mark how do you fund yourself hello there other than opening up clear the obvious doors of traveling and meeting all these other incredible people that also love the sword I had opportunities to work with GoPro I've gotten gigs as a model so it's opened up a lot of doors for that kind of stuff I've met some really amazing people I've been able to see some incredible things [Music] [Music] I always wanted a free diver tiger sharks they were my favorite shark growing up but I just think it was possible I saw some crazy falconry [Music] so yeah I didn't I didn't know it was possible without getting eaten some still until much later being able to to do that with a dream come true it wasn't until I went off to University of South Florida that there was a program on the Discovery Channel and I think it was with Tanya Streeter and I saw her her gear she was she was swimming around with no tanks or anything and kind of doing something that I always wanted to do she had these really long fins she had a very strange-looking wetsuit and a little light bulb went off and I was like this is a specific sport if I don't know it was just always something that I'd wanted to do so when I had seen that it was actually a sport it was like I'm dropping everything I'll spend whatever money I have to I'm doing this well I didn't know the possibility of being a professional free diver and it wasn't I guess until I saw other divers who were able to solely focus on you know the act of free diving the act of competition that I felt as though that is something that I would would like to my first competition happened in 2011 and it was amazing meeting all of the people who it was I was completely hooked after that it was unbelievable and I was I think like a 30 meter 35 meter diver and every year since then I've been competing in 2013 and a couple people were encouraging me to apply for the women's team and I was like no I'm not a deep diver I'm you know down here compared to all these other people but with all the encouragement and knowing that there was a neat I decided to apply just to see if I would make even alternate but because so many other divers couldn't make it I ended up being on the team if I was going to pursue this in a real way give myself the chances that my body needed to actually get deeper I was going to have to take off much more time and I realized it's not fair to the firm to be asking them for so much but it's also not fair that was a struggle for many years going on in life making that decision to leave was scary when I realized architecture was at least for the time was kind of going on the back burner in architecture was my number one priority I started to think more you know maybe I could start my own business and and what would that be and I remembered the jewelry my jewelry [Laughter] throughout high school and everything in college I was kind of making my own pieces whenever I could even think of my favorite they really grew on me in Italy because they remind me now now they remind me of the rocks that were there it was my hope that by launching a jewelry business I would be able to make enough money to continue to free dive without having to work so the last composition I did was the team World Championship it was the Nicola mother Greece and I was on the u.s. national free diving team [Music] my goals going into that was suggest again just do better than I'm doing the last time and I happily I was able to see with that the in terms of depth I was able to go quite a bit deeper so today was the first day the quinoa championships and we did constant wait guys and I now 65 I made my guide [Music] you [Applause] I think taking a break from architecture and in order to you know pursue this goal of freediving more consistently spending more time with it it was absolutely the right decision for Reno absolutely but for a long time I didn't realize how far I had come honestly I to me my life was just my life and it was normal it wasn't until recently that I realized how much progress I'd made and it's kind of I would have never expected to be where I am today as a child like when I was sick and could barely do anything I could barely keep up with school I definitely couldn't keep up with my friends if you would have told me that I'd be a professional athlete later on in life I would have laughed at you and been like ha a good joke but with literally decades of just working at being able to be physically active again it's it's brought me a really really long way and I'm really happy you

Channel: Take the Waters

Views: 1,863,961

Rating: 4.8268847 out of 5

Keywords: freediving, apnea, spearfishing, freedive, underwaterphotography, onebreath, dive, freediver, underwater, diver, waterlust, scuba, snorkeling, sharks, shark diving, documentary, brian russell

Id: vfCrBob3N-c

Length: 12min 38sec (758 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 04 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/sellyberry]

So once she realized she was a mermaid then she got people to pay her to be a mermaid and everything was wonderful.

[u/DDNB]

"I didn't know it was possible [to swim with tiger sharks] without being eaten"

Sharks continue to try and eat her and her camera.

[u/buttcheeksgnome]

r/thalassophobia

[u/thatonedudethattime]

She looks a bit like the woman from the highly suspect video they shot in one continuous 4 minute shoot where she was tied to the bottom of the pool for its entirety.

https://youtu.be/ev-bR9ii7Gs

These women are pretty impressive.

[u/Datmexicanguy]

12 minutes? Ain't nobody got time for that.

[u/CrandersonPooper]

Posting a 12 minute video to Reddit - you crazy for this one

[u/charleshaa]

Noooo I wanted to post it and get the interweb points. Pretty good video btw.