Remember playing games as kids to see who could stay under water the longest? Although it’s probably been a while since you did it, how long do you think you could hold your breath? Think you’d be able to do it for the same amount of time when you add panic and confusion into the mix?
Imagine all the situations where air may quickly run out and you have no breathing apparatus to rely on. Whether you find yourself in a car that’s quickly submerging into deep water, a home consumed with smoke from a fire, or you’ve been exposed to a harmful aerosolized chemical, there are no shortage of ways you may suffocate or risk severe respiratory damage if you don’t know what to do. While gas masks or oxygen tanks might be nice to have under those circumstances, you may have nothing more to rely on than your own physical abilities.
So, can you really train your body to hold your breath for prolonged periods of time? Yes. We spoke with Performance Freediving International owner Kirk Krack on how his company prepares people for these situations. Krack and his partner also started Aquatic Survival International to train military and government personnel. These techniques are just as applicable on land as they are to maritime environments. Having been tapped by James Cameron to provide training for the newest Avatar movie as well as military and law-enforcement units around the globe, Krack’s company helps others find skills they never knew could possibly save their life.
RECOIL OFFGRID: Tell us about your company.
Kirk Krack: I’m the founder and CEO of Performance Freediving International. I’ve been a water person all my life. I became scuba certified when I was 14, I’ve been a lifeguard, swim instructor, became a scuba instructor when I was 19, and bought my first dive shop when I was 20. I went all the way through the recreational scuba ranks, went into technical diving, and then eventually became a tri-mix instructor/trainer, so mixed-gas diving with multiple gasses (usually oxygen/helium/nitrogen) and scuba dives into the 575-foot range with six hours of decompression — all pretty extreme stuff.
Then, in the mid-to-late ’90s, I rediscovered free diving, which I’d always done. I got the opportunity to
