Discipline description
Static apnea, defined as a discipline[i] of pool freediving, involves holding one’s breath for as long as possible with the airways (nose and mouth) immersed while floating on the water’s surface or standing on the bottom of a pool. The terms “static”, “STA” or “breath hold” are used interchangeably to refer to the same activity: how long one can hold their breath.
History
References to breath-holding activities can be found all around the world, from ancient to contemporary times: Ama divers in Japan, Korean haenyeo, the story of the Greek sponge diver called Haggi Statti (Hazzi Stathi) who had recovered the anchor of the Santa Margarita, the Badjao (Bajau) tribe in the Philippines, pearl divers and many more stories can be found all over the internet. Though references to pure static apnea are hard to find, all of the above-mentioned tribes or groups of people performed underwater breath-holding activities for a living. The skill of being able to hold their breath for extended periods was more of a secondary effect of their lifestyle.
Why does STA exist?
As you have read in previous articles published here, for almost every level of a course and regardless of the agency, there is a minimum static breath-hold requirement. The mind-body connection is exploited in freediving perhaps more than in any other activity. Most importantly, one must make the brain understand that there is no harm in not breathing for a while. Before getting into the infinite blue of the sea, you first must become comfortable holding your breath for a couple of minutes. This is because when out on the sea there will be other things to focus on. Knowing that you can hold your breath for way longer than the time it takes to dive down to 15 meters and back up (usually around 30-40 seconds) will give you the space to focus on everything else
to be continued…
[i] 11 STA definition https://www.aidainternational.org/competitive
