Transcriber: Roni Ravia Reviewer: Raghavi Mittal
Thank you Nancy very much, and all of the organizers.
I can't believe that you guys put this together.
I also want to thank everybody who's in this audience today,
because I'm up here talking about re-defining limits,
and I feel like I'm preaching to the choir a little bit,
just by virtue of the fact that you are in these seats.
I'm standing here because I set world records,
in the extreme sport of free diving,
and what that meant for me was getting outside my comfort zone,
and really demanding more of myself, redefining my limits.
For those of you that don't know.
Free diving is essentially taking a big breath,
and diving as deep as you can in the ocean,
and returning back to the surface safely.
Ok, I'm going to tell you about one particular dive.
In 2002, I set myself this incredible goal,
of breaking not just the women's world record,
but also the men's,
in the very mentally demanding discipline called 'No Limits'.
I trained hard, I prepared well,
and I surrounded myself with the best possible safety team.
I was ready.
I was going to descent to 525 feet on a weighted sled,
and return to the surface with the aid of a lift bag.
For those of you that need to put it in perspective.
525 feet is 10 feet deeper than the Frost Bank building is tall,
and it's beyond the crushing depth of second world war submarines.
What could possibly go wrong?
(Laughter).
At t -2:00.00 minutes, I'm out on the water,
and I'm surrounded by my safety team.
It's important to me to make eye contact,
with each and every one of them,
because they are the ones who allow me to go
on this journey of self discovery,
and really travel to the edge of myself,
they are my safety net.
In the final minute, it's completely silent at the surface,
and the only person left there,
is the most important safety diver for me – my husband.
And on land, he jokes when I get stressed,
He's like: “just look pretty and hold your breath babe”.
(Laughter).
Out on the water it's a lot more serious,
and I just need to breath.
(Demonstrating taking a deep breath and exhaling).
The breathing is about oxygenation.
I need to put as much oxygen in my blood as possible
so that I can hold my breath for the 3.5 to 4 minutes
that the dive is going to take me.
The last breath that I take is for volume.
I need air volume as much as possible in my lungs
to be able to equalize against the pressure as I descend.
Free divers use a technique called packing,
which means they take that deep breath
but after which, they suck a little bit more air in
and pack it into their lungs.
It's risky but it's necessary.
And on world record attempt day I screwed up.
I packed too much air into my lungs and in doing so,
I restricted my heart just enough
so that it couldn't efficiently send oxygenated blood to my brain
and I blacked out.
I came to a moment later and realized that the seconds were ticking by
and my safety team was waiting for me at depth.
I took a really quick breath, I packed a few times
and I gave the signal to be released to the deep.
(Demonstrating taking a breath, packing, giving the signal).
It was the worst possible start.
Instantly there was a devil on my shoulder.
"Today is not the day girl. Give up. Go back".
And then there was an angel on my other shoulder who said:
“Just keep going. Just see how far you can go”.
It got difficult for me to equalize fairly early on,
because I didn't have the necessary volume of air
that I normally would have.
And the devil was right back.
"Today is not the day girl. Are you crazy? You blacked out".
"This is the unknown. Go back. Give up".
I stopped my sled. I just needed to equalize one more time.
And I had that angle on my other shoulder.
"Just keep going. Just see how far you can go".
Somehow I managed to equalize one more time.
I released the break of my sled and I inched slowly and painfully
to my goal depth.
Narcosis is something that scuba divers learn about,
and they fear it like the plague.
Narcosis is feared by free divers as well,
because even though we are not breathing gases under water,
we are subjected to the same symptoms,
because of the rapid rate of descent and the extreme depth
that we are going to.
At 525 feet I was hit by narcosis and I couldn't think straight.
I knew that I had three simple steps to get me out of there
and back to the surface.
One: Put my hand on the lift bag.
Two: Open the valve and dump air into the lift bag.
Three: Pull the pin.
One. Two. Three.
But in my haze of narcosis,
I remembered that I wanted to blow a kiss to the sea.
My crazy thank you for letting me go down there.
I did three steps but my third was the kiss
and I forgot to pull the pin.
And for a few very tense and terrifying moments,
I was there alone, frozen, at 525 feet.
The narcosis just gripped me more and more
and I fumbled with my sled trying to get it to work.
And then I had a very powerful clear thought.
This is going to be sad.
I was thinking about all of the people that were waiting for me at the surface.
This is going to be sad.
It was powerful enough that it jolted me back to reality
and I remembered to pull the pin.
It was an incredibly quick ride back to the surface,
but it was a new world record.
It took me a long time to discuss the circumstances,
not to drink the champagne,
to discuss the circumstances of the dive.
And this is actually the first time that I'm discussing it publicly.
And yes it's also the first time that my mother is hearing about it.
(Laughter).
To redefine your limits is to first accept that there are limits.
They are just not where you think they are.
I ignored the devil on my shoulder and I learned about self integrity.
I made it my mantra.
if it's not something physical that's stopping me,
then it's just mental.
And I had to be honest about the difference.
In pushing so hard, I learned about limits.
And I thought that I had found mine.
And quite honestly, I was happy with 525 feet being my limit.
But as I came to terms with the dive and I began to dissect it,
I realized that it wasn't the case at all.
If I could do 525 feet with such a rough start,
what could I do under perfect conditions?
I was outside my comfort zone and I was holding on despite pain
and letting go of the power of negative suggestion.
I made my mind my weapon, not my weakness.
And that devil, never stood a chance.
World records are one thing.
Pregnancy and motherhood are entirely another.
(Laughter).
But I sort of approached the pregnancy and the motherhood
much in the same way as I did any world record.
I trained hard.
Meaning that I read every possible book that I could lay my hands on.
And I prepared well.
I ate healthy food and didn't so much as sniff red wine
let alone drink it.
And most importantly, I surrounded myself with the best possible support team.
I had an idea of an all natural birth plan and I set my sights on that.
I like to think that if a doctor had told me
that an intervention of some kind was necessary,
that I would have let go of my desperate need
to redefine my limits in those circumstances
and done what was best for my child.
I like to think that.
As it was I didn't have to face up to anything like that
until a couple of weeks later, when it became apparent
that I wasn't making enough milk for our beautiful daughter Tilly
and that she wasn't gaining any weight.
And this sent me spiralling into postpartum depression.
I didn't understand.
I had prepared well. I had trained hard.
Why was I failing?
It got to the point where I couldn't even hold my baby.
And I was completely irrational. I said things to my husband like:
“You don't understand. My last big project,
I was the best in the world”.
And I thanked god for my safety team.
That beloved group of people around me,
who helped me to realize that in this instance,
it wasn't about being the best in the world,
it was about being the best in my world.
And in redefining limits here, I had to let go.
Ever since my first world record
I've aligned myself with different environmental organizations,
who all worked to protect my beloved sea.
Last year I was approached by the Plastic Oceans Foundation,
who asked me not just to be a patron but also to become involved in...
Sorry my daughter is doing just fine by the way.
I got a fiery red head and she redefines my limits every day.
(Laughter).
Plastic Oceans asked me to be involved in their film,
which is looking at the very real and shocking impact of plastic pollution.
Finally, for me, it feels like there's a point to this bizarre gift I have,
of quite looking pretty and holding my breath.
I have the opportunity to pay the sea back.
Up until now I didn't feel that
landing my name or a signature or a photograph to a campaign
was truly enough.
I wanted to get my hands dirty.
Secretly, I wanted to put myself
between a harpoon vessel and a whale on the brink of extinction.
That's how I thought I could pay the sea back.
As a child it had been my playground, a place of escape and protection.
And as s a free diver it was the place where I proved myself to myself
by traveling to the absolute edge of myself.
Finally I feel like I'm paying the sea back.
But I'm learning on my feet.
I didn't know that in the last 10 years,
we've made more plastic than we did in the century before that.
I find this shocking.
Half of those plastic products are considered disposable.
But think about it.
How can a disposable product be made of a material that's indestructible.
Where does it go?
(movie starts)
We depend on the oceans that dominate our planet.
For our food. Our water. For the air we breath.
But now, we are dominating the oceans.
What we're discovering is alarming.
I've always loved oceans.
Ever since I was a child, I've been attracted to the sea.
I'm utterly defined by the ocean.
I think we are only just now starting to understand how bad this issue really is.
I don't think anything prepares you as a human being, for a sight like that.
It's absolutely horrific.
I've never see anything quite like it.
So it accumulates now in the oceans to a degree which should terrify us all.
The irresponsible disposal of our waste is endangering their existence.
Our plastic has become their diet.
When we received that turtle about twelve years ago,
it had a ring about this size in the middle of the turtle.
The world of plastics is present everywhere.
Yet this presence is but a premonition of a future world.
Our children will see a bit of that world
and our grandchildren will not see the end of it.
The one deter assault of plastic solution is the behaviour of the people around the stairwells.
So maybe we'll start with that first
and then we'll solve everything else afterwards.
We have to act.
We have to act now to try and clear up and repair
some of the appalling damage that we've made to the ocean.
That plastic that I was swimming through is ultimately ending up
inside the stomaches and then inside the blubber
of one of the most magnificent creatures to live on this planet.
For the first time,
scientists are connecting the toxins we put at the oceans
with some of the deadliest diseases of our age.
Experience an eye opening journey.
Terrifying. Beautiful. And ultimately hopeful.
In a most astonishing documentary.
Without the ocean, life on earth could not exist, including us.
Plastic is so permanent, so indestructible.
There is no “away”.
(movie ends).
So I find myself again utterly outside my own comfort zone.
I'm learning on my feet because this is not my field of expertise.
And I'm doing it in a very public forum on the silver screen.
I'm not suggesting that we live without plastics.
They are integral to our modern day lifestyle.
But I am suggesting that we lean how to live without its insidious pollution
or our children and our grandchildren will pay the price of our plastic addiction.
I've come full circle as a free diver, a mother,
and now a spokesperson for my beloved aquatic second home.
And in doing so I've learned that redefining limits
is not about being the best in the world.
Nor is it about being the best in my world.
At this point, it's about being the best for our world.
I'm just a girl with really long fins who did something impossible
because I wanted to.
The journey has of course been a reward and the risks have been worth it,
otherwise I wouldn't be standing here now.
In closing I'd like to quote the author Leo Buscaglia whose,
I think, his words, beautifully articulate
our basic human need to redefine limits.
“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing,
is nothing and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but he simply cannot learn and feel, and change, and grow, and live and love”.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much.
(Applause).