Catherine and the sea

The underwater world had always fascinated Catherine; she spent countless hours watching documentaries on cable TV since she was a child and was well aware of sea life. When she was a teenager, she befriended Edward, a classmate who was learning freediving during weekends and invited her to watch him practice. 

The following Saturday, Catherine put on her swimsuit, a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Her friend picked her up in his father’s car, and one hour later, they were at the beach. Although she was interested in the sea ecosystem, she had never tried snorkeling because breathing only through her mouth was something that upset her. The deep blue was her personal limit; any place deeper than her height was out of the question. The possibility of floating inadvertently to a point where she couldn’t stand up reaching the bottom was frightening. Therefore, she spent most of the time sunbathing or watching his friend while he was in shallow water for some exercises.

When it was time for a break, Edward attempted to convince her of trying snorkeling and explained what she needed to do. She was a good swimmer, but her style was to keep her head out of the water. 

Only wearing the mask while trying it on made her anxious.

“Imagine you have a cold, and you can’t breathe through your nostrils, what do you normally do?” said Edward.

“Well, I use my mouth as my only airway, but that doesn’t last much. As soon as I put a drop of decongestant, I’m good,” replied Catherine.

“I have seen you holding your breath in the pool, pinching your nose. Imagine you are doing that then.”

“I’m not sure that would work to deceive myself. I can un-pinch my nose whenever I want, but with the mask, I would have to remove it, and the magic will be gone.”

“Isn’t it true that you dream about SCUBA diving and seeing sea life with your eyes, no TV screen or movie screen involved?”

“Yes, it is true.”

“Let’s do something else. What about wearing your swimming googles to see the reef near the mountain, I can stand beside you, and there the water will be as deep as your shoulders.”

“Aren’t you going to step on the reef?”

“No, don’t worry. We’ll be in the limit between the reef and the sandy bottom.”

“Ok, let’s do that. I haven’t tried it before.”

Once they were at the spot, Catherine pinched her nose and crouched. The original idea was for her to be floating face down, while Edward held one of her limbs, but she improvised.

The visibility was perfect; the light penetrated the water entirely, and the sight was colorful and alive. There were plenty of blue and gold damselfishes, also sergeant major fishes exhibiting their striped black and yellow bodies, and an orange seahorse holding its position at the base of a soft coral. The reef presented a collage of colors and shapes: an intense yellow mini-brain coral, a vivid red fire baby coral, purple sponges, feather worms, small white anemones with violet ends, and many other life forms that escaped from a simple glimpse. Catherine was fascinated, she held her breath longer than ever before.

“Edward, this is amazing! I want to see more and for a longer time.”

“A snorkel will allow you to do that, you won’t need to take your face out of the water for air, and you won’t need to pinch your nose if you are wearing a mask. Pure advantages.”

“I think you are right, but I’m afraid I’ll panic,” said Catherine with a worried look.

“You can do this, but you need to push yourself a little bit. Let’s try this… I’ll lend you my spare mask, and you keep seeing the reef with it while I return to my practices. Would you be up for that?”

“Sure! But I won’t float face down, just crouch.”

“Ok, go ahead, whatever feels more comfortable. The main objective is to get used to the mask.”

Edward went back to his course. Catherine took the mask and put it on with her eyes shut, holding her breath even when she was capable of breathing through her mouth. For some strange reason, she couldn’t breathe, but when she pinched her nose through the mask, then she could. “What the heck? This is nonsense,” she thought.

There was no apparent logic behind her inability to breathe through her mouth without pinching her nose, all was in her mind. Some subconscious fear was restricting her. She went back to the same spot where she saw the reef before. Without overthinking, she crouched wearing the mask while pinching her nose. After a few seconds, she released her nose. The first impulse was to inhale, so she sucked the little air inside the mask and felt the pressure. This made her stand up immediately, in panic, so she took off the mask and breathe, hyperventilating. It took her some time to calm down.

“This is ridiculous. Something is wrong with me. I want to enjoy the reef like most people can. I’ll try again,” said Catherine to herself.

 Over and over, the same thing happened, but she didn’t stop trying. Finally, after the fifth attempt, she controlled herself and didn’t breathe after releasing her nose. Having her hands free made her feel more comfortable, and this allowed her to hold her breath longer. She was smiling underwater, relaxed, but annoyed because she still had to stop for air in the middle of something interesting. This made her build her confidence up. She had decided to move forward to the next level of difficulty.

When her friend had another break, they met, and she told him her success story. He was proud. He detached his snorkel from the mask he was using and clipped it to the other mask’s strap. Then he explained how to put the mouthpiece and how the valve worked to reassure her.

“Cat, this should be easier now. Once the snorkel is in your mouth, you just have to breathe normally and calmly. Let’s try that,” said Edward.

“Ok, but I need to do something else first.”

She hadn’t tried to breathe while wearing the mask, and for her doing that was the previous step. Once again, something was wrong. As soon as she inhaled through her mouth, she did it through her nose simultaneously, that was confusing, her brain was playing with her, but at least this time she had flowing air in her lungs.

“I wonder why this is so hard for you. Do you recall anything related to breathing that might have happened when you were little?” asked Edward.

“No. I don’t know. There must have occurred something that I cannot consciously remember, I’ll ask my mom. Anyway, you already told me, I just need to push my limits and conquer this thing, and that is precisely what I will accomplish. The reefs around the world need my eyes,” said Catherine smiling.

That day she mastered the skill of breathing only through her mouth while wearing the mask but couldn’t breathe using the snorkel. She was afraid of inhaling or swallowing seawater. 

When she was back home, she spoke to her mom. Her mother couldn’t remember any particular event until her brother showed up and joined the conversation.

“Hey, sis! What’s up?”

“Today, I finally saw a reef! With my naked eyes, well, no so naked as I was wearing a mask.”

“Well, you can only see blurry with your naked eyes underwater,” said Dan, her brother.

“I know, silly. Whatever. I want to ask you something, big bro.”

“Sure, shoot!”

“Do you remember any traumatic episode of my life when I was a child? Anything that had to do with water?” asked Catherine.

“Hmm, let me think…”

Dan remained silent for a while, looking at the ceiling, trying to remember.

“Mom, is my uncle Tommy the owner of the house in front of a lake?” asked Dan.

“Yes, he bought it as an investment to rent it, though your aunt sold it after his death,” said the mother.

“When you were around 5, and I was 10, we visited Uncle Tommy’s house for a weekend. Mom, dad, and uncle were busy with the barbecue, I can’t remember where our aunt was. Meanwhile, we were playing in the lake with our cousin Ryan, 6. He dared you to a swimming competition, you were both attending swimming classes in the same academy, and both of you had already won a couple of medals. I was the judge,” Dan stopped talking. He was accessing the memory as he was telling the story.

“So? What happened? Did I nearly drown or what?”

“Nope. You were far from drowning when I got to you, but you were terrified.”

“Why? Did I find the monster of the lake? Was it Friday, 13^th?”

“You watch too many movies, sis... This is what happened: When you were about to return to the starting point of the competition, your foot got entangled with a fishnet, I guess it was left there irresponsibly by a wannabe fisherman. I thought you were pranking me and stayed where I was as the judge until Ryan reached the shore. You were fighting to stay afloat, but that thing seemed to pull you down, then I realized that you were in trouble and swam as fast as I could toward you. For sure, you swallowed some water, but you never were submerged for long. I reached you in a matter of seconds. It was shoulder deep for me, but not for you. I held you and carried you back to shore. Later on, you kept swimming. We didn’t tell our parents… Well, mom, now you know.”

“And this is how I know, Dan. You two should have told me. Now I understand why your sister stopped competing and asked me to no longer take her to the pool,” said the mother while shaking her head.

“Mom, she kept swimming afterward, I thought she was ok. It was just a scare, nothing happened. We didn’t tell you because you had warned us to not swim in the lake without supervision or you would forbid us to play there. We were children.”

“I had forgotten the incident. Now I remember. You saved me, Dan, but something stuck to my head, apparently. Mom, don’t worry. I think that I’m finally overcoming that trauma. I believe that I would have succeeded in dealing with it even if I never knew the reason, but now It must be easier. Thank you, Dan, you are my hero!”

“Don’t mention it. I will always look after you, little sister. Sorry, mom,” said Dan while hugging Catherine, and the mother joined them.

“I forgive you, kiddos. Please, never hide significant matters from your dad or me. We are here to support you, guys. I love that you care this much about one another.”

Catherine was determined to become a snorkeler, so she asked Edward if she could go with him the following weekend. It thrilled him to be there for her and help her with her fears; also, he wanted someone close to share his passion for freediving.

This time, she advanced faster in developing skills. That day, she mastered breathing through the snorkel. She was still crouching as her particular style of submersion, but then Edward borrowed a pool noodle for her. This was the ultimate solution, Catherine was finally floating face down, snorkeling and enjoying the view. Nothing could stop her from then on.

The next step was to stay calm in the deep-blue area. For this, Cat signed up for the freediving course. Although Edward had finished it by then, he accompanied and supported her.

The years passed, and Catherine became a marine biologist, a SCUBA diver, and an oceans’ advocate. Her fears had been conquered, and the experience helped her to overcome other obstacles in life. She and Edward remained close friends, and from time to time, they went freediving together.