Patient- Brooke C.- Educator and Free Diver

Dr. C and Brooke

I love the ocean.  It has always felt like home, it always fascinates me.  Small kid time, I would spend hours with a red fish net, sand squishing between my toes, in knee deep waters off Kewalo Basin.   Putting the poor creatures that I would catch in a bucket to take home with me.  “For just a few days,” my mom would say, and soon we would come back, bucket in hand to release our captives back to the sea.   Sensing my fascination, my second- grade teacher arranged a tour for me at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where I got to see giant octopus, sun fish, and sharks up close.    This is a world I left behind as I grew up and new interests took precedence.  Soccer, surfing, dancing, and finally the art of dentistry captured my soul and now fascinates me in the same way.

Brooke took a different path.  Her fascination with the ocean led her to become an educator with the Hanauma Bay Education program at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.   Like many of the educators at Hanauma Bay, she is also an avid Free Diver.

Free diving is a water sport where individuals dive underwater without the use of a breathing apparatus. It entails holding your breath and using your lung capacity to descend and navigate underwater.  Free divers rely on their body’s anility to withstand the pressure and conserve oxygen for extended periods. Yikes!

Brooke developed this ability growing up. Always inquisitive, always exploring, she had her first scuba diving experience at 12.  After getting her scuba certification, and going on several scuba trips in places like Mexico, Bali, Thailand and Hawaii, she came to the realization that she could see as much marine wildlife while freediving as she did while scuba diving as she did while scuba diving except without the high costs, cumbersome tanks, equipment and calculations.  She decided to focus more on her freediving skills.  Intermittent breathing exercises. the longer she stayed under, the bigger the chance that she would have a personal encounter.  But caution and technique are critical.  Intermittent breathing exercises, learned during swim team practices, and physical indurance gained by playing water polo, surfing, and body surfing throughout high school helped build her ability to freedive in the ocean.  As a teenager, her breathing test found that she could hold her breath for over 4 minutes.  That is a long time.

The average person can hold their breath for around 30 seconds to 2 minutes. However, well-trained individuals, such as free divers or professional swimmers, can hold their breath for much longer durations. The current world record for static apnea (holding breath while immobile) is 11 minutes and 54 seconds. It’s important to note that everyone’s breath-holding capability varies based on factors such as lung capacity, physical fitness, and training.

Brooke is self- taught, and she realizes that free diving is a dangerous sport.   There is a phenomenon that can happen to a person while freediving called “sudden blackout”.   As sudden blackout, also known as shallow water blackout or hypoxic blackout, refers to a loss of consciousness that can occur during a breath-hold dive.   It happens when a diver’s oxygen levels become severely depleted, leading to a lack of oxygen supply to the brain.   This can result in immediate loss of consciousness without any warning signs or symptoms.  Sudden blackouts during free diving can he extremely dangerous as may cause drowning or other serious injuries if the diver is not immediately rescued or assisted.

Caution and technique while free diving is essential.

 

Trust your body, trust yourself

It’s all about relaxing and trusting yourself, and knowing your limits, and staying safe.    There’s a depth, (for Brooke about 30 feet) where a diver experiences “negative buoyancy” and sinks like a stone.  The energy expended to ascend is tripled.  Self-awareness is critical.    As a self -taught diver, she wonders what additional training would reveal about her limits “It’s not how deep I can go, “ says Brooke, “it’s more about what kinds of fascinating ocean animals I can find.   There is a huge difference in perspective when you leave the surface behind and swim along the bottom, skimming just above the reef.  There’s a beautiful array of fish and invertebrates living among the corals.”

Caution and Respect

On her first dive, Brooke encountered a white tip reef shark sleeping in a sandy patch between the corals off the coast of Kona. So close she could have reached out at touched it.  Part of her was tempted to do so, but respect is an integral part of being a free diver. There are laws in place  that protect marine life from harassment by humans.  It is illegal to chase marine animals, or even to be within 100 yards of them.   Brooke and her dive buddies always follow the law, stopping their approach at the 100 yard mark.  But she has found that, event though she keeps that respectful distance, the animals often choose to come to her.  One summer in Kona, a mother dolphin, curious about this human mermaid brought her baby close enough to look Brooke in the eye.  In awe, Brooke was filled with an enormous sense of gratitude.

There are lots of diving groups in Hawaii, there are classes to take that can better prepare a person to free dive.    Be sure to watch the recent Netflix Documentary;  “The Deepest Breath” a film that highlights some of the world’s best free divers.

 Hanauma Bay, Educating the public

As an educator with Hanauma Bay, Brooke spends her day teaching people about marine life, ocean conservation and reef etiquette.   “Many people who visit Hanauma Bay,” says Brooke, “have never been snorkeling before.  We get visitors form all over the world, and many are from land locked areas.   Some of them don’t even know how to swim.  is their first time snorkeling, they are from land locked state, or some of them don’t even know how to swim”.   Hanauma bay has a mandatory marine conservation and ocean safety video that the visitor must watch before gaining access to the beach. Hanauma Bay also has numerous lifeguards, ample park attendants and a team of knowledgeable volunteers who are passionate about protecting the integrity of the reef.   Brooke was a child when she first visited Hanauma Bay.  It was then that a volunteer approached her and taught her that coral was alive, and that if she touched it or stepped on it, the coral in that area would die.   This first lesson on reef conservation stuck with her for the rest of her life.   She took this knowledge and shared it with people whenever she traveled to foreign ocean environments.  She spent most of her late teens and early twenties abroad, exploring places like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the islands of Southern Thailand, Fiji, and many more exotic countries.  But it all started in Hanauma Bay, and Brooke hopes to inspire others like that one volunteer inspired her so long ago.

“We are making progress, the COVID pandemic resulted in the Honolulu City and County Parks Department taking a good look at reducing the traffic (visitor count) to Hanauma Bay.   Previously at almost a million visitors a year, there could be over 5,000 visitors on the beach in one day.  We are now limited to 1,600 visitors per day.  The difference is huge.   Because Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve, we can’t have people trampling the reef, feeding the fish bread and peas, and disturbing the monk seals as they are trying to rest on shore. As visitors come into the bay, each one must go through an orientation with staff and volunteers, where they are taught the rules, reef etiquette, and given general information. It is one of the only places in the world that is protected in this mandatory, interactive preventative way.”

Monk seals show up regularly.

“Monk seals have been showing up at the bay pretty regularly” says Brooke. “Because monk seals are so rare and are only found in Hawaii, we really try to let people know what to do when they see one.   The seals hunt at night and are coming to the beach at Hanauma bay to sleep.   Although visitors are extremely excited to see the seals, the education staff heavily emphasize the seals need space to rest. It is actually illegal to be within a certain distance of the seals while they are on shore.   The more people that understand that, the more people will step in an advocate for them if a situation arises. “

This Honolulu Dentist is in awe

This Honolulu Dentist is in awe, and so proud to have Brooke as part of our Patient Community.  I love seeing her regularly to insure that oral health needs are taken care of.    I am doubly honored to be a part of her “arsenal”, her network so to speak. The dentist she can call when dental issues arise.  With healthy teeth, she can continue with her Free diving and educational activities uninterrupted.  We would love to have you as part of this community too!

 

Dr. Terrance Cleveland

Dr. Terrance Cleveland

Dr. Terrance Cleveland practices General Dentistry in Honolulu, Hawaii. Besides Dentistry, Dr. Cleveland loves to share stories of the special people and places that make Hawaii so amazing. If you have a story that needs to be told please contact us follow him on Instagram and on Facebook.

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