X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

Stig Severinsen : Freediving as philosophy

Freediving is easy. All you have to do, according to freediver extraordinaire, Stig Åvall Severinsen, is “learn to hold your breath as long as you can”. Simple.

But it becomes a little more complicated when you set out to turn what most of us do when we’re fooling around at the bottom of the pool into an almost mystic discipline, which has allowed Severinsen to break long-standing records and win world championships. So, how does Severinsen manage all that?

Words:
Robert Osborne
Images:
Stig Åvall Severinsen
Download the full article as pdf ⬇︎
Tech and Training

Well, in the words of the Bard, “There’s the rub”. Severinsen accomplished this by transforming a sport into a personal philosophy.

 

Severinsen discovered he could use meditation to decrease his physical need for oxygen, a kind of mind over body approach. And once he’d perfected that, he began to see the potential for his methods beyond the world of freediving—it could inform an entire philosophical approach to life. “For me, breath holding work is ‘walking the talk’ of human potential. It’s more of a metaphor for what’s possible in life.”

 

Subscribe to Freediving