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EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan Park, a Marblehead resident and practicing dentist, is a passionate freediver who explores the coastal waters of Marblehead and nearby communities nearly every day. In this new monthly column, “Beneath the Blue,” he will share the experiences, challenges and discoveries of freediving in photos and words.
It is just you, your one breath and the water. That is what freediving is — the discipline of diving on a single breath of air, unaided by tanks. It is, without question, the purest form of diving.
Ever since watching the Netflix documentary “The Deepest Breath,” I have been drawn to the possibility of exploring the underwater world on one breath. Before becoming a freediver, I was already an open-water swimmer who found true joy in the water. I asked myself: Why not take it one step further?
In the winter of 2024, I spent countless hours in the pool, teaching myself through trial and error how to hold my breath, discipline my mind and relax my body. I gradually learned how to lower my heart rate, extending the time I could stay underwater.
That summer, after moving to the North Shore, I put my new skills to the test in the waters off Nahant and Marblehead. By then, I had learned how to equalize and was comfortable diving to depths I never thought possible. On those dives I began to encounter the hidden life of the ocean: schools of cunner flashing past in quick bursts of silver, tautog nosing carefully out of rocky crevices, moon jellies drifting silently overhead like paper lanterns. Sometimes I would hover near the bottom, feeling the pull of the tide against my fins and hearing only the muffled crackle of unseen creatures on the rocks. It was there, in the quiet of the ocean, that I discovered the closest thing I know to true peace.
In 2025, after months of training, I earned my freediving certification through Scuba Schools International. For me, that moment marked not an end but a beginning — the start of a deeper journey into the ocean and myself.
Each descent since has carried me into that same world of color, current and stillness, a world that asks for nothing but trust in your own breath. I cannot wait to share those dives, and the beauty I’ve found beneath the surface, with the Marblehead community.
That summer, after moving to the North Shore, I put my new skills to the test in the waters off Nahant and Marblehead. By then, I had learned how to equalize and was comfortable diving to depths I never thought possible. It was there, in the quiet of the ocean, that I discovered the closest thing I know to true peace.
