Martin Stepanek can hold his breath longer than anybody else in the world. His world record is 8 minutes 6 seconds. An eternity – if you are not allowed to take a breath during that time. We have managed to reach this extraordinary Czech guy.
 Martin Stepanek Photo: Tony Marcuccino  |
We have made a number of interviews with world record holder freedivers, but Martin is special even amongst them. The 25-year-old Czech freediver won the gold medal at the Freediving World Championships in Cyprus in May. He also managed to break the world record in Constant Weight during the World Championships with –93 meters. He also holds another record, in Static, with 8 minutes, 6 seconds. We were curious to get to know him better, to find out more about the psyche of the man who can deliver such incredible results.
The apropos of the interview were Martin’s new world record attempt announcements. In July four freedivers have broken world records in different disciplines. For the August-September period, not less than 23 attempts have been announced and are going to be supervised by AIDA, unless the divers cancel or postpone them. Martin was planning to make attempts in four disciplines, but when we managed to reach him, we got to know that he is unable to take part in the record-breaking craze – at least for a while.
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– What’s the latest about your world record attempts?
– Originally it was planed for the Cayman Islands but we had to cancel the whole event due my bad sinus infection. Doctors are saying that I should stay out of the water at least for three weeks. Since the attempt was supposed to happen three weeks from now, neither my sponsors or I are confident in my full recovery by this time. We still don ‘t know a new date for the attempts.
– Could you provide us with an insight about your training?
– I don ‘t think that my training is very different from any other freediver. I do a lot of cardio exercises, light weight lifting, interval training, special swimming exercises and technique development drills. It might sounds weird but I don ‘t do a lot of deep diving. I ‘ d love to, but simply I can ‘t afford it.
 Martin, with his -93m (world record) tag Photo: Gareth Powell |
– Unfortunately, I do not speak Czech, so I could not find out how well-known freediving is in the Czech Republic, and how much people know about you there. Most freedivers (most world record holders as well) complain about having problems with finding sponsors, because the sport is not a media darling. Is the situation similar in the Czech Republic?
– Pretty much the same, like anywhere else, but I am still one of those lucky ones. I am getting certain support from Cressi-Sub of Czech Republic. Regardless their big heart and will to help, they are still limited by the Czech diving market, which doesn ‘t allow them to give me as much support as they would want and I ‘d need.
– If my information is correct, you have moved to Florida. At least you have a seashore there, and working as a diving instructor can give you some income. What are your impressions, how well known is freediving in the States?
– The States is huge, so the situation is very similar to Europe. It means, this sport is not as big in inland states as it is by the shore. Especially states like Florida, California or Hawaii have very big freediving communities and our sport is very popular there.
 He was a biology and sports major at the Charles University in Prague Photo: Jan Hájek |
– Nowadays, the topic of making freediving more popular has popped up on a number of forums. We also wrote about it. I am sure, you also have your own ideas about it.
– In my opinion, to make freediving more spectacular sport is a matter of short time. With current video and broadcast technology we will soon be able to watch depth disciplines live on a screen. To make our sport more popular will more likely be a long term project. This mentioned technology will help but the main thing is education. Till people do not know what is this sport all about and how is that possible that we can do what we do, there won ‘t be any major interest.
– Well, then this is a perfect occasion to talk about how you manage to deliver these incredible performances. Even though you also hold the Constant Weight record, for most people the easiest to understand among the freediving disciplines is Static. (Here you „simply” take a deep breath, put you head into the water, and try to stay in that position as long as you can.) I have thought about this a lot, but the 8 minutes, 6 second record still seems to be supernatural. Peter Pedersen, the current world record holder of the Dynamic, said that a dreamlimit is what you consider one. Is there a timespan that seems to be unreachable even for you? A couple of years ago 8 minutes in the Static was considered as such. Do you think that one day the world record of Static will be over 10 minutes?
 He is the best in the world in Static Photo: Kaz Ichikawa |
– I don ‘t think I have such a limit, but who knows, maybe subconsciously I do. I believe that this is very important part of freedivers mind set. You can ‘t allow your mind to create such a limit to your self. Sometimes it is very hard not to do so, especially if you have a certain goal, you have been trying to reach for long time, it can become your psychological limit. These limits are then much harder to break than those real ones…Well, ok, I do have one dream. I have had this dream for very long time – to dive over 100 meter selfpowered..no artificial help – just me and the ocean. I have trained very hard and I feel to be closer to my dream than ever before and that is way I have announced attempt on constant ballast and free immersion records. Since organizing world record event is financially and logistically very demanding, I didn ‘t want to waste my opportunity of having judges and all support at place when weather goes bad, so I have announced static as an backup option as well.
– People might want to know what you are thinking about while you are holding your breath, eg. in Static. Do you meditate or do you try to think about something that diverts your thoughts from your attempt? For example, I always make up stories while I am running, to divert my thoughts from the pain I have or about the distance I still have to conquer.
– People have different techniques and ways to focus their minds during – Static. I have tried a lot of them…from meditation over visualization of real diving to thinking about something very nice and peaceful. At the end, I found that what works for me is just simply not to think about my situation – about holding my breath. So, what ‘s going trough my head during a Static? Anything that would go through if I was breathing. Just like when you go sleep, you close you eyes and then you think about what have you done today and what you need to do tomorrow. The only trick in this, is not to think about anything emotional. It can mess up you heart beat.
 His favorites are the depth disciplines Photo: Dan Burton |
– Some people argue that freediving can cause long-term brain defects, because holding your breath for a long time is unhealthy. However, Herbert Nitsch, who held the world record of the Dynamic till this July, believes that the brain switches to a power-saving modus. Like when a laptop switches to stand-by mode. Do you agree with that?
– It is not that much about what Herbert or I think about this. It is more about what doctors and scientist know. And I have to say that we all agree on that power-saving mode theory. It has been proven by research, by theory and by experience, so till somebody proves this wrong, I will believe in it. Although people should never underestimate these hypoxic events and I am strongly against an opinion that is OK to go trough it. There is always a chance of drowning, physiologically is it very hard on your body and from ethical point of view, what kind of activity it would be if is it encouraged to push you self to the point of loosing control over your body. Some people might say that it is necessary in your training to push it beyond your limits in order to find where they are and therefore train more efficiently. I totally disagree on that. I have never blacked out and had samba only three times in my life – still believe that my training is efficient enough.
– You have very good results in the depth disciplines and in Static, too. And I also read that from 1984 till 1997 you were a competitive monofin swimmer on 50m and 100m underwater. So, you have to be good in Dynamic as well. Do you have a favorite discipline?
– Regardless my current or previous world records in different disciplines, my main focus still comes to Constant Weight and partially Free Immersion. They are my most favorite disciplines, they are a lot of fun and they are the reason why I am doing this. For me, to be good in static or dynamic is just something I have to do to stay among the best and place in competition.
Martin cannot go into the water for a while and his world records are under constant threat. Herbert Nitsch will try to break the records in the beginning of September and the new Danish world record holder, Stig Severinsen will try the same in Venezuela at the end of September. Their aim is to reach 8 minutes, 8 seconds. We will inform you in time how sucessful their attempts were.
(The photos accompanying the article are used with Martin‘s permission.)
