Day 27
10 November 2021
The Big Blue
One of my favourite movies is The Big Blue with Rosanna Arquette & Jean-Marc Barr which centres around freediving. The photography is just breath-taking, and the movie stays with you for ages after you watch it. (See the trailer here). (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/Big%20Blue)
Anyway, when we signed the kids up for ocean school, we thought it was a sweet little snorkel class where they would have a tonne of fun and see some fish. 🙄
So wrong!!
These guys are professional free divers.
Our kids are freediving! (Have I said this before? I’m so blown away by this company!).
Today was only our second class but it really ramped up.
Before diving, we sit as a group and learn about the ocean and then they hit the water.
It’s really nice for them to learn about the sea first, because it adds to their diving experience.
Today we learnt about micro plastics.
The plastic breaks down and down and down, so small you can’t see it.
So tiny that when it’s swallowed unknowingly by sea life, it passes through their blood stream and to their brain where it causes all kinds of problems and then humans eat the fish & the micro plastics can cause nasty diseases in us too.
Did you know every piece of plastic ever made still exists somewhere?
Apparently, it works like this:
- A plastic bag – 20 years to break down.
- Plastic straws & cups – 200 years to break down.
- Fishing line – 600 years to break down.
To illustrate how the plastic cycle works the children took turns reading aloud from the book “The Mess We Made” – by Michelle Lord.
Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR_9-iF_mYg
The Breath
Then we got into some breathing techniques.
Before we dive, we take 3 big sighs to expel the carbon dioxide from our lungs.
Then, we breath in through our mouth by sucking in hard like we’re sucking on a straw, and then we hold it, and dive.
When we come up, we let out our breath and take 3 ‘turtle breaths’ which are 3 big gulps of air.
This helps oxygenate our body and stops us from feeling dizzy or blacking out.
So, first we held our breath for 15 seconds.
Then 25 seconds.
And then we held our breath for 35 seconds!
It was a challenge. Try it. It’s hard!
Right, so with a breathing strategy in place.
They suited up and went for a dive.
So, back to my astonishment.
They didn’t just float on top of the water & look from the surface.
No. They did their breathing technique, & then my son took his snorkel off, let go of the buoy & dived down into the DEEP ocean! (Did I mention without a life jacket!).
Gasp!
They were out so far!
They were just bursting with life when they came in and told me everything they saw.
We ‘picked up 3 for the sea’ as we walked back to our towels.
(Every time we leave the sea we pick up 3 pieces of rubbish).
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
We came home for lunch & we were ravenous. (Lunch eaten in full. Yep, I’m still talking about it).
At Ocean School we talked about the great pacific garbage patch. We wanted to learn more, & so we watched this video.
What a beautiful little class. We learn so much.
This is fast becoming our favourite day of the week.
