Nara Ishikawa: Freediving Record Holder

I'm Brazilian originally, and moved to England when I was 16. I lived in London for most of my time here, but ended up coming to Cornwall because of a job. My dad grows coffee in Brazil and I wanted to do something with it. So we found a coffee roastery in Wadebridge and moved down. And slowly, I started getting in contact with the sea here. Being Brazilian, I always thought that the sea shouldn't be that cold, but I just fell in love with it!

I always struggle in winter here. Every year I'm like, “I'm gonna get used to this!”, and I never get used to it. So after Lockdown I realised I needed sun and we attempted to move to Spain, to Majorca for the summer. I was shocked by how beautiful the sea was. It was just so clear, the colours were beautiful. And I was like, “what can I do to be in the sea?”

Without reading into it or learning much about it, I signed up to a freediving course. I didn't know anything really (I didn't even know that you have to go upside down!) but at the same time, I felt such a strong draw to it. It was as if I had to do it. I just had to. I actually found it really difficult, but something inside me was like, “nope, keep going. This is for you.”

I was trying to get deeper, down to around 30 metres. I remember when I came up from that dive, I felt all of the emotions. There was so much bursting out of me that when I surfaced, I had to hold it all in until I got to my car to drive home. When I got there, I just burst out crying and screaming. It was so cathartic.

The sensation was like… a bit of grief, mixed with joy. As if I was seeing or finding something or someone that I had missed for a very long time. I was getting in touch with me; finding a way that I could connect with my own self.

I've never had that experience again. It was an incredibly strong emotion that I tried to understand at the time, and I feel like I’m still trying to understand now.

I always had a very strong connection to the sea, since I was little. Dad would go in and swim, but my mum has got a phobia of swimming, especially in the sea. They always tell me the story that when I was little, we were in one of these tourist boats, and the captain said that we could get in. I was six years old and I was the first one to jump in, with no hesitation.

So it's been a development of that relationship. When I lived in Brazil I used to be in the sea as much as I could. The thing about being in England is that it’s a relationship with a cold sea. But, I think that's what I was looking for…

I used to cycle quite a bit with a group in Lanhydrock. I was chatting to them, telling them that I was going to sell the coffee roastery, and that I was really interested in tattooing. One of them rented a space to a tattoo artist in Wadebridge, so basically that's how I learned about her. And that's where I went to do my apprenticeship.

I definitely needed one after the coffee thing. It was a production line business. We designed the packaging, but that was about it in terms of creativity. It was around the time that Instagram started getting popular, so I got to see more tattooists and it was at the forefront of my mind. I just needed a creative outlet.

Do a course. Do it safely. Don't just get a weight belt and go! And even if you have experience, the famous one is: never freedive alone.