Nina McGowan makes swift rise to incredible depths in risky sport of freediving

It was sometime during the third lockdown earlier this year when Nina McGowan began her swift rise to truly incredible depths – the contradiction intended given her recent record success at the World freediving championships.

McGowan has always had a strong affinity with the sea, named Marinina at birth by her parents after the Italian sea fairy who drives the white horses to the shore and growing up in the old harbour house in Balbriggan, in north county Dublin.

Still it was just over two years ago when her artistic research into subliminal states of consciousness directed her towards the sport of freediving. Earlier this month, at those World championships in Kas, Turkey, McGowan won the gold medal and set a world record in the women’s master category (50-54) of the no-fin free immersion, reaching a depth of 43 metres, in a dive that lasted two minutes and 10 seconds.

Driving through the rain around lunchtime on Wednesday, on her way to a Dublin film studio to perform as the stuntwoman in an underwater action scene – “that’s about all they’ll let me tell you” – McGowan is reflecting on those last two years and just how far, or deep rather, she has gone.

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“I always had a strong breaststroke, back when I was a swimmer at school, then took up scuba diving about 20 years ago,” she says. “But I identify as a fine artist first, this was really a research practice, I got into freediving to look into subliminal states of consciousness in completely empty spaces, how the brain reverts when there is no sensory input.

“That area of neuroscience really interested me. I was looking, too, as the sea as an alternative to the land, where there’s no commodification, no capitalism, no language. I make artwork about science fiction, going under water is probably the closer thing to going into outer space. It just kind of got out of hand with the free diving.”

It was earlier this year during that period of lockdown, when she found herself in Dahab in Egypt, a sort of mecca for freediving, that things got competitive – particularly after linking up with her coach Raphael Vilamiu, the 18-time Brazilian national record holder, who first told her she could break that age-group record.

After setting a series of Irish records in Dahab, she set her sights on going deeper again. Organised by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS), the World Underwater Federation founded in 1959 by Jacques Cousteau, the freediving category at those World championships involve either a mono-fin or bi-fins, or no fins at all; the diver must cover the maximum vertical distance in apnoea (the state of suspended breathing), while pulling on the guiding rope.

“It was my first major international competition, and the World Championships are the equivalent of the Olympics, and CMAS being set up by Jacques Cousteau, to have a gold medal from that legacy is quite thrilling.”

It’s risky, too, divers known to frequently pass out if they get their timing of resurfacing wrong: “It does happen, not too often outside of competition, but when people are under stress, they’re pushing themselves to the max, the oxygen runs out. It’s like a knock-out in boxing. It sounds crazy, but with the safety measures around you know the problem areas.

“I had my first one the week before [Kas], doing 47m in training. It’s not just like telling a golden retriever ‘fetch’, go down there, because there’s a lot more to it. Though after only two or three months training, my body strength was able for no fins, which is considered the purest and most athletic of freediving, because it’s not propelled by any fins, you really are relying on your own body strength. And your ability to be at ease in the water.”

Her depth of 43m beat the existing 50-54 record by three metres, also an Irish record for any age category. At age 50 McGowan is clearly only going deeper.

“It’s also about yoga, meditation, composure, which are all key, so being older isn’t really such a problem. It’s not an adrenaline sport. It’s about you having trust in your body, being present, not being afraid to go down.

“I’m so proud Ireland are represented at this level, that I sort of punched my way on to the podium.”