WATCH: MJ’s magical three SA freediving records
Ex-Springs resident MJ Kühn (28) recently competed in the Australian National Depth Freediving Championship 2016, which took place at Tulamben, Indonesia - and has set three South African national freediving records.
They include the constant weight with bi-fins 60m (two minutes and two seconds) and constant weight no-fins 56m (two minutes and 29 seconds), plus the free immersion 68m (two minutes and 37 seconds) dives.
Read: Jaguar diving underwater for more than 30 seconds
MJ also improved his personal best dive formerly of 50m.
“My first competitive freediving couldn’t have been more successful,” he says.
He was one of 17 athletes from seven countries who competed in the championships.
Day one saw MJ diving 60m Constant Weight with bi-fins (two fins).
MJ says the the conditions were good on the day and a flat surface awaited the competitors. MJ swam down to 56m unassisted, feeling the burn on the way up.
“I felt confident that there’s more fuel in my tank,” he says.
That dive gave South Africa a new national in the Constant Weight no-fins.
Read: Swimming team makes a splash
He set another national record on day three, when he made the 68m free immersion look easy.
MJ, who grew up in Springs and matriculated at Hoërskool Hugenote in 2006, now lives in Bali, Indonesia.
He spent four years as a facilitator on children’s camps, before he completed a five week freediving course in Cape Town in 2015.
“I became a freediving instructor and fell in love with the sport,” says MJ.
He claims his girlfriend, Melanie Loski (30), thinks he”s nuts.
“She gets seasick, so she’s not big on the freediving.
“However, she supports me without question and spends hours listening to me raving about the sport,” says MJ.
He explains freediving is diving while holding your breath – there are no tanks and no use of any breathing apparatus.
“You fill your lungs with air on the surface and dive; you only breathe again once you’ve returned to the surface …
“It’s like you go into a meditative state at times; you dwell in the empty spaces between thoughts,” he says.
He claims there are sections of the dive that he can’t remember when he does deep dives, as his body goes into autopilot.
Whether the Hugie school teachers will remember him as a hockey player, MJ doesn’t know; but he says he was quite an aggressive player.
“It must be the red hair,” he says.
He respects William Trubridge, a freediver from New Zealand, who holds the world records in free immersion and constant weight no-fins.
“What I learned from him, played a huge role in the way I think about freediving,” he says.
