Daan Verhoeven
Screw the box
updated
The episodes of To the Edge are streaming now on Peacock, my friend Alex St-Jean filmed the underwater action beautifully, and it's a great show.
More on the Xibalba competition here: instagram.com/xibalbafreediving
Organised by Lemus Underwater School: instagram.com/lemusunderwaterschool/?hl=en
Music is 'Eos' by Michael FK
Here she's exploring the beautiful reefs off of Scotts Head with an Insta360 camera.
Music is 'Corals under the sun' by Yehezkel Raz.
Filmed on breath hold in many many locations over the last six years, featuring many many of freediving's most incredible athletes, starting and ending with my lovely wife, Georgina Miller from aquacityfreediving.com
The music is 'In the blank space' by the incredible Josin - a song that has been like velvet to my ears since I first heard it and that I dreamt of for years as the soundtrack for this showreel. I can only hope some of the images do it justice, and am incredibly thankful to Josin for allowing me to let our work dance together.
For more of my work, check out daanverhoeven.com
She also teaches all about being a mermaid here: aquacityfreediving.com/courses/mermaid-programs
One of those friends is @sofigomezu, who in the last couple of years has not only found a whole new way to approach her sport, but she also set up a freediving school in Dominica, creating new opportunities for people to learn and stimulating the local economy. Plus she makes perfect bubble rings, which I thought would be a good way to visually explain the idea of how something we create grows and then in turn, helps to create us. How your changing perspective can guide you to not just see things in a new way, but make new things as well.
Sofía's school is here: instagram.com/deepdominica
The music is called 'Still searching' and is by Turpak.
#mentalhealth
Filmed on breath hold in Deans Blue Hole, Bahamas, where William trains and teaches. Find out more about William here: williamtrubridge.com
Music is 'Unborn millions to come' by Kyle Preston
Denotes are under threat by a gigantic construction plan in Mexico - find out more through @soscenotes
The freediver is Georgina Miller from aquacityfreediving.com
Safety and logistic by Roberto Guzman from gmfreediving.com
Music is 'Up in the Andes' by Max H.
Filmed on an @insta360 X3 camera with their new 'invisible' housing
Thank you Freedom Diving Center for all the logistical support, and Georgina for the safety!
Music is 'Dark Spirits' by Jonathan Guerstein.
#freediving #williamtrubridge #zenobia
Filmed on a Canon R5 and a Sigma 14mm.
MUsic is 'Ballad to a Mexican desert' by Yehezkel Raz.
More about Afa here: instagram.com/afa_zhang
This video is a collaboration between me and the guys from @Diveye who operate the drone that can follow freedivers all the way down and back up on their record attempts. You can find more about them here: facebook.com/diveye.freediving
Music is 'Fade to blue' by Roniit.
“The art of breath hold” sounds a bit pretentious, doesn't it? Everybody has tried holding their breath, there isn't much art to not doing something. But when you look a bit closer, ask expert breath holders (yes, they exist), you'll find that there is indeed much more to it – even some art. It's like that with most matters – leave it to the experts to find wonder in seemingly simple things.
I've been freediving for almost 20 years and documenting it professionally since 2012, slowly and almost unwittingly drifting into 'expert' territory, and the longer I practise both, the more art I see. That might be due to a slightly romantic perspective, having eyes that see beauty everywhere, but there's also an objective, or at least general, aspect to it: human are beautiful, water is wondrous, hence humans in water is magic. No?
OK, some people splash around in water like electrocuted spaghetti, but watching a good freediver swim down is like watching Michael Jordan jump, Katelyn Ohashi land, or Tiger Woods swing. Art. Humans in an element that is both alien to them, and also inherently their own, dissolving into what made them. And water invites us to play; looks at what light does when it goes into water. It slows down, becomes honey, rays, fluid patterns. When it glances over skin under water, it makes things glow, radiate. To me, there's nothing more beautiful than a sunlit human being underwater.
Most of the time i'm documenting freediving competitions and freedivers in their element. This is my tribe and I love them and want to show them to the world. “Look at how beautiful they are, how amazing, how cool!” is what most of my photos say. I just watch them do things and record. And then every once in a while I get an idea too, usually something you'd never ask a normal person, like go into a wreck at 20 meters deep and hang in front of that window, and they say 'yes' and do it. Swim under that iceberg? Yes. Get next to that shark? Sure. Every once in a while I actually create things, make things happen underwater, that might approach art. The rest of the time I just record what i'm fortunate enough to see, and I think I see a lot of art, on a blue canvas.
Sofe wears Alchemy fins and an Oceaner wetsuit.
Music is 'Depths' by Risian
Shot on breath hold by Daan Verhoeven - prints available at daanverhoeven.com
#freediving
Find out more about Roberto here: instagram.com/robertoguzman.freediver
Filmed on breath hold and shot on GoPro 11 and Canon R5
Music is 'Deepest dive' by Tiko Tiko
Freediver @camilajaber876 enters an underwater cave in Tenerife to explore what makes us afraid of the dark.
Find more of Camila here: instagram.com/camilajaber
The music is by Daniel Stadler instagram.com/danielstadlercomposer
The sound design is by Frame Records instagram.com/frame_records
#freediving
Safety by our mate and the UK's deepest man Gary McGrath: instagram.com/garywhiteeye
Music is 'Crazy is mandatory' by Tomas Herudek.
#freediving #sofíagómezuribe
Here she shows a bit how and why she does that. It has a lot to do with what she calls 'equanimity', which is a term i had to google. Filmed on breath hold in Deans Blue Hole, Bahamas.
The music is 'Deep Breath' by Aleksey Chistilin
#freediving
Find out more about Luca here: instagram.com/luca.freediver and about his business here: instagram.com/seatosky.freediving
The film we were making in Greenland is here: youtube.com/watch?v=xNW61wrBwGo
Special shout out to Brian Hockenstein instagram.com/brianhockenstein and Tim Emmett instagram.com/timemmett for keeping us safe, Oceaner Wetsuits instagram.com/oceanerfreediving for keeping us warm, Alchemy instagram.com/alchemy_hellas for the amazing fins, and to Luke Adams instagram.com/lukeadamspk who was mad enough not only to come up with the plan that got us all there, but then to also do it.
Music is 'Into the breath' by Michele Nobler
#iceberg #freediving
#shorts #freediving #zenobia
“Voces del agua” summarizes in 2 minutes the feeling shared by a generation that moves between constant impotence due to what happens in their local realities and the illusion of a better world that the community of activism promises.
No megaproject is worth more than our human right to water and to sacrifice the aquifer is to put our future in debt! If development threatens life and human rights, it is not development, it is dispossession.
#NoAlTrenMaya
Read more about the project here: oceanographicmagazine.com/features/tren-maya-project-harming-mexicos-cenote-network-2
Video sequel to "I am a cenote" awarded at #CreateCOP26
youtube.com/watch?v=lShAr_82nXk
Safety by the lovely Francesca Owings and Joan Capdevilla instagram.com/joancapdevila
Filmed on breath hold in the incredible http://www.musan.com.cy/en/home
Music is, of course, 'Arabesque' by Debussy, as played by Ohad Ben Ari
Filmed in several cenotes in Mexico, under the watchful eye of qualified buddies - freefalling is not something you should do alone.
The freediver is Georgina Miller of aquacityfreediving.com
The music is 'Momentum' by Pablo Suarez
Filmed on breath hold (and occasionally in freefall) by daanverhoeven.com
You can find Hanako here: instagram.com/hanakofreediving
Filmed on breath hold by Daan Verhoeven.
Monofin by Cetma: https://www.cetmacomposites.it/index_en.html
Music is 'Corals under the sun (remix)' by Omri Smadar
Gary teaches some of the best equalising clinics around - find him here: instagram.com/garywhiteeye
Georgina runs this freediving school in Cornwall: aquacityfreediving.com
Music is 'Quiet Pull' by Tamuz Dekel
Porthkerris is here: porthkerris.com
Filmed on Gopro 10 by Daan Verhoeven daanverhoeven.com
Music is 'Hourglass' by Yehezkel Raz
The first time i ever saw a breath hold in competition, an odd thing happened: i was watching a man laying still, face down in the water, and part of it was obviously boring. Nothing happened. But there's also the part of you that wants him to breathe, that emphasises. And then he went over 5 minutes, and that emphasising part of me started taking over - i could see his contractions, the tiny movements in his rib cage, and it was both mesmerising and slightly petrifying. He went over 8 minutes and i was completely enthralled by it. Afterwards i was not just amazed by his achievement, but also by how watching a man lay still could be so hypnotic. So i've always wanted to film something that showed that hypnotic quality of a static breath hold, that showed how you slowly drift away during your hold, and then when it gets a bit trippy, you have to reign it in again and pay closer attention to your thoughts, make sure you're clear. Luckily, i know some pretty good breath holders.
The freedivers are Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan.
Filmed with assistance of Rita Hencke.
Music is 'Piano Ping Pong' by Alon Peretz.
#wingsuit #stigpryds #freediving
Sofía Gómez Uribe is a world record setting freediver from Colombia, and on her first visit to Cyprus, she of course had to visit this legendary site. Now some divers stay on the outside, some just poke their heads in, but Sofía, well, you'll see.
Find out more about Sofe here: instagram.com/sofigomezu
Filmed on breath hold with the help of Freedom Diving Center: facebook.com/FreedomDivingCyprus
Music is 'Existence' by Thomas Herudek
Fins are by Alchemy, suit is by Oceaner Freediving
#SofíaGómezUribe #Zenobia #freediving
#SofíaGómezUribe #freediving
Anna Von Boetticher is a German record holding freediver, who was in Mexico filming her documentary series 'Water woman', exploring the cenotes and crocodiles of Mexico for this episode.
The cenote is shaped like a bell jar - the challenge was to get a shot with both the surface and the cloud layer in it. With the help of Julien Borde from Pranamaya Mexico, who brought an underwater scooter to get us in position, we managed to film it all on breath hold. Mexican freedive champion Camila Jaber was there to keep us safe as well, and to provide commentary about the cenotes for the doc.
Music is 'Mist', by Ian Post.
#freediving #waterwomandocumentary
Alenka Artnik is a Slovenian world record holding freediver, and the deepest female with a monofin: she has dived on breath-hold to 122 meters. Only a few days after that historic dive, we filmed this exploration of the strange desire to jump whenever we find ourselves at a great height. Turns out we'd both had dreams where we did just that, and we both experienced that in water, you can give into it.
This was filmed at Deans' Blue Hole in the Bahamas, which is 200 meters deep, enough to give anyone vertigo. Florian Burghardt kept us safe and helped with all kinds of things behind the scenes. The music is 'Revelations' by Tristan Barton.
Find out more about Alenka's incredible story from the rise of the depths here: onjustonebreath.com
#vertigo #freediving
Sofía Gómez Uribe is a Colombian freediver visiting Cyprus for a competition, who went for a stroll through the museum on a day off. She felt like she was walking through a fairy tale.
Find out more about the museum here: http://www.musan.com.cy/en/home
Jason's website is here: underwatersculpture.com
And Sofía is here: instagram.com/sofigomezu
#MUSAN #freediving
Shot on a Canon R5 with a 11-24mm lens, or a Sigma 14mm lens, and on Gopro Hero 9, on breath hold.
Music is 'The best thing' by Paper Planes.
#freediving #verticalblue
All contact initiated by the seals. We kept away from the places where they were resting on the shore, made sure we never crowded or chased them, and respected the fact that we were visiting their home.
The freedivers are Alice Hickson and Georgina Miller
Shot while freediving by Daan Verhoeven
Music is 'Wonder' by Tristan Barton
We remember her grace, her joy, her playful nature.
Filmed while she was playing with all the fish in Dominica.
Here she is during training dives off the coast of Cornwall, freediving in the range between 30 and 40 meters (100 to 130 feet).
Georgina wears a custom suit by oceaner.com and a Molchanovs monofin.
Filmed on breath hold on a Canon R5 in Nauticam housing
Logistics by Porthkerris Divers: porthkerris.com
Safety by Tom Ingate
Music is 'Handpanophone' by David Charrier
#freediving #cornwall
Earlier in the discussion Verhoeven expanded on his views of religion, which can be found here: youtube.com/watch?v=6MB29pXKymI
More on Cornelis Verhoeven here: cornelisverhoeven.wordpress.com
This is what happens when you are going bonkers during lockdown, and all you have access to is a paddling pool: you recreate the most iconic freedive movie of all time, on a grand budget of 24,95. With a 360 camera, for that's all that would fit in the pool and still fit me in the frame. Shot mostly on an Insta360 One R and an Insta360 One X.
Beci Ryan is a UK freediver and pilates instructor instagram.com/beci.ryan/?hl=en
Logistics and expert guiding by Charles Hood charleshood.com
Filmed on breath hold by Daan Verhoeven daanverhoeven.com
Music is 'Spirit' by Runar Blesvik
#freediving #bluesharks
Filmed in Cyprus, with a big thank you to our fantastic guide and friend Costas Constantinou instagram.com/costas_underwater_photography/?hl=en
Natsumi is wearing instagram.com/reselves2017/?hl=en
filmed on breath hold by daanverhoeven.com
music is 'Dreamland' by Spearfisher
#freediving


