Brian Wood – The diver’s reflex

You just get used to being underwater and it’s quite pleasant ‘cos everybody’s got what they call a ‘diver’s reflex’ and some people, you develop an exaggerated ‘diver’s reflex.’ Like babies when they’re born, could be born in water or you could put them straight in water, they lower their breath, and a lot of people retain a certain amount of that, but then you start to lose it, and what that is, when you immerse yourself in water, all your peripherals start to shut down and the only bits that require oxygen and blood stay active.

By training up in the Tank over a number of months, you start to get that … recover that ‘diver’s reflex’ so you don’t start gagging so much when you’re sort of [gagging noise] I’ve been down … you sort of put that out .. no, I’m not, I’m quite comfortable. And you can just train yourself …

Simon: Right, just extended exposure, a little bit more, a little bit more.

Yeah, oh I’m alright. I’ll take a breath in a minute or so, and you do various exercises when you’re training up, sort of what they call ‘Awkward Squads.’ They’ll make you push you to your limit and then push you a bit further until you. “I’ve had enough of that, I’m out of here” you know, so you get to know sort of your limits and then you push yourself beyond it, and it’s a bit of mind over matter, self-discipline.

In the end I could hold my breath quite easily for 4 ½ to 5 minutes.