7 days ago
Free diver Tara Rawson sets female Australian distance record on single breath
Tara Rawson was captivated when she first saw someone free diving at the Rowley Shoals, 260 kilometres west of Broome, off Western Australia's northern coast.
Now the dietician and yoga teacher has left the Kimberley so she can travel and train at dive sites around the world, and is working remotely from a temporary base in Egypt.
The 31-year-old is pushing her boundaries and recently made the deepest free dive for an Australian female — a staggering 82 metres.
And all on just one breath.
"You need to be able to relax to dive at such depths," the former Broome resident said from Indonesia, where she was competing.
"If you're holding tension, you're using more oxygen and you're more likely to have issues."
Ms Rawson was underwater for two minutes and 45 seconds to complete the 82-metre dive, wearing fins.
In free immersion dives, with no fin assistance, she can be underwater for over three minutes.
Ms Rawson said she loved being able to spend more time underwater.
"It's such a cool experience."
The former Kimberley resident had her first taste of free diving on a scuba diving trip to the Rowley Shoals.
Ms Rawson was captivated by a staff member from the charter boat who was free diving near the seabed.
"She just looked so majestic … so peaceful and graceful as she was cruising around," she said.
"I was in awe of her."
She set about learning to free dive herself.
"I really trust in my physical abilities and trust that the set-up is a safe place to dive," Ms Rawson said.
"It allows the whole [body] system to soften and it becomes quite an enjoyable experience."
Ms Rawson set up the Kimberley Free Diving Club in 2022 with Broome dive enthusiast Graham Makereth.
It has attracted interest from spearfishers and snorkellers, and has about 140 members.
"It has some special challenges, but we have this wonderful deep trench [off Broome] that's been carved by the current," Mr Makereth said.
"It's a fantastic place to free dive."
He said the purpose of the club was to safely introduce people to free diving off Broome, using local knowledge of big tides — and sharks.
"We have to be careful with bull sharks and tiger sharks, but all the other sharks, which we regularly see, are just part of being in the water," Mr Makereth said.
Mr Makereth, who is a trained free-diving instructor with many years' experience, said a "dive response" slowed the heart and increased blood flow to the brain.
"You learn techniques to keep the air in the mouth and then use that air to equalise with," he said.
Sessions at the local swimming pool are part of the deliberately slow process of learning how to free dive.
"You have to acclimatise very slowly … you've got to own a depth," Mr Makereth said.
Ms Rawson holds three Australian national records in separate disciplines of free diving.
The records were ratified following the Manado Depth Competition in Indonesia in August and the International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA) Asian Freediving Cup in the Philippines in June.
Ms Rawson's dive of 82 metres in June secured the top spot for an Australian female in the Constant Weight with fins (CWT) discipline.
She also holds first place in Constant Weight with bi-fins (CWTB) with a dive of 81 metres, and in the Free Immersion (FIM) category for a 79-metre dive.
"I love the world free diving has opened up for me," Ms Rawson said.
She intends to rest in Bali before returning to her base in Egypt — another location popular for free divers — to contemplate her next free diving record attempt.
