'Magical, mystical, zen-like ...' is how Australian freediver Christina Saenz de Santamaria describes the experience of diving to depths of up to 82m on a single breath. Scroll through these amazing photographs of her free diving in Mexico and Hawaii
“The experience is meditative and very zen-like,” says Christina Saenz de Santamaria, a champion freediver who currently holds the national women's freediving record – 60m – in her native Australia. Christina spends six months of the year on the island of Koh Tao in Thailand where she runs a freediving school founded by her husband Eusebio. For the rest of the year the couple train and compete around the world. One of their favourite places to freedive is in the cenotes (natural, fresh water sinkholes) of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula (pictured). Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de SantamariaCenotes have an almost mythical quality – they were sacred to the Mayans who believed they were the gateway to the afterlife and used them for rituals, including human sacrifice. These photographs were taken at cenote called The Pit near Tulum. The light pierces the cool dark waters, providing an ethereal backlight to the caves and caverns below.Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de SantamariaThe depth of these cenotes is often unknown due to the swirling white halocline that hovers at around 30m, a chemical reaction between layers of fresh and salt water, through which the sunlight barely pierces.Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria"The deepest cenote that we have freedived is called La Laguna, at 75m; beneath the halocline we were freediving in the pitch black with only glow sticks on our dive rope to guide us," says Christina. "We only discovered the bottom of La Laguna when our feet touched the bottom. It was a very spooky experience." Photograph: Christina Saenz de SantamariaThis wreck off the Mexican island of Cozumel is the Felipe Xicoténcatl C-53, lying at a depth of 25 to 30m. She was a US-made minesweeper built in the second world war. In 1962 the ship was sold to the Mexican navy and retitled ARM General Felipe Xicoténcatl (C53) where it guarded the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria.The wreck was sunk deliberately in 1999 to be used as an artificial reef for marine life and corals and for recreational diving.Photograph: Christina Saenz de SantamariaHawaii is another favourite freediving location for the couple, due to the richness of the marine life. "We were on a sailing trip with friends along the Kona coast of Big Island when we anchored in the historic Kealakekua Bay (where Captain Cook died). We woke early each morning to freedive with a pod of wild Hawaiian spinner dolphins," says Christina (pictured).Photograph: Christina Saenz de Santamaria"The pod was over 60 strong. They would return to the bay to rest and play after a night fishing in the deep sea and were very curious about us." Photograph: Christina Saenz de Santamaria.Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria."The shallow depths of Kealakekua Bay range from 8 to 12m and we freedived down to the bottom for several minutes at a time."Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria"During our training days off the coast of Oahu in Hawaii we encountered humpback whales, tiger sharks, dolphins, eagle rays and one very curious juvenile monk seal (a protected species). One day we were playing in the shallows of a bay nearby Waikiki when this lovely baby seal approached us before swimming on his way." Photograph: Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria
