By Kirsten Gum
Don't think I will be winning any free-diving contests any time soon. Spear-fishing is insanely tough -- mostly because it's all about holding your breath. Think about it, when was the last time you held your breath as an adult? I mean, it just doesn't happen. If you are nay-saying me right now, try holding your breath for one minute starting now, and see how far you get. I sucked at it, and need to work on it.
Free-diving and spear-fishing are skills you don't just master overnight. It takes pros years to work their way up to three, three and a half minutes under water. That being said, when I did finally get to the bottom -- without the bloody nose -- I completely dug the whole scene. You are wearing a weight belt, so that helps keep you down, then you are just carefully holding on to the coral, spying on fish. Just when they think you are someone they shouldn't be worried about, you attack. It felt so primal. What you have to remember is that the strategy is to let the fish come to you, not to swim after the fish, because you'll never win. This takes such discipline.
I can't imagine the pressure hundreds of years ago when this was the only way you caught fish.You don't catch, you don't eat for the night. I pride myself on being pretty good at most sports, but this one kicked my butt. I had even received training drills for free-diving the week before this treasure hunt. And I did practice the breathing. Hell, that's the only reason I could even hold my breath and stay down as long as I could. I bet if I practiced at it for a good six months, I'd feel much better. But that would require me hanging in some gorgeous tropical place of my choice, where the water was clear and warm, and that's not happening in Santa Monica.
We have it good here in California, I admit, but not that good. It still gets under my skin when I think about that little black and red fish. I'm not mad that he or she won and survived, I'm mad that when I took three shots at the damn thing, it still hung around. It was absolute comedy. I aimed and shot at this fish, it barely moved and the spear missed it, then it just looks at me like "whatta ya go do that for!" so I shot again, and he still hung around! Do you think he knew he was dealing with a first-timer? I had to laugh, little bugger! This was a crazy treasure hunt, and I loved every minute of it. I spent two full days completely wet in tropical paradise.
Have I told you how much I love my job? I love that it challenges me in every way possible -- physically, emotionally, spiritually. I get asked a lot if I ever get scared on my adventures, and the answer is yes. I get scared for my crew, that I will somehow put them in a bad situation. That they will all be focusing on me and what I'm doing and something will happen to them. That's what's good about our team. Even though I'm busy having a blast in front of the camera, I always have one eye out for them. Remember it's all fun and games till someone gets hurt. I'm happy to say that in 38 shows, we've never even had a sprained ankle. I thank our guardian angels for that.
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