By Trelle Burdeniuk

Freediver from PA now training Navy SEALs and Olympic athletes

May 15, 2013 | 6:54 PM

For Kirk Krack, his workplace is literally fluid as he travels around the world as a freediving instructor.

“On one breath of air from the surface, we descend under the water for varying depths and various amounts of time,” he said.

Krack's deepest self-propelled dive, which means he uses his own kicking power to get down, was 263 feet. That required him to hold his breath for about two-and-a-half minutes, although he can hold his breath for up to seven minutes.

Growing up on the prairies, Krack laughed when asked how he became involved in such a water-dependent sport.

“Growing up, I was a water baby. Always too young to take the next set of swimming lessons,” he said from his hotel room in Florida where he is getting ready to teach a freediving course.

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Krack got his first scuba gear as a 13-year-old in Prince Albert. From there, he became a lifeguard and swimming instructor in Prince Albert and then owned the Diving Centre in Saskatoon for a few years. But, the simplicity and ability to get closer to marine life drew him to freediving.

“Scuba is like jumping in your SUV and having the windows rolled up and the music blaring and the air conditioning on to drive through the forest to see all the animals. Whereas, freediving is like throwing on your hiking boots and a backpack and going hiking through the forest.”

Now, he has trained seven people to 23 freediving world records and teaches big wave surfers and U.S. Navy SEALs how to hold their breath.

“I teach them an emergency breath hold – how to develop a breath hold where they don't have the best situation in the world and they don't have all the time in the world to prepare, they have but split seconds,” he said.

He will also soon be working with members of the U.S. women's ski team to teach them breathing techniques to prepare for the 2014 Olympics.

Krack said freediving is an easy activity to get into, but must be done safely as the body requires training before being able to go without oxygen for long periods of time.

“We think we are quite limited, but once trained, there is a very, very extreme side to the things we can do.”

He explained during a dive, the body's heart rate decreases by about 50 per cent to save oxygen. As well, blood vessels in the arms and legs constrict to push oxygenated blood to the heart, brain and lungs where different blood vessels dilate to accept that blood.

There is a risk of losing consciousness, which is why Krack always advises people to never dive alone.

Krack and his wife, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, a fellow freediver who has several world records, both run Performance Freediving out of B.C. They travel the world together, along with their three-year-old daughter, Kaila Marine.

Krack said his daughter, Kaila, whose name means water in Hawaiian, is already a water lover who can swim 82 feet across in a pool.

“The joke within our family is that because she's always in the water and her name means water and her parents are always in the water that when she gets married, she's going to marry a farmer and move back to the Prairies because she'll have had it with all this water stuff,” he laughed.

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