[Speaker 2]

Welcome to the Freedive Cafe, last episode number two with Jonny Sonnex. My name is Donnie. I’m the host of the Freedive Cafe.

The Freedive Cafe is the long form interview podcast that explores the backstories, the training, the challenges, and the combined wisdom and personal philosophies of the world’s freedivers. You can find this podcast at freedivecafe.com, on my main site at freediveandthrive.com, and of course, the podcast is available on all good podcast players. Today, I’m excited to release another lost episode for you guys.

What is a lost episode? You may ask. Well, a few years ago, we started doing some extra episodes with returning guests that we called plus episodes or sometimes training talk episodes, where I asked the guests a set of questions about their approach to training.

And it was here that I also started asking the fun little questions that would eventually become the desert island questions that we now do on every episode. The idea was to release these episodes first as exclusive content for the Patreon supporters, which we did. And then we planned to release them a few months down the line for the general listener.

So several of these exclusive episodes were produced and then a little thing called COVID happened. And let’s just say that it caused many plans to be altered and changed. And actually, I thought I lost most of these files and they were gone forever.

I moved to Dahab. I brought a bunch of old hard drives with me and after spending some time going through them, I found a lot of these old files. So now we finally have the chance to put them out to the general public.

This episode of Johnny was first released in July 2020, but he first appeared on the podcast on episode number 68. So if you want to hear the full storey behind this man and his freediving journey, then head over there first. Who is Johnny Sonex?

Johnny is very well known and highly regarded in the freediving community. Originally hailing from New Zealand, he went on to become one of the deepest freedivers in the world, diving to 110 metres in constant weight, winning many competitions and representing New Zealand in the world championships. He’s a renowned safety diver and coach, has coached athletes to world records, continental records, and national records.

He’s taught all over the world, but can now be found between the Caribbean island of Dominica, where he organises the Blue Element competition and his home now in Hawaii. Before we get to the interview, let me quickly say a million thank yous to the Patreon supporters who keep the show in the ocean. If you appreciate the work I do here

and would buy me a coffee to say thank you, then consider becoming a member of the Patreon family.

And as a patron, you also get such benefits as completely exclusive episodes, extended episodes, early access to content and more. Head over to patreon.com slash freedivecafe to sign up. All right, let’s settle down for a while and enjoy this little chat with Johnny Sonex.

Let’s dive. All right. Good to have you back, Johnny.

We’re just going to like, uh, just, you know, flow into it now. Um, maybe it’s been a while since we did our interview on the freedive cafe. Let’s, uh, catch up with you a little bit and find out, um, what your life has been like in the era of coronavirus, where you are now and, and what’s going on.

[Speaker 1]
Cool. Thanks for having me back, Donnie. And yeah.

Um, I’m currently in Hawaii where I can be in the water surfing and diving. So I can’t complain too much. I guess, uh, life is a little bit weird.

And the fact that nobody has any work or any business or most people, you know, um, like most freedivers we’re heavily involved in the tourism industry and travel and none of that’s really happening right now. So, uh, yeah, for the time being, I’m just enjoying myself, I guess.

[Speaker 2]

And you’re usually based in Dominica, which is like a million miles away. So you must, I guess, you know, you must be planning to go back there at some point. And is there any, uh, have you any indication when that might happen?

[Speaker 1]

Uh, yeah. So Dominica is normally home base and we’re currently waiting to see what happens with travel and quarantines. Uh, we’ve heard rumours that maybe July it will be possible to fly back to Dominica, but I think that will also mean that you’d have to undergo a quarantine.

So we’re still like most people waiting for more information about, uh, when it’s possible to travel again. But, uh, we still have planned the Blue Element, uh, competition for November. Um, which we’re, I guess, optimistic that we’ll be able to hold all of our crew members, uh, are ready and willing to go.

We’ve got the platform still out there. The Blue Element staff is still there training and

they’re all diving super deep at the moment. Um, at least one of them has gone past a hundred metres and, uh, but a couple more who are like on the doorstep of hitting a hundred metres.

So they’ve been putting the time to good use and yeah, hopefully soon. [Speaker 2]

Um, and how has Dominica been affected by the virus? Has there been an outbreak there or has it been relatively chilled out?

[Speaker 1]

They were lucky that, uh, they got on top of it pretty soon. I think there was 14 cases, like one, four, so not many, not many cases. They managed to, um, isolate the people that had it and the island is effectively coronavirus free.

And for the time being is as long as people can’t arrive to the island, then, you know, people can live normal lives. Just if you’re working in tourism, then you don’t have any work, you know?

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that, that is the advantage to living on an island though, that you are kind of a, in a sense, as long as the, the infection rate is low, then you’re kind of protected from, uh, the influence of places like the States or the UK where things have kind of gotten out of control, but obviously, you know, there’s the disadvantages of the tourist sector has been massively hit places like Dominica and Hawaii as well, where you are now. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Well, let’s hope we can all get back to normal as soon as possible. And, uh, I’m going to keep, uh, doing this podcast and, um, hopefully getting people really excited to get back in the water and start free diving again when, whenever they can.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you don’t need to run a service, Tony.

So yeah, good that people have some good content that they can tune into and yeah, it’s a good, good thing.

[Speaker 2]
All right. Let’s get into these, uh, training talk questions. Yeah.

Okay. So, you know, it’s just a bit of fun. No need to take these questions, uh, uh, too seriously.

Um, I tried that with the first couple of episodes and, uh, didn’t, uh, didn’t go down too well. So, um, all right. So Johnny, what is your favourite free diving discipline and why?

[Speaker 1]

Okay. So, I mean, I’m going to be honest. I wouldn’t say that I have one favourite discipline because it with time, you know, after, after I’ve been trained and doing a training cycle, focussing on one or two of the disciplines, then maybe by the end of that training cycle, I’m thinking of wanting to switch up just to keep things interesting.

Um, but generally speaking, I’d say constant weight with the monofin. [Speaker 2]

Have you, uh, just, uh, by the by, have you been training, uh, any free diving while you’ve been there in Hawaii?

[Speaker 1]

No, no, I haven’t been training free diving at all. I’ve, uh, I’ve been out shooting photos from time to time. You know, I, I really enjoy underwater photography.

Um, and that’s how I spend most of my time when I’m free diving these days. Um, mostly I’ve just been surfing actually.

[Speaker 2]

Nice. Um, so let’s talk about your favourite supplementary training for free diving. And I mean, you are a, you are a coach as well.

So, you know, this can relate to what you’ve done yourself as a, as an athlete and also how you instruct your athletes to, to prepare for free diving. So what is your favourite supplementary training out of the water?

[Speaker 1]

Uh, probably gym training or like some form of bodyweight training. Um, I’ve pretty much always gone to the gym and I just enjoy lifting weights or doing bodyweight training. And I, I like how I feel after I train and also, you know, strength training and it’s important for free diving.

Uh, especially like, let’s say you’ve finished the training cycle and you’ve been doing only depth. Um, even if you do incorporate some, some form of, uh, resistance training into it, I tend to lose a bit of muscle mass as, as the season goes on. So I like to try and rebuild and then, you know, set myself up for the next training cycle.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Yeah. I’m sort of like teaching full time right now and I’m struggling to hold on to the, whatever muscle mass I have.

So I’m forced myself to eat, force myself to, uh, to, to work out as well. And I’m just, just holding on to it. Um, so yeah, talking about best ways to increase, uh, breath hold time.

Um, were you ever much into static? [Speaker 1]

No, I was never much into static. Um, my best static time is not very impressive. I’ve almost done as long deep dives as I’ve done a static.

So I’ve done like six minutes, um, static. I’ve never, uh, I’ve never blacked out or, or had a Samba. It’s definitely not my hypoxic limit, but I just don’t enjoy the sensations as much as I do deep diving.

I’ve done deep dives for like well over five minutes. So, you know, it’s, it’s just a different kind of sensation for me.

[Speaker 2]

So talking about ways to increase a breath hold time, do you have any thoughts on that or is that kind of outside the scope of, um, your own experience?

[Speaker 1]

No, I would say you have to work towards your weakness, you know? So for example, if you’re finishing your breath hold times, your breath holds, not because you’re at a hypoxic limit, then, you know, it’s pretty much CO2 or some mental, you know, issue that you’re having normally caused by the CO2 though. So you’re going to have to train your CO2 tolerance.

If your limit is because of hypoxia, then you’re going to have to work on that. You know? So I, I think you have to work towards your weakness and that’s going to vary from person to person.

[Speaker 2]

All right. So yeah, then talking about, um, CO2 tolerance, what do you think are the best ways to improve CO2 tolerance? Um, which methods have you used yourself and which do you recommend to your athletes?

[Speaker 1]

Okay. Well, um, CO2 tables, whether that’s, uh, for depth or, or in the pool, you know, doing repetitions, I wouldn’t say that you have to do the standard, like, uh, standard

tables you can, if we are, we’re talking about what, what discipline are we talking about?

[Speaker 2]

Um, well, I guess, you know, it depends which discipline you want. You, if you train specifically for the particular discipline that you want to do, right? So, um, I’m curious to know what you would do for CO2 tolerance in depth.

[Speaker 1]

Okay. So I would, I would do CO2 tables, um, where I’d be diving. This is just an example, maybe diving to 20, 25, 30 metres and having a set interval and then diving again.

So it’s, it’s pretty standard, except for you’re doing it with depth. And I’d say that the main benefit of this is that you’re actually learning how to, um, how to equalise whilst being affected by the CO2 or learning how to relax, you know, and you should be doing it at a shallow enough depth that, uh, you’re not going to endanger yourself by lung squeeze or anything like that. And you can obviously only do so many dives before you’re going to put yourself at risk of, uh, of DCS.

[Speaker 2]

So, yeah. And it’s, uh, depending on your, uh, what you like, it’s possibly a lot more fun than, than doing some kind of, uh, you know, uh, long and strenuous pool session for CO2, um, tolerance. Um, at least you get out there in the ocean.

Um, so yeah, fun, fun question here. Um, how would you structure a pool training session if you could only do it one way for the rest of your life? So you’ve been kind of, uh, confined to performing this routine.

Um, of course you don’t have to, you could just not do the pool session, but if you, if you had to only do it one way, then what would you do?

[Speaker 1]

I’d probably combine it with swimming and free diving, you know, just so that there is some variation there. Um, and I’d do some sort of table. I’m not a big fan of, uh, of max dynamic swims, but I I’d set up some sort of table and I’d mix up the disciplines and I’ll do some swimming.

So it gives me a little bit of variation. I can make it, uh, you can make it hard, but I guess it’s going to be more enjoyable for me than, than if I’m doing long swims all the time.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. So you want to have that balance of, you know, achieving something, but also if

you’re going to do it for the rest of your life, it has to be fun. Right.

Um, yeah, it’s surprising how many, uh, athletes on this show have, um, included swimming into this routine. Um, so that’s quite interesting to note. Um, you know, like, uh, over unders and that kind of thing.

[Speaker 1]

Like exactly.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Um, and then the deep dry and then the deep dive training session, if you could only go out and dive depth in one way for the rest of your life, how would you do it?

[Speaker 1]

Okay. Well, I would do some warmups. Um, I can dive with no warmup, but I must say that I enjoy my dives better after I’ve done a couple of short warmups.

Um, then I do, let’s say one or two deep dives, not necessarily maxes, but just, you know, something where I get a nice long free fall and spend a bit of time down at the bottom and then I come back up. I just, I love the feeling of sinking and being down there. You know, I really love that.

And then I would, I’d have a bit of a break, you know, DCS reasons. And then I’d finish it off with a different form of exercise, whether it was a table or, you know, I don’t know how much you’re going to allow me to change things, but you can work away. Yeah.

I’d probably, I’d probably do like, um, a few shorter, shallower dives, you know, with, with a different discipline.

[Speaker 2]

Right. So maybe like work on some technique and, uh, um, you know, just not, not deep dives.

[Speaker 1]

Exactly. Something, something a bit shallower where I can, uh, just work on technique and really enjoy that, that dive, you know?

[Speaker 2]

Uh, so what technique, lifestyle or mindset change helped you improve more or could help your athletes improve more than anything else?

[Speaker 1]

Okay. I would say it was a combination of lifestyle and mindset that, that helped me the most, you know, once I started my freediving training, then I kind of, I committed to it like fully. I did like a master training programme.

And from, from that point onwards, I just, you know, even if I left the ocean, uh, if I was living away from the ocean, I’d be training whether it was in the gym or in the pool, but with the purpose of improving my diving, my diving, you know, so there was that lifestyle change. Um, by the end of that year, I also changed my mindset. Whereas like, you know, I have to make sure I’m doing everything that I can to achieve my goals.

So, I mean, I didn’t drink very often, but when I did drink, I liked to party, you know, and have a few drinks and it was, it was a New Year’s Eve. I think, uh, 2011, 20 to 2012, I’d had half a beer and I just kind of put that down and I was like, you know what, I just won’t have a drink until I reach a hundred metres and it was just, even though I didn’t drink excessively before that, it was just kind of like that mindset knowing that I’m doing everything that I can to, um, to improve my diving. And, you know, I, I knew that I was wholeheartedly committed to it.

And then this also came with the, the lifestyle change of actually moving to the ocean where it was like, I, I could stay in train for as long as I needed to, to overcome whatever, um, boundaries I had at that time.

[Speaker 2]

So after you put that beer down, did you manage to hold off until you reached a hundred metres? I did, and it didn’t take as long as I thought it might. Well, that’s good.

So you got to have a beer, uh, sooner than expected.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Except for I, I did it and I didn’t even want to have a drink. So I didn’t drink.

And, um, it was probably, I don’t know, a few weeks later that I had a couple of glasses of wine with friends and, you know, yeah, yeah. And I keep, I keep it pretty mellow with drinking in general anyway, but, but yeah, for that period, you know, it was like, yeah, when I’m serious about something, then I’ll do everything that I can to make it happen.

[Speaker 2]

Putting, putting down a drink for a while is definitely not going to do anyone any harm under any circumstances, but especially if you’re reaching for top levels of athleticism, it’s a, it can be a major stumbling block. I think even if you’re not drinking excessively, but it’s, if it’s just a regular thing for you, then, you know, it definitely gives you that

edge if you can, um, put it down for a while. Right.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I mean, like if you’re, if you just having one or two beers in the evenings or, you know, two or three times a week, sure, it’s, it’s fine. Um, but like, if you are really trying to reach your athletic peak, then your body is actually using energy to process the alcohol out of your system, you know?

So why, why make it do that when it could be putting its energy and, uh, you know, making you stronger.

[Speaker 2]

Absolutely. So what are you doing in your mind in the two minutes before your deep dives?

[Speaker 1]

This might sound a little bit morbid, Donnie, but I guess, um, in some ways making peace, um, it’s not like if I, if I was going to do something that’s like, I’ve never done before, I want to be at peace with myself and at peace with, um, yeah, where, where I’m at. So it could be just, I could just be living in that moment, looking up at the sky, looking at the clouds, feeling the sunshine, feeling the water and being present in that moment. Or it could be, I remember like in, in some of my training cycles, I would, because I live away from home, I’ve lived away from home for like 12 years.

And so I didn’t see my family very often. So it might be that I would take myself into a room. This is not a real room.

It’s just in my mind. And I’d walk around that room and I would see the faces of my, my friends and my family, maybe people I’ve met on my travels. And, um, I just see them, maybe they’d say something to me or maybe I’d just see their faces and I’d go around the room and that was, that was kind of it, you know?

[Speaker 2]

And that would actually, uh, yeah, there’s another question here, which is kind of out of place. I should put it, um, towards the front of the podcast. Um, so, uh, do you recommend any supplementation for freedivers?

And I guess I would, uh, probably put this behind the supplementary training question next time. Um, although I’m 13 episodes into this training talk podcast and I haven’t figured that out yet, but do you have any recommendations for supplementation? Is that a thing for you?

Uh, or do you not really bother with that?

[Speaker 1]

No, I’d say it is a thing for me. Like, uh, right now in this moment, I’m not taking any supplements. Um, but when I’m training seriously, then, okay, look, I, I’m a big, uh, I don’t know what the word is.

I, I think you should try and get what you need from your food anyway, but supplementation definitely can help, you know, when you’re, when you’re making your body, like, you know, you’re putting a high demand on your body, then sometimes supplementation will just ensure that you’re getting exactly what it needs. So I think you definitely need to have antioxidants because your body is, you know, creating a lot of, um, what’s the word Donnie free radicals, free radicals. Yeah.

And you definitely have to deal with that. I think you need to get a protein. I would go with a veggie protein, normally, um, hemp protein.

Uh, I can’t really digest the, the pea based proteins. Yeah. Uh, hemp protein seems to be pretty good with me and I go with spirulina as well.

So those would be some of the key ones I’d recommend. And cacao actually is a great antioxidant and it’s some good flavour to try and mask the spirulina.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Spirulina is a, is a rough one to try and get down, uh, especially if it’s not mixed with something else. So you were just talking there about, you know, making peace and visualising the, your family and your friends.

Um, so which person or persons have influenced your own approach to free diving the most, then who would you give the shout out to? And I know you mentioned, uh, William, um, on your last, uh, on your last episode that you did here. Um, is there anyone else you’d like to add to that?

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. Last time I mentioned Akeem at Hardy and William Trubridge. And I mean, it’s, it’s still the same, same thing, you know, like Akeem was the first, he was my first instructor and I think most of the time, you know, you know, I trained, I trained under him for a month, so, you know, obviously it has a massive effect on, on your approach.

Um, we both came from like sporting backgrounds as well, so it was easy to relate and I take a sporting approach to free diving rather than a more, I mean, I’m not going to say that I don’t incorporate things from yoga and, you know, like to me, it’s, it’s not all about the sensations and stuff. You have to prepare your body physically, um, for the sport. So,

you know, training with guys like Akeem and William who, you know, I think have a very similar mindset and that they treat it as a sport, you know, preparing your body, then that’s, that’s had a big effect on me, I’d say.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. I finally got to meet Akeem. Um, he was in, uh, he was in Ahmed when I was there just, uh, in, uh, March, just before I left because of the coronavirus.

And yeah, it was fun, fun to meet him. He’s very, very energetic, uh, guy. [Speaker 1]
Yeah, he is. He is.
[Speaker 2]

Was your, was your deepest dive also your best dive? [Speaker 1]

No, no, it wasn’t. It was hard and I was still, my, my body hadn’t recovered from my previous dives. You know, I, I thought that I thought I’d given myself enough rest.

I hadn’t. And, you know, already after turning, I was still at 90 metres and I could feel lactic acid in my legs. I was like, oh, well, it’s going to be a hard dive.

And it was a really hard dive. So, um, yeah, I think when you’re deep diving, even though you can have a deep dive and everything goes perfectly, you know, most of the time you have to be prepared for the fact that you’re going to reach a certain level and dives aren’t super fun and super easy, you know, all the time anymore.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah. Most, most people have said the same thing.

Yeah. It’s a, it’s never really the deepest dive that is the best dive, but it’s usually one that stands out. Um, that is not, not, not to do with achievement or depth.

Um, and, and just out of curiosity, how deep was that dive? I know it was more than a hundred metres. That’s for sure.

[Speaker 1]

It was, it was 110 metres. Right. Okay.

Uh, my previous dive was 105 and that one was easy. So, um, yeah, I hadn’t, I hadn’t recovered, you know, and yeah, so it completely changed the way I felt in the dive. Um,

so yeah, I guess it’s all a learning curve.
Yeah.
[Speaker 2]
Um, what is your favourite memory so far from your free diving journey? [Speaker 1]

You know, Donnie, I don’t have one favourite memory. Um, I’ve been lucky that I guess for the past decade, maybe even a little bit more, I’ve been, I’ve been free diving and I’ve been lucky to go to some very remote places in the world. Um, I’ve had some amazing marine interactions.

I’ve had some, some great dives of my own and I’ve been involved in coaching, um, athletes to, you know, personal bests, national records and world records. And I, I couldn’t rate one above the other, you know?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Just too many to pick one out. [Speaker 1]

Pretty much. I mean, I can tell you about a very intense sort of five minutes that I had in Antarctica, where it was like the last dive that we had on the expedition. Um, we were down there, Sophia and I were down there filming a, for a documentary and we, we definitely needed more content.

And so like our mind was on the fact that we would, we were diving and exploring around this iceberg. And previously on one of the dives that we’d done, I don’t know, a couple of weeks earlier, we’d, we’d had a whale interaction, humpback whales, but they’d come by close and they’d swum too far, too far underneath us to really see anything. You know, they, as big as they are, they’re kind of timid and they’ll, they’ll, they’ll keep, keep away from you.

And so I sort of had that in the mind that, you know, just stay focused on the job. Even if a whale comes, comes by, just, you know, get the content. And so somebody said some, we had a support team on a Zodiac and they’re like, oh, there’s a whale over there.

And it was like a hundred metres away. And like, okay, we’re just going to keep diving. So we kept diving and then somebody else goes, oh, the whale’s getting closer.

And we’re like, okay, it’s still too far away. And we just kept diving. And then all of a sudden the whale appeared like, I don’t know, maybe eight metres away and came by

and it checked us out and then it came so close that I actually thought I was going to get collected by, by its, by its fluke, you know, it, it, it rolled onto its back and its, its fin came up and I, I really thought I was going to get collected by it.

And from a distance, you know, they look so elegant and graceful, but when I was there at that moment, it looked so clumsy and I thought, damn, I’m going to get hit. So that was, that was pretty amazing. And then less than, I don’t know, maybe two or three minutes later, like we’re obviously buzzing over that, but then we went back to the job diving under this iceberg and then we, we surfaced and then the moment we surfaced exactly where we dived, the iceberg collapsed and like it just sent this, this wall of water over top of us and it was, it was 30 tonnes of ice, you know, like we would have, we would have died had we been there in that moment. And I mean, as I saw it happening, I, I knew that we were actually far enough away that we were safe, but I, I heard it, I heard it before I saw it.

I just heard this massive crack and I actually, I kind of felt it in the atmosphere and we were like, what was that? And then we saw the ice coming down and then we heard another one and that same, and the same thing happened. And yeah, like there was no fear because I could kind of judge immediately that we’re far enough away, but it was so intense, you know, it was just the most intense five minutes I think of my life.

It’s whale on this iceberg.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Sounds like a, the kind of day where you were pretty present for, for a lot of it.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and we got it all on camera.

[Speaker 2]

Nice. Nice. You got the iceberg breaking as well.

Got the whale, got the iceberg. Awesome.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. Sometimes things are great as memories, but to be able to share it with someone and that, that makes, that’s pretty cool as well.

[Speaker 2]
Absolutely. Yeah. All right.
We’re going to move on to these, these fun questions to wind down the interview. Now, if

you had to eat only one meal, Johnny, including a drink every day for the rest of your life, you can only eat this one meal. Uh, what would it be?

[Speaker 1]

I’d have to say in this moment, I’d probably go with vegan poking, which doesn’t sound very exciting to most people if they don’t know what it is or haven’t tried it. I tried it just recently and instead of using a fish meat, you’re using tomatoes, which have been, um, uh, what do you call it? Marinated in sauces.

And it’s, it’s delicious. And I just love the feeling of like how you feel afterwards, you know, like you’re, you’re light, you’re, you’ve got energy and you can go and do stuff. It’s not like a super heavy meal.

So I could probably go with that. I mean, I don’t think I’d want to eat anything, only one meal for the rest of my life, but that’s what I could think of in this time. And I’d probably wash it down with a nice kombucha.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, cool. Nice. Uh, no, no wine or beer.
Um, rest of your life, man.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I can live without alcohol. I mean, alcoholic kombucha as well. [Speaker 2]
Okay. Yeah.
[Speaker 1]
So maybe if I’ve got a bit of variation.
[Speaker 2]

Yeah, you can have a, you can have a whole selection of various alcoholic and non- alcoholic kombuchas. I’ll be generous to you. Um, yeah, the, the last guest on this, this, uh, version of the podcast was Martin Stepanek.

And he was also, uh, he also chose a Pokeball for his meal. Um, so it’s Hawaiian themed month, this month. It is.

[Speaker 1] It is.

[Speaker 2]

Uh, did you have a chance to think about the books that you would take to the desert Island? Um, which three books you would take?

[Speaker 1]

I don’t know if I could give you any titles, Donnie, but I was thinking it’d be a good idea to take a survival book. Yeah. Um, I like to think that I’m pretty useful and pretty handy, but I mean, if you’re out there really doing it, then it’s probably, there’s a lot of things that I don’t actually know.

So a survival book, maybe, maybe a really, really big thick book that I can use for lighting fires would also be useful. And, uh, yeah, exactly. And I don’t have a third one for you, Donnie.

I don’t have, I don’t have a favourite book.

[Speaker 2]

I think we’ll just give you a whole bunch of, uh, like, uh, old, uh, what do you call it? Telephone directories. And I should give you plenty of toilet paper and, uh, fire material as well.

Um, if you could spend a day with one famous person or any person from history, who would it be?

[Speaker 1]

Oh, yeah. I was kind of stuck for someone there, but then I just kind of thought maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, he’s an interesting character and he’s funny as hell.

He’s done all sorts of things. I think he could tell you a storey about just about anything. So yeah, I wouldn’t mind meeting Arnie.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. I think he’s been on, he’s, he’s been called up before for this question, Arnie. [Speaker 1]
Oh yeah. Maybe you need to get him on the podcast, Arnie.
[Speaker 2]

Well, yeah, I’m not sure. Yeah. I’m starting a new podcast, you know, it’s going to be like a, not free diving related, but more like inspiring people.

So maybe one day I can, I can get Arnie onto that one. Um, cause he is, he has got a pretty fascinating storey. Uh, and he likes to talk as well.

Yeah. Um, if you could go back in time to live in, uh, any historical periods, um, you know, what would you fancy there?

[Speaker 1]

Oh, shit. I didn’t see that one in the questionnaire, Donnie. You turned it on to me last minute.

[Speaker 2]
Oh yeah. I might’ve, uh, that’s cause I changed the, uh, the PDF. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, do I have to stay in that period or I just get to go back there for a day? Um, you can, you can do whatever you want to be honest.

Yeah. You can go back there for a day. This has come up before, you know, that people might want to visit like mediaeval Japan, but don’t want to necessarily live there for the rest of their life because it’d probably be miserable in the end.

Um, yeah. Like for me, for example, like I’d love to, you know, I think that like ancient Egypt would be pretty incredible to go and see, you know, um, but possibly wouldn’t want to live there forever. So yeah, you can just go and visit for one day if you want.

[Speaker 1]

I mean, if I had to go back and live in a time, then maybe, maybe even our grandparents’ generation, you know, I think, I think they’ve lived in a pretty good era with regards to like the health of the world and the health of the oceans and pre-plastic pollution. Um, um, I mean, obviously there’s no internet and a lot of the things that we’re kind of used to in these days, but if you don’t know about it, then yeah, maybe you read a lot more books and live a little bit more differently. Um, if I had to go back and visit somewhere, maybe the days of the dinosaurs, can you imagine seeing something that big?

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. That’d be really cool. And to see how they compared to the, you know, the, the popular culture images that we see in films like Jurassic Park or even the books that we used to read when we were kids, you know, it’d be interesting to see how close we got to what they actually look like since no one’s ever seen anything but bones pretty much.

[Speaker 1] Exactly.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. But I definitely, you know, I would echo what you said about our grandparents’ generation. Cause I’m, you know, when I go out here in the reef, um, it’s a beautiful reef, it’s very extensive, but it’s, you can tell that it’s a shadow of its former self and even just to go back like even 50 years and jump in the water and, and see what it was like.

I think it would be a real eye-opener. Exactly. And it’s a shame that we can’t go back and take some pictures and then return to the present day and show people that, you know, what we’ve done and that might have, um, give a little bit more stimulus to people to, to change their actions and, and, you know, ask for, um, action from governments and people in power and things like that.

But that’s another storey. All right, Johnny, uh, that’s us finished with those questions. Thanks very much, man.

[Speaker 1]
No worries, Johnny. [Speaker 2]

Thanks for having me back on the, uh, Freelife Cafe. Johnny, awesome to have you back on the show. Um, really fun having, having this little, uh, interview with the trading talk questions with you.

Uh, yeah, I hope that, you know, you can, uh, continue to enjoy the water there in Hawaii and get back to Dominica as soon as possible.

[Speaker 1]

Cool. Thank you, Donnie. Yeah.

It’s been a pleasure being back on the show and I hope that everyone is safe and well back at home and able to get some sort of training in, and I hope you’re all looking forward to getting back in the ocean and hopefully that can happen this year for, for everyone. Awesome.

[Speaker 2]
All right, Johnny. Thanks very much for that, man. Enjoy the rest of your day. Um, I’m going to go and jump in the water now myself.
[Speaker 1]
Cool, Donnie.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, you too. Have a great one. And, uh, I’ll talk to you again soon. All right. Take it easy, man. Bye-bye.

Today’s book recommendation is in oceans, deep courage, innovation, and adventure beneath the waves by Bill Striever. This wonderful book explores the vastness of the world’s oceans and our history of exploration under the waves starts in the Mariana trench with that mind boggling deepest dive ever by Don Walsh and Jack Picard. I’ll read a little bit from the Amazon page here in an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown and endlessly fascinating, full of mystery, danger, beauty, and inspiration in oceans.

Deep celebrates the daring pioneers who tested the limits of what the human body can endure underwater. Free divers able to reach 300 feet on a single breath engineers and scientists who uncovered the secrets of decompression, teenagers who built their own diving gear from discarded boilers and garden hoses in the 1930s, saturation divers who lived underwater for weeks at a time in the sixties, and the trailblazing men who voluntarily breathed experimental gases at pressures sufficient to trigger insanity. Tracing both the little known history and exciting future of how we travel and study the depths, Striever’s captivating journey includes 17th century leather-hulled submarines, their nuclear powered descendants, a workshop where luxury submersibles are built for billionaire clients and robots capable of roving unsupervised between continents, revolutionising access to the ocean. In this far flung trip to the wild night, dark place of shipwrecks, trapped submariners, ocean wells, innovative technologies, and people willing to risk their lives while challenging the deep, we discover all the adventures our seas have to offer and why they are in such dire need of conservation.

Yeah. And there’s a really great chapter on free diving in this book as well. And you’ll be pleased to know that Bill is coming on the show very soon.

We’ve agreed to do an interview and we’ll be able to discuss his book and hopefully unearth even more little gems about the oceans from him. All right, guys, that’s it. Talk to you soon and dive safe.

That was Johnny Sonnex, a lost episode from back in 2020 when COVID was just getting itself up and running. Big love to him out there in Hawaii, where he is now and hope to see him in the water one day in Dominica. I really hope to make it out there in the not too distant future, but of course, it’s quite a way for me to go, but here’s hoping.

All right. Keep up to date with me on Instagram, freediveandthrive. If you want to get in touch about anything, contact me there or my email is donnie.freediveandthrive.com.

I think the next one that we have coming up is Samuel Yarenko returning to the show

and then after that should be Lotte Eriksson, but you know, the plans always change and get moved around and things like that, but shouldn’t be too long before we have another episode. All right, guys, dive safe.