TV explores freediving talent

In Channel 4’s Hidden Talent, experts set out to find members of the public who have an innate potential to do well at a given activity.

Freediving is one of the subjects covered in the six-part series, others including rock climbing, opera singing and learning a foreign language.

The freediving expert called upon was British instructor Emma Farrell, who devised tests through which she picked a single pupil from 800 candidates.

Viewers learn about the features looked for in a potentially outstanding freediver.

Farrell first establishes the basics regarding healthy ears, sinuses and equalisation capacity, along with breath hold ability and an active mammalian diving reflex, where the heart slows during the breath hold.

Twelve candidates are selected to join Farrell for in-water tests at Crystal Palace, of which six go for assessment by a university sports scientist before joining Farrell at Somerset’s Vobster Quay for further in-water physical and psychological tests.

The winning applicant receives further training at Vobster. “Although I can't say who they are and how they did, I can say that I was incredibly proud of what they achieved in such a short space of time,” Farrell tells Divernet.

The project represented the “first time ever that so many people have been tested for a latent ability to freedive”. It has shown that “there are some remarkable talents out there”.

Hidden Talent is due to start on 24 April, with the freediving episodes scheduled for 1 and 29 May.

A Facebook page, www.facebook.com/hiddentalent, allows viewers to try some of the freediving tests for themselves. One is a “hum test” that indicates how easily the individual can equalise.

Farrell teaches freediving at Vobster Quay and organises freediving holidays overseas. She has taught TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to freedive and has appeared with Paul Rose on Britain's Secret Seas.

She is the author of One Breath, A Reflection on Freediving.