Diving for the Feeling
Suzy Malseed and her Passion for Freediving
“The first time in my whole life I ever experienced silence was when I went underwater. Everything went quiet. I just fell in love.” — Suzy Malseed
This article was originally published on my Substack newsletter, On Fire, which profiles the most passionate people in the world. You can subscribe for free here.
“What’s this?”
Suzy Malseed stops short as she spots a table labeled Freediving across the room at the Auckland, New Zealand sports expo. She came here only one day after graduating from college as a way of getting to know her new city. Something about the word draws her in — even though she’s never heard of it.
“It’s going underwater and holding your breath,” says John Wright, the person manning the booth. Then he asks her a simple question that sends her plunging headfirst into a whole new world that, to this day, she hasn’t left and says she never will.
“Want to give it a try?”
“That. I’ll do that,” she says, agreeing to the offer. “That’s my thing.”
It was a knowing — and fortunately, there was a way to confirm it right away.
