





Tanya Streeter is a freediver (somebody who dives without the use of any breathing apparatus) who was the first female in ANY sport to break the male held world record in that same discipline. And she wasn’t even at her best when she did it! So much so that she went on to set a further nine world records! Now, as she reflects back on her professional career and brings attention to ocean environmentalism, allow Tanya to inspire you as she describes how nothing in life need be unfathomable…





Hi Tanya, thanks a lot for taking the time to chat with me.

Hi Ross, you’re very welcome.

Are you in Texas at the moment?

I am, I am indeed, Austin.

Cool, how’s the weather there at the moment?

Freezing, you know, by our standards (Irish and British), literally freezing. Which is quite unusual. It’s not good for an island girl but it doesn’t happen often.

Ha, okay. I thought to start this interview talking a little about your background. You are British but you grew up in the Cayman Islands, is that right?

Yeah, a bit of everything. I was born and raised in the Cayman Islands. My mum’s a Brit, my father’s American. And I went to boarding school in the UK, nine through finishing university. But I think of myself as Caymanian, because of my roots. But then having been in the U.S. the last fourteen years it’s hard not to think of myself as an American too. So, I don’t know. I’m mixed up. Never quite know where home is.

And when you were growing up in the Caymans, were you out on the water a lot? You swam with the fishermen and that kind of thing?

Yeah, as a kid we had nothing else. I was literally… ah we didn’t have all the laid on activities that kids have today. And, you know, the sea was right there and that’s where I felt comfortable, and that’s where I enjoyed being either with my friends or by myself. And then as I grew up, paddling around and catching fish in the shallows turned into being in the deeper water. And playing beach volleyball as a teenager, and drinking beer on the beach and then (laughing)… I grew out of that quickly… and then I did start hanging out with a couple of spear fishermen and they introduced me to freediving when I was twenty-four.

And did you start trying to hold your breath longer each time, for fun?

No, no more than any other child on the face of the Earth ever tries to do, or does, for that matter. Yeah, I didn’t try to hold my breath until well into training for world records. And honestly, I was never very good at it. By the standards of most freedivers. Or certainly comparing my ability to dive deep, my ability to hold my breath was pretty poor. In fact, I think it wasn’t until after I’d broken a couple of records that I could hold my breath for as long as the dive took – which is floating on the surface of the water. Because to me, A) it’s nowhere near as much fun, and B) if I am two or three hundred feet down I can find a way to make it back to the surface. But if air is about two inches away then I’m afraid, (laughing), I’ve got as much willpower as everybody else.

(Ed. note: Competitive breath holding is performed immediately below the surface of the water, it is not performed at further depths).

Oh, Okay. And what was it that first got you interested in free diving if it wasn’t for breaking records?

Yeah, to be quite honest, it wasn’t for breaking records. But that was something that made it, in the beginning, pay for itself. It was really just this idea, I wanted to see if I could do something I didn’t think I could do. And I was young enough to be naive about the idea of trying something that is supposed to be impossible, but I was old enough to feel that I was at a place in my life where I really kind of needed to know who I was and what I was made of. I think I was finding my feet and my place in the world. And it was one of those things that came along at the right time and it just happened to be in the ocean, and for me, you know, I have a lifetime of comfort and peace and security in the ocean. So for someone to come along and say, “Hey, why don’t you challenge yourself as much as you possible can, and do it in the ocean?”, it was a good fit. And a lot of that is retrospective. But it’s pretty clear to me know what it was about.

And is there an element of being connected to nature too with the fish and the different types of marine life?

Yeah. I think that again I can tell that retrospectively. At the time it was much more about… you know, subconsciously I was aware of the fact that I was the strongest person I’ll ever be in that environment. I mean, I’m a shy person, or certainly was a shy person, on land. But felt that I could do whatever I wanted to do in the sea. And I was also quite fascinated by my own ability. I mean I never set foot in a gym until I started training. And there’s a lot of land-based training. And I absolutely detest it. So, the idea that I would work my tail off in the gym for five days, and then be able on the sixth day, on a Saturday, to get on a boat where I love to be, to be out on the water where I love to be, and to dive down a rope and find that I could go ten feet deeper than I could the week before. I mean, I was just enthralled and as fascinated as anybody else. And I felt like that hard work that I’d put in in the gym, that I detested so much… I felt that I deserved to be able to dive ten feet deeper. I was just starting to figure out this equation that hard work equals results. And, I got to see it in real time. I got to experience it in an environment that fascinated and empowered me. As such, I went on that journey of self discoverment and self empowerment that I realised I was looking for.

Okay, awesome! Relevant to that I had watched a video where you said the whole thing ignited you. And even when you were doing training you were totally fired up for it, as much as the serious dives themselves…

Yeah. I mean, more so actually that the record dives. By the time it ever got around to doing the record, typically I had attempted and achieved the record depth in training. And for me, knowing that I wasn’t ever doing it for the record, you know, that was when we celebrated as a team. That was when we really were like, “Cool guys! We did it!”. As opposed to, “Yeah, I beat so and so else”. That came sort of ‘needs must’. The necessary evil of it for me. And yeah, you’ve obviously read my remarks about feeling like I was on fire with my own strength. Mostly I mean mental strength because I’m the laziest person and self-conscious, and all the rest of it. I’m a very typical island girl (laughing), in that regard. I… not that all island people are self conscious… but, ah, so to find this thing that I would, you know, go to bed after each training dive and go, “Wow, I can’t believe I did that”, you know, pretty good. And likewise two or three days after doing a world record and being on the plane and flying back home and looking back down at the sea as I would leave… I would wonder who it was, who was that person that did that. I knew that it was possible because I’d beaten other people by you know, whatever, five, ten, twenty, thirty feet whatever, so I knew that it was possible, but I just didn’t think that it was possible for me to do it. So, maybe that’s why I keep going back to that reassertion of my own strength. I became somewhat obsessed with the idea of exploring myself through pushing myself. You know, I use the analogy of travelling to the absolute edge of myself, so that I could look back and accept, or maybe even applaud what I saw. But you know, I did that at the bottom of the rope, (laughing), nobody ever would have seen that. That was very much a moment that I would grab in peace. When I was at the bottom of the rope and when falling asleep that night.

Cool! And in terms of actually improving as a freediver are you constantly working on your breathing techniques or is it more technical, or entirely mental?

Well, you know, I don’t do any of it anymore because I retired in 2006. But yes, it’s a constant process of training, like any sport. You know, you’ve got to maintain your physical strength. You’ve got to maintain your cardiovascular strength. You’ve got to maintain your lung capacity and thoracic flexibility. And above all, above all, you’ve got to maintain your mental strength. Because freediving is ninety percent, maybe more, mental. Because the reality of it is our physiological blueprint absolutely allows for us to do it. But our mind, you know, is there as a protection device. And you either, you’ve probably heard me say, you either make your mind a weapon or your weakness. But it’s just a very tough decision to make when you’re alone, you know, halfway down a rope and you’ve got a voice in one ear saying that you didn’t sleep well enough, or you didn’t eat well enough, you didn’t train hard enough, and a voice in the other ear saying, “Keep trying, keep trying, keep trying”. But for me, I don’t know how, but that voice was always the loudest. And you know, sometimes to my detriment. In terms of… again retrospectively, I know that there are times when I pushed too hard. But I had a great safety team around me. None of which I ever had to utilise. But they gave me the confidence to allow myself to explore that whatever thirty percent more that we have physiologically, but that our brain typically doesn’t allow ourselves to explore. And you know, in talking about my safety team, I was much more in awe and fascinated by what they could do, rather than what I could do. Because I had this solid belief that I could only do what God gave me the capability to do. What they had to do was to learn so much stuff and remember it and rely on equipment. And I mean, heaven help me, because I am terrible scuba diver. It’s just, I don’t want to lug the stuff around, or wash it off afterwards, or have to think about how it all works, but these are technical divers who are really pushing the limits of humans and equipment’s capabilities. So, those people, and the professionalism of them, they are the ones who gave me the run to explore my personal human potential.

Okay! Cool. And do you enjoy that process of being totally focused within your mind as you descend and come back up on the rope? Or are you always aware of what stage you are at in terms of the dive?

Yeah, I don’t ever lose myself. That’s a personal thing. I think these days if you spoke to top freedivers, they would say that the concentration becomes meditative. So, yes in a way we are in a meditative state but it is still utter focus. And I don’t really know that much about meditation, but I would imagine that it’s not unlike what I go through on the rope. Because I have so little to think about but it’s the only thing I can afford to think about. You just can’t let your mind shift and wonder what you’re going to have for dinner, or whether you left the stove on, you know, you really have to focus. ‘Do you enjoy it’, is a tough question. There are moments on shallower dives, or easier dives, even just now thinking of the sound climbing down a rope makes me happy, makes me excited, but the reality of it is that when you start pushing to or beyond your personal limits, let alone what are human limits may be, it’s hard. Typically in the moment we don’t really enjoy the really really hard things, you know? It’s hard. And then afterwards you say, “Ah, I enjoyed that”, whether… you know, for me, because I knew that little bit more about myself.

And, some years ago, I read the great interview with you in The Telegraph, by Charles Starmer-Smith*. I was wondering if you use those same techniques that you taught him to use, such as thinking about walking around your house (when you are under water managing your breathing)…

Yeah, I can’t remember… Charlie… other than the fact that he did really well. And his wife who came out, she was absolutely terrified of swimming, wouldn’t even get in the water, absolutely terrified. And, you know, I don’t know how I convinced her, probably with my spiel about exploring yourself, I expect. And then by the end of the afternoon in the water she wasn’t even holding my hand, diving up and down. It was those moments that… you know, my husband said that he was moved by it, and everybody was just blown away by it… So, I think that they both utilised breathing and focus. I have a feeling that Charlie, because he held his breath for over four minutes, yeah I think that he probably did use the mind-employing techniques of walking around your house or singing a song. For me, those are because I am cursed with the ability to remember the words of a song the moment I hear them. And also because I was so homesick when I travelled. I just wanted to be in my own house and I missed it. It gave me a sense of peace to mentally walk around my house, or water my plants outside or something like that. Because you can’t think about stressful or personal things, it just speeds your heart rate up.

*(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/8112211/Free-diving-with-Tanya-Streeter-The-Big-Blue-experience.html).

So you just have to maintain being relaxed so you don’t freak out?

Yeah. And some of the best freedives that I’ve done were ones where I would fall asleep for the first two or three minutes because I just became so relaxed. And what would wake me up would be getting a little too relaxed and letting a little bit of air out and I would be jolted back to reality. Or alternatively when I was hungover. That’s the second drinking reference I’ve made, which is going to make me sound like a real lush, but it’s true (laughing).

(Laughing). Is diving a good hangover cure?

I don’t know about that (laughing). I would not endorse diving on a hangover. Freediving, or holding your breath in the pool afterwards, with all the safety around you, when you’re hungover because you’re so tired… there’s a few other freedivers out there who would agree with me that they have done some pretty good performances…

And in regard to your really deep dives, where it becomes very painful, does that pain last when you get back to the surface?

No, I mean, the second you turn around and start heading up the pressure decreases so the pain is gone. That’s reference to any pain that I’ve felt. There are certainly other divers who’ve had more serious injuries or ruptured eardrums or severe barotraumas or things like that. Then I can’t speak for that pain. I was very fortunate enough to never have burst an eardrum. But I did push my eardrums pretty hard, and I said that it felt like hot pokers being stuck in your ears and it does. But the second that you either manage to equalize, or that you turn around and start heading back up again, that pressure starts to be relieved. Your eardrums might be a bit bruised but it’s not the same pain thing that it was at the bottom.

Once you’re back at the surface you’re feeling pretty normal again?

Yeah! Completely normal. The deepest, the no-limit dives, I mean you’re not even out of breath. Because it’s a three-and-a-half minute breath hold or so. Which… I can hold my breath for six-and-a-half minutes. So three-and-a-half is not a long breath hold. And you’re not physically exerting yourself on a no-limit dive. (Ed. note: no-limit dives are controlled by a heavy weight pulling the diver down, as opposed to physically swimming down). So you’re not actually burning very much oxygen and building up CO2 in your system. So there’s no gasping for air after a no-limits record. The other records that involve physical exertion, there is definitely gasping for air after, you know, pushing hard. Because you’ve burned oxygen, but more importantly you’ve put a lot of carbon dioxide into your system. It’s the gas that gives you the need to breath.

Oh, okay. I didn’t realise.. I thought it was a test of time…

No. There’s different disciplines… sorry to interrupt you… the disciplines are for depth in the ocean, for distance in a swimming pool, and none of those have any bearing on time. Doesn’t matter how long or short it takes you to do those dives. It’s about the distance or the depth. The only time related discipline is static apnea. And that’s in a pool. And you have to do it at the surface. And that’s only about time. And as I say, back when I did six-and-a-half minutes, it was equal to.. I equaled the world record time, but I didn’t attempt it officially, so… and also it was like the hardest thing I’d ever done, so I knew I was never going to be able to… I just had no interest in competing in that discipline. These days, the men’s static apnea record is over eleven minutes, and the women’s I think is eight-and-a-half or nine, and that’s insane. And to be clear, that’s breathing air, that’s not pure oxygen.

And in regards to your own competitive career, it seems you had success right from the get-go, winning your first world record, and then going on to win nine more. Is that right?

Yeah, yeah. I won in the pool. Because I hate the pool. That was a distance record, that I had no idea I was even going to try. But it was one of those things in a heat of the world championships that I thought, “Oh, I’ll just see how far I can go, I’ve nothing to lose”. And I think I held that record for about fifteen minutes (laughing). But hey! I did break a record, so… that was number ten. And yeah, it was all relatively quick. But, you know, that’s not unnatural. Again, as I say, it’s our human potential that allows us to do it. The only thing that was different for me at that time, and perhaps remains different, I don’t know, is that I wasn’t ever interested in simply breaking someones record by the required one or two meters. If I was going to do all that hard work, and put my safety team through so much I felt like I owed it to them to do the best that I could. So, in every instance that I could, it was several meters. I think with the no-limits, the women’s, I think it was at one-thirty-something and I put it at one-sixty… So, you know, I really was interested in doing the best that I could, and with any luck that would be beyond the current world record. So, you know, that’s what I did.

It’s kind of like competing against yourself in a lot of ways…

It is! Absolutely that. I mean especially when you are going down the line by yourself. I mean it is competing against yourself, because it’s your own voices in your head. It’s nobody else. And I think… it’s safe to say, the record that was the hardest for me to get motivated, to train and to do, was the one when I was breaking my own record. It was a constant weight record that I won with sixty-seven meters and then put it at seventy or something. I mean, I just didn’t really care enough, but I did it anyway.

And are you a fan of the movie The Big Blue? Do you think it’s a fair representation of the sport?

Emmm, you know, I saw that film when I was seventeen or eighteen, on a French exchange, in Marseilles. When my French was terrible, and it was in French. I never heard of freediving at the time, but I thought it was cool and I thought that the lead actor, Jean-Marc Barr, was pretty hot. And I don’t ever really remember being enthralled beyond that. I mean, the imagery is great. I thought Rosanna Arquette was just annoying. And then I saw it in English and it’s a different cut, the Americans have to have their happy ending. And the director’s cut is a bit more mysterious and deep and it just altogether makes it a better film. But that was all I thought about it. And then once you start freediving, and every time you enter a competition or see yourself on television, there is the music to The Big Blue going on in the background (laughing). I’ve even done competitions where the soundtrack of the film is piped underwater and it makes you want to shoot yourself. So, no, what I mean… what it captured was you know, rivalry, which amongst the men, that was prevalent. Whether it be among Jacques Mayol or Enzo Molinari (characters in The Big Blue), or between Umberto and Pipin (Ed. note: Umberto Pelizzari and Francisco ‘Pipin’ Ferreras are considered two of the best freedivers of all time), the rivalry was very much there. And I unwittingly got sucked into that with the men. Until there were more women. I mean I didn’t have that. I was on the other side of the planet. I wasn’t aware of the upset that I had caused, coming onto the scene the way that I had. And then the passion, there is a lot of passion in that film, passion for the deep, passion for the sensations that you have being all, “It’s better down there”, and “Push me back into the water, Jacques”, all that stuff. It is accurate. We are very passionate about the ocean and being underwater, because it’s such a unique experience.

I also like your quote that says, “I prove myself to myself by travelling to the absolute edge of myself”. It relates to another guy I interviewed recently, Timmy O’Neill, who does mountaineering, freeclimbing, in Patagonia. He said that when he is on the edge of those rocks and being so far away from everything that if anything were to happen he could not be saved. And I asked him why he does it, and he said because that is when he feels most alive. I wondered if you had similar feelings about freediving, that pushing yourself to your limits is when you feel most alive too?

You know, there’s a striking difference. I have… there’s just nothing that could happen to me underwater. I have the team around me that, baring something physiological that we don’t know or we didn’t know… even if I found myself stuck, as I once thought I was, my safety team were right there to recover me if I needed it. So, that’s a big difference. I do feel at the edge of myself, I’ve said it many times. I don’t know if I could say that it makes me feel alive. As I said, I stand strong in my belief that it was more about making me feel empowered. As a young woman I needed that. And I didn’t go beating my chest about it when I got back to the surface. It was just enough to know. And that was what I needed and that was why I did it. He’s crazy! (laughing). But that’s bad-ass. I can’t handle being two feet off, at the climbing wall with my daughter. You know, I have a huge amount of respect for them. And that strength to weight ratio and that commitment and everything else. But you know, as somebody who prioritizes safety over everything else in my career, for me there is always a bit of a disconnect if you do something where there’s such a strong… the possibility exists that if something goes wrong you are going to really suffer. Because, I guess, there are people who love you on this planet and that’s a pretty tough thing to put them through. And the one time I say I had a moment where I thought that I was stuck, even though I knew all my safety team was there, I pictured a rescue that was going to be very hard for everybody to witness. My immediate thought, the thought that woke me and made me think straight and get myself out of there was that it was going to be terribly sad for the people on the surface. And so, yeah, for me, I’m not a risk taker, so there is a disconnect for me. There is miles of difference between what I do and what he does.

Sure, got it. I was wondering too in reference to having the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other do you ever think that those positions might actually be reversed. That the angel might be the one saying to turn back and the devil is the one pushing towards or past your limits?

No. Because, you know, remember my motivation was to discover myself. So that would be like arguing with my motivation. That negativity… I’m somebody that lives with negative suggestion. Specially the way that I’m worried about myself. For me to believe that it was the angel that was trying to stop me the whole time would mean it would never have let me step foot in the water in the first place.

Okay. Another quote I like is one from your fellow freediver William Trubridge who says that freediving is “like being a speck of consciousness floating into the abyss”. And then you also say that “we don’t dive to look around, we dive to look within”. It seems to be a theme of all freedivers that they are introspective…

It is. I was quoting Umberto Pelizzari, “freedivers dive within ourselves, where as scuba divers look around them”, but again, because of the theme of my career and my reasons and motivations for ever doing it, it is very very introspective. William is wired very differently to me, as an athlete. And he is very poetic.. “a speck of consciousness”… if somebody could explain that to me I might agree (laughing). You know, the reality of it is for me, that before I’m a freediver I’m an athlete. So I look at what I have to do. I’m not a yogi, I’m not a meditator. I’m a practical… how’s it done, how do I do it, what do I have to do to be able to do it. And so, I second guess the idea of changing your world or your consciousness to be able to do it or anything like that. As the primary thing to do. I mean, that certainly happens as the secondary response to my focus. But, I think of myself as a bit more of a machine approach to it and everything else is kind of a symptom of that…

That’s really interesting because, sorry to interrupt you, I recently interviewed Amyr Klink who’s a Brasilian sailor, who sails around the world, going from Antarctica to the Arctic a few times… He said almost the exact same thing that it is not about the thrill or the consciousness, it’s entirely methodical, doing things the right way and most efficient way to achieve the end goal…

Yeah, that’s somebody I could have a conversation with, (laughing), ‘cause I get him. For me, it was what I have to do to be safe, and to get this done. I didn’t, you know, sort of sit on a rocky outcrop somewhere and envision the lights or anything like that. I mean, I just did what I had to do to do it. And again, that was just wheels in motion for my goal of self discovery and self exploration.

And when you are doing it more recreationally instead of professionally, do you have moments of things being profound, or encounters with animals or things like that? Or even the effects of the light through the water?

Yeah! I mean, those are the moments when it is back to my relationship with the team. As a little girl before I went to boarding school, or in the hour before I was meant to be on the plane, much to my mother’s dismay I would be underwater with just my mask, lying on the bottom and just listening to the sea and promising I would be back. And, you know, those sort of moments that I have… as a teenager just being on the water, just hearing it, just feeling it… interactions with animals, I mean a lot of those are televised, I’ve made lots of films and you know, that’s slightly different because it’s work and you’re thinking about cameras and angles and things like that. But when interactions for me have happened more organically and without the cameras, it’s all about the sea. It’s all about those gifts, and because I’ve had such a strong sense of protection from the ocean I’ve always felt like I can relax and just really take it all in. So, yeah, they are very moving moments and those are very personal moments for me. And light is a big deal. It’s interesting that you said that. I mean, light, even as a child, was something I was always very aware of just how magical it is underwater. And then, you know, how there is absolutely no light at four hundred feet under water. It’s a different animal altogether.

Yeah, I was wondering that you go down so deep and then when you are coming up, when we see the photos of the light through the water it looks sort of divine…

Yeah, it’s more like… again from a practical standpoint, going down and coming back, that’s how I could tell what depth I was at. Now I have a mask on so I can’t really gauge anything like that. I have divers tapping at different depths to tell me, but the light is very very telling. And then the darkness, it depends where you are diving. I’ve been in lakes where it is dark, pitch black after four meters. But then in the ocean, you’ve got to go as deep as four hundred feet before it’s pitch black. The fact that it is so different everywhere, it’s magical.

And now these days as well you’re involved with ocean preservation and environmentalism quite a lot too?

Yeah. I appreciate you asking about it. I had this great career, more importantly I learned what I needed to know about myself in that environment, and I did make a promise every time, as ridiculously trite as it sounds. You know, my conversation with the sea every time. About protection… as a freediver I was a patron of different organisations, or sat on various boards and things like that… spokesperson… it was always very very rewarding and made me feel like I was fulfilling my promise. And my work now with the Plastic Oceans Foundation is what makes me feel like I have come full circle. Because, again, much like my freediving career happening at a time in my life when I needed it the most, being a patron for Plastic Oceans has come at a time when it needs the most… Because I have a child, because I’m mature enough to really have a grip that what we put in, on and around our bodies, is permanent. For us, and is permanent for the planet.

Is the whole focus of that foundation to raise awareness of all types of trash that goes into the ocean or about plastic consumption, or…

Plastic in particular, because it is permanent. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made on this planet remains on this planet, and that’s shocking. And because by it’s nature it is toxic, and so once it enters the environment, be it on water or be it on land, it’s leaking toxins. And in the ocean it attracts toxins, and then enters the food chain… and I eat a lot less seafood that I used to for example, and I’m certainly very picky about it. It’s been a real eye-opener for me. I’ve been involved in a film shoot for the foundation. The film will be out end of this year or beginning of next. And every time I’ve come back from a shoot for that film I’ve changed something in my kitchen, in my lifestyle, in my daughter’s diet, in my diet. My husband, although he is not as good a listener as everybody else, (laughing)… I do care about him, but he doesn’t listen. Or he thinks he’s too far gone (laughing). Be he does recycle, like a demon, I’d beat him up about that otherwise… But yeah, I mean, my platform has been provided by my freediving. As much as I used to wonder how I was able to do those records, as much, if not more, I would wonder what the hell the point of it was. Especially when people would lose their life, or critically injure themselves in an effort to go beyond the depths I had gone. I had a very very hard time, and I still have a hard time reconciling my achievements with those accidents. But, at least now I have the answers as to why I did it. And I did it because it is effecting change. And it will contribute to the conversation that needs to be had about plastic. I have a very profound believe, that people are moved when they go to a beach and they see that it’s littered and they see the plastic, they don’t like that. They think to themselves that it’s kind of yucky and either “I’m going to pick it up”, or “I don’t want to come to this beach again”. And then on another level when they see animal entanglement it strikes empathy. And most people will think, “Oh Gosh, that’s really bad, I’m going to be more careful about how I dispose of this, that and the other”. But what science is uncovering now and what the film is going to be showing is the true human health impact of plastic. And yes people empathise with animals and they see littered beaches. But it’s only when they learn that the plastic bag that they get from the store, or the water bottle that they use, or the straw that they really don’t need is damaging the environment. It is poisoning them and it is poisoning their children. Those links have been made. And I think that human health issue is going to be the one that makes the biggest change to the way people make choices about what plastics they use, whether they really need them and then how they dispose of them. And then, ultimately, most importantly, what do we do with them once they are disposed and what is the true value of plastic as a waste to energy source, and all the rest of it. It’s a huge issue but it’s a no-brainer. So obviously, as you can tell, I am unbelievably passionate about it. And I feel like I am finally getting to be able to pay my debt to the ocean by being this passionate about throwing myself at this cause as much as I want to.

That’s awesome. I was actually going to ask you if you had any life lessons or epiphanies as a freediver, but I guess all of that has led to what you are doing now.

Yeah. I mean, it’s all about it. And it’s ongoing. The science never stops. My child never stops growing. I want to have more kids. You know what is really shocking… there is a study that shows that once the toxins are in our body, we have no way of offloading them. We don’t excrete them. We can’t get rid of them. But women can reduce the amount of toxicity they have in their body, and the way that that’s done is through childbirth. We offload the toxins onto the fetus. And that’s just absolutely dreadful. That should scare the living hell out of everybody. That’s dooming your child before it’s even born. It really really really needs to change… the level of toxicity that is the environment issue of plastic.

Sure. That’s shocking. And is any of that related to the skin care company you are involved with too?

Oh, ah, how nice of you to ask! No. Yes. Well, that’s not really true. Yes, it is. And mainly because… again in getting pregnant with my daughter, which was before Plastic Oceans, that was probably the turning point for me. Because, I had a hard time getting pregnant, so I really was forced to look at everything. You know, health, everything. And that’s when I started to realise you’ve got to watch what you put in your body, what you put on your body. It affects everything. And so, that’s when I became really focused on it. And the skin care company (http://www.tanyas.lbri.com), the products that I represent and sell are all natural and aloe vera based. And I did a lot of research even before I used any of the products, not just into the ingredients, but also into the company’s philosophy on recycling and things like that. It was only when they checked all my boxes that I was prepared to use it, and then when I fell in love with it, I decided okay I’m going to tell everybody about this. And it’s one of those really weird things, that even as I tell you about it I feel a little cheesy, I feel a bit of a sell out. I’m telling you about a product I sell. But it’s no different to… in fact it’s a bit more honest than that real sort of endorsement contract where a company comes to you and says, “Hey, we like what you’ve done. Do you like our X… our energy drink or our jewellery or our watch or whatever”. And then you go, “Well, how much money do you have for me to say that I do?”, (laughing). Where as, in this instance, this is a case of me, I had to be able to physically invest in it, to tick all my boxes and say, “You’ve got to use this, it’s awesome!”. But you know, everybody in my family… I feel comfortable putting it on my child, and again she is a little tiny person, with a higher rate of bioaccumulation and so it’s really important to me that what goes on her skin and in her body isn’t going to harm her. And, as I said, I want to have more kids, so that’s the same for me, and my unborn, as yet unconcieved, child.

That’s awesome that there’s a lot of honesty and integrity behind it, as opposed to, like you said, other types of endorsements…

Oh, you know, I think… hey listen… my relationship with Tag Heuer, which I don’t have beyond a friendship at the moment, was very legitimate. Oddly, ironically, the first watch I ever wanted was a Tag, and I had to wait until I dived to the bottom of the bloody ocean before I got one (laughing). Because my mum couldn’t afford one for me. And I’m wearing one now. That was legit. But other contracts come along where it suits you, it’s a good brand association and it works. The passion might not be there legitimately, but it’ll grow out of… you know. A company, especially with the sport of freediving, a company comes along and says, “We believe in what you’re doing”, that’s pretty nice. Now, I have turned down endorsement contracts because I just think they contradict what I stand for. And you know, personal beliefs and things like that. But yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things. And again, I’m not a huge celebrity. Big celebrities get thrown stuff all the time and the temptation to ‘sell out’ is there a lot more frequently than it is for me. So that’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s funny, one of the things that’s stuck with me is my mum being interviewed some years ago and her saying that one of the things she is most proud of me for is that I have remained true to who I am. And yeah, that means a lot. And I think that I have. So yeah, feels good.

Just one final question… you know the classic image of a freediver sitting on some rocks at the ocean’s edge looking out over the water… what’s going through their heads? They all look like they have the same things on their mind.

(Laughing), “Hurry up and take the bloody picture”? No, I don’t know. Look, for me… we all pose for that picture because it’s what everybody wants. Have I, without the camera there, stretched and done my breathing? Absolutely. I’m more likely to… if I could actually be on the water I would be there. I don’t know. I can’t speak for anybody else. For me, when I wasn’t having my picture taken, it was my conversation with the sea, my relationship, my comforts… eh… yeah, that!

Okay, cool! That was really great chatting with you. Thanks a million for taking the time, it was really interesting. It went on a lot longer than I anticipated, which is always good.

They don’t call me ‘Tanya the Talker’ for nothing. And I have to tell you Ross, I am a bit cagey about doing interviews these days about freediving because it is not what I do. I think there are much more relevant people to talk to these days. But for me, the opportunity to talk about Plastic Oceans always exists. If you weren’t going to bring it up I was (laughing). But also, you’re really good. I’ve done a lot of interviews with people who ask me, “How high is the platform you jump off”, and I say, “Why don’t you do your research and then maybe I’ll talk to you again”, (laughing) because that just pissed me off. I really appreciate the fact that not only have you done your research but that you really genuinely seemed interested, which is more than I can say for a lot of journalists that I’ve had to interview with. And they’re paid! (laughing). So…

That’s really awesome. Thank you for the compliment!

Do you write?

Yeah I write a little bit, some fiction, I’m working on a novel and then also started this interviews site as a labor of love. It began from curiosities about Space and I wrote to a couple of guys from NASA. And those types of scientists absolutely LOVE to talk about their work with anyone who is interested. And for me it was fascinating.

Yeah!

And it kind of went from there. There were people throughout my life who I admired and wanted to talk to… I’m always kind of thinking about different things really! I really enjoy doing it.

Yeah! Your genuine passion and your interest shows through by the nature of your questions and that sort of thing. I’ve got a girlfriend who’s one of my really close friends, who was selected as one of the 2013 ‘Astronauts in Training’, and we’ve recently, because of her selection, this house has become a little bit obsessed with all things astronaut and Space… so I’m kind of right there with you on that! Another crazy crazy admiration I have. Because she is also the smartest most beautiful most hilarious person on the face of the Earth. So occasionally I want to kill her, but mostly I am in awe of her.

That’s awesome.

Well, thank you. I’m going to go and get my daughter from school now!

Okay. Thanks a million Tanya.

Thanks Ross. Bye.

For more on Tanya you can follow her:

On Facebook: Tanya Streeter

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/TanyaStreeter

Skin Care: http://www.tanyas.lbri.com

Plastic Oceans: http://www.plasticoceans.net/





Personally I really enjoyed the following interview with her too:

