Indigenous Ability

You are amazing. That’s right, you. Of all the species on this planet you possess a rather remarkable ability that I wager that you take for granted.  Before we disassemble and then re-assemble this astounding legacy let’s revel in it. First, take a deep breath through your nose. Let it out. Second, take a deep breath through your mouth. Let it out. What you did in both of those instances is demonstrate an ability that no other land mammal possesses. One, your breathed ably and comfortably through both mouth and nose. Two, and this is remarkable and significant, but almost invisible in its import as we do this so readily every single day of our lives we take it for granted—you consciously chose to take a breath, hold it for your own determined duration and exhaled at will. Let’s leave our unusual anatomy that allows for our atypical mouth and/or nose breathing to another day and dig deeper into the conscious control of re...

[This article is best consumed in series with the prior offerings regarding Aquatic Tactics.] In the previous lesson we covered the science behind the essential need for pressure-equalization when working sub-surface and ran through a series of methods to accomplish this end that required a free hand, i.e., “The Pinch Series.” We closed that exploration with the following observation… “ how do we account for equalizations made by indigenous divers at depth who may have a fishing spear in one hand and a sea-harvesting basket in the other or a clutched surface-line? Let alone the horrible contingency of a sub-surface swim with hands shackled behind one’s back.” Without hands being free, how does one make the vital equalization? Turns out there are few hands-free methods used by indigenous divers that we can adopt for our own uses. We won’t go over the same anatomy lesson offered in the prior offering but wisdom dictates that if one is refreshed as to how we used contro...

[Note: This offering is best if preceded with the information presented in Indigenous Aquatic Ability: The “Bends ”] Continuing our theme of increased tactical ability on or beneath the waves let’s look to one of the most well-known of indigenous diving cultures, that of the Ama of Japan. The Ama diving culture has existed for over 2000 years and this longevity provides excellent utilitarian lessons for the modern student of aquatic tactics. The Ama are sea-harvesters, both above and below the waves. Below the waves the sea-floor is reaped for shellfish, sea slugs, octopus, sea urchins and seaweed. They also dive for Akoya-gai , a mother-of-pearl shell used for pearl cultivation. In the woodblock prints of Ukioy-e artists we see young women, nude to the waists, harvesting the sea. Flash-forward to the 21 st -cetury and we see that this is the exact same practice. The Ama divers [by tradition all women] young and old bare the upper-body and perform their amazing task ju...