XSport Profiles
Natalia Avseenko is an experienced Russian diver with a passion for the white Beluga whales that live in the frigid Arctic Ocean. Called white dolphins, they have always attracted researchers in their facial expressions very similar to those of man.
They are a species that does not like physical contact with any synthetic material therefore Natalia decided to dive naked in the waters to -1.5 ° Arctic to attempt an exceptional contact with them. But diving with the whales is not accessible to everyone, the average human could die if left in sub-zero temperatures for just five minutes. Using her skills as a diver and yoga breathing techniques she was able to stay under the water at Murmansk in Russia for an unbelievable ten minutes and forty seconds.
The gamble paid off with the whales frolicking with Natalia and responding with their famously distinctive range of facial expressions. "My Polar Circle story was a spiritual one... I tried to see how my concepts of the open mind and heart of inner-smile work in extreme conditions. How can they help people in their everyday lives... as we can see now they really work - I had a great experience at the White Sea. We wanted to see what would be the reaction of Beluga Whales to a human being who is vulnerable in front of the Nature and the society (one of the reasons I was naked)."
2 Questions for Natalia
You defy science by diving without a wetsuit in freezing water temperatures. Is this mind over matter, or you do you have a unique physiology?
That was the mind thing... I tried to underline that I'm not unique at all. I'm a regular person from the cold conditions point of view. I haven't been to the cold Russian winter for 7 years and I started to dislike cold weather... Swimming in freezing polar waters I wanted to show that everybody can do it if one opens his/her mind, opens the heart and make an inner-smile.. Have you ever seen an image of Buggah with a serious face?
What motivates you to endure extreme cold and discomfort to dive with whales?
Believe that everything is going to be just fine, the idea that I can do it, my scientific curiousity to the Beluga behavior patterns motivated me really a lot... Also I wanted to see if I could keep smiling with my heart in the conditions which are quite tough for doing that...