The mental challenge of freediving

There’s a moment, just before going under, where everything stops. Your breathing slows, your body becomes still and your mind goes quiet. In freediving, this moment means everything.

For Mateusz Malina, one of the most important names in international freediving, there’s nothing mysterious about this state. “It’s not something that you can force to happen at the last minute. It’s the direct result of your preparation.” In other words, it all comes down to training: the result of years of repetition, of understanding the water and learning when not to interfere. 

His history with Orca began far before it was recorded. In 2009, when he was still a beginner, he was searching for a clear reference. He found it by observing people who were already redefining their limits. “If the best in the world were using this equipment to push their limits as far as humanly possible, it was the right choice for me.”

Fifteen years on, his initial decision has transformed into something more subtle that almost goes unnoticed: total confidence. The kind of confidence that isn’t built around big gestures, but rather the continuous repetition of smaller actions. 

Because, where freediving is concerned, every detail counts. A millimetre in how your suit fits, minimal water resistance or a slight pressure in your chest can mark the difference between flowing or fighting against your own movements. This is why less is more in freediving: “The best equipment is the kind you don’t have to think about.” And that’s where the new Orca Zen comes into play.

From the outside, it may seem like any other wetsuit. But in the water, the sensation proves otherwise. Mateusz sums it up in a nutshell: “When I put on my new Orca Zen, it honestly feels like I’m wearing a second skin.” And this idea, the idea of disappearing, isn’t all about hydrodynamics or lightness, but about eliminating any kind of distraction that brings you out of a mental state of flow. The suit doesn’t follow your movements - it becomes them. “I don’t feel like I’m wearing anything. I feel like I’ve become an entirely hydrodynamic being.”

In disciplines where every stroke and every glide count, friction becomes an invisible enemy. Reducing it means moving forward with less. But there’s another, less obvious dimension to it all: your sense of touch. Down in the depths, all kinds of small details can take on a larger dimension: a fold, water entry, slight pressure in the wrong places. It all becomes noise. And this noise competes with what really matters - listening to your body. 

“By reducing this external ‘noise’, the suit allows me to focus all my attention on my inner world and its signs.” This place of silence is exactly where the new Orca Zen makes a difference; in how it fits without creating water pockets, in how it becomes one with your movements without restricting them, in how its compression supports your body without being too tight. “It provides an ‘intelligent’ pressure. It doesn’t restrict you, it supports you.” 

Even during more sensitive moments like your breathing prior to immersion, the balance is clear. Your wetsuit should offer compression without interfering, allowing total expansion without creating tension.

“If I can breathe naturally, I can stay relaxed. And in freediving, relaxation is your most important safety tool.”

In the end, it all comes down to this: eliminating any doubt. Because when you’re in the depths, there’s no room for doubt about your equipment; that has to be completely out of the equation. “The most important characteristic in terms of safety that a wetsuit can offer is its ability to disappear.”

Perhaps this is why, when he talks about his future goals, Mateusz doesn’t mention precise figures. He doesn’t talk about metres or records, but about something much more difficult to measure: efficiency, fluidity and the feeling of gliding using less effort. “I want to see how far a human can glide.” 

The new Orca Zen isn’t the major feature of his journey. It’s rather, as he puts it, a silent companion. One that doesn’t push, fix, or interfere. It’s one that’s simply there for you, doing what it does so that everything else can cease to exist. 

And when this happens - when your equipment disappears, your body flows and your mind falls silent - is when freediving truly begins.