Underwater Stuntwoman Liz Parkinson Talks of Her Work on the "Avatar" Sequels & the World's Deepest DIY Submarine

SPEAKER_00 0:03

The Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto, Finnish Engineering Pioneering Adventure from Mountaintop to Ocean Floor since 1936. Sunto. Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guides to everything that is happening around the world underwater. My name is Stephen Whelan. I'm the founder of DeeperBlue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week, the Deeper Blue Podcast covers everything that's happening in the scuba diving, freediving, diving travel, and ocean advocates world. So join us as we explore the Deeper Blue. Hi everyone, welcome to episode 22 of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Coming up today in this episode, we've got all the latest news in the last week from around the world underwater. Then co-host Sarah Richards talks to Liz Parkinson, the free diver, environmentalist, and underwater stunt woman whose credits include some of the upcoming avatar films. She talks about the films as well as two incredible experiences she's had while diving. Then we hear from Patty Exec Mark Caney as he shares the top tip about how to dive with whale sharks. And then finally, we hear from Harvey Villerica on his best dive ever. Right, without further ado, let's dive straight into this week's diving and ocean news. If you've ever had a hankering to dive to the depths in a submarine like some sort of modern Jules Verne character, then that's exactly what Hank Pronk from Canada has done. He's built the world's deepest-rated homemade submarine. His achievement comes after four decades of DIY submarine building, with the latest being his eighth effort. With his latest work named the Elementary 3000 or E3000 for short, Hank decides to take things a little further. He pushed the boundaries of homemade design with a submarine rate to 3,000 feet, that's 914 meters. Well, it wouldn't let you dive to the Titanic. You could dive to its sister ship, the Britannic, at 400 feet or 122 meters, or even pitch yourself as the next deep explorer for a series like Blue Planet. The depth rating is not just a theoretical calculation though. Instead, the submarine was pressure tested in a chamber in Vancouver to a depth of 2,900 feet, that's 883 meters. So far, Hank has not said how deep he plans to dive in the E3000s. There's a great behind-the-scenes video about the making of the submarine. You can check that out on the news post on deeperblue.com. A couple of fab freediver records this week. First up, we have Slovenian freediver Olenka Artnik, who sets a new Ada International Women's World Record in the constant weight discipline with an epic 114 meter that's 374-foot dive on the 7th of November off the coast of Shamel Sheikh in Egypt. Constant weight, for those that don't know, is a discipline in freediving where the freediver dives to depth using fins, or as in the case for Elenka, a monofin, and typically dives with a small amount of weight on the weight belt for buoyancy control. Unlike some of the other disciplines in freediving, the diver keeps the weight on them the whole dive, and that's hence the name constant weight. The record significantly improved on the previous record of 107 metres, set by Italian freediver Alesia Ciccini back in 2018. We also heard that Greek freediver Aris Ionanidis set two CMass world records in the Masters Age Group at the Greek hall at Pioneer Championships. The masters category was introduced last year to recognise records completed by free divers over 50. Ionanodis did a six minutes 30.82 seconds breath hold in the static discipline and swam 150 metres, that's 492 feet, in the dynamic no-fins discipline during the Freediving Indoor Greek Championships open in Athens on October the 25th. Huge congrats to both on these epic records. The social feeds of those in the dive industry have been filled with pictures and posts from various Dima trade shows over the previous years in recent weeks. In fact, today, the day that I'm recording this, a post popped up with pictures from a party that we usually host and hold on the Friday night of the Dima show, something called the Breath Hold and Brew Party, where 400 plus people get together to celebrate the diving industry and do some networking at some funky brewery or cool venue. While I'm really missing out on spending time with friends and colleagues in the diving industry this year, I have to say my bank balance and liver are feeling a lot healthier. Anyway, as this episode comes out, we've got the new virtual Dima Show happening. This combines the Dima Show Online Education Series and the Dema Show Online Virtual Trade Show that come together for four days of exhibits, special sessions, exhibitor-sponsored education, matchmaking, the new product showcase, and so much more. Participants can sign up for the education series to gain access to the four-day trade show, a whole bunch of education sessions, along with exhibitor-sponsored education. These sessions will provide insight and ideas on what you can be doing in your business to update your operations and optimize the customer experience during these challenging times. If you're not able to make the scheduled times, not to worry, the sessions will be available on demand once the live sessions have ended, and you can go back and learn at your leisure throughout the end of the year. If you want to register and learn more, head to deeperblue.com. Finally, some news has popped up again this week around those vanity world records that seem to be all the rage in recent years. This time it's an Egyptian scuba diver who is believed to have set a new world record by remaining underwater for nearly six entire days. Saddam al-Kalani, who's 29, plunged into the Red Sea off the Dahab coast and remained underwater for 145 hours and 30 minutes, surpassing his own 2017 personal best of 121 hours, as well as the current record of 142 hours and 47 minutes. The current world record was set by Kem Karabay in Cyprus in 2016. Al Kalani had originally planned to remain underwater for 150 hours, but the attempt was ended at 145 hours and 30 minutes due to concerns about his health. Al Kalani, who had previously made headlines when he and his fiance, Pierre Lagora, held their engagement ceremony underwater in September, were supported in his world record attempt by a team of medical experts and fellow scuba divers. The video for the attempt and other documentation is being submitted to Guinness World Records for recognition as the world's longest scuba dive. To be honest, let's hope this validation by Guinness World Records causes a little less controversy than the recent issues around Ahmed Gabba deepest dive world record that was shrouded in controversy the last few months as a number of his support divers have come forward to call into question whether or not the record was valid. Hopefully, we can see a lot less of these vanity records coming up. They don't really do much to promote or advance the sport of diving. Hopefully, this will be the last one for a while, but who knows? That's it for the news this week. Remember, you can catch up on all the latest news and happenings around the world underwater, including lots of good news, which we all need at this time, by heading to deeferblue.com or by checking us out on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And finally, if you like what you've heard, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. Those comments and subscribes really do make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

You're listening to the world's only weekly podcast for scuba diving, free diving, dive travel, and ocean advocacy. I'm Kirk Kroc of Performance Free Diving International, and this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_09 8:39

Hi, this is Jason Elias, producer of the Deeper Blue Podcast. In today's interview, our co-host Sarah Richard, founder of Girls at Scuba, speaks with Liz Parkinson, the freediver, environmentalist, and underwater stunt woman, whose credits include some of the upcoming Avatar films. Liz speaks a little bit about her work on those films, what it's like to be a stunt woman underwater, and two incredible experiences she's had underwater, both scuba diving and freediving.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

So I want to know more about your role as a stunt woman on movies. And are there many stunt women that are doing breath hold or doing underwater scenes, or what is that kind of industry like?

SPEAKER_05 9:19

So yeah, that's a good question. I meet people every day who I don't know who are phenomenal water athletes and amazing stunt women. Having moved out to Los Angeles recently, the amount of talent there is just unbelievable. I think when it comes down to water, though, it is a little bit more specific. And there's a lot of super amazing women who do incredible things. One of the groups of women that actually are really good stunt women are the Cirque de Soleil people from Vegas because they do have good breath hole, but they also can dance, which is something that I'm not very good at. They can do the dancing bit. And one of the productions I recently did, there was a lot of underwater movement, and I definitely was not hired for that. I was hired for more the weapon handling and the fighting underwater. But even saying that, there is a small pool of people that do it. And stunt work underwater also falls under the parameters of perhaps the actor or the actress who you're doubling. Just to have a generic person in the background is fine, but I can't double someone who's shorter than me really, unless there's a lot of really good camera angles and stuff. So it's a whole process. And just being good at what you do doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get the job because you don't look like the person who you need to double. So there's a lot of that as well.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

So I heard recently about the second avatar, and I saw a picture of Kate Winslet, and it said that she had held her breath for over seven minutes. And then it kind of got me thinking, is some of that not complete breath hold, or is that complete breath hold? Is that something you need to have?

SPEAKER_05 10:44

The casting crew were put through a year of training for that film before it came out. And Kurt Crack from Performance Free Diving, he was the hit instructor that kind of trained the whole crew. But I will say, having worked with the cast of Avatar, they were amazing. I mean, they did legitimately Kate was phenomenal. So was Sigourney, Stephen Lang. She plays the bad guy. They were all amazing. They all did a really, really good job. I mean, Sigourney was in the work 12 hours a day doing her part. There's no lying, they did the training. I mean, obviously, they have world-class support and safety around them at all times. And that would have been a static breath hold that she did. Obviously, with free diving, people ask me again all the time, how long can I hold my breath? And it's a really hard question to answer because as you know, being a free diver, if you're moving around underwater, you're using up that valuable oxygen a lot quicker than if you're just lying on the surface trying to do like an extended breath hold. Um, and free diving is a dangerous sport. But we were there just to give a helping hand. And yeah, Kate was phenomenal. She's she's a really cool person, she's got a great personality, she's really funny. You know, it was really interesting. I spent a lot of time in the water with Sigourney, and one of the things that she said to me was being an actor is really great because we get to do all of these roles. But in doing the roles, we do learn new skills. And the thing about free diving is that you don't actually have to be in the water to be a good free diverthold. Breathing is such an important part of our lives, it's something we do all our life, and it's such a great way to start your day. It it doesn't just help you underwater, it helps all kinds of performance, just leading a better life.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

That's a great tip for uh most of us that are going back into lockdown this week. I want to take it back to you and to the core of this kind of passion and excitement. Is there one experience, one moment that really will stay with you forever?

SPEAKER_05 12:35

I can't say that there's one single moment in my underwater life that has triggered something. There's been a lot of moments. As well as that, you know, scuba diving and free diving are two different sports, and there's two moments that stick out. Scuba diving, I was on a shoot, and it was a night shoot. And I was in the Bahamas and I was doing a shark feed. It was pitch dark, and we were entering the water, jumping off the boat, going down underwater. We were swimming in amongst like sort of 30-50 sharks. So, you know, I had my chain mail on and went down to the bottom, and the cameraman jumped in and he had a strobe, so it lit up the whole area. Because obviously, you know, if for those of you who don't night dive, you know, when you go down underwater and you can't see anything, it's you just all you can sort of see is the silhouette outline of the reef because of the moonlight and the stars. But we had no moon, so it was legit dark. I'm down underwater, I'm standing there, the sharks are all swimming around, and it's cool because the different layers of the sharks with the shadows, the shadows make it look like there's more sharks than there actually is. I was just kind of hanging out waiting, and all of a sudden, like everything started to go sort of really dark. And I looked up, and the cameraman was sort of in his dome port was saying that there was a problem with the camera, just to give them like five minutes. And I'm also got like a crate full of bait because we're meant to be down in order for an hour during the shoot. So I'm standing underneath the water with all these sharks bumping into me, like they're bumping into my face, they're bumping into my arms, they're bumping into the box. I'm like, okay, this is fine, you know, I can breathe. I'm good. I'm just gonna like kind of hang out, sit on the box, wait for them to come back down. And it occurred to me that I was probably in the safest place in the world that I could ever be, ever. Being 40 feet underwater in the middle of the ocean with 40 sharks swimming around me. I mean, there's no other, there's no safer place in the world. And the coolest thing happened because it went really dark and it was like that for about five minutes, the phosphorescence in the water was insane. And as the sharks were swimming, their tails were, you know, through the water, and the light from the phosphorescence in the water was like sparkling. It was like the coolest light show that I've ever seen. And I was the only one that saw it, but it it was one of those moments where I was just like, wow, the power of the ocean is incredible. And it was just a five-minute experience of just this amazing light display with my favorite animal sparkling underwater. And then freediving, I was in Dominica, and I was with my friend Nadia Ali, who's part of Scuba Dive Life photographer. So I was in the water with them, and we'd gone out to see the sperm whale, and we're in 2,000 feet of water, and we hadn't really seen very much. And we came across a pod that had just come up, and the all the adults had gone back down, and there was they left one of the little babies. I say little, it was like 25 feet, it was huge. This little baby was floating on the surface and was literally just trying to figure us out and was watching us and followed me around for about 15 minutes myself and and a photographer on the trip. And I'm swimming underwater, I'm not deep, I'm 50 feet, and the little thing is following me and coming up. And when you're in 2,000 feet of water, it's black, it gets really dark really quick, and you kind of look down into the abyss, and I'm on the surface flopping around with this little baby, and he's like looking at me with his eyes huge, and it was so cool. And when mommy came back up, mommy came straight up, and mommy didn't have her mouth open, but she was on a purpose, and she was like, There's a couple people with my baby I'm not so sure about, and this machine came out of the water so close to us and kept on putting herself in between us and the baby, and the baby was trying to get underneath her to get back to us. Uh they're like these like essential spirits of just amazing ocean, and I'll never forget my my one interaction I've had with the sperm whale was was a pretty amazing one.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

The world underwater every week. Hi, this is Tanya Streeter, freediver and ocean lover, and you're listening to the best 30 minutes about freediving. The Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

So, hey everyone, the Deeper Blue Podcast is brought to you by Sunto, uh the dive computer manufacturer. SUNTO. Um so uh, you know, it it's really interesting, Jason. So uh I have been a Sunto diver as in product uh person loving Central products since I started. And uh one thing it's really interesting is they do stuff for everything from the kind of Will True Bridges of the world as the world things to me. Yeah, William True Bridge, world champion, 19 times uh free diving world champion record holder to Jason Ilias.

SPEAKER_09 17:45

Who floats on the surface of the water like a piece of flotsam. That's right, which is interesting to hear because honestly, we talked to a lot of people on this podcast who are super professionals, and I'm looking at a Sunto ad here on my other monitor right now, and they have all these super high-tech kind of things. And then actually, as we've mentioned before, my I've had a Sinto dive computer, and I remember the thing that I loved about it, uh, it was that how big and easy it was to read. Plus, it was in black, which was super cool, but it was super big and easy to read. So, from people like William Truebridge and Stephen Whelan, uh Grand Pooba of the Deeper Blue, who's a super expert in in all things. I mean, honestly, you have been a BBC News expert interviewed on BBC News for free diving, haven't you? You were so you're like an expert.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

I I have, but it's usually only when someone dies that I get pulled out. So uh nobody should wish me being on TV for anything.

SPEAKER_09 18:40

So it's bad news when Stephen Wheelie is mentioning you on the news. Absolutely, absolutely. But then it goes all the way to people like me who float along like a like a buoy on the top of the water, a buoy, a buoy on the top of the water. But the Sinto covers all of us. They have they have a product range that covers everyone, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

And they do colours other than black for those of you that are dispospose disposed. Who's disposed? What on earth am I saying? Dispose to other colours other than black. Yeah. Um, you know, although we all have the Jane Bonds complex, obviously, that we want to come out of the water dressed head to toe in black. Well, that's obviously the male fantasy is coming out, you know, all dressed in black. Yes. You know, looking very cool because obviously black is very slimming.

SPEAKER_09 19:25

Yeah, black is slimming, and that's why I wear it all the time. It's not just in the water. And to be honest with you, I look a lot like James Bond. Besides the body, the hair, the face, and the charisma, I'm a lot like James Bond already. So I don't I don't struggle there. I feel like I've kind of got that nail.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

You've got a note. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just make sure you wear a Sunto in black or other colors, and uh you will look like James, look and feel like James Bond. Sunto.

SPEAKER_09 20:01

Today's top tip comes from Patty Executive and leader of Project Aware, Mark Caney, as he relays to our co-host, Lyndon Wolbert.

SPEAKER_06 20:11

This is Mr. Mark Caney's top tip. Mark, do you have a top tip to share with our listeners today?

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Yes, I do. So if you're ever lucky enough to see a whale shark approaching you, stay very calm and still, but don't make a noise like plankton.

SPEAKER_06 20:32

Can you imitate a plankton noise for me?

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Yeah, here it comes. Ready? Got that?

SPEAKER_07 20:43

Brilliant. Thank you for that. Uh, it will spare many a diver or snorkeler.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

It could be very nasty. Fate worse than death.

SPEAKER_07 20:52

Darkness and probably rank odor.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Finally, every episode we share a story from you, the dive community, where we ask you to tell us about your best dive ever.

SPEAKER_09 21:07

Hi, this is Jason Elias, producer of the Deeper Blue Podcast. For today's best dive ever, I interviewed my friend Harvey in the backyard of our house after a socially distanced lunch. And of course, my two-year-old wanted to get in on the action. So you'll eventually hear my wife pulling him back inside as he kept trying to grab the microphone.

SPEAKER_08 21:28

I am Harvey Villarica. I live in Los Angeles. Uh, my best dive ever was at the Galapagos Islands, where I went to Darwin's Island and Darwin's Arch. We did three dives there. The first couple of dives, we were obviously looking for hammerhead sharks. On the third dive, we finally saw the school of hammerhead sharks that we've been trying to find. But it was also just this scary, crazy dive with insane drift and waves and current. And at one point, I had to like hold onto a rock in order to not get swept away into the deep. And but that was also the point at which the sharks arrived, and they were all around us, and it was magnificent. I've always wanted to see this that school of hammerhead sharks that I've heard so much about, and I'll I'll always remember it.

SPEAKER_09 22:24

And what meant so much to you about seeing those sharks?

SPEAKER_08 22:27

I just think that they're so beautiful in the way they are. They they're like these ancient creatures that have lived for thousands and thousands of years, and they're so different from anything else. And the way that they they school, I everywhere else you go diving, you see sharks that are usually solitary, and you'll just see one or two of them. But seeing them like dozens at a time, it was just I don't know, I just thought that was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

We'd love to hear your story about diving. So at the end of the show, you'll find out all the info you need to submit your best dive ever. Thanks for listening to the Deeperblue Podcast. Find out more on all the stories you've heard this week, plus connect to the world's largest online dive community at deeperblue.com. And if you like what you've heard, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. These comments and subscribes really make a difference. Before we go, I want to give a big shout out to Jason Elias, our producer. In case you didn't know, he has an amazing podcast about people who have a deep connection to our world's oceans. Connections strong enough that they've dedicated some part of their lives to being in or working on behalf of the water. Take a listen when you get a moment to Jason Show, the Big Deep Podcast. Every week, we want to hear your stories and share them with the world. So please record and send in your short story of your best dive ever. Keep it brief, no longer than two minutes, please. And in it, tell us your name and location, where you were on the dive, what happened that make it so great, and why it's meant so much to you. You can get that over to us at bestdive ever at deeper blue dot com. Or head to our website podcast.deeperblue dot com forward slash best dive ever. Join us again next week and explore much more of the deeper blue.