© Hedda Werres
G-SHOCK x Lena Kemna: Freediving in Berlengas
© Hedda Werres
Log 1 2021-2023: Preparation
"It has been around three years since I first wanted to go to Berlengas. I was surfing on a beach North of Peniche, sitting in the trunk of my car after a surf, looking out across the ocean. It was then that I saw something on the horizon, blurry but large. Larger than a boat for sure.
After consulting the maps, I found out about the archipelago called Berlengas. On clear days, you see their contours well on the horizon, on foggy days they vanish entirely. Strange how I had never heard about them, even after living around here for years already.
Over the course of the next year, I was gathering information about the protected marine reserve of Berlengas, asking people how to get there, stay there, if it had surfable waves and more. I found out three things: 1. very few people have been there, 2. getting there is difficult, staying almost impossible, and 3. based on their remote location, while it doesn´t seem to have surf, diving should be promising.
Also, there is some organized tourism mainly in summer, but I was afraid that it would not allow me to dive there. At the same time, the islands seem to also be extremely exposed to swells, which would also not allow me to dive.
So over the course of the next two years, I tried spotting the islands on the horizon. Dreaming to go there and failing repeatedly at creating a plan to actually do it. I must have talked to over twenty people who I know in the area who either dive, have a boat, grew up around there or who may know someone who does.
Last August, through a chain of contacts, I finally got hold of a whatsapp number from someone with both a boat and a license to go to the reserve. It took until this April to find a suitable day to go: With waves as flat as possible and winds as weak as possible – a combination which only happens a handful of times a year."
© Hedda Werres
Log 2 April 2023: Boattrip to Berlengas
"We meet Fernando in the harbour, with me my friend Hedda, who took the underwater photos and who I later found out also knows how to drive boats, and my boyfriend Luigi who documented the trip. It´s early morning, and we are quick to set out West to the ocean.
'You know how to dive?', Fernando shouts across the noise of the wind, waves and motor 'Yes', I say, 'you know some good spots around there?' – 'I do'.
After so much time trying to make it happen, everything is astonishingly uncomplicated.
Even on a day with conditions as optimal as today, every wave we hit is a ramp for the small, powerful boat. You have to hold on tight. I cannot imagine how it must be on an average day of swell here with waves around 4-6ft, let alone on a large winter swell with waves of 10 or 20ft. I am suddenly reminded that this stretch of coast is plastered with sunken boats. Some of them we would see later on during a dive.
A quick glance at my G-shock GBD H2000 shows that we changed our course North. We pass Berlenga Grande to the port and the mainland to starboard, and then leaving both behind.
Then, the currents change.
Fernando brings the boat to a stop and points to the Northeast of the mainland coast far in the distance. 'You know Nazaré?' he says. 'The canyon passes by here'. That is, the canyon that starts far out in the Atlantic, a deep ridge in the ocean floor. Through which waves travel, form and condense, before abruptly hitting the coast right in front of the lighthouse in Nazaré. There, they have nowhere else to go but up, producing the largest waves in the world. Or at least, the largest that we know of until now.
Right here, we see a different current. The greyish, slightly murky waters as we have them even on the clearest day in Portugal change to blue, transparent, almost fluorescent. It is something I have so far only associated to the tropics. We continue in crystal clear waters as we traverse the canyon, heading to another group of islands, called the Farilhões-Forcadas.
The Farilhões are part of the group of Berlengas yet are of entirely different nature. Berlenga Grande, so goes a theory, may have drifted from far away as the mother continent of Pangea split up, leaving the same pinkish-red granite composition behind in what today is Canada. The Farilhões, however, are made of magmatic mita schist which has a bright-white colour and sharp edges pointing out the ocean.
While you are allowed to set foot on Berlenga Grande, the Farilhões are entirely untouchable. No people may access the land besides the lighthouse maintenance once a year.
And it´s here where we get ready for our dive. "
Log 3 April 2023: Freediving near the Farilhões
Depth is an illusion.
Usually, I dive in cold, murky waters. As you go deeper, it quickly gets dark. People disappear out of sight at just about 5m, and I often use a torch underwater even during the day. Usually, diving 20m feels deep, far from the surface that is just a small round circle. And you have to control your heartbeat, to slow it down consciously and calm your mind playing tricks on you.
On this day in the Farilhões, everything was different. With clear visibility, depth and space opened up.
On the surface, you take a breath, dive down, and with a few strong kicks, you pass through the area of buoyancy. You become neutral, floating between fish that come incredibly close. Maybe they know they are safe here in the reserve where fishing is prohibited.
You take a few gentle strokes further down, and then you sink. You are negative now. Far from the surface, in a whole other world."
- Lena Kemna