“My leg muscle badly broken, they thought I might lose it. They had to leave the fracture open for 10 days to avoid that process. That is the reason I started the cold water treatment. At first, I didn’t like it. The cold was agony, but slowly I got used to the feeling. There is no place for fear, no place for panic, no place for mistakes. Under the ice, you need total control of the place, the time, and to trust yourself completely. When you can do all that, you can find a different world, a world so peaceful, so beautiful, endless and desolate. With one breath, I am part of it.”
Finnish freediver Johanna Nordblad holds the world record for a 50-meter dive under ice. She discovered her love for the sport through cold-water treatment while recovering from a downhill biking accident that almost took her leg. British director and photographer Ian Derry captures her taking a plunge under the Arctic ice.
