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Enchante Gallardo is USA's deepest woman in CWTB. Being a devoted freediver and a talented instructor, she only got into the sport a few years ago, while living on an island near Puerto Rico. In a recent podcast with Dive In, she explained how joining competitions, even at an early stage in her career, has helped her become the freediver she is today.
"I was born & raised in Oahu, Hawaii. Actually, I spent most of my time surfing and it wasn’t probably about 7-8 years ago that I took the chance and started exploring the underwater world. Once I discovered that, I was like “why haven’t I done this sooner”? Growing up on an island, I spent a lot of time by the water. I started surfing when I was 11, and that taught me to respect the ocean.
I was living in Puerto Rico at some point, on a small island close to the main island of Puerto Rico actually. A lot of people would work, doing snorkeling tours, and talking about how snorkeling was amazing, so I kinda started to explore that there. Then I took a trip to Indonesia and at this point of my life I was really big into surfing and I said: “I’m gonna do this thing where I’ll try something new every year, something that I’ve never done”. So, I thought it was a great opportunity to try scuba diving because I had heard so much about it. When I did it, it was absolutely incredible.
When I moved from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, I was going to work as a divemaster. So, I went to a dive shop and one of the people working there had mentioned to me that they were looking for freediving instructors. I had tapped a little into freediving while in Puerto Rico, but I’d only dive to about 40 ft. So they said to me “why not take a freediving instructor course”? So I took my first freediving class and I fell in love with it immediately. It was very interesting to learn about physiology, physics, and just understanding all these processes that are going on in your body, and not just in your body, but also your mind. I’ve never looked back since then. Freediving deepened my connection with the ocean".
"I have learned a lot from teaching other people. That has made me grow as a freediver because you see all the different issues that people have, and you always try to help them overcome those certain challenges. Sometimes other people’s challenges are very different from yours, so it’s very interesting to be a part of that. It’s very rewarding".
"I was taking my Level 2 course and while I was in Kona there was a local competition organized by Kurt Chambers. So, my instructor at the time recommended that I take part, so I was like “that might be interesting”. At that time, I had just broken -30m so I was ecstatic to be part of the 100 ft club! It was actually a really cool experience and after I became an instructor and meeting more people in the diving community, I saw competitions as a means to meet other divers and other good divers.
When you surround yourself with other people who have a similar passion or interest, especially if they are better than you, then you can really learn a lot from them and I was really in that mood of getting information and wanting to improve. A lot of the people I met in the freediving community were really a huge part for me, because freediving makes you feel like a part of a family and that’s one of my favorite aspects of it. Some of the people that I’ve met in that setting have become some of my closest friends and I really appreciate that.
I think it’s the bonding aspect. Meeting new people who share the same passion that you do and then, learning from other great athletes as well. That helped me to push my limits. One of the reasons that I like to compete is to see what I’m capable of. It’s a competition, you are competing against other people but ultimately, you are challenging yourself. And the cool thing about these competitions is that it doesn’t matter what depth are people diving to. Everyone is really supportive and treats you like an equal individual".