Posted on 09/09/2015 8:22:20 AM PDT by w1n1
She’s so comfortable – if not at home – in the water now, it’s hard to believe Valentine Thomas once almost drowned in it.
Of course, that was a half a lifetime ago, when this spearfishing maven from London via Canada was vacationing seaside with her family in the south of France. Just 14, Thomas got caught in an undertow – not far from the shore, but far enough for a harrowing few seconds.
“I was caught by the underwater currents. The current had suddenly changed and I remember sticking my head up and there was nobody in the water,” says Thomas, now 28. “I just thought, ‘What the hell is happening?’ I was trying to swim and I could not swim anywhere. I was about 2 meters (about 6½ feet) away from the shore and somehow I got dragged to the bottom. I remember at one point saying to myself, ‘I can’t fight this anymore.’ Finally, a lifeguard managed to fish me out of the water. It was pretty intense.”
The irony is that you can now mostly find this former London hedge fund capital businesswoman underwater with speargun in hand. She not only learned how to freedive, but her top passion is spearfishing whenever she has the time to get out of London and hit exotic locales like Corsica, Greece, South Africa and Zanzibar. In 2013, she established a spearfishing world record for a 25.4-pound Atlantic jack caught off far-flung Ascension Island in the south Atlantic Ocean.
And she hopes to make spearfishing a career and someday host her own TV show to educate audiences about dismissing gender bias and the importance of sustainable eating of harvested fish.
We chatted with Thomas from her home base in London about conquering her fear of water and falling in love with the sea.
Read the rest of this spearfishing story here.
Oh My!
Had no idea spearfishing was so interesting!
Not Guilty! Now what was the charge?
Stop right there, she is obviously a racist and must cease and desist.
“SPEAR” just what any BLM activist/terrorist, and every progressive liberal democrat/rino communist, knows is an offensive word.
Only if the spear is actually chucked.
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