There are few places quieter than beneath a frozen lake. Suspended under a sheet of ice, surrounded by muted light and the distant crackle of a living winter landscape, ice freedivers enter a world that is equal parts adventure, challenge, and meditation.
For Sabrina Figliomeni, that world has become much more than a place to dive. She has spent years pushing the boundaries of cold-water exploration while building a community around resilience, curiosity, and connection. She recently starred in a short film documenting her experience called, "Where the World is Quiet" which can be found on YouTube.
In this interview, we get to know Sabrina even better as she reflects on the realities of freediving beneath the ice, the lessons she's learned from cold water, the importance of safety and trust, and why sometimes the most profound moments of connection are found in the coldest places.
Photo by Angelique Lavigne
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you first found freediving?
Happily! I am incredibly fortunate to be Italian – my parents moved to Canada from Southern Italy, and I was doubly fortunate that they thought it important for us kids to spend time there, so we spent our childhood summers in Calabria – meaning on the beach.
From a young age my dad chucked me in the water repeatedly, and my little brother and I spent our summers with the sea as our babysitter, chasing each other underwater and diving down making images on the seabed with rocks. Only later did we learn that what we were doing had a name, and that’s how I started freediving as a child. It seemed like the most normal thing to hold your breath and just play underwater. That escalated when I discovered that scuba diving was a thing, I saw people on the beach in Calabria strapping on tanks, then I read Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That was it – I wanted to be a diver.
Fast forward to when I was 14, we were on family vacation in Mexico, they were advertising scuba classes, and I suppose I was annoying enough that to shut me up my parents agreed to the course. My dad, brother and I got open water certified on that vacation, while my mom happily hung out on the beach. My dad and brother didn’t take to diving the way I did, but in me they inadvertently unleashed a monster! I continued to freedive once I took up scuba diving, as it just felt like such a natural thing to do, and in my 20’s started freediving more in colder waters. I never stopped!
What drew you specifically to ice freediving, and what made you want to keep going back?
I’m not entirely sure what first possessed me to want to try it. As a kid cold water didn’t bother me terribly, it was water and I wanted to be in it. But cutting a hole in the ice and going in there? I have no good explanation for that. I could best describe it as curiosity – partly about what it sounded like, looked like, and felt like being under the ice – but also a curiosity about whether it was something I was capable of doing. Spoiler alert – it’s gorgeous down there.
Discovering that I was also capable of throwing on a swimsuit and jumping into an ice hole in this way has also been amazing. Knowing you can do something like that, and doing it well makes you want to do more of it. I’ve also been so lucky to have people around me equally curious about being in cold water in general, and acting as their cheerleaders has been such a source of joy!
For those who have never experienced it, what does it feel like to descend beneath a frozen lake?
You’re not going to believe this - it’s cold! Even in a wetsuit your lips go numb, eventually your fingers stop cooperating, your toes are having none of it, and it’s time for a break. It’s also full of potential for you to create whatever vibe you need that day. Descending beneath a sheet of ice is an experience that is full of life. It’s muffled and quiet, but you can hear the ice. It crackles, pops, shifts and flexes. You hear people walking above you, their cleats crunching into the snow. Everything is muffled, though. It’s as though there is an insulating layer between you and the world above, making things quiet and peaceful for a moment. When you look up, you see the hole you came through as a dark shape, surrounded by the glow of the ice around it. If you get really lucky, and the ice formed fast and solid with almost no snow on top, you can see people walking on the ice above you.
Then there’s the experience of playing with the ice itself. Flips, walking upside down, making ice slides into holes – it’s the kind of exploring I imagine a kid would do, taking a simple hole in an ice sheet and seeing how many ways you can have fun with it. That’s something I love about freediving under ice. You can choose to make it a calm, quite meditative event, you can put on hockey skates and skate between the holes upside down, you can sit upside down and eat a burger (kinda gross but kinda fun). You can enjoy the ice however you want. There are no expectations of depth, performance, time in the hole. Just enjoy in a way that brings you joy.
What’s something about diving under ice that would surprise most people?
It’s easier than open water freediving, and really accessible to new freedivers! We don’t really care about depth! You don’t have to bob at the surface; you can rest on the ice sheet. You can kick off the bottom of the ice to start your descent, you don’t have to swim out to find depth, you don’t have to drag a float around. You don’t even have to dive down. One of my favourite things to do is just pop under the ice sheet and smoosh the top of my head against the underside. Watching people zip up and down, play with the sheet, splash around – this is such an awesome vantage point.
The setup is hands down the most arduous part, but the freediving itself is much more chill (pun partially intended). For newer freedivers, it’s totally accessible provided you have been exposed to freediving in cold water (at least 5-8C) and have a suit suitable for the water temperature (minimum 7mm open cell freediving suit recommended, most divers do 7mm or even 9mm).
Can you walk us through the safety setup for an ice freedive, from cutting the hole to the use of lines, safety divers, and warming tents?
Absolutely! And very abridged, as there is a lot that goes into this.
Pre-planning: we assess ice thickness and condition, location on the lake, weather for the day, and access from shore. Things to consider are snow cover on the ice, ice thickness on the edges of the lake (it can be thinner, which makes safe access tricky), the ice structure itself, and whether the sun could erode the sheet during the day (a big issue with warmer air temperatures and lack of snow cover).
Marking and Cutting Holes: We pre-select areas for the holes away from pedestrian traffic, or if that’s not possible we pre-delineate the area so no one wanders in accidentally. Holes can be cut by hand (auger and ice saw) or chainsaw, depending on your location. Because we do most of our ice freediving events in a National Park, we do have a permit allowing us to use a chainsaw with biodegradable (veggie) oil to protect the waterbody. Ice holes are pre-marked by chainsaw, size verified, ice screws inserted into the blocks, then cut. It’s not one giant block that’s pulled out. If the ice is thick, a single hole could have 10-15 blocks to make them manageable! The blocks are placed a distance from the hole to avoid any extra weight, and replaced in the hole after we’re done diving to allow it to freeze back up.
Lines: We frequently have multiple holes (there are lots of us!). Each hole has a down-line with a pulley system anchored to the ice and backed up. We also have lines going between holes so we can do swims across. When diving down or across holes, divers are on lanyard at all times (attached to the downline), absolutely NO exceptions. Losing your way under an ice sheet is sure to end up as bad paperwork.
Safety Divers: A must, and it happens very naturally. Everyone who comes ice freediving has to hold a basic freediving certification that includes open water training, and includes training on how to safety. When someone is diving down, they ask the nearest diver to safety them. Going between holes – you need a safety at either end. Everyone on the ice is there to have fun, and everyone is happy to act as a safety where needed.
Warming Tents: Ok friends, these are good and bad. Warming tents are fabulous – they block the wind, we have heaters in some of them to turn them into little saunas, they’re awesome. They also make it harder to get back into the water after (especially the sauna tents!). We always set up multiple tents, some heated, some not, to allow for some flexibility. When a break is needed, a diver will pop into a tent, grab a snack and some tea, have a seat, and recover for a bit. This is truly important to help you warm up after spending a longer amount of time in the ice hole. The tents are lifesavers on those days when it’s -20 and we’re just so stubborn that we want to dive. We spend 20-30 minutes in the water, 20-30 minutes in the tent, and it gives us a great spot to get changed out of the wind. You really do need some sort of shelter when you’re doing this, as the risk of hypothermia is very real.
Clean-Up: Aside from corralling all the dive gear and climbing hardware, we close up the hole when we’re done with the blocks we removed, shovel a ton of snow on top, mark it off with caution tape, and let it re-freeze. We go back after a few days to check that it’s frozen, once it’s back to solid we remove the tape so it doesn’t end up in the lake. Folks – you HAVE to mark ice holes you’ve cut. In Alberta, if someone falls through a hole you cut and didn’t mark, you are liable. It’s also extremely bad manners. Fill your ice holes, mark them clearly.
Your story is deeply personal. How has cold water and freediving helped shape your mindset and the way you move through life today?
It’s funny, I’m realizing more and more people know that I lost my little brother to suicide, and that is very much because I keep sharing his story in the hopes that someone may connect with it and hopefully stick around. The world is better with you in it!
Cold water just started as something I liked. I enjoyed learning that I could do it (you’re tougher than you think!), and the more comfortable I got playing around in cold water, the more fun it became. I had a realization when I volunteered as a safety for a polar plunge event about fifteen years ago that this was also an excellent tool for resilience, community, and for mental health. Watching people raise funds for charity to jump in icy water (and scream and willingly suffer together) planted the seed that I could perhaps use cold water as a tool to share my brother’s story, help create optimal conditions for people to try something challenging, and perhaps facilitate an experience that could help someone struggling realize that they’re stronger than they think they are. I can say with great confidence that it has worked!
For myself, I take great joy in sitting in a cold body of water of any type, grabbing a book, and settling in. Everything slows down. Your movements, your heart rate, your mind. You absorb and enjoy what you’re reading more. Suddenly, half an hour has gone by, and I realize that was easy, comfortable even. That carries into how I approach other challenges I face. Being in cold water (and being extremely comfortable in it) has given me a resilience I didn’t realize could be developed. Friends, developing cold tolerance is such a wonderful way to do something challenging, and develop resilience. Try it! Bring friends!
You’ve found ways to honour your brother’s memory through this journey and through giving back. What does that look like for you today?
I’d split it into two different areas – fundraising and mental health awareness, and being the Ultimate Enabler. I donate a portion of all the course fees I collect from my students to a few mental health initiatives that are near to my heart, and I organize events such as polar plunges and these Freezediver outings to raise funds. I share Joey’s story with anyone who asks. Talking about mental health is still so awkward and secretive for so many people, and I’m truly convinced that talking openly about his story may help someone who is struggling make a different choice than he did. I can confirm that to date four people have made a different choice than him, and I’m so grateful they were willing to hear his story and that it helped them choose to stay.
Now, being the Ultimate Enabler – this is something not special to me, it’s something anyone can do. A lot of people ask me, “How can I do this? I’d like to try it, but I don’t know where to start!”. Friends, be where they start. If someone wants to do their first polar plunge but has no one to show them the ropes, I’ll get in with them (and bring a tent and crocs). If someone wants to see how long they can stay in the water, I’ll sit there with them and distract them. Someone wants to go climbing? I’ll belay all day. We all have things we’re good at. Let’s consider sharing those skills and helping people try something new. The impacts can be truly life-changing.
What are the biggest mental and physical challenges of freediving under ice?
The physical we’ve talked about; it’s mostly the cold and acknowledging when it’s time to get out of the water. You generally can’t hold your breath as long under ice, the water is colder, performance is inhibited, that’s completely normal. Fully expect equalization in cold water to be dramatically trickier, you’ll need to punch some holes into your hood over your ears to let a little water in (yes, I know, it’s cold).
The mental – that’s more fun. It’s an overhead environment, and you should have a healthy amount of apprehension about it. When you do your first dives under ice, it can take a moment to register that this isn’t open water, There’s one way in, one way out. Being in the ice hole can be claustrophobic for some people, and that’s perfectly normal. Once you’re under though, it’s a wide-open body of water. For a lot of first-timers, there’s also learning to trust the ice. We’ve gone freediving on as little as 2” of ice (no surface support gear) and it was plenty. 6” of ice may not look like much, but it’s shockingly strong.
If you’re an experienced freediver, your performance under ice may shock you the first time you get down there. Your performance is not going to be as spectacular as it is in warm water. Unless you train cold water regularly, keep your expectations of yourself very low. This is a hard one for many people, they want to perform, they want to hit the depths they do in the tropics, Put that aside. It will be SO frustrating at first, but once you overcome that need to be the best at everything (hey, it’s common) you’ll enjoy yourself a lot more!
How do you prepare yourself before a dive in such extreme conditions?
This is better in list form:
EAT. Seriously. Eat something carb-heavy the night before. Eat something light for breakfast, a couple hours before. You need fuel to stay warm, this isn’t the time to do fasted cardio underwater.
Get lots of rest ahead of time. Your performance will be better, your cold tolerance will be better, everything will be better.
Walk around the area you’re diving and help with setup. If you just sit there, you’ll start to get cold. If you start cold, you’ll be cold. Keep moving, and stay warm.
Take the time to do your breathe-ups and stretches, put on your wetsuit, and do your stretches again. Movement in your suit is so important.
Warm up your lube! When you’re using a 5mm+ open cell suit, you need lubricant to put the darn thing on (it’s as gross as it sounds). Mix your lube with warm water so your suit is warm when you put it on. It also helps preserve your neoprene, as it’ll stretch a little easier when warm.
Standing at the surface, wear a surf robe (like the ones Red Paddle makes) over your wetsuit while you’re milling about. Evaporative cooling still happens when you’re wearing a wetsuit.
Hydrate. Warm fluids will help you stay warm. On that tangent – you will have to pee at some point, if you hold it – you will get colder and crampy. It’s better not to pee in your wetsuit. That pee will cool down, and then you’ll just have cold pee sloshing around. Plus, when you walk across the ice and it leaks out the ankle of your suit onto the snow, we’ll know. -_-
This is a really odd one – but reduce screen time the day before. I’ve heard from a few friends that when they doom-scroll the night before, their eyes feel extra dry and cold in their mask when they dive down. I have no objective data to back this up. But, we could all do with a bit less scrolling anyway.
Do you find a sense of clarity or connection in cold water? How would you describe that?
I find both a sense of clarity and a little bit of creative mischief. In cold water, I am in one of my many happy places, and I am a little extra goofy, Which means if someone is nearby and curious, I see what it would take to get them to take the plunge, so to speak. If I can make it sound like something fun that’s totally easy to do, they’re so much more likely to jump in. I promise I’m not being mean, rather I’m seeing if I can convince the average person that they’re capable of so much more than they think they are; however, if it’s a non-starter, I will not push them. Psychological safety is important!
We do develop a sense of connection in cold water. Misery does love company, and we do know that doing challenging things as a group is easier than doing it solo. When there are five of you getting into the water together, you can all reminisce about it together, and you’re all more likely to go in a second time. This is a slippery slope to weekly river plunges with a group of friends, be warned!
What makes this group of Freezdivers special? How has being part of this community shaped your experience?
AH, these people are incredible. The idea for The Freezedivers has been a long time in the making, but it took official form during a 4am texting spree during COVID with my pal Dakota (who has become my fake little brother), when we were talking about turning this fun little thing we did into something we could share with other divers. By 8am there was a logo and an idea. When we did share it with our closest friends that dove with us, they were stoked. Then they brought their friends. I did some guided cold conditioning with them to get them ready. They did the same with their friends. Suddenly, there weren’t just two or three people, it was a dozen.
In the past few years this wonderful team we’ve built has been taking on more and more of the organizing, and I’ve been able to take a breather and watch what we’ve built. We have our veteran divers guiding brand new freedivers through their first breathe-ups before a plunge, newbies seeing the ice sheet for the first time, and people trying their first plunges in swimsuits. I can’t express the joy I feel seeing someone slip into the water and start laughing because it’s not as bad as they thought! All these wonderful ducklings of ours are doing the same thing I did. Extending a hand to someone who is looking to try something new and being their cheerleader. I love it so much.
Why do you think people are drawn to something so challenging, and honestly a little uncomfortable?
Why do we sign up for marathons? Why do we hike or climb? Why do we exercise? Self-improvement could be a reason, but I do think deep down everyone wonders if they’re capable of more than they’re currently doing. Cold water immersion is likely the most accessible of the challenging things the average person can do (next to public speaking, but most would rather the cold water). Generally, I find when people try it once, they then say, ‘never again’, and in the same breath they get ready to get back in. There’s an exhilaration that comes from trying something uncomfortable, and a definite dopamine rush.
I guess I should also mention the socials – people see these influencers doing these cold plunges and making it out to be a big deal, so sometimes people wonder if it’s really that big of a deal.
What was it like to share that through the documentary and work with the team to bring this story to life?
It was an experience and a half for me. I’m not used to being on the other side of the camera, I’m used to being the one taking the pictures, and I’m not generally keen on being the center of attention. I’m also the one who is always responsible for the safety of the people on the ice. Being in the water AND watching the ice conditions AND directing my in-water team was quite wild, I will admit it was stressful! That being said, the team was AMAZING. They respected every call I made regarding safety (we had some suboptimal ice on one of the days), and they managed to make magic happen with less-than-stellar visibility. When we talked about the story and ice freediving, I wasn’t sure what it would look like in the end, but somehow, they did manage to make the story about Joey, and they did what I hoped they would – they highlighted the INCREDIBLE community of neoprene-clad Freezedivers that find so much joy in jumping in ice holes. It felt like they captured the part of all this that was most important to me – how a huge personal loss could lead to such connection and joy.
Photo by Angelique Lavigne
What do you hope people take away from your story, both from the film and from the life you’ve built through it?
I feel like this also needs to be a list!
Mental health struggles can happen to anyone. Outwardly, Joey was one of the most outgoing, friendly, bubbly and happy people you’d ever meet. He gathered up those who were alone and gave them a group to be in. Inwardly, he struggled, and unfortunately for all of us he lost his life to that struggle. It’s true when they say it’s the ones you don’t expect who are struggling. Everyone has their own battles they’re fighting, please have empathy for anyone you meet.
You have skills! Consider how you can use those skills to open doors for other people. Sometimes, that might mean being a buddy for someone who wants to take a pottery class but is nervous about doing it alone. Join the class.
BE THE CHEERLEADER. Celebrate the accomplishments of those around you, don’t diminish others’ success. Build them up. I do underwater photography of people. I like to make my friends look cool. Make others feel competent, and they’ll believe themselves to be capable.
In an environment where conditions are unforgiving, how important is trust in your equipment?
Hugely important. Sure, you can do some freediving under ice without a wetsuit, mask, computer, or fins (I’ve done it, cold eyeballs are quite an interesting feeling!). To actually enjoy it and be able to do it for longer than a few minutes, you need equipment. Your suit needs to fit you well and prevent water from flushing in and out. Your fins need to be sturdy and able to flex in colder temperatures. Your mask must stay firmly glued to your face, a leaky mask under ice is genuinely awful. We use ice climbing gear for our lines, and some of us (yours truly included) also ice climb. Your gear is your lifeline back to safety.
How do you use your dive computer as part of your preparation and safety?
Unlike open water freediving, what we’re doing is more about enjoying the ice. This means that we can get a little carried away with how much time we spend in the water, and we tend to ignore recovery times between dives (not on purpose!).
Knowing how long we’ve been in the hole, how many dives, and the depths we’re feeling comfortable with gives us important information for adjusting our equipment (thermal protection, weighting), and as organizers allows us to have objective data to tell someone to get out and take a warm-up break without hurting their feelings. Because ice diving is colder, we tend to dive more conservatively – most of our divers will set a depth alarm on their computers to help them stay within that limit, and the recovery timer at the surface is immensely helpful to gently poke us to take little breaks between dives.
Fun fact – the vibration on my Teric is strong enough that I feel it very clearly through my freediving suit and gloves (cumulative 10mm of open cell neoprene).
While not safety-related, we’ve had brand new freedivers hit their very first personal bests under the ice, and what a cool picture to be able to take with the computer showing that!
Let’s talk about the real priority. What are the go-to snacks for an ice diving day? Who brings the best snacks in your crew, and is there a post-dive ritual food or drink that feels like part of the experience now?
So, let’s be real, you NEED to eat when you’re ice diving. We always have hot tea (lemon, fresh ginger, honey, and a little bit of chili flakes for extra yum), soup, hot dogs, candy… Part of the diving ritual has been me baking wheels of Brie on the BBQ’s on ice and shoveling crackers covered in melted cheese into people’s faces while they’re still in the water. You can charcuterie on ice!
Après-dive, we all get together and cook. It used to be that I cooked for all of us (I’m Italian, it shows sometimes); that shifted a bit to a combination of potluck and a few of our organizing crew making the core bits (HUGE shoutout to my pal Teighan, also Italian, who has taken on the food logistics so I can focus on the ice!)
Our very first ‘official’ ice freediving weekend was just six of us. We went for dinner in Banff, shared the stoke, did all the setup ourselves, dove, cooked together, and understood that the diving may have brought us together, helping each other lube our suits may have bonded us, but sharing in the post-dive joy over food is what made us a warm and awkward family.
As for who brings the best snacks… Not a fair question. We all bring cheese. 😊
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Sabrina Figliomeni is a diver, freediver, and general mountain-sport enthusiast based out of Calgary, AB. Professionally, she is a Civil Project Manager, PADI MSDT and a GUE Fundamentals Instructor. As a cold-enthusiast, she is passionate about the mental health impacts of being outdoors and in the water and will easily convince you to try something new that scares you. When she's not working or teaching, she spends her time cooking, studying (school is forever) and using her underwater photography skills to make her friends look cool. She splits her time between British Columbia's West Coast and the Canadian Rockies where she lives with her partner and their two dogs - Chief, a handsome senior husky, and Brioche, the sweetest and spiciest corgi.
