Ken Kiriyama | Japanese Champion Freediver
Ken is a professional freediver, CNF Record holder, Meditation Yoga Pranayama, and freediving Fitness Trainer sharing his time between competing and at Soneva Fushi and pursuing his passion for the ocean. He has arguably one of the best jobs in the world and he loves to pass his knowledge on to his students.
Ken has a background in martial arts and co-managing a natural foods restaurant in Brazil. He has been practising yoga and pranayama since the age of 16 and was initiated into meditation in 1993, at age of 17. He has travelled the world extensively, especially India and Australia, to deepen his studies and practice and spending periods in retreat for intense training. He is a direct disciple and student of the great meditation Guru Maharajii (1916-2008) from whom he received Guru mantra in 1998 in India.
“The overall feeling is a feeling of being unlimited, of having a total of freedom. Just being weightless in the special element, which is water. Which is so different from being in our land based life. Nothing can really compare to being totally covered and submerged in water.”
Often in life, we don’t know how our journey will pan out, but the choices we make can end up shaping our future and this is something like how Ken’s story goes.
Ken’s ocean loving, freediving story doesn’t start at the beach, but in Copenhagen at the age of Ten, practicing the spiritual discipline of martial arts. He was then introduced to yoga and yoga nidra around the age of 16 which naturally progressed into a passion for meditation. It was at this point where he reached a crossroads and was torn between pursuing the realms of yoga or martial arts. It was the practice of meditation and pranayama that he committed to and when he began really developing his breathing techniques. Eventually he made the decision to completely leave martial arts behind and trained as a yoga and meditation teacher. Yoga and meditation require complete unity of mind, body and breath and this training helped to set a perfect foundation for Ken to become a freediver later in life.
“You can say in a way that you feel connected to that marine life in the water.”
Many of his childhood years were spent visiting his Grandparents in Japan, where he took the opportunity to participate at local schools, making friends and adventuring into the mountains. It was the crystal clear water of the mountain streams that he fell in love with and these waters continue to bring him back today. In 2008 Ken was travelling in Asia where he came across scuba diving and started his training. He became completely enamoured by the reef, the marine life and the limitless potential of the ocean. Hearing about freediving and the opportunities to become totally immersed in the ocean, he then went on to pursue it in the Philippines.
“I only had one goal in my mind back then, to be the best in the world.’’
In 2012 he trained as a freediving instructor, which led him to meet world class freediver Umberto Pelizzari. This friendship became a partnership that took them to the Maldives to begin sharing their passion with others through teaching courses and activities at Soneva Fushi. A truly unique place, with a community of like minded people that work together to improve human interaction and impact on the ocean.
“I just completely fell in love with free diving, the overall feeling is that of being completely unlimited. You can say in a way you feel connected to that life in the water. “
Freediving has given Ken a huge admiration for ocean life, he respects the significance of all marine life from big ocean mammals to the tiniest of fish. He is fascinated by the ecosystems of the ocean and Freediving has enabled him to experience these ecosystems as a whole working together. Through working at Soneva he can educate and share this with everyone who comes to freediving.
“Being here at Soneva, gives me the pleasure to teach, which is my passion to share that with the students.”
Looking at Ken’s life journey as a whole highlights how his commitment to pursuing grounding and balancing pastimes has been a perfect catalyst towards becoming a world class freediver and ocean advocate. The stillness and silence that Ken creates through mediation and freediving enables him to be completely immersed in the magic and pureness of the ocean. Through teaching at Soneva he is able to empower others to experience this too.
“Reaching a certain depth which isn’t very deep, you are completely neutral just floating there, neither sinking, or floating up, its neutral buoyancy, perfect balance.”
“It’s funny how you can have dreams still existing inside of you 20-30 years later, everything is still there. I think in a way it’s about just getting better at what you really want to do.’’
Images and Film - Matt Porteous
Film production - Tom Webster
Location - Soneva Fushi
"I'll never be as good a freediver as I was a fighter, but I will be the best version of my style of freediving’’
Website - www.kenkiriyama.com
Instagram - @kenkiriyama1
