Editor’s Note: This Spring, we’re welcoming Charyse ReinFelder to our roster of 2020 Huish Outdoors ambassadors. Follow Charyse on Instagram at @_charyse.
When Charyse Reinfelder was a little girl, she loved all-things ocean. Dolphins, whales—sea creatures large and small—she was always excited to learn more about the ocean.
Coming from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, there were places to get a scuba cert or go diving, but they were “really cold—not as enjoyable as diving in Maui.”
At 15, she and her sister went to a marine-life rehab center in Florida. At the center, they had a program where you could shadow people rehabbing marine animals to see if it was something you wanted to do. All of her encounters that day were magical, but the bottlenose and rock tooth dolphins made a big impact.
“And these huge sea lions that would come up and kiss you,” she recalls, laughing. “It was so fun!”
Despite not growing up near the ocean, Charyse was always passionate about the underwater world and jumped at the chance to learn about marine biology in school. So when she finally had her chance to get up close and personal with marine life in Florida, she was hooked.
Fast forward a decade and Charyse has achieved many of her goals that she fostered as a younger woman. These days, she has her day job as an ICU nurse, but she also moonlights producing freedive photo and video content.
In December, Charyse and her partner (BARE Ambassador Karim Iliya) moved to Maui to be closer to family. As she is one of our new ambassadors for 2020, we wanted to ask about her work, her diving, and what we all can do to dive ethically in the age of coronavirus.
Why Maui?
My boyfriend’s family all lives out here. So we would come visit often. And Maui’s beautiful. There’s a lot of places to go diving or surfing or hiking—there’s just so much to do for such a small island. You can go from being in the jungle up to being on the mountain. The beach, the desert—there’s so many sub-climates.
It feels like you’re in different places depending on where you go on the island. You don’t have to go that far and I like that about it.
Where did you start freediving?
I learned how to freedive in Tonga and absolutely loved it. Then we went to Dahab and got certified. We went to the Azores where the blue whales and sperm whales are and went freediving with those.
What do you like about the sport?
It gave me a space to feel free and calm. It’s just you and the animal you’re interacting with. You’re at their eye level just watching them do whatever it is they’re doing. Maybe a baby whale comes over to you and flips around and dives down and rolls around and mimics your movements. It’s crazy. It almost feels like a way to communicate with them. Same with dolphins—they’re very playful.
But yeah, I find that once you get under the surface and you’re diving with them that you learn so much.
How’d you get into the medical field?
It’s a funny story. When I was a kid I wanted to go into marine biology. I wanted to work with dolphins and anything underwater. When I went into college in 2009, the economy was not the best … I knew it’d be hard to pay off my student loans as a marine biologist—they don’t make that much. I enjoy helping people and one of my friends suggested I look into nursing.
I thought it was a good compromise and that maybe I’d get back into working with marine life later on. So, I got into nursing for economical reasons—I’m always gonna have a job—and I’ll always be needed. I’m an adrenaline junkie, so I love my job, plus it translated well over to the ICU.
But yeah, it’s been an interesting journey ‘cause now I do work in the oceans and take photos and videos and swim with whales. So it’s been funny in a roundabout way.
You just mentioned being an adrenaline junkie. Do you get the same rush from diving, or is it a different feeling?
Diving is probably the one thing that I do that’s both exciting, but also more relaxing than anything else. Diving is the balance to all of the other crazy things I do. It’s relaxing and meditative—even freediving is very meditative. With scuba diving, I’m excited, but also so relaxed. It’s so enjoyable. So it’s actually the opposite end of the spectrum in that aspect.
What’s it like being an ICU nurse on Maui right now?
I think it’s much better than what the mainland is experiencing, especially because Maui is a little more isolated. Hawaiian Airlines has cut off flights.
Are people taking the quarantine measures seriously?
Where I am there’s a handful that are taking it seriously, maybe a quarter. Then there are some people in the middle, and then there are still a lot of people who are shrugging it off. But Maui is so spread out that even if there wasn’t a quarantine you could just not come into contact with people for an entire week of doing things. So, it’s very easy to stay away from people or be at a distance.
Even when you go out surfing: you’re not getting within six feet of the people surfing next to you. Essentially, you’re not going to be on top of people, even when there are activities. So again, it’s a lot easier to stay a distance here.
They also have a really high respect for their elders, so they’ve had all of the stores create special hours. … It’s been a big difference. The younger people are quarantining and advocating for their grandparents and their uncles and aunties.
You’re medically trained. You’re also a diver. Is it safe to go diving right now?
I actually went scuba diving a couple of days ago. All we needed were tanks and there was one dive shop open. Everyone was very respectful of each other’s space. We keep Clorox wipes in the car, so we just used those to open doors and pretty much everything, once again, because we were around people.
But with freediving, it’s literally only us, driving in the car to a site, diving, coming home and never even being around anyone. So I think there are some activities you can do that are still very isolated from people, and freediving is one of those.
