Reset Breathing, Equalisation Fixes & Ocean Glide: Cindy Yang on Spearfishing, Freediving and Mindset.

What happens when a Taiwanese-born Californian firefighter, underwater photographer, and freediving coach moves to Australia for love and brings two decades of ocean wisdom with her? Cindy Yang of Ocean Glide joins Shrek for a wide-ranging conversation that covers her extraordinary life arc — from a hyperactive kid in Taipei who’d never seen the ocean, to chasing abalone on the Northern California coast, to becoming one of the few female firefighters in her station, to eventually leaving her dream career to chase a different kind of depth. Along the way, they dig into practical gold: Cindy’s seasickness microdosing protocol, a deep dive into sinus anatomy and why surgery isn’t always the answer, her natural wetsuit lube (and exactly how to use it), and the episode’s standout gem — the RESET acronym, a breathwork framework drawn from firefighting and freediving that you can use mid-dive, mid-panic, or mid-argument with your kids to snap yourself back into calm, clear decision-making. If you’ve ever struggled with EQ, stress underwater, or just want to feel more in control in and out of the water, this one’s for you.

Cindy Yang @cindyatsea Spearfishing Gallery

Important Timestamps

00:02:00 — Listener tip from Matt: using coconut oil drops for ear lubrication and near-effortless equalisation, plus a 50/50 vinegar-alcohol rinse for ear hygiene after heavy diving
00:06:00 — PNG spearfishing charter announcement: Shrek and Tim McDonald taking 12 divers to Bali, September 12–20, $7,500 — intermediate-plus, 12m+ divers only
00:07:00 — Cindy Yang intro: free diving coach, underwater photographer, founder of Ocean Glide
00:13:00 — Cindy’s origin story: growing up in Taipei, ADHD energy with nowhere to go, parents applying for a US green card when she was born and it coming through 12 years later
00:14:00 — Arriving in California at 12 with zero English, landing in a school with no other Asian students — how adversity sharpened her observation skills
00:19:00 — UC Davis, wildlife conservation biology, and why veterinary school didn’t happen
00:20:00 — The moment spearfishing clicked: watching abalone divers emerge from the ocean at Mendocino and immediately joining them in a surf suit with goggles
00:23:00 — Career pivot to firefighting: what it was like being a small Asian woman in a male-dominated American fire station post-9/11, imposter syndrome, and how team culture eventually won out
00:30:00 — Spearfishing journey builds: mentor Larry with a tiny wooden speargun, the annual Mendocino camping extravaganza, and how California diving shaped her ethic
00:33:00 — First trip to Mexico, then the moment a local gear shop owner told her she had to do a PFI course in Kona first — and she did
00:38:00 — Moving to Australia for love: why it took Cindy a full year to write her resignation letter from a job she adored
00:41:00 — Seasickness protocol: how Cindy microdoses Quells (half a tablet early morning, another half at the boat ramp) to dive without drowsiness
00:43:00 — Sinus anatomy explained: why flat-faced anatomy creates drainage issues, the histamine-sinus-EQ connection, and why steroid sprays alone don’t fix the root cause
00:44:00 — The allergy desensitisation protocol: visiting an allergist, the checkerboard scratch test, and the injection series that cleared years of chronic sinus inflammation
00:46:00 — Surgery vs integrative medicine for EQ issues: why going ENT-first often skips better options, and the Santa Cruz integrative medicine approach that changed Cindy’s health
00:54:00 — Freediving technique: constant diaphragm engagement and why so many divers breathe wrong at the surface without realising it
01:06:00 — Ocean Glide origin story: zinc sunscreen in surf shops, then switching to natural-based wetsuit lube after reacting to chemical conditioners on reef dives
01:09:00 — How to use wetsuit lube properly: one to two teaspoons dry inside the suit, a quarter-cup of water, seal and shake — don’t over-dilute
01:13:00 — Shrek’s personal story: dropping a full clothing size (42-inch waist to 40, 3XL to 2XL) over three days at a freediving retreat — not weight loss, just inflammation from cortisol reduction
01:20:00 — Why Cindy reframes “breathing up” as “breathing down” — you’re not pumping yourself up, you’re breathing your nervous system down
01:21:00 — The double inhale technique backed by Andrew Huberman research: how it hijacks a neural circuit to snap your brain out of a stress loop (also works on diaphragm cramps)
01:22:00 — The RESET acronym unpacked: Recognise, Exhale, Stillness, Evaluate, Trust — a step-by-step breathwork framework for in-water panic, life stress, or anything in between
01:32:00 — Firefighting analogy for trust: how tunnel vision in new firefighters mirrors panic underwater, and why you train when you don’t need it so it’s there when you do