“Just before he died Nova Xavier led his mother through a series of rapid breathing exercises and breath holds that he learned from Wim Hof’s online video course in a community pool.
Catherine Xavier had bought Wim Hof’s Classic Course for $100 for her son half a year earlier, but she felt that Hof’s hyperventilation didn’t look totally safe.
‘Of course it’s safe, mom. It’s Wim Hof,’ he said.
Over the next several minutes Nova convinced his mother to practice the breath holds and hyperventilation with him, just like he’d learned in Week 8 of Hof’s online course. The rapid breathwork allowed them to spend more time underwater than they would have expected otherwise.
Catherine offered to time Nova’s breath holds, but he had left his phone where he recorded his breath hold times on a Wim Hof App at home. Catherine started to do laps in their community pool while Nova did the Hof Method.
A few minutes later she noticed that he hadn’t come up for air.
Her son was already dead.”
Read more from Nova’s mother and the memorial she has written for him here.
*Special thanks to Scott Carney for publishing this information.
Click here to view UHBP’s official statement on breathwork near water.
It is extremely dangerous to practice hyperventilation and breath-holding while in or around ANY kind of water.
