About freediving, life and everything

I started freediving last spring. I got inspiration for diving couple years ago while I was travelling in coastal areas of Italy and France. I saw few spearos with their gear and thought that might be intresting. When I was young, I had been very enthusthiast snorkler and enjoyed water. This was 20 years a go. After that for some reason I did not like water very much. You could say I didn't like it at all. Idea of swimming in cold Finnish lakes was limited only for quick dip from sauna in very rare occasions, usually when there was something stronger than man warming up my blood. I did my mandatory military service in the beginning of 2002 and there was swimming test included as part of physical training. Minimum requirement was 25 meters in the pool and I just barely made it...

Last year things changed. Me and my wife were travelling in Thailand and Malaysia. For the first time we could take almost two months off from work and do some real backpacking. Before the trip I was thinking about doing some diving and I looked up information about it. I ended up doing my first dive in Ko Lanta, Thailand in a lagoon of five islands (Ko Ha). This was strange experience. There was first some instructions and next we jumped off the boat to "the deep end of the pool". At least in my measure. At the bottom we did the basic drills and off we went to see all the fishes. And there were lots of them...

This got me completely hooked. There was mixture of adrenaline and calmness of the mind which I had never experienced before. I managed to talk my wife over to do the OWD course in Perhenthians, Malaysia. After one week of diving, she was hooked also. We left Perhenthians with some slight sadness and felt that diving would be part of our traveling in future.

I took almost a year before I had chance to get back to diving. While back home I checked local diving club and did not find it really interesting. They seemed to be doing lots of technical diving and stuff I really did not understand. Also diving in murky, sometimes pitch black waters of Finland did not inspire me.

In spring we had a chance to do a week long trip to Spain with group of our friends. I had previously advertised to everyone how great it is and everybody should have ago. I found a local PADI dive shop and arranged some dive sessions for me, some dive tryouts and snorkeling for the rest. Weather was nice but the water was +13c. I guess there were mixed feelings about the snorkeling as there wasn't much to see and it was cold even in 5mm + 7mm shorty which the company provided. There was also flu circling around our friends and I had to cancel night diving which I had planned. I liked the dives, even though it was not the same thing as previously in the Perhenthians. Visibility, water temp and lack of sea life were quite different. I actually ended up with huge argument with the owner of the club. They billed me for all the dives I planned to do and when I could not do them because of the flu I figured that I was entitled to refund. At the end they dug up contract terms that in case of late cancellation they would not refund anything (anything less than 24hrs would be considered late cancellation). I guess they were right, but I felt like shit because of this.

For this trip, I had loaned the Finnish freediving bible (Vapaasukellus) made by Simo Kurra, Kimmo Lahtinen and Ari Nissinen. Little I knew that this would be my guidebook in AIDA**, which I ended up completing just a week a go. Comparable to Umberto Pelizzari's famous Manual of Freediving (although I haven't read it), the book introduced strange concepts of apnea, equalization, psychology and the sport altogether. At this point things looked way to extreme for me (as I did not even swim very well), but the basic steps to start training seemed quite easy and safe. The diving trip in Spain, the freediving book and some bad experiences about local dive company left me thinking. Upon returning back home I looked up again our local dive club and what you know, they also trained freediving! I sent mail to the instructor there and almost immediately got invited to next days training at the pool. I figured that why not go to see it out, even though I really did not know so much about it.

My local lake, Leinonen

Things led to another and after a while I ordered my first wetsuit from Elios. Delivery time was one month and as impatient as always I also bought a cheap'o (39 eur) 3mm wetsuit from local store. This enabled me to start diving in my local lake, which is just 300m from our home. I found that the lake had good vis, it was deep (in my standards) and local freedivers did weekly trips there. I also bought a Omer speargun. Getting the basics of safety I started diving daily. Sometimes spearfishing, sometimes just for fun to look at the fishes. We visited other local lakes and ponds which also were very clear. We did weekly CWT trainings which at the beginning did not feel easy. Thermocline in the beginning of summer was around 8m and temperature after dropped below +10c quite fast.

Almost for two months I dove daily. I also got my 5mm Elios suit which completely changed how I felt during CWT. I also bought Omer Millenium fins and Specialfins mono used. There was possibility to participate for AIDA** course which was organized for the first time. I immediately signed up. We visited first time in old Hammaslahti copper mine which has been renovated for the use of local dive club. It is amazingly clear quarry providing steep underwater cliffs in the best blue water experience I've seen since Perhenthians. There is a silt layer around 10 meters and clears out below 20m. I did my first 25m dive there also during the trip. I read also about FRC and tried it out. In the following sessions I found relaxation and my dive times improved.

Crayfish caught from Leinonen

As a local resident I also had possibility to get crayfish permits. Crayfish is valuated food and catching them is highly regulated. My nearby lake was rumored to have crayfish and I had found some abandoned pods during my spearing trips. I searched also into that if it would be to catch the crayfish by diving. During days I found it very difficult to catch the crayfish as they hide in their holes in the bottom. After getting proper dive light and making first night dives the game changed and we had our first crayfish party. Also I found that local big lake, Höytiäinen contained good population of freshwater mussels. Unlike the crayfish, the clams are to so delicious straight on, but require some preparation (+ lots of butter and garlic). As a enthusiast foodie, trough freediving, I found myself with some most organic and rare ingredients.

Breath-up at Iso-Polvijärvi with our CWT rig.

We had the open water sessions of AIDA** course at the Hammaslahti quarry. We did basic training of FIM and CWT. Most which I was already familiar with. Also some important rescue training was also part of the course. Oh, and did I mention, we were trained and coached by the top athletes and trainers of Finland's national team. This provided awesome opportunity to talk with them about intrique detail of technique, preparation and training. During the two days of intensive freediving I started think about the next year and how I wanted to progress in the sport. I realize that I don't have any real talent or physical abilities, but I really enjoy any sport where you can evolve, develop yourself, learn new things in your own pace without lots of competitiveness. In any case, I would like to get better. There was passing requirement of 14m in the AIDA 2 and the plate was restricted to 20m. I felt relaxed and could do some nice long dives to 20m with quite ease. I also tried my mono for the first time for CWT.

After the course I decided that I want to train dynamic and static during the winter and when there would be  possibility for open water, I would be ready to do some CWT. I still wanted to get an baseline for CWT. Week after finishing AIDA** course, our instructor was willing to do one more trip to the quarry. With knowing the limits of safety divers, the vis and depth of quarry we set plate to 30m. I had been thinking about the dive for few days, thus knowingly setting some pressure for myself. During the preparation I really felt this. My heart rate was high and had trouble relaxing. I did two warm-up's to 13m and to 22m. After this I decided to give it ago. Temperature outside was +7c and water temp was still around +15c to +16c so I was getting chilly. My duck dive felt good, but depth on my mind,  I went too fast. I concentrated on doing freznel and decided not to try any freefall. I had set my D3's depth alarm to 20m but for some reason I did not hear it. Depth, darkness and pressure was starting to get to me and I peeked for the plate. It was just few meters away. I made a hasty turn just beside the plate and started swimming up. My 5mm socks had compressed that fins felt really loose and this surprised me a lot. Just briefly thought crossed my mind that what would happen if I lost one of my fins at this depth. This gave me additional speed. Around 20m of the ascent I felt lactic burning my legs. I made it to to surface feeling success. The dive was not pretty, but I made it. I was definitely out of my comfort zone and this affected a lot to the relaxation and performing at the best. My dive time was just 0:54 so I definitely sprinted. But I had no problem equalizing or with the depth. After a while I kinda reminded myself that in training for a sport you have to cross your comfort zone in regular basis. Next one will be easier.

My hasty 30m CWT

As part of my training and (hopefully) motivation I intend to write to this blog about training and possibly some other stuff involving freediving. In future I promise to keep my posts a bit shorter, but I wanted to provide some background to keep any possible readers interested. In just a year I've have come a long way. During the summer I did over 50 freediving sessions and now I am completely comfortable in quite cold water. I've done 4mins+ of static apnea (haven't really tried the max yet) and learned the important concepts of freediving safety and training. My first goal was to get 30m in CWT for this year and I achieved it. For the winter I would like to achieve 5mins in static and really concentrate on dynamic training which, for now, I aim to do 100m. I have tried my mono only for few times, so I need to learn the basic technique first.