Winter day

I woke up this morning and the sun is shining brightly. No clouds anywhere and it's perfectly still. You can tell by the smoke and vapor towers rising from the neighbours chimney. It's also -27c cold. It is bright and shimmering like someone threw some glitter into the air. Perfect mid winter day. Oh yeah and we are planning some diving under ice. Maybe not just today...

I've been slacking from the training. I haven't done any statics since last year. I think it's time to start those. I did one big dive two weeks ago and had a break last weekend. The distances have taken too much of concentration recently and I think I have to go back to basics. Co2 tables. I did today 6x25 with single breath and added 2x25 with three breaths. Not very fun, but it's a drill which has good training effect.

I've been also practicing dnf which seems to take quite a long to build up solid kicks. I did easy 58m, which took 1m 20sec (not so good). I have to build speed and relaxation much more. But you got to start somewhere. I tried also some gliding and struggled but finished 25m with just a single arm pull and kick.

Next weekend is Goran Colak's course. There is two days of classroom, gym training and finally pool at sunday. I have very high expectations.  

Training day

Much has happened since change of the year. I made quick fix for my D3 interface (which I broke at Dahab) and got my profiles from the deep dives. It's funny how you can vividly re-live your dive through simple pixel graph through screen.

I got message that I was selected for the national team training ring. I originally did not intend to apply, but I was persuaded by my teammate who had also participated in it few years back. They selected twenty members to the ring and from it, the national team will be selected. I really had to consider my options. On the other hand the possibility to train with the best is tempting to say at least. Pressure and expectations to train hard weights in the other end of the scale. Pressure is not set by the team but by comparing myself to my peers at the training ring. My journey to freediving has been short but intense. I think my first training session at the pool was around 6-7 months ago.

I also set myself training targets for this spring. I've set monthly goals so, that I am targeting the national comp this spring. Most important goal is to get successful dives from it. Another challenge is DNF, which I haven't done at all yet. I've just started to practice it and getting my kicks and relaxation in order is going to need lot's of repetitions. At the first weekend of February I will be participating to first training course lead by Goran Colak. As much as I expect to learn from him, I expect as much to talk and meet people in the national team and to learn from them.

Last friday I did flow exercise (Kars' frog flow from youtube / deeperblue) at the 4m pool and managed to do easy 1m 54s dive, which is the longest non-static dive for me. 

Today was another training day. I had previously decided that it would be time to do first long dive of the year with mono. I prepared, stretched and relaxed. I had already started to feel pressure when I started packing my stuff at home. I had set monthly target for dynamic for January and I don't have any other free weekends to do it. I did not set it to this dive, but I did set a dive time target for 1m45s. I fixed my D3 to alarm it. Setting target for new distance in dynamic is difficult. You're pushing for unknown territory and the first dive to new distance is usually the hardest. Your mind starts making excuses why you should not do the dive. Maybe you could do a easy 75m instead. Maybe no safeties will show up. Well, a safety showed up and I had no excuses. I get strong confidence from the training which cancels the doubts. This is why I have trained. I relax by the pool, breath-up, descent the the end of the pool, fill the lungs and go. Soon as I am in the water the doubts disappear.  Instead of concentrating on the distance, I concentrate on the kicks. I keep counting the kicks for each 25m, relaxed turns and I avoid tensing up. Lactics kick in between 50m and 75m. There's no urgency I just wait for the alarm and keep diving. After 100m the lactics get really strong but it does not bother me. I come up at 130m after the turn. I concentrate on the breathing and protocol. I feel fine. I felt that there was still lot's left in the tank, but I wanted to leave something for the next month too...

Almost all of my dives have been successful in depth and dynamic. Only discipline where I haven't been able to exceed and improve constantly has been static. In dynamic and cwt there will be failure eventually. I am not being negative about it, just thinking realistically. I think it would be possible to prepare a recovery plan which you can review when it might happen. This would include something in the lines of positive reinforcement, taking a break and lowering the expectations and while giving the body more time to adapt.



 

In the year 2012...

So Dahab is now thing in the past. I did my last dives in the morning just before the flight back to home. I had difficulty to sleep on the previous night knowing it is the last dive session. Guys at the FDD picked me up from the hotel on the way to the blue hole. Stefan and Luc were diving with me again today. My dives were getting deeper, so we talked that I should do just two deep dives. I was also pressed for time. We set the rope to 45m and after two warm-ups I was ready to go. It was calm morning and the blue hole was quiet. Visibility was the best on the whole trip. It is strange feeling, when in water you start feeling dizzy like on the top of tall building.

I was ready to go and snapped in the lanyard to the rope. Ten slow breaths. Three deep breaths with slowly exhaling. Duck dive and go. Ten kicks until 17m depth alarm. Three more kicks and I close my eyes and start to freefall. Feeling of urgency overwhelms me: I think I am not freefalling fast enough. Few more kicks. I can see the plate. 45sec dive alarm goes of. I touch the plate and turn. Five strong kicks and I straighten my hands above my head and start moving fast towards the surface. I am happy to meet my safety around 20m. Things start to lighten up and I relax and grab the float. Three breaths at the surface and I am perfectly fine. I am unhappy about the freefall, but happy about the new PB.

I decide to do another dive. Everything goes similar like the first dive on the way down. With the exception on the turn. I look directly towards the mesmerizing void. It is the arch. This image burns permanently to my brain. On the way up I feel staggered but feel uncontrollable urge to smile. If there was something set as a goal for this trip, I feel this was it. On the way up from the water I grin like a maniac. I still do when I think about it...


I want to thank Freedive Dahab, Linda, Lotta, Stefan, Luc and Sergio who dove with me. I do hope Dahab will stay as beautiful in future.

Dahab part 5

No words required.