Splash

No Drama Freediving

2011-10-24T03:32:00.000-07:00

This thing has been bothering me for a while. There seems to be a bit of a careless/daredevil attitude with some Freedivers, which I think has a bigger impact on the wider community than most people would dare to admit. Now I don't mean to sound like a moral authority, and I'm not really in a position to give people advice on how they should or should not act, but after all this is my blog so I can rant here all I want!

And even do a hand stand if I feel like it.

Anyway, a few months back I was planning a trip to Egypt, and the closer I was getting to it, the more I was feeling weird about it. I had set myself a depth goal, and had trained quite hard for a few months to make it happen, but a little devil in the back of my head was telling me that something was not right. Looking back, I can point to a few concrete elements:
- There were a few deaths last year, especially in the no limits/variable weight disciplines.
- There were a few close calls, including a couple of deep blackouts requiring a few minutes of CPR, and leaving the safety divers and audience quite in shock. Of course all of them were claiming how safe their attempts were, and how amazing they are as Freedivers.
- More closely to me: in the quest to become "Australia's deepest man", a few Freedivers did some pretty scary things that went against the most basic safety principles, thankfully without consequences. And that led to officially recognised records (which, to me, points to serious flaws with AIDA - which was confirmed by their lack of interest when we tried to raise issues with our national body here in Australia).
- The last time I had so many doubts about the sport was when I first started. In Australia's first competition, we saw something like 5 blackouts in 2 days, which was a pretty ugly sight.

In the end it looks like I was scared of becoming stupid enough to push myself to the point of blackout or squeeze just to get a number. After all, it had happened last year. I was glad to discover there was still some sense in me, as I spent the whole trip trying to find a scalable way to build up the numbers without obsessing about the results, while witnessing this issue with other divers ("I need to do this number to get a good ranking", or "if I don't do this I'll be so ashamed", etc.).

I think we should not underestimate the impact of our actions as Freedivers on our peers. Every time I see a blackout, it sends me back months. The main issue is that the diver who just blacked out will be fine... He/she has no recollection of the events! The safety divers were the ones who had to endure seeing him/her convulsing, foaming, blue, eyes rolled back!

Don't forget that every time you are rescued from a blackout, the safety diver actually saves your life. Put more bluntly with no one to safety you, you would just be dead. To me, that's not light stuff, or something we should accept as a normal part of training. I have heard of quite a few freedivers in shock after rescuing someone from or witnessing a BO, and turning early because of this on their following dives (does it ring any bells to the brave ones at the WC in Kalamata?).

Here are the values I try to pass on to my training buddies here:
- Approach your training and your performances gradually to ensure you do not end up blacking out or with a massive squeeze. In other words, dive within your limits. Try to set your PBs knowing that it is below what you could actually do if you were pushing to the limits. If you don't do it for you, do it for your training buddies.
- If you black out, treat it as an exception, and a serious one. It's an indication you have just been stupid about how good you thought you were, and were brought back to reality. Most importantly, apologise to your safety divers: you just made them less likely to enjoy their next dives. It's now your duty to make sure they are comfortable in the water again.
- Do not dive if you are sick or injured. Respect your body, and give it time to heal. Your mind doesn't control your body, the two are closely inter-related and feed each other.
- If you really feel like you have to prove something to everyone and go for a record attempt, that's fine. But don't push past your limits! Approach it with the same care as you do for other PB attempts, with an even greater margin.

Anywho, end of the rant, back to positive stuff: if you haven't seen this video from Jacques, now is time!!! Full HD, sound system so high it will wake up your neighbours:

I wish you all good and positive dives!

Another door unlocked

2011-10-20T02:48:00.000-07:00

The guys at Sydney Freedivers organised a max night, an evening where all Freedivers are welcome to try a big swim with proper safety and a competition like setting, just a bit more relaxed. As you probably already know if you've been reading this blog over the past couple of months, I haven't spent much time training in the pool lately.

I had tried to do big swims before leaving for Dahab, but the results were not that good. I managed to swim a relatively easy 175 meters, but was bailing out on all attempts to go further, usually at 50m or 100m. It was not the first time it happened to me, so it was not that surprising, but even when you're used to it it creates a lot of frustration, and doubt settles in. By the end of it, just thinking about chlorine made me want to puke, and each training session was quite draining (over-training anyone?). I left for Dahab without a big swim, and with no idea how to overcome this wall.

Since back in Sydney, I only trained in the pool once, to ease back into it, and was quite surprised at how enjoyable it felt... So I decided to register for the max night, and see how far I could go after this break from the pool. I was in for a surprise!

I didn't think much of the swim during the day. Stress only started kicking in about an hour from the swim, but it was back with a vengeance. The ingredients that form the best condition for my biggest swims were all there: stress, elevated heart rate (120-130), dry mouth, what felt like a mild fever, agitation, trouble focusing. Yep, that's not what you read in Freediving manuals, but that's definitely what works for me.

I was the second swimmer up, and only had about 10 minutes between the time I started putting my suit on and my official top. In the water 5 minutes before the swim, I felt quite bad, but knew this was good. Not knowing what to expect in terms of target, but leaving the door open to 200 + turn + 4 kicks (as my previous PB was 200), I focused on doing absolutely nothing: no special breathe up, no warm up, no focused thoughts, just looking at the other end, trying to empty my head.

The swim went incredibly well from here: outside of the typical thoughts of giving up early (at 50m: "maybe I should come up at 150", etc.), my daemons were really quiet this time. I had seen Ron come up at 160m (cheeky bastard), which gave me a good incentive to turn at 150 and go at least to 175 (you know, pride and all that). At the wall I realised I was fine, so turned and felt the lactic acid kicking in. I accelerated and did the 175-200 segment using constant kicking. The lactic burn was here, but nowhere near as bad as some of the ascents from deep dives. At the following wall, I still felt super clear, so decided to stick with my plan, turn, and come up after 4 kicks.

That's where things went radically different from what I was expecting. Instead of breathing like a mad man, I took 2 breaths, recovered instantly, and did my surface protocol. For a PB swim of 209 meters. No heavy breathing, no confusion, a bit of lactic kickback but miles away from the effects of my first 200m! Weird? Maybe not so much. After all, I had trained a lot in the pool earlier in the year, and just came back from a month of doing nothing else but doing deep dives and being a bum the rest of the time. Of course my performances had to increase. But this time I felt a door unlock: where before I felt like it would be hard to go further than 200m, I now know I can swim much further than this if I can reproduce the same mental disposition before the swim - 225m would have been a piece of cake in terms of oxygen yesterday!

So stay tuned, at the risk of jinxing it, I'm really keen to go for another big one soon. PB season is ON!!

A special note to all Freedivers who swam on that night: 12 personal bests with 8 swims over 100m is quite impressive!!! Great vibe too, a much better environment to try a bigger swim than any competition I went to. Here's the board with results:

A few quick conclusions:
- Training often in the pool is probably not necessary to prepare for a big swim. I actually feel like there is a point after which it becomes detrimental: once you're in shape, having contractions in training means fighting at a time where it's not necessary - better keep it for the big one.
- In any case, doing nothing a week before the swim is a good idea. Resting: the under-rated part of Freediving training
- Not everyone needs to have the same style: soft blades and long swims are not for me, I like fast swims and harder blades.
- Meditation exercises seem to work to get between the instinct (daemons) and the reaction
- Yoga really helps to delay lactic pain and make the initial part of the swim more efficient
- Time does work wonders in Freediving: any ceiling you reach, give it enough time, it will go away!

Some more technical data for the geeks:
- The swim was fast, 7 kicks per 25 meters - kick kick glide.
- Waterway Glide fin. I reverted back to my blade with stiffness #3 (medium) which is better suited to my diving style than my other blade #2 (soft).
- I used a BlueSeventy Descent suit, which is probably the best suit around for the arms up position - it's actually hard to keep your arms down or you look like the Michelin man
- Full breath with 7 small packs
- 6Kg weight: 4 on the neck, 2 on the waist

Lessons Learnt: how I (re)discovered deep diving!

2011-09-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe this trip is ending already... I was just getting in the mood! In terms of numbers, the result is not very impressive: 1 more meter to the PB I set last year. But yet again, numbers often lie. In terms of experience, this trip is definitely the best freediving trip I did, by far.

The past two trips to Dahab basically just helped me identify how far I could go without working on much. On the first one I went from 45 meters to 71, on the second from 71 to 91 - this time feeling like I was getting close to my limits. All in all, I did not experiment with much back then: same breathing routine, same warm-up routine, same training cycle, resting days, etc.

Sahika, ascending from a dive

The fun really started this year. I did quite a few difficult dives with hypoxia or mental fuck ups, and also very easy ones with ecstatic feelings and laughing like a mad man during the surface protocol. I tried different breathing techniques, ending up discarding all of them. I tried reducing the number of warm-ups, and diving without any warm-up. I took four days to recover from a dive, and five minutes to recover from a dive 4 meters deeper. I tried fast dives, and slow ones. Many theories, ideas, questions are now running through my head. I cannot cease to be amazed at my ability to pull through some very deep dives like it was nothing, and at the same time terrified by my ability to ruin other dives without much control.

Let me share a few findings with you:

Numbers
Numbers mean absolutely NOTHING in deep diving. Lock a number of parameters: swell, wind, temperature, currents, rest, etc. Two dives to the same depth may feel completely different: like a walk in the park, or like hell with a very long time to recover. My easiest dives this trip were 80m, 85m, and 92m. The hardest ones were 86m, 88m and 89m. You already know this, and so did I but never actually had experienced it in the past with deep diving: anxiety at depth definitely leads to more oxygen consumption.

Stress
Stress prior to a performance is much preferred in my case, that is a finding I made in the pool which came true in deep diving. If I am too relaxed before the dive, anxiety can catch me at the bottom. If I am stressed at the surface I become way more alert during the dive, and my head stays cool at the bottom, leading to a very pleasant ascent.

Breathe ups
You don't really need to breathe up. You may feel more relaxed after 2 minutes of slow inhale, slower exhales, but in fact I think it is just because you are conditioning your body and mind to be ready at the end of this because of repetition. If you get used to not breathing up any particular way, after a few dives you can reach the same state of relaxation just by being close to your dive time. As it prevents you from hyperventilating, that's a plus!

Wendy, relaaaaaxed!

Warm-ups
I have mixed feelings with the no warm-up approach. On the one hand, the theory says it helps trigger a stronger dive reflex. On the other hand, the chest is much less flexible, and the body takes more of a hit, increasing recovery time quite drastically. The body being stiffer means that equalisation routines can become more difficult. All in all, I think it depends on how your body reacts to this approach, and how much time you can train in deep waters. If I was living in front of a blue hole, I would probably train very gradually and progressively use this approach. In the meantime, one warm-up works great.

Narcosis
Last year I was quite terrified of narcosis. It actually made me wonder if I should stop deep diving altogether. The lack of rational thinking and losing track of time and space can be somewhat scary for some ;-) This year, I think I found an approach which works: first, I don't fight narcosis on the way down, but just let it happen, invade my head and my body, and use it to disconnect during the glide. At the bottom, I focus on a very simple task: counting kicks, in cycles. If I do this straight from the bottom, without letting the time for fear to kick in, then I just get in a rhythm and the ascent is very pleasant. It looks like whatever happens during the bottom turn conditions the rest of the dive. Focusing on a task keeps the head from going all over the place!

Speed
I have experienced both slow and fast ascents now, and have had good and bad dives with both. In the end, I really don't think it makes that much of a difference. With fast dives, what you lose with burning more energy you gain in dive time. My 88m dive was done in 2'46, the 92 meter one in 2'32. The second one was much easier. Plus, honestly, it's so much fun to put the monofin to good use!

Greg discovering the wonders of the Blue Hole

Rest
Rest is probably the biggest key in depth training. I previously thought that 1 day on, 1 day off was quite conservative. I now know I cannot keep up with this rhythm for too long: after a couple of weeks the fatigue kicks in. New recipe: 1 day on, 1 day off, 1 day on, 2 days off. And if you have the luxury of diving all year round: 1 to 2 dive sessions a week! It's especially important when you're busting big dives, as it takes a while for your head to be ready for another fight, especially if you have been experiencing hypoxia! And if you wake up in the morning dreading the dive and not wanting to go at all - which is different from wanting to do it but being stressed by it - then postpone by a couple of days!

Repetition
If a dive was really hard, take a day of rest and try the exact same depth (or even knock out a meter or two). You may be amazed by the difference. Repetition gives you the opportunity to build a lot of confidence to tackle new depths. If the new dive felt just as hard, then just try it again. At some point, it will feel dead easy, and you can add more meters again.

Packing
At some point, I thought I was getting hypoxic just because I was hitting my limit in oxygen consumption, and that packing may be necessary to go deeper. Based on the last dive, it looks like if I need to change anything, it's in my head (only one breath to recover from a 92m dive). Packing is not necessary for equalisation, and you can do without it for oxygen too.

Blackouts
I still think one should not push to the point of blackout. It took me a while to recover mentally from my one and only blackout last year. This year, I got hypoxic a number of times, but did not push unnecessarily (or stupidly like I did last year in CNF).

All in all, a really good trip, and I now feel like I have so much more in the tank! When's the next trip??

You were right Jacques, it's beautiful down there. Take me back.

2011-09-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

(from the movie, the Big Blue:-))
Wow, it was worth the wait! 4 days without deep dives, aka rest, can do wonders. Today I did a personal best - it had been a while - of 92 meters, and the dive felt so easy!

Just before we get into that, watch this amazing video from Jacques de Vos, cameraman/safety diver/deep diver/instructor/rock star, from the last dive at the Canyon - take the time to load it and watch it in HD and full screen, sound system blasting, it's really worth it!

Back to the dive. As usual, the dive itself contrasted with how I felt before the dive. I didn't sleep too well, tried meditating without success after waking up, did my stretching routine without being too inspired, and even pulled a muscle in my back (WOOPS). I had somehow decided that it would be my last deep CWT dive of this trip, and was ready to turn around halfway through it if it was not feeling good. In the water, I went back to one warm up, was quite surprised at how mouthfilling and equalising was (my chest was completely released), but still couldn't stop my head from thinking too much. Waiting at the surface before the duck dive was a bit excruciating, I took a last breath..... Only to let it go a second later.... One more, fuck it, duck dive!

I fin slowly in the first 20 meters, arms overhead, and feeling quite tense. I do my mouthfill and then realise how flexible my chest is today. Huge mouthfill = cool dive, no? YES! From there onwards I focus on every part of my body to ask it to relax: shoulders: check, arms: check, chest: check, back: check, legs: check. BIP BIP BIP! Ha, that is my alarm at 50 meters! I turn to face the arch. Committed to the dive, and feeling narcosis invading me, I close my eyes, go completely numb, and let go of the outcome. I am neither here nor there, it's like I dissolve in water...

The marks on the rope showing that the bottom weight is approaching take me by surprise. So much so that I actually don't do anything for a second or two. I then wake up and remember to come close to the rope, and grab it for my bottom turn when seeing the tennis ball.

No panic at the bottom, no bad thoughts, I am serene because I focus on a routine which works: counting my kicks: 5 fast kicks arms by the side, put the arms overhead, 10 fast kicks, 10 slow kicks, 5 fast kicks, 5 slow kicks, etc. I hear Jacques meeting me at 30 meters, with a mouthfill sound. He catches me in the middle of a cycle of 5 slow kicks. Too bad for him, the fast one starts just afterwards, sending me skyrocketting!

At some point I bump into the float (eh?) and find myself at the surface. One big breath, goggles, noseclip, "I'm OK... BAHAHAHAHAHA!!". As usual on a good dive, an ecstatic feeling invades me and I am laughing stupidly. I realise very quickly that I am not tired at all after this dive, quite the contrary. And on a PB! Now THAT is a great feeling!!

I must say that the more I freedive, the less I understand how it works. This dive was 4 meters more than the last one, which was quite horrible. And this one felt so much easier it's a joke. Well, at least it helps me validate that one warm-up, and fast kicking, is definitely my style for now. Here's the profile, compared with the slow 88m from last time. Vroooooooom!

No Warm-up: to be continued...

2011-09-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone is a bit different in the way they can tackle Freediving. We all start with different mental and athletic abilities, and need to keep tuning things as we adapt and get closer to our limits. Talking to various Freedivers gave me the opportunity to identify some of my strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:
- Equalisation
- Lactic tolerance
- Ability to handle pre-dive stress
- Intense relaxation in the descent: I forget where I am so never think of turning around

Weaknesses:
- Recovery time
- Anxiety at depth when coming up, especially when unexpected things happen
- Lack of confidence/trust in my own abilities
- Narcosis: although it is way better this year, no major problems from it, and if you have been following my trip last year, you'll know that it is a big win for me.

I was very enthusiastic with the no warm-up routine, and it may have saved me from a blackout on my last deep dive. However, what I had already identified in the swimming pool with big dynamics also came true for deep diving: if you don't warm up, you increase drastically the time it takes to recover, both physically and mentally, from a dive.

Following my last dive to 88 meters, two days of rest before the next training session were in order. But even after that, I woke up yesterday not wanting to go for a deep dive at all, even dreading it, which is very unusual for me when living in Freediving paradise. So to break off the intensity of training (after all, I had done six dives between 80 and 90, trying various changes, in the past couple of weeks), I went for an easy CNF session, followed by a great snorkel at "El Bells". Another day of rest, and I should be good to go tomorrow. That makes almost four days of rest in between deep dives.

I have never been one to recover very fast from trainings, in fact it's quite the opposite: I quickly reach the point of burn out in the swimming pool, a lot faster than most of my peers. This does not work well with how I can organise my depth training, by one month chunks. The "one day on, one day off" routine seems to work OK for a while, requiring a couple more days off here and there, but only as long as I don't drain my body and head of their resources, which I feel diving without a warm-up has the potential to do.

If I were to live all year round in front of the Blue Hole that would be a different story. Ideally, I would only train once or twice a week, leaving plenty of time to build up the stamina required for the next dive. It is likely I could then use the no warm-up routine and yield better results. However for the moment I have to deal with the cards I have been given. So for me, it's back to "one warm-up then dive" for the remainder of this trip. I only have three deep dive sessions left, and want to enjoy them as much as I can before heading back to the rat race!

Err, can you repeat the question please?

2011-09-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Alright, the upside of changing many things in a dive routine is that unexpected things can happen. The downside is that unexpected things can happen too, leaving you with little idea of what actually happened. I'm sure you heard of the good ol' boring scientific approach: change one parameter at a time, measure the impact, blah blah blah (yawn). Well, yesterday's dive was a bit of a fuck up. If I had only changed one thing, I would know why that is, but as I didn't, it leaves me with the opportunity to develop a thesis with conflicting theories, which is way more fun.

Alright, let me get straight to the point. But first, a little break.

Don't you just love the Canyon??

So, errr, where was I? Yes, the infamous dive. I had decided to stick to the no warm-up routine, feeling it had the potential to make me survive a longer hypoxic state, at the detriment of being more tired after the dive. As I did 80 super easily at the previous attempt, I ask Stefan (my safety diver) to put the rope to 90. And then I decide to do the whole dive with the arms by my side (instead of the more streamlined arms-over-the-head), including on the way down, for the first time. Why? Beats me.

Anywho, the initial part of the descent is (predictably) quite a bit harder during the fight with buoyancy, and I kick harder and longer than usual before reaching 20 meters. The downside is not long to discover: as I am quite tense, I cannot mouthfill properly. Actually, to be more accurate, I fuck up the mouthfill completely. What follows is the realisation that I will not make it to the bottom. It's now down to waiting for the air to run out before turning around. The descent is not that peaceful, there is a sense of alertness which is a bit too vivid, and probably quite energy consuming. Now, I don't think about that on the whole descent, but there are three main events:
1. making the mouthfill: not enough air, diaphragm tense. Woops.
2. when the air runs out earlier than usual in the cheeks and I switch to Frenzel. Re-woops
3. when the air runs out completely. I can't say woops anymore, no air left.
I turn around, and realise I'm only 2 meters from the bottom plate. Not too bad for a fucked up mouthfill!

Unrelated photo, adding a "je ne sais quoi" to the description of this dive

Now, I discover a downside to visualisation techniques: the lack of a plan when things go wrong. I had visualised the perfect dive over and over in my head, but not situations like this. In my dreams, I was kicking slowly, arms by my side, the whole way up. And, well, that is exactly what happened. Except that my head was not in the right place. So I was back to the usual "I hope to reach my safety diver before blacking out", but kicking up sloooowly as planned. That lead a longer state of anxiety, which was not that pleasant.

At 40 meters, I realise that things are not that smooth, and my body reminds me what happened on my first and only blackout. The sensations are the same. I am now not anxious any more about blacking out, I KNOW I am going to. One parameter I had not counted on is the fact that I did not do any warm-up. And I think it saved me! I manage to make it to the surface, breathe like a mad man, remove my goggles, noseclip, say "FUCK", and keep breathing (I didn't have the heart to say "I'm OK", that would have been an outright lie). Strong lactic kick back. A few minutes of deep breathing, some oxygen, and I was fine. Tired, but fine.

Looking at my watch, I then realised I had done a PB: the longest deep dive I have ever done: 2'47, with a dive profile that is looking very text book (compared to the faster 89m done a few days ago, fresh at the surface):

Alright, lessons of the day:
- Arms up is probably best: more hydrodynamic = less kicks on the way up
- I should not change the initial part of the descent. After all, my biggest strength is equalisation, so I should ensure this routine is not impacted for the moment.
- No warm-up still seems to be the way. At least I didn't find a reason to change it yet.
- One change at a time, please. Otherwise it's hard to know what's going on.
- Fuck text book stuff. I like fast dives. Sue me.

What's next? I still feel tired from the dive the day after, both physically and mentally, so a couple of days of rest are in order. Some snorkelling today, nothing at all tomorrow, and then back to it.

Big Brother is watching you

To No Warm-up or not to No Warm-up?

2011-09-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

Before reading any further, a disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! With no warm-ups the risk of squeeze is increased. Unless you know what you are doing, or are a bit nut (my case), there are a lot of other things to try before this.

I kept reading about this no warm-up thingie, and my experience with it in the pool was quite amazing, however I've always been a bit wary of trying it at depth. I don't get that much exposure to depth, which means that there is only a short time every year where I can experiment with things, and that I can't get the chest/trachea flexibility that someone living in front of the Blue Hole all year long would have.

But in the end, knowing I had experienced some level of hypoxia, I wanted to ensure I had the routine that would best preserve oxygen before adding meters to my PB. Something that could scale, as I'm not ready to push it for the sake of pushing it. There are two things I cannot accept: squeezes and blackouts. To me, having them means having pushed ridiculously past one's limits. As I'm not looking for a record, or any form of official recognition, I'll continue with my gradient approach to depth, fixing problems as they come, and adding meters when I feel I'm ready. If the numbers follow, even better!

After having experimented with warm-ups, reducing them to one, and breathing routines, by getting rid of them altogether, I felt it was time to give it this no warm-up technique (or lack thereof) a go. So today we put the rope back up to 80 meters, and I spent a considerable amount of time working on chest flexibility with the uddiyana bandha.

The Master, and the Freediver

The idea was to dive as far as I could until I felt pressure on my chest, and then turn around, to prevent any form of squeeze. In the water, I spent 5-10 minutes breathing facing up. Which meant I had to try the famous sausage for the first time. I spent the last couple of minutes breathing through my snorkel.

Now I know why Freedivers keep holding each other's sausages...

Still with my snorkel, slow last breath, and duck dive. The first 20 meters were a bit weird, my head not too sure of what to expect, very alert. I executed my mouthfill routine, not quite as relaxed as I usually do, and then focused on relaxing my body and going completely numb. It worked, and at 50 I heard my alarm, telling me to turn to face the arch. The narcosis, and the relaxation that followed, were simply put AMAZING. I was narked, but alert, very intense feelings of well being, but listening to what my body was telling me. I started feeling discomfort in my throat, and knew it was because of the lack of warm up, so I decided to give it a few meters to see how it went, and locked my head down to reduce the volume in my throat, while checking that my chest was OK. The discomfort passed.

I started hearing an intermittent high pitch sound, and thought straight away that dolphins must be around. I forgot about this, glided down, and turned at the bottom plate.

This is when things went radically different from all my past dives: usually, for a moment it feels like my body goes in automatic mode and kicks hard from the bottom until I regain control and start counting my kicks. Not this time! My mental state stayed EXACTLY the same as when gliding down: intense relaxation, state of bliss, and connection with the moment. I was not bursting for air, or even thinking about getting to the surface, I just got into a slow and relaxed kicking rhythm, arms by my side, looking straight ahead.

This is where narcosis played another trick on me, but the most beautiful one. I saw a big fish in the distance, swimming away, and I made an immediate connection with the high pitch noise heard on the way down. So here I was, in front of the arch, staring at a dolphin moving gracefully across the arch... I will never know if it was real or not, but I am very thankful for this.

Meeting Jacques, my safety diver, was not a relief as usual, just part of the process. I slowed down, and arrived at the surface. Sometimes I get this blurry feeling in the last few meters, but this time I was extremely clear. I had read this about the no warm-up technique (mental clarity when surfacing), but didn't expect it to feel so good. One breath, protocol, still in a haze... Check out my reaction upon surfacing, completely gone, and very blonde :-)

Now, check out this dive profile, compared to the 89 meters from 2 days ago. Notice any difference? Speedy Gonzales is dead. Long live Speedy Gonzales!

After talking with Jacques, I realise such strong effects may be simply because I tried this technique for the first time, so got the best out of it. Maybe it will be more difficult on the next dives. Time will tell, and I will tell you at this time :-)

Just to sum up the changes from the past few days:
- No more warm ups
- No more pre-dive specific breathe ups (exhale longer than the inhale, etc.) but hypo ventilation instead.
- No more purge breaths
- Added meditation in the morning
- Added more uddiyana bandhas for chest flexibility
- Dedicated more time to visualisation
All of that tested in the 80 to 90 range.

What a Difference a Day Makes...

2011-09-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

After the last dive I must say I was quite concerned with how to could increase depth if I was already borderline with oxygen levels. It sent me back a few months back, I had done a CNF dive to 58m and came out feeling dizzy, which I later identified as being hypoxia (blackout at 61m the next day). So feeling this dizziness again was not such a positive feeling and made me quite anxious about the following dive.

Like it happened in the past with big swims in the pool, I knew I had to change my routine drastically if I wanted to yield good results. What I also learnt in the past is that if the change is good, the results show very fast, if not, then I usually stumble for a while until realising it's not the way to go. Lastly, I had to try any change on a dive no deeper than the one I had just done, so I knocked a meter out.

At the same time, I was a bit concerned with changing my dive routine. After all, this routine has been exactly the same for the past two years:
- Full lung warm up followed by 2 FRC dives in the mid 20s
- Breathing pattern: inhale for 5 seconds, exhale for 10, repeat for a few minutes
- Just before the dive: 3 big breaths, purge breath, then slow inhale to max.
Mentally I was feeling ready when all these things were done. Except that I now suspected they were a big part of the problem.

Well, it doesn't hurt to try new things, and I like to travel light. So today I decided to get rid of most of it. That left me with:
- One FRC warm-up for chest flexibility
- No conscious breathing pattern: just a normal breath, the same one I have now writing this article.
- Just before the dive: no more big breaths. Just a slow inhale to max before the duck dive.
That's for the physical part.

Now for the mental part: I went back to visualisation techniques, for about an hour this morning. I felt this was a necessity: knowing I was planning on changing so many things in the preparation made me just a tad anxious (HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA). I knew I had to change two things:
1. The fight with narcosis on the way down. To solve this, on my visualisations, I kept repeating "let go, let go, let go" when the narcosis started.
2. The panic effect I get on the way up, bad because it is usually coupled with an internal dialogue on how I should try to meet my safety diver before blacking out, and because it can send me to an irrational sprint - not a controlled one... To solve this, I visualised breaking my kicking pattern in chunks: 10 fast kicks, 10 slow kicks, 5 fast kicks, 5 slow kicks. That would get me out of the deep zone and then everything would be fine. I also repeated, when visualising this part, "it's OK, it's OK, it's OK" - to prevent negative thoughts from entering my head and transform me into Speedy Gonzalez again.

And guess what? Everything happened as planned. I let the narcosis invade me, went to lala land, made a good bottom turn, executed the planned kicking routine without thinking and without any fear, without any irrational joy either. I did not anticipate anything more than what was happening, right now, during the dive. In the moment. I got back to the surface and was completely fine with one recovery breath, perfect surface protocol followed by a big laugh.

Now, have a look at the comparison between dive profiles:

Same depth as last time, same dive time, slightly longer descent, same ascent time. But two dives that are worlds apart! Worth noting is that I did not sprint on today's dive as much as I did on the previous dive. However, the ascent speed is EXACTLY the same. I'm still trying to get my head around this one...

A Tough Dive

2011-09-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, you get one of them. Mine was today. There are early symptoms which are relatively easy to spot: for me it is hard to concentrate when waking up, I keep forgetting thing, and my head is a bit all over the place. I am relaxed, and then stressed, and then relaxed, can't make up my mind on what attitude to keep. Today was such a day. Of course, on a day like this, as you know from experience that the dive will be a difficult one, the sensible thing would be to take it easy, rest for the day and postpone the dive to tomorrow, right? Bahaha, you're such a pussy!! Suck it up, let's go for it!

Anywho, here I am, breathing up, thinking "hey, maybe I should go for a no warm-up dive?" - something I've never done for depth. And then thinking "OK, I'll do that just after my warm-up". Hum hum... The first warm up feels super nice (oh uh, usually a bad sign), the second one feels quite bad (what the F), the third one starts OK and finishes not so nice (whatever). Breathe up, three purge breaths, and go.

The descent was really good up to about 60. Then narcosis did its usual trick. Except that this time, my head had decided to fight it. Honestly, does it have nothing better to do? In essence, I was doing like what you do when you want to stay awake but are really tired: focus really really hard on keeping your head alert, and focus on something (in my case, the rope). I can't say it worked for long, but I had my fight anyway. At some point, my guess is in the mid 70s, I meet a school of tuna, six or seven of them, very close to the rope, not more than a couple of meters away. At this point, I was completely gone, back in la la land, and as usual I forget what I am doing (ooooh, shinyyyyyy). I arrive at the tennis ball hanging on top of the bottom weight (86m), turn around, and start my ascent.

This one was pretty similar to what I was doing last year: let's call it "The Return of Speedy Gonzales". Bad thoughts entered my head. In order:
- "Am I ever going to get past this school of tuna?"
- "I hope I get to my safety diver before I blackout"
- "My legs are going to give up"
- "Oooh, the top of the arch, yooohooooo"
- "blr bgfd, errr... brl?"
I get past my safety diver - imagine a high speed train passing the station you're waiting at without stopping - and exit the water. It's surprising I didn't breach and do a back flip. Three big breaths, goggles, OK sign, "I'm OK... Shit!", noseclip, OK sign, "I'm OK!". Confused , are we?? No samba, but a very unprofessional exit.

Check out the following graph, with my dive from a couple of days back superposed with this one.

80 vs 86. And the winner is... ?

Alright, it looks like that was a close one, and I've got the following parameters to work with:
- 1. Equipment: I'm still diving with my 3mm nylon suit with 1.5Kg weight, which makes for slower dives. Maybe time to switch to smooth skin and 1Kg.
- 2. Breathing up: time to stop purge breaths, which is a sort of, hum hum, hyperventilation
- 3. Stop trying to fight narcosis: go with the flow, let go, preserve oxygen on the way down.
- 4. On the way up: keep a fast pace at the bottom, but slow down from 30-40. It worked wonders last time.
- 5. On the rest day: REST. Don't go filming people, taking photos, providing safety for deep dives, etc.
Next dive: back to the same depth, using my own advice. If all is good, then back to 90 soon.

There are a couple more parameters, which I keep for later:
- No warm ups. Why not, it works in the pool, and I'm flexible again so not scared of squeezing.
- Packing. Bahahahaha, just kidding. Come on, let's be serious.

Alright, back to sleep, my activity for the next 40 hours. What are you still doing here??? Nothing better to do??? Piss off!

Warming up to it

2011-09-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

That's it, after six months of pool training, and way too many days stuck in an office starting at a screen or attending countless meetings in windowless rooms, I am finally back to diving in Egypt with Freedive Dahab!

The place is pretty quiet: most of my fellow freedivers are heading to Kalamata, Greece, for the world championships. I saw a few here, looking pretty dedicated and ready for action. There are 144 (?!!) freedivers going there, which apparently makes it the biggest competition ever organised, so it probably would be a great place to meet the world's best. However I'll give it a pass. You already know what I think of competitions, and on top of that I never really enjoyed travelling with a huge crowd - the thought of diving next to 20 other divers at the same time gives me goose bumps. Nevertheless, I wish the best to everyone, and hope the organisation is up to the task! Even though I cannot imagine how it could be different from this:

Taken from a Freedive Dahab T-Shirt, but oh so appropriate :-)

As for me, well, I'll have the Blue Hole all to myself... Thanks guys!!

Anti-social diver

It is now the end of the first week, and with three weeks to go things are shaping up quite nicely. After a couple of days fighting with the jetlag and a super stiff body due to THIRTY ONE HOURS spent travelling from Australia (who the hell decided to put it so far away??), the Blue Hole worked its magic and I am back to deep waters, with an amazing dive to 80 meters with a long glide in front of the arch this morning, and a few hours of snorkelling on the clock. If all goes well, I should be back to my personal best of 91 meters, set last year, within a week, leaving me two weeks to work on increasing it if conditions permit (Insha'Allah).

In Sydney waters you are limited to 25m depth, and this winter has been particularly bad - for freedivers, it was actually excellent for surfers with back to back strong swells - so I had very little time in the ocean to train on deep diving. For this reason I think it is worth mentioning how I prepared for this trip, as I guess a few freedivers like me are stuck to the swimming pool before going on holiday, wondering how to get ready.

D-6 months
For a few months, pool training is a good preparation, especially mentally. My training in the pool consists primarily of CO2 tables, delays, FRC swims and big swims (although the latter tends to lead me to quick burnout after a few attempts). I have a relatively low tolerance to CO2 with very early contractions (even at depth), so this training helps build up confidence. In the ocean, I basically just do fun dives with the occasional FRC or spearfishing session. You can find more details on training drills in previous posts on this blog.

D-3 months
Three months to departure I change the training routine to add sprints. This is due to my very fast diving style, it is not rare for me to sprint up at 1.8 to 2m/s from the bottom, leading to very strong bursts of lactic - and I like to feel confident that I can make it all the way up without my legs giving up. 100 to 125m underwater sprints, coupled with long surface swims with the monofin, work wonders!
If I can, I do more FRC sessions, however this time the ocean was punishing us, and without a flat day in sight, well, the only option was to go surfing. Poor me... (aren't I annoying sometimes?).

Almost there...

D-1 month
I stop all breath-hold and pool training, entirely. The idea is to leave my body and mind rest before the trip, it has always worked wonders in the past. Now, it is far from easy, usually when I stop intense physical activity I grow restless, and this time was no different. But rest is important, especially since I am planning to do deep dives for a few weeks, which can be very draining, both physically and mentally. I keep my bi-weekly Yoga practice, and use the uddiyana bandha every morning in the shower to try and get my diaphragm flexible, but that's it.

Now, to be honest I would have loved for a more productive mental rest, however work has this annoying capacity to get in the way of my diving every so often, this time particularly, so stress levels were pretty high, leaving me with no choice but to have to rest IN MY HOLIDAYS instead, can you imagine??

We're here!!
Back in deep water, things can unlock relatively fast if you are not stressed or too concerned about your performance early on. On my first dive, jetlagged and exhausted from the trip, I could not get past 30 meters, and couldn't even mouthfill at 20 at all. However, no problem to do FRC dives to 25 meters or more - the only exercise I could practice back home.

Knowing this, and not too keen on getting squeezed, I worked on increasing chest flexibility: many dives to 30 or so meters, mouthfilling at 10-15 meters, and gently topping up using a "Mmmm" sound every couple of meters until I couldn't bring any more air to my mouth. Swim up,and repeat. That and a few dives to 40 meters over the next couple of days did the trick, and I felt my chest releasing.

However, things can still go wrong at this time, especially with all the excitement of seeing this deep blue water, looking at everyone doing deep dives, and feeling so pumped to be in the Freediving Mecca! On the following dive I went to 46 meters, with a huge mouthfull of air left at the bottom plate. Seeing the top of the arch was too much: the next day I was back to 58 staring at it and feeling like things were back in control... With the last dives building up to 80 meters, I'm now truly warming up to the idea of going deep!!

The Arch...

One last thing I'd like to mention: whatever the target is on a dive, I always ask my safety diver to set the bottom plate at that depth, and this for a few reasons. First, because I tend to enter la la land fairly quickly and I usually wake up when I see the bottom plate. Second, I want to make a conscious decision to go to a particular depth, and not just go for a dive and see what happens. But more importantly, because I think that mentally it works wonders to reach the bottom weight every time, without having the impression of having turned early. This way, when I go for a PB, knowing that I only add 2 or 3 meters to my previous one, I never turn early (it only happened once, because of a failed mouthfill).

Well, that's all for now folks, thanks for tuning in, I'll keep you updated along the way. Best of luck to all the competitors in Kalamata, may you all be world champions. So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Freediving Egomania

2011-07-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of a tumultuous relationship with my ego, and can't really say that Freediving is helping. It seems that a lot of Freedivers are focused on competitions and record attempts, glorified forums enabling individuals to fight against each other for the chance to be officially called the one with the biggest one.

Surely, there has to be more to it than that. There are thousands of divers, why do we get so caught up in a race and forget that there is more to life than being the absolute best? Every once in a while you hear about a diver explaining how the water is beautiful and how he or she connected with the elements and blah blah blah, only to hear a little while later that he or she came back up to the surface spitting blood, or unconscious, during a record attempt, or trying a big dive in a competition that he or she achieved in training.

When you push your body to its limits, you need to be able to change your plans quickly based on conditions (ugly seas, feeling sick on the day, etc.), and not force yourself to complete a dive because of a white card and a hall of fame. In my opinion you can, and should, dive deep, even deeper than existing records, without the need to have it officially recognised by an organisation. Why should you worry so much about having your peers, and total strangers, recognise your feats? However I definitely believe in the notion of Personal Bests: I have nothing to prove to the world, only to myself, by overcoming fears, mastering techniques, and achieving something I thought was not possible.

To me the beauty of Freediving is linked to its total futility. That is why I sometimes struggle to respond when someone asks me "why are you doing this?", when discussing the performance aspects (as opposed to diving with sharks or turtles for example, which is a no brainer). Some things cannot be explained rationally, for example connecting with the moment, letting go of the outcome, losing the connection with time and space, or gliding endlessly forgetting about the sense of self. There is often a goal set before the dive starts, but it disappears after the first few strokes: the dive is just happening, moment after moment, and the connection back to the performance aspects only reappears upon surfacing (oh yeah, I went to that depth!).

The Deepest duck tape in the world. Probably the only duck tape with an ego!

The ego feeds on the numbers and achievements, and to me that is OK to an extent, as measuring improvement can help identify whether the process (training) is working. But fighting to do better than other people, to me, is foolish. Firstly because any record will always be beaten, and present performances will look pretty lame in the light of future records. But more importantly because performance in Freediving is not absolute: it is intimately linked to each freediver's physiological attributes or mental disposition, which make a dive easy for a diver, and dangerous for another. On top of that, the pleasures of Freediving can be felt at very different depths: last year, my dive buddy was explaining to me how he felt during his 36m dive, and it was bloody close to what I had in my dives past 80m.

Every once in a while (more often than not), I find myself victim of my ego, and start thinking about going for records or subscribing to a competition for the wrong reasons. I even go as far as talking about it with a couple of people, and sketching plans to make it happen. However, when I get back to my senses I really try hard not to fall in that trap, for example I have thus far managed to organise all my trips to Dahab outside of major competitions, and instead focus the trips on depth, through dives with friends. Not to say I'll never join a comp, they can be fun if they are not taken so seriously, and they can also help channel stress towards performance as I have experienced in the past. I just hope I won't find myself trying to compete against anyone but myself, and that I manage to keep it under control!

I wish you all great dives, and may you all break your PBs if that's what makes you tick, but most of all I hope you have fun in the process!

The Most Evil Freediving Drill. Ever.

2011-06-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I had seen it all, that there was a limit to how much pain one can endure during pool training. Well, I was wrong. Again. The funny thing is, it was due to a drill using swims that are no longer than 25 meters long. And it is seriously (pardon my French) fucked up.

Diver in pain

You all know what tables are, they are the most common Freediving training drill: you keep swimming the same distance (e.g. 50m) but progressively decrease your recovery time, making at least 8-10 swims. It is well known, it works to increase CO2 tolerance, but after a while, it gets boring, and easy, which we don't want.

This drill is a variation on the same theme: the purpose is to swim 10 laps of a 25m pool, taking just one breath every lap. To make it a bit more interesting, we want to make sure we have the same number of kicks we usually have on 50m of a normal kick/kick/glide. A good way to do that is to swim with full lungs, but no weights, and with constant kicking. The cherry on top of the cake, is you should also use a stiffer blade than usual to generate more lactic.

So, to summarise:
- Hard blade
- No weights
- Full breath
- No noseclip if you can stand it (just to add to the discomfort)
- Swim 25m, exhale on the last 3m, come up, take ONE breath, repeat
- Stop when you reach 10 swims (250m)
- Rest for 10 minutes
- Repeat (3 cycles should do)

The first couple of swims will be OK. However you will be surprised at how quickly it gets ugly afterwards. It should feel like you have exactly the same level of CO2 and lactic you are getting in a big swim of the same distance. I didn't even know contractions could ever become that bad!!

If you think you are going to bail out, don't stop, just take one extra breath each time, and complete the 10 swims. It may look like this:
- 25m, 1 breath
- 25m, 1 breath
- 25m, 1 breath
- 25m, 2 breaths
- 25m, 2 breaths
- 25m, 3 breaths, etc.
At some point you'll make it with one breath all the way.

I convinced a more novice diver to try this. I hope he got better, last time I saw him he was hiding in the change room, shaking, unable to talk. Ha well, I guess some collateral damage is acceptable if we want the sport to move forward ;-)

Good luck!! If you know of more evil pool training drills, feel free to send them through...

Ready, Set, STRESS!

2011-06-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

I keep reading on Freediving forums that a successful deep dive is all about relaxation. According to popular thinking, you should be relaxed before and during the dive, otherwise you consume too much oxygen, you can't mouthfill properly, and you fail your dive. Although this holds some truth, in my view this is an oversimplification, and in some cases it is just plain wrong.

If I wanted this post to be effective and make its point, the best way to start would be to define what relaxation means. Unfortunately, I just cannot find the right definition. A good start would be "the state of being free from tension and anxiety". Let's leave it at that.

Now, I agree that during the dive, I get better results when in a state of complete physical relaxation. If my body is not completely relaxed, it is likely that equalisation will not work to its full potential, either because I cannot mouthfill as deep, or because I run out of air to equalise at the end of the descent, even though I dived deeper with the same amount of air before.

Where I disagree is when someone tells me I need to relax before a performance, or that I need to be completely mentally relaxed during the performance.

Both my latest pool PBs (200DYN and 167DNF) were achieved following an insane state of stress and anxiety. My heart rate was ridiculously high right before the swim, I lost the ability to focus, was short of breath, had palpitations, and thought I would not be able to make it even to 50 meters. In both cases, I added almost 20 meters to my PB, and was completely clear when surfacing.

I participated in two depth competitions in Egypt. On the first one I announced 50 meters in constant weight without fins despite having not trained in this discipline in 6 months for a PB of 46m. On the second I announced 80 meters in constant weight with fins. In both occasions, I was way more stressed and anxious before the dive than I would be before any training dive.

In all the instances stated above, the contrast between my mental and physical relaxation before the dive, and during the dive, was enormous. Before the dive I was in agony. As soon as my face hit the water, everything became completely clear. I was focused, thinking clearly, listening objectively to what my body was going through without feeling pain or discomfort. Contractions were just a piece of information, so was hypoxia at the end of the pool swims. I was in complete control.

Another element came into play to make the dives so much easier: the adrenalin, linked to the huge stress preceding the performance, was very strong. After my senses suffered an overload of stress, when the swim starts everything becomes alert, geared towards survival. I feel this is the reason why my no warm up pool swims are easy. Most divers profess that no warm-up swims are better because of an early and stronger MDR, but more difficult physically as contractions come earlier. Well, I do not get this negative effect at all. In fact, it is the exact opposite: instead of contractions starting at 50m, they start at 100m, and never feel bad. As my head stays alert the whole way, I know when to come up, not because I am scared of blacking out (which would be pulling out), but because I feel strong hypoxia coming and it is definitely time to end the swim.

Now, I tried the same swims when calm and completely relaxed, and there is no comparison: the stress starts during the dive, and THAT is a killer: contractions are back with a vengeance, doubt settles in and, as a result of the fight, hypoxia starts earlier.

Note that I do not claim to have discovered this correlation between stress and performance. It exists in many other sports, and Sebastian Murat has carried this idea forward in Freediving way before my time. It is actually quite surprising to see that his ideas are not discussed more often.

Of course this technique does not come without drawbacks, the biggest one being that you will probably not be able to achieve great performances very often, unless you are a bit masochist! I have been thinking of going for a big swim for the past two months, I think it's time to back myself into a corner and make it happen now...

Safe and fully stressed dives to you all ;-)

The Call of the Deep

2011-06-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at home, it is cold and raining and the ocean has been merciless for five consecutive weeks. Back to back swells have kept us out of the water and we are all getting a bit cranky. It is quite ironic, since I started Freediving because of a flat spell, and now my boards spend most of their time collecting dust. Sure, I will hit the water this week end, but the prospect of sitting in the middle of a crowded Sydney line up with the hope of catching a handful of waves is not cutting it for me anymore. Plus, I realised recently, it is all very... noisy! I miss the silence, the blue water, and the deep.

As I watch another set of photos and read updates posted by fellow Freedivers currently in Egypt, I can't help but project myself ten weeks into the future, when back in Dahab during what promises to be a very quiet time, since the depth world championships will be happening in Greece.

D-70

This trip, like every other trip to the Blue Hole, will not be about competitions or trying to break records, but one focused on going deeper and acting like a complete Freediving nerd. If you have ever walked around with a monofin to go pool training at peak hour in the real world, you'll know what I mean: it will be nice to just blend in for a while, and be able to talk about narcosis, eustachian tubes and high tech nose clips with likeminded lunatics.

But my time in Dahab will not be a relaxing time, far from it, it actually promises to be quite intense since my goal, which I did not even think I could hope for in my lifetime when starting freediving, is to reach the mystical depth of 100 meters in constant weight, without packing. Yes, you heard me right, ONE HUNDRED METERS!!

To prove that it's serious business, I even made a promotional video, and it almost did the trick of convincing me that was a super smoking hot shot, even bigger than I could imagine in my wildest dreams - I thought of adding an interview, but as a friend of mine pointed out, I am already referring to myself in the third person (which, He just discovered, is called an illeism), so it may have been a bit overkill:

Getting to 100 meters may prove to be tricky. I don't think equalisation will be an issue, instead I can foresee three challenges: the ever feared narcosis, making it back to my previous PB of 91 meters without getting too tired, and channelling the stress of new PBs productively. I will need to prepare a plan ensuring I have enough time to build up depth without overtraining, leaving plenty of time for adding the last 9 meters. I will be in Dahab for 28 days which, based on past experience, is as much depth training as I can take in one sitting. Training is already well under way, the coming weeks will be key in preparing for this trip.

I think I can now enjoy this rainy day at home with Bene, a nice rest before an exciting challenge. A mug of hot chocolate, a novel by Jasper Fforde, the gentle sound of rain, the prospect of blue waters just enlightened my day!

One for the Road

2011-04-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

A big swim was long overdue. So as I am preparing for a new max, and changed my training approach quite a bit (as described in this previous post), I wanted to check how I was doing with a 175m tonight at training, with a commitment to come up at that distance. No packing, no fancy Orca or BlueSeventy suit, old school.

Here you go, 175m in 2'33'', which for me is a very slow swim. That part is easy to explain: no suit and no packing = less weight and glide. Plus, I switched to a soft blade from a medium blade.

Although I am not entirely happy about the way I managed it mentally - I spent more time counting the number of remaining laps than actually enjoying the swim - I must say that this new training approach seems to be working. The lactic did not feel that strong, my head felt clear all the way, there was no tunnel vision, and it took me three breaths to recover. No lactic kickback, no huge fatigue following the swim or heart rate up the roof on the way home. That's the positive aspects.

On the minus side, it felt like the blood shift happened very late in the swim, which is probably why I did not get that lactic. After all this lactic endurance training, I was hoping for a bit more of it. However I definitely felt the fight would have started after the turn at 175 - oxygen wise (drawback from a late MDR). My technique was OK early in the swim, and as usual my knees started bending past 125 for a less streamlined feel.

So, overall, a happy Tanguy! Now If you'll excuse me, I have to go meditate.

New Training Drills

2011-04-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Up until last year, most of my pool training was made of CO2 tables, a few big swims and, reluctantly, statics breath holds. This training gave me a good base to work from, as early on the difficult part is to deal with the urge to breathe and its impacts on one's physical resistance, and motivation. Indeed, regardless of your eagerness to complete a big swim, CO2 plays tricks to your mind, and in a few seconds can make you give it up even if you have been planning it for weeks.

If you have missed the last two articles describing the training drills I was following, you can find them here:
- Getting to 150m dynamic, 100DNF and 40m depth: How I trained for the 145 Club
- Getting to 200m dynamic and 167DNF: Swimming a 200m Dynamic
- Getting to 91m depth: you'll find all you need in the history of this blog!

To prepare to go further and deeper, I found very little literature available, and with no coach around I needed to start thinking outside the box. I don't have an answer to all the aspects listed in this previous post, but have found new training drills which should help achieve my new targets.

Basically, I realised during my last max attempt that the limiting factor to swim bigger distances will be lactic tolerance. This is in part due to the fact that I don't warm up before big swims, which in theory helps trigger a stronger dive reflex, preserving oxygen for the vital organs, but forcing muscles to work in anaerobic mode for a longer period. Also, my ascents from deep dives are fast, very fast, so lactic tolerance is very important there as well: it is not comforting on the way up to wonder whether you can withstand the effort up to the surface!

Also, CO2 tables are good to get used to higher CO2 levels, but most of the work is aerobic as your oxygen levels are always high, which is not of much help towards the end of big swims, or ascending from a deep dive. Because of this, and the little training I did on static training, I basically never really trained the capacity for my muscles to function with low oxygen. I wasn't too keen on embarking on a long and painful static training, or doing massive swims every week which would kill any motivation in a month, so devised another approach more suited to my style.

Meet my new best friend: underwater sprints. The idea is to keep training short, and intense, simulating as much as possible the end of a big swim without actually doing one. If you plan to use the same approach, just adjust the distances based on your PBs. Your goal is to come as close as possible to muscle failure because of lactic, with plenty of oxygen left to avoid get into a hypoxic state which is longer to recover from.

I do the following exercises without any warm up, and very limited breathing. Basically: get in the pool, take a couple of breaths, and go.

Exercise 1: long distance sprint.
Get into a steady and fast pace, with constant kicking, at 80% of max speed.
For the moment I swim 125m that way, planning to get it up to 150m soon.
Basically, my legs burn from 75m onwards, and on the last 25m I really have trouble keeping the pace. I don't feel hypoxic at the end of the swim, my head is very clear. But the lactic kickback is really strong and it takes me a while to stop breathing like a madman. Walking can be tad problematic for a while after that :-)

Exercise 2: sprint and push
Swim 50m at full speed, 100% of max speed. Imagine your goal is to hit this wall, don't keep anything for later. Then turn at the wall and come back, kick-kick-glide, up to the next wall. Good luck.

Exercise 3: repetitive sprints
Swim 50m at full speed, 100% of max speed.
Rest. Repeat until you can't stand it any more!
This one is not used to simulate a big swim, but rather to help improve lactic tolerance.

I only do one of these exercises per session, then get back to technique swims, 50 to 100m, focusing on streamlining, and enjoying short comfortable swims. I haven't tried a big swim yet, but it will come very soon. At the last training I tried a CO2 table to check the difference with my new drills. To my own surprise, I completed a long table without having felt any discomfort. It used to be a lot harder than that. I think these new drills are working...

Funny enough, stars always seem to be aligned when you have an epiphany. I had just started training on sprints thinking they could help a real breakthrough when Daan posted a couple of videos on his blog about his own training involving sprints, and CMAS just introduced sprint apneas as part of their official disciplines. Although the approach is a bit different, as the goal for speed apnea is beating the clock where I use sprints mainly as a tool for anaerobic/lactic training, it was quite funny to see everything happening at the same time, and comforted me I was on the right track ;-)

Update (12/04): I tried a big swim to assess the impact of these new drills, it looks like it's working quite well. Cf. this article and video.

Why I do what I do

2011-02-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

I keep being asked this question: "Why do you it?". After all, it makes a lot of sense: diving deep on a single breath could be seen as an extreme and dangerous sport by outsiders. Now, I don't think I am a complete whacko, and I will try to demonstrate why.

The Risks Involved

You probably have seen this teaser of "Breathe", an upcoming documentary about William Trubridge. At 1:39, talking about Freediving and the fact that he is putting his body under pressure that no one experienced before, the interviewer asks him "Why risk it?". William's response, or the absence of it, with the right music in the background, creates this dramatic some-things-just-can't-be-explained effect which fits very well with the angle of the teaser.

I tried giving the same answer, but believe me, without the music, it has more of a comic effect.

There were a few reactions to this video, including this one from Daan. Daan writes beautifully about his love for Freediving, but according to him this question is irrelevant. I actually think it deserves to be answered. After all, we have instincts and they guide some of our decisions, but we also have the capacity to look at risks objectively. Let me just rephrase the question to something we can actually answer: what are the risks inherent to Freediving and can we accept them without being a complete lunatic?

[Putting my glasses on] A risk is a potential future issue that can be avoided or mitigated. In the end, you need to look at the following: what is the likelihood of a risk to eventuate? What is its impact? What mitigation strategies can we put in place to prevent it from eventuating? There exists quite a few frameworks for risk assessment: financial institutions are making a killing by selling financial products to insure you against risks of low likelihood, and high impact. The higher the impact, the higher the scare factor, even if the likelihood is almost non-existent. It is a shame I don't actually know any of these risk assessment frameworks, that would have made this article so much more powerful, however the lack of knowledge should not prevent one from drawing absolute conclusions, so I will still go ahead.

Now, what are the risks involved in Freediving? Leaving aside risks that are statistically insignificant or not directly related to this activity (sudden death, underwater spontaneous combustion, a cat appears suddenly in your throat after travelling through time), here are the ones I have identified. Colours have been added to enhance the professional aspect of this article (yes, I am aware it would benefit from a couple of pie charts too):

So as you can see, most risks associated with the practice of Freediving can be mitigated. The one with the highest likelihood&impact, and lack of conclusive mitigation strategy, is ironically linked to the only safety device we use when Freediving: the lanyard. However, overall, it is really not that bad, is it? Now, I know of two fatalities in Freediving, both in the "No Limit" discipline ("machine diving" excluded from this analysis). Think about it: two fatalities in decades, for a sport that most people qualify as extreme? Something is not right.

I understand we sometimes like to present a gloomier picture, or just cultivate the myth of the "Underwater SuperMan". It definitely adds to the dramatic impact and the media craves this stuff, plus it sometimes can make us look so much cooler. However, objectively speaking, scuba diving, a recreational activity that most people love, is a much more dangerous activity. Hell, Freediving is even safer than driving your car!

Why I Love It

Now that we understand and accept the risks involved, let's look at the good stuff: why is it so addictive?

Most people get hooked with the sport initially because of a fast progression. It is always funny to see how little the collective psyche knows about our aquatic abilities. When you ask anyone: "can you hold your breath for two and a half minutes?", most of them think it impossible. Yet 80% of them will do it within the first couple of days of training. Later in the process, you can get hooked to the performance aspects, knowing that your gains are always measurable: the distance swam underwater in a pool, the depth reached in the ocean, etc. As you adapt your practice and experiment with training techniques, you realise how far away you are from your limits. And even if you are stuck somewhere for a long time, a small change can unlock it, revealing a huge potential. You can experience all of that in your local swimming pool. Regardless of the performance realised, you speak in terms of "Personal Bests", very few people actually focus on records as an end game. Personal progression, and the journey, is what matters.

Freediving is a sport where you meet very passionate people, sometimes quite adamant about how things should or should not be done. Their enthusiasm in trying to convince you helps you question fundamental points about your practice, and realise that possibilities are endless. The fact that the sport has very little hard scientific data to justify a method or another adds to the overall impression that anything is still possible. In the end, you realise that Freediving requires an overhaul of your lifestyle: you want to eat better, sleep better, drink less, train more, organise your holidays around your passion, and it doesn't even cost you.

Very often, in our daily lives, we have to live with the limits of what our head can accept. Fear is a sane reaction, that is one of the mechanisms that helped our specie survive that long. However it needs to be tuned: our instinct also needs to learn how to react in front of situations that are stressful or painful, in a controlled manner. When you are under 80 meters of water and the surface is at least one minute away, you learn to deal with shit like this. And guess what? All these little frustrations that you build in your daily lives, you can expel them all in one dive. The satisfaction you get from it, from the idea of overcoming your limits, of surmounting your fears, is as good as it gets. Further down the track, you realise that your true potential is only really defined by you. It does sound wanky, and you probably heard that sentence in a pointless business seminar somewhere, but if you have been Freediving for a while, you know what I am talking about. Look at this wall at the other end of the pool: think you can't reach it? Think again. I reached my fourth wall (200m) after two years of practice, and the only thing that was stopping me each time was how I could accept that I could do more.

Freediving helped me understand what "being in the moment" means. You hear this expression everywhere, but does it really resonate? I practice Yoga regularly, and even joined a meditation class recently. It takes a lot of hard practice to be able to, as Daan wrote, "become one with what you were doing and where you were doing it". It would take me years before I can achieve it doing my Yoga/meditation practice. Yet, I have experienced it when diving deep many times, and I only started Freediving two years ago. Think back on a deep dive, try to remember what you were feeling or thinking. You are most likely going to find that you were completely connected with the sensations in your body, focusing on correcting, right then, whatever your body needed (equalisation, position, etc.), not thinking of the two meters before of the two meters after. Add to that a certain level of Nitrogen narcosis, and the whole experience can feel extremely intense, very surreal. No need to intellectualise it, you experienced pure bliss.

On a final note, I will leave you with something to think about. I dived to 91 meters depth, experiencing 10 times the atmospheric pressure, on a single breath and back. Yet, I would never drive a bike as I find this too dangerous, and I have fear of heights which makes rock climbing a challenging activity. I can't believe most people add sky diving to their bucket list, and still consider dangerous a sport that brings so many things, where the only risks can be mitigated with common sense, the right approach, and proper safety!

At a Crossroads...

2010-12-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

This is the end of my second year Freediving, and I am quite happy about the results: I pushed my personal bests from 71m to 91m in constant weight, from 40 to 58m in constant weight without fins, from 175 to 200 in dynamic, and from 139m to 167m in dynamic without fins (for a world ranking of #5 in 2010!). However, numbers don't tell the full story: I am now left with a hell of a lot of questions.

Last year felt like my dive in Dahab ended too soon, hitting 71m with the feeling of having so much more in the tank. All I did this year was to continue with the same training approach and see how far it would take me. Well, it looks like I hit its limits:

The 91m dive was a difficult one, and I think I was borderline with regards to oxygen levels. My safety diver could not decide whether I had a micro samba or not when surfacing, and the lactic kickback was quite strong (the 88m was comfortable oxygen wise, but was tiring lactic wise).
First blackout during a 61m dive without fins. Not cool.

It is probably time to review, destroy, rebuild a new practice based on what I learnt. It feels like I am at a crossroads, as it happened a couple of times in the past. Right now I am considering a few building blocks.

The first one is my approach to increasing depth. Thus far, I spent a week to get back to my previous PB, 5 meters at a time, and then added 2 to 3 meters every second day. One day diving, one day of rest. After chatting with Mike following my blackout, it became obvious I need to build confidence in a level before pushing further, building comfort through repetition. I am not too sure how it would translate yet in a training plan, but probably: repeat dives to a particular depth for a week, then over the next week increase it progressively, the following week rest, and repeat.

The second one is warm ups: I got rid of them for dynamic maximum attempts, but am still using three dives, including two FRC, in the ocean. In the swimming pool, this change was pushed by a few months of not managing to execute big swims, either because of a mental block or hypoxia. The results were immediate. As everything was working perfectly in the ocean, there was no need to change anything. Until now! However I am not too sure as to how to approach this. Should I go straight for a no warm-up dive? Reduce the number of warm-ups progressively? Take 20 meters off my PB?

The third one is the construction of a year-round training plan. For the moment I am training dynamics all year long, and diving deep once a year for a few weeks. Should I consider cross training? I already increased the number of Yoga sessions at the expense of pool training, with good results. Maybe it would be beneficial to stop any apnea type training for a few months in the year. I could definitely see that fitting well with the heart of the surfing season!

The fourth one is meditation and visualisation techniques. This shows with my very bad results in statics, where my maximum performance was 5min30sec, relatively low compared to the results I yield in both dynamic and depth disciplines. Most of it is mental, I know, however I am in the dark as to how to approach it. This may also be the key to solving my oxygen issue for very deep dives: right now fear, linked with narcosis, takes over on the ascent to send me sky-rocketing back to the surface. Maybe this helps induce a stronger dive reflex, but maybe I am also burning too much oxygen...

The biggest question mark, which I will leave for later, is packing. I started packing in the pool for maximum performances, but am very reluctant to use it for depth. I don't need it for equalisation, and am yet to be convinced on the added oxygen, which you need to balance with an apparently faster heart rate, a stronger fight with buoyancy, possible lung injury, and a suspected increased risk of squeeze.

Now, there are a few things I can rely on: a good monofin technique, a capacity to handle and channel stress towards a performance, long term focus, and a good equalisation technique, which I think can take me way past 100 meters, without packing. So no change of plan on that front.

It may be time for me to find a coach ;-)

It Only Happens to Others... Right?

2010-12-19T01:31:00.000-08:00

Today I experienced my first ever Blackout. I’m not really proud of it, as it shows I was pushing past my limits, but I did not really see it coming.

After Egypt and my 91m dive, I took a month of break travelling in India. That is a full month out of the water, something that had not happened since I started Freediving two years ago! But after the intense competition in France and depth training in Egypt, it was quite nice. I got to the Philippines a couple of weeks back, and enjoyed snorkelling the countless reefs sitting a few meters from shore, and swimming with sea turtles. The reef is right next to deep water, so before I knew it I hooked up with Andrew, a local Freediver, and went back to training!

The drop off in front of our place in the Philippines

I wanted to try something different than constant weight, so I started training in constant weight without fins. Everything was going fine, and I built my depth up: 46m, 50m, 54m, 58m. The last one was done yesterday, a PB of three meters after the 55m done in Egypt. It felt really good, and the dive profile was not looking too bad either:

58m CNF in 2'21

I really love this discipline, it requires a lot more focus and for you to remain calm as it is a tedious job to come back up. Technique is crucial: I realised that there can be quite a lot of difference in total dive time between dives of the same depth, depending on weighting, technique and streamlining. For example my 58m dive was exactly the same dive time as the 54m one, with the exact same number of strokes: better streamlining on the way down, better arm stroke and glides on the way up.

So today, I woke up a bit tired physically from the previous day’s dive, but thought I was just being a pussy and would just suck it up and go diving anyway.

Now, it would all have been fine except for one little detail: I forgot my nose clip! After the paddle out in deeper water in our canoe, and the float already set up on the buoy, with the bottom weight waiting for me at 61m, I was not exactly feeling like swimming all the way back to shore to get it. So a brilliant idea entered my blonde head: let’s dive with a mask instead! Now, I have no problem diving with a mask when I have my fins on, but without fins, as I cannot equalise hands free and my eardrums are not very flexible, it’s a bit of a killer for the streamlining on the way down.

So, here I am, breathing up at the surface and not feeling too flash at the idea of trying a PB like that, but hey, I am indestructible and stress helps trigger a stronger dive reflex… Right?

It is pretty hard to coordinate everything on the first few meters down: arm pull, ouch - my ears, equalise, fuck now my speed went down a lot… Repeat. At about 15 meters I do one last arm pull, big glide, yeaaah, hand to the nose, slow down, damn… Well, that will have to do. And I start my way down, slowly, veeery slowly. From 20 to 30 my speed is 0.5m/s, and the maximum velocity I get in the descent is 0.75m/s. Usually, I get close to 1m/s.

Needless to say, this part of the dive, which is supposed to be the most relaxed, is not very pleasant at all. At 50 meters, a weird thought enters my head, for the first time in a deep dive: “if you continue further you’re going straight for a blackout”. But I have had these thoughts in the swimming pool when swimming big dynamics, and as the bottom is just a few seconds away I let it slide. I reach the bottom at 1’27, fifteen seconds later than my dive from the previous day. Oh oh.

As I start my way up, things do not feel very different from previous dives, and I count the marks on the rope: 5 meters, 10 meters, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and I see my safety diver. I start feeling my head buzzing a bit, not a good sign. Stay cool, a couple more arm strokes. And then, just like that, I enter dream world… I just remember seeing a mix of colours, and hearing music, something with a lot of drum beats, I am completely gone and it is very, very intense! I have never taken acids, but that’s the image I have of an acid trip. It lasts for a while, although I have no notion of time. According to Andrew, my safety diver, I was out for close to 30 seconds.

All of a sudden I wake up, and I am at the surface, held by Andrew. It is the same feeling as waking up from a deep sleep, I am confused for a couple of seconds and then ask “did I black out?”. No kidding. Here is this dive’s profile compared to yesterday’s. 20 more seconds for 3 more meters, that’s a killer… Apparently I blacked out between 3 and 4 meters deep. So close, yet so far!

So, what did we learn today?

Voila, I can have blackouts too.
Never dive alone. I cannot thank Andrew enough for pulling me out of the water!!
Use common sense. Realising I did not have my noseclip, and having never tried a deep CNF dive with a mask on, I should have pulled the rope up between 40 and 50 and tried it first. Dumb-ass.
Listen to what your head is telling you. Sometimes. It is not always trying to bail out for bad reasons. Although this may get a bit confusing trying to distinguish the "pussy voice" from the voice of reason.

So, what’s next? Well, first, a couple of days of break. And then, before I go deeper, back to shallower water for a number of technique dives. After all, this one was only my tenth CNF dive ever: I have no experience in this discipline. Blackouts are definitely no fun, and I am not keen to repeat the experience - and I guess Andrew either! Thanks again mate, I hope I never have to safe your life too, but in the meantime it's free beers for life!

Anatomy of a Dive

2010-11-27T22:42:00.000-08:00

Since leaving Dahab, I probably did something like a hundred dives. In my head that is. I remember reading somewhere that visualising a performance after you have done it is the equivalent, for your brain, of doing it again. Unfortunately my head is not that easily satisfied. A month into the trip in India - very, very intense, that would call for another article - I am feeling the need for depth again. Well, since the only water I can find here is holy and muddy, and that the only tool at my disposition is my imagination, I will take the time to look back and perform one more imaginary dive, and share it with you.

This article is illustrated with underwater Photos from Jacques de Vos, SSI Freediving instructor teaching through the Freedive Dahab school, for now in Dahab and soon in Capetown, South Africa. He is a very good diver, very experienced with sharks, and an amazing photographer, as you can see on his website.

Yoga and Visualisation

The day starts with a Yoga session. The first poses are uncomfortable: muscles are still sore from the previous dive, and a part of me is looking for a way out - maybe I can just skip the Yoga session today? I know I need to stick to my routine though, and after a while the muscles get looser, the head is getting there, and I start getting more focused. (cf. this previous post: "My Daily Yoga Practice"). I spend a good amount of time on diaphragm stretching - pulling the diaphragm up and down after reverse packing - which really helped my deep equalisation and chest flexibility throughout the trip. I think that is what allowed me to dive relatively deep without packing, and without any squeeze.

As a next step I lie down and use the experience from my previous dives to visualise the sequence to execute in today’s dive, from the duck dive to the surface protocol. I try to remember what can go wrong: the lanyard gets entangled in the line or on the bottom plate, the glide is too slow, my body tenses up before the mouthfill, etc. For each mistake I plan a corrective action which has to become automatic, as my logic and reflexes get really slow during a deep dive. As an example, it took me ten seconds to pull the quick-release the first time my lanyard got stuck - it happened a few times since then, and I just follow the routine, I don't even feel surprised any more (lanyards are apparently here to make the sport a bit more interesting, otherwise it would be way too safe). Visualising the dive gives me the focus I need to accept it as possible. Indeed, even though I am only adding two to three meters each time, when you go for a dive which is twenty meters more than your personal best from two weeks ago, it can become a tad stressful and seem somewhat impossible.

Before Hitting the Water

There is usually about two hours between my Yoga/visualisation session, and the time I hit the water. I have no other routine than these outside of the water, no meditation or breathing exercises. I try to keep the moments of intense focus as short as possible, so they are efficient. If I am in a good mood, I just chat with people. If not, I just sit somewhere, look grumpy, and wait for the time to get ready - it was like that quite a bit in the last few dives, as I was starting to get tired, and the numbers became really impressive (I'm going for 90 meters, and on the last dive I was narked like a skunk and saw imaginary fishes, am I fucking mad?).

When the time to get ready comes, I know that everything will happen in the next thirty minutes. In half an hour I can jump, joke around, annoy people and keep laughing at how stupid I was to be stressed out. But that is in half an hour, which is quite far away. I suit up, and make sure I don't forget anything:

- Mask: check

- Snorkel: check

- Fluid goggles: check

- Noseclip: check

- F*** Lanyard: check

- Neckweight: check

- Monofin: check

- Dive computer: check

Who said that Freediving was better than scuba diving because we don't need so much gear???

Warm Up Routine

Now in the water, mask and snorkel on, I breathe up for a couple of minutes. I know that whatever happens, I will never be ready to take this last breath to go on the first warm up dive, so it has to be mechanical: three big breaths, last breath, and duck dive. I pull myself slowly down the rope to 10 meters, focusing on equalising my ears, and come back up slowly with a few contractions. This dive is really just to get in the mood, and observe what my body feels like today: tired? strong? scared of contractions? feeling good? Based on this information, I know what to expect during the dive: if I feel like shit, the dive will be great. If I feel really good, there's trouble... Go figure!

Back to the surface, my head in a haze, I am now in dive mode. I don't think about the dive yet, only about the following warm up. After three minutes of breathing up I go again, this time on FRC, to about 25 meters. My monofin still attached to the float, and with the mask on, I glide effortlessly and turn around on the second ring from my dive watch, to pull myself slowly back up.

Now is time for the last warm up, and I put myself in the conditions of the dive: I remove the mask, put the fluid goggles on, the noseclip and the monofin, and go for a last FRC dive. The depth of this dive increased progressively as my target dives were deeper. At the beginning of the trip, it was 25 meters. On my 91 meter dive, this warm up was to 31 meters.

The Dive

Here we are, a couple of minutes before the dive I am completely focused, my body numb and my head slow, with a mix of deep relaxation and mild anxiety. I breathe slowly through the snorkel: five seconds inhale, ten seconds exhale. And again... And again... All of a sudden I feel ready: three big breaths, one big exhale, a very slow last breath, I remove my snorkel, pre-equalise my ears and duck dive. A big arm pull extracts me from the surface, I do one kick with the monofin and bring my arms overhead, ready for action.

For the first ten to fifteen seconds I release the energy accumulated when lying motionless at the surface. The fight with buoyancy is short, but intense. The further I go and the easier the effort becomes. This feels good. I keep equalising and never leave time for my ears to feel the pressure even though I am going quite fast. I notice when I go past neutral buoyancy, and start feeling the speed of the descent with the flow of water on my face.

Suddenly I hear my dive computer alarm at twenty meters, stop finning and bring my arms by my side after a big pull. This triggers the second phase of the dive, the most technical. Everything I do here will dictate how far down I can go, and it is the result of all the preparation work, both on land and during the warm ups: it is where I execute mouthfill routine. First I make a big whooping sound and tilt my head back, bringing air from my lungs to my mouth and pressurising the mouth as much as I can. Then I contract the cheeks to equalise my ears. Every time I equalise, I top up the mouthfill by making a short whooping sound, until I cannot bring any more air up, usually at about 35 to 40 meters. I never use reverse packing, technique by which you create a reverse pressure in your mouth to bring air from your lungs, but push from my diaphragm instead until I reach residual volume. From that point onwards, my epiglottis is sealed, and no air is going to move from my lungs to my mouth.

My body vertical, facing the rope, as the pressure surrounding my body gets more intense, I get more and more relaxed and sink faster and faster until I reach maximum velocity. There is now nothing to do but equalise, free fall, and enjoy the show.

This part of the dive, my friends, is why I go Freediving over and over and over and over again. The water is flowing on my face, and I feel like I am being pulled to the bottom by a gigantic magnet. Suddenly I feel narcosis invading my body. Time expands, this phase is endless, and I don’t want it to stop. There is no pain, no doubts, no questions, no thoughts invading my mind. For once, I am one with the moment. I start opening my field of vision and look past the rope, the best effects of narcosis are right here in front of me. Once I saw a school of giant trevallies and appreciated their grace as they were swimming slowly and effortlessly. A few other times I saw the slope at the bottom of the blue hole coming slowly towards me, with such a clear visibility and majestic scenery that it was like landing on the moon. I keep sinking, and sinking…

At some point, I have to switch between two modes of equalisation: the volume of air in my mouth is becoming too low to pressurise using my cheeks, so I switch to Frenzal and use the tongue instead. The volume in my throat is enough to take me way deeper. This switch happens mechanically, and does not impact the relaxation of the dive.

All of a sudden, wakeup call: there is the bottom plate! This moment is crucial in the dive as it will dictate what the ascent will be like. If I am too surprised to see this bottom plate, still in La La Land, there is the risk of a poorly executed bottom turn. If I get surprised by what I see after the bottom turn – for example if I was gliding in front of the arch and turn to face another part of the reef – it leads straight away to the dark side of narcosis: shear panic. I have already described these effects in another article, so will spare you the details.

In any case, I suddenly realise where I am, and definitely can’t stay there! For the first few monofin kicks I keep my arms on the side to avoid any risk of squeeze. Then I put my arms overhead and start pumping up. And when I say pumping, I mean it! Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, I work hard to extract myself from the bottom. Narcosis usually means a massive disorientation for me: somehow the rope disappeared and all I can see is what is behind it, so I don’t really have a visual clue as to where I am or at what speed I am going. Lactic acid is burning through my legs but all this pool training is a massive help: lactic pain merely registers as a piece of information to my head.

Suddenly I see the top of the arch, and remember where I am. I don’t always slow down, but I feel better. A few more kicks and my lungs start expanding again, the pressure gets released. A couple more and I meet my safety diver, Lotta or Linda, who makes a sound to make sure I notice she is here as a companion for the last part of the dive. I slow down, and start feeling buoyant again. As she brings her arms on her side I do the same and float up for the last few meters while exhaling.

Back at the surface I take a big breath and hook it for a couple of seconds. Instantly, I get back to reality, take a couple more breaths, and execute my surface protocol: goggles, noseclip, OK sign, “I’m OK!”. Bliss, pure bliss. If I am not bursting in laughter I just keep smiling and share this moment with my safety divers… What a fantastic dive!!!

Wow… Oh… I just remembered where I was. I think it’s time for a masala tea. I leave you to dream about deep dives and blue water, and hope you enjoy your dives at least as much as I do with mine J

The Freediving Mafia Competition

2010-11-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I attended my second depth competition, organised by Freedive Dahab, at the Blue Hole in Dahab. On the first one I did a 50 meter dive without fins, this time I wanted to try a constant weight dive with fins, and make it a comfortable and enjoyable dive. After a chat with Lotta Ericson (my coach, SSI instructor trainer and owner of Freedive Dahab, with Linda Paganelli), I decided to go for 80, eleven meters short of my personal best, to learn the ropes of competition and remember all the stupid things you need to do to get a white card.

The conditions were perfect after a few days of blowing wind.

As usual I wasn't quite sure what to do in the hour preparing the dive, so I just sat there, looking mysterious. Some people wonder what I think about before a dive, and don't bother me. I actually think about people that may wonder what I think about, and don't bother me, so I take an even more mysterious face, and they go away.

The dive was very enjoyable, for the first time in a long time I was not going for a PB so I took the time to enjoy the ride, position myself right in front of the arch, and come up with ten more seconds than usual. Back to the surface, I did my surface protocol, and looked at the Judge.

I saw him chatting with the safety divers, he didn't look too happy - but after all, he does kind of look serious most of the time anyway, so I thought he was just trying to make himself look important. This thought was confirmed a few seconds later when he gave me a red card. "A RED CARD???? WHAT THE F*#k?", I asked politely.

Apparently, this judge is corrupted, which is why along with the liability release, he also asks you to sign a paper to forfeit your bank accounts in case you don't come back from your dive - I did not think much of it at first, with the constant bashing from the sun my hair tends to turn blonde. He has an accomplice, who shall not be named, because it would be embarrassing for HER. Her ITALIAN origins may have facilitated this dodgy behaviour. But it would not be fair to HER DOG if she loses her job because of this, so I will not name her. Plus, she has a blog which is public (http://www.fddnews.blogspot.com/), so it would damage her reputation. As you can see on this picture, she is also very rude.

Rude Italian and Corrupted Judge

Anyway, it so happened that the head safety maliciously touched my wrist within the first thirty seconds following my surface protocol, not to check my depth as she claims, oh no sir, not even because I am so irresistible that she had to do it, but to make sure I would get this red card (any type of touching in the first thirty seconds disqualifies you)!

I was a bit puzzled as to what she would gain from this, but then the whole scheme unfolded: to potentially get a white card, I would have to protest the judge's decision: write my protest on a piece of paper, and GIVE THE JUDGE FIFTY EUROS! Then, as the head safety is part of the organisation team, if they didn't find anything incriminating my dive on the surface camera, I could get a white card. They even wrote a protest in my name, with what you can see is very bad handwriting:

What the dodgy Italian and the corrupted Judge did not foresee was that if I was granted the white card, they would have to give me back the money - AIDA rule, don't ask me why, the people creating rules tend to be also the ones consuming large quantities of weed. Thankfully my coach Lotta was here to save the day and convinced them that by giving me a white card they could make an even bigger profit. And here you can see the judge granted the said white card.

Corrupted Judge

I hear they're still wondering what went wrong with this scheme. In the end, they ended up with nothing, and a bad reputation. I mean they would, if more than three people would read this blog.

Wrapping up the Dahab Adventure

Every time I leave Dahab, I feel like it is too soon: there is so many more dives I would like to do, so many things I would like to experiment with (weighting, no fins, free immersion, variable weight, etc.). But that will have to be for next time!

Coach of the Year!

I would like to give huge thanks to Lotta and Linda from Freedive Dahab. If you want to spend a few days, weeks, or even months training without having to worry about anything, they have the best facility for that: they organise the set up, logistics, safety, oxygen, give you lots of tips on how to overcome any challenges you may face in your progress, and they run SSI and AIDA courses. The instructors working for them are of top level. And they also run AIDA competitions very regularly, and go out of their way to make sure you have a nice experience there. Training with them, I went from 45 meters in October last year to 91 meters last week... Check them out at http://www.freedivedahab.com

And Linda, I promise I will never tell anyone you were the head safety.

Training Update: 91 meters!!!!

2010-11-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

Two things happened on my last training dives: I turned short of my announced depth for the first time, and I managed to live with the effects of Narcosis without freaking out!

A couple after my 88m dive I went for 91m. Things were a bit upside down that day: I couldn't seem to focus properly, I kept losing things (had to look for my keys THREE times before leaving home), etc. In other words, I was pussying out of the dive before I even hit the water! That is also the day I decided to change my weighting, and dive without my 1Kg neckweight. Everyone knows that changing something so crucial as weighting is the smartest thing to do before going for a new personal best ;-)

Anyway, I went for the dive, and had to kick later than usual before freefalling (duh). I wasn't expecting that (I get really super smart when diving) and it distracted me, so much that I didn't hear the dive alarm ringing at 20m. What followed won't surprise anyone: I missed the first mouthfill and couldn't bring up enough air to equalise to the bottom. I decided to keep going anyway, and turned when I couldn't equalise any more. It turned out to be at 71m. Precisely my PB at the beginning of the trip...

But there was no way I would give up so close to the bottom! The original plan was to rest the next day, but as I failed the dive I went for it again the following morning. And this time things worked better: neckweight back on, I managed to mouthfill properly, which took me to the bottom - just, somehow my chest was not so flexible this couple of days - and as usual I sprinted my way back up to the surface, although this time without weird effects from Narcosis. 91 meters in 2'22, which is the same dive time as my 61m in bi-fins!

On my way to the bottom of the Blue Hole

Unfortunately I did not think of extending my arm to catch a stone from the bottom of the Blue Hole, I think my determination was somehow shattered by a technical diver who told me he saw tons of ropes and bottom weights on the slope at 80+... I really felt the lactic kickback on this dive too, and was really tired afterwards, both physically and mentally: 25 days took me from 71m to 91m, it was time for a proper rest.

This achievement was properly celebrated with Russian Vodka the same night, and I spent the next day in a haze, completely busted! What a great feeling though... I achieved my goal, and still without squeeze, packing, reverse packing, blackout or samba.

Diving in La La Land

2010-10-20T03:19:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said I wouldn't mind getting a bit of narcosis? Well, be careful what you wish for!

Training Update

At the beginning I was training in both constant weight and constant weight without fins, but decided to change my plan to make sure I could keep training on the long run without getting physically and mentally exhausted. So, now, it's one day on, one day off, focusing on constant weight only until I reach the bottom of the blue hole or the limits of my equalisation...

And, well, it's going pretty good thus far, with a very nice dive to 85 meters yesterday! I still have a fair amount of air left to equalise, which is a very nice surprise knowing that I don't pack, and don't use any reverse packing either. Basically, I do a mouthfill at 20 meters, which I keep refilling until I reach my lungs' residual volume (between 30 and 35 meters), and then I use this air to equalise, first using my cheeks to pressurise, then using the tongue, until I reach the bottom plate. I am still equalising at the bottom, which means that theoretically I could dive past 100 meters. Lactic tolerance and lack of oxygen are is not really a limitation here either: even if I sprint back up my legs don't give out and I am very fresh at the surface.

My limit lies elsewhere, and that is how I can control my dives with narcosis. My dives are getting weirder as I go deeper, and it is getting really intense. I cannot decide whether I love it or hate it yet, it is a mix of ecstatic feelings and very strong fears, and the dive can switch from one mode to another in a split second. I was never in real danger, but my head goes all over the place very easily. Here are a few examples.

Narco Trip #1: Disneyland

The first dive under the influence of Narcosis was the last dive of last year, with a then personal best of 71 meters. The descent was uneventful up until about 60 meters, and then something really strange happened: I started feeling a warmth in the chest, which started expanding in my arms, legs and head. It is very hard to describe, imagine "liquid joy", an ecstatic feeling which was not mental but physical! Super weird, I know I will sound like a levitating yogi, but I was basically in a state of trance. On the way up, the colours were brighter, the Arch was very shiny and it felt like I was in front of a cathedral with rays of light expanding from it. I only came back when I saw my safety diver, and spent the next five minutes at the surface with this ecstatic feeling. Happy times! However this freaked me out a bit and that is when I stopped training. Having moved my personal best from 45 to 71 meters, I felt this was the time to stop, rest and reflect.

Narco Trip #2: The Arch Disappeared

A year later I am back in Dahab, and my dives were fairly technical and uneventful, until I reached 72 meters. I discovered the dark side of narcosis on the following dive to 76m. The descent was really nice, until I suddenly saw what I thought was the bottom of the blue hole. My head switched immediately from intense relaxation to shear panic!

My first thought was that my safety diver had mismeasured the rope and sent me straight to the bottom of the blue hole. I started sprinting my way back up. What I had not realised was that I had somehow pivoted during the dive and was turning my back to the Arch, facing the wall in front of it. I was still expecting to see the Arch on the way up but the further I went, the brighter it was getting. If I were facing the Arch, I would reach its top where the light goes down and you are facing the reef again. As I had my back to it, I was facing open water. After sprinting for a while I just thought I would not be able to make it back to the top, so kept on going anyway, leaving my fate in the hands of my safety divers (if only I could get past this bloody Arch!).

At some point I saw another freediving rope, which should have made me realise I was facing the wrong way, as my rope was the closest to the Arch. Instead, all I could think of was "there must be other freedivers around" and I kept on going. Suddenly I saw my safety diver and got really confused... How can she be here already when I still haven't passed the Arch? Back at the surface, I took one breath and suddenly realised what happened. I burst into laughter and kept laughing for quite a while... A crazy, crazy dive!

Narco Trip #3: Finding Nemo

The following dive to 79 meters went really well, I was facing the Arch and paced the dive. Sprinting from the bottom, and then switching to slower, ampler kicks when seeing the top of the Arch. I thought I was completely clear until I saw six perfectly horizontally aligned clown fishes. I made my way back to the surface and told everyone about them. Unfortunately no one dived to 45 meters, where I estimated them to be, to confirm whether they were real or not.

Today I had a chat with Lotta, and she pointed out what was wrong about this story. I remember them clearly as being orange... And you cannot see colour at that depth! Looking back, I am pretty sure there must have been something there. But probably not six perfectly aligned Nemo fishes...

Narco Trip #4: Landing on the Moon

My last narco trip was on yesterday's 85 meters dive. I am now getting really close to the bottom of the blue hole with glides that last for more than a minute, and this time I saw the bottom coming up slowly as I was descending. And what a view it was! I was feeling like I was landing on the moon, with a huge visibility and spooky bottom. As I was facing the Arch on the way down, I saw the equivalent of an immense field ahead of me, until I reached the bottom plate. I turned around, and all of a sudden I'm facing a really bright reef, very close to where I stand. This just meant that I was facing the right side of the Arch, but I had not thought of that before, and the transition between the huge land on the moon to a big reef up close sent me back to "Speedy Gonzalez" mode. As I was sprinting my way up I knew it was the effect of Narcosis so I was not in a panic mode, but swimming in front of what I thought was a reef that was the figment of my imagination was not a very pleasant experience. I just kept on going, and felt good when I saw my safety diver. Back to the surface my first thought was "where the hell was I again?". I just figured it out last night. Duh.

Controlling the Narcosis

I now realise I need to do something about my narco addiction ;-) There was one dive where I didn't get any Narcosis, and that was to 82 meters. What happened is that I hit my head with the bottom weight when pulling on the rope to start my ascent. That was a wake up call and I focused on coming back up in a very controlled manner.

I had a few chats with Francois Gautier, who's been diving and teaching for quite a while. He gets pretty heavily narc'ed too. His advice was to focus on something technical on the way up. Instead of looking around and letting my head go all over the place, focus on the rope, my hands, my feet, my monofin technique. That was confirmed by Linda and Lotta. So tomorrow, when I try my 88 meter dive, I will try to focus on the rope and not let my head get distracted. And if it doesn't work, maybe I should just knock myself out with the bottom weight instead!

Stay tuned!

First Week in Dahab

2010-10-09T05:07:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a kid and your parents took you to a shop full of toys? Imagine they told you you could have them all. Well, that is not even close to what you feel when you get to Dahab. This place is simply a Freediver's paradise! Laurent and I have been here for just over a week and are starting to think that four weeks here will just be way too short...

It's hard to describe what you feel when you first get here. On land, Egypt is definitely a third world country. It's just sand and dirt, unfinished buildings, electricity and water that work whenever they feel like it, camels and goats that are everywhere in the streets, and kids who play with whatever they can find in the streets. The people are very friendly if you go out of the tourist centre, although they wouldn't mind if you paid a few more pounds than you should - you have to negotiate everything, including when you go to the pharmacy. The numerous mosques call for prayer numerous times during the day (and night), and people here tend to leave it to god to make things happen or not. "so we have water tomorrow?", "yes you have water tomorrow, inchallah" - which basically means "maybe you'll get water, maybe not, it depends, but hey it's not up to me".

Gadget Google - Picasa Photostream

We got lucky thus far and didn't catch the dodgy bacteria that gives you the equivalent of napalm in your digestive system, inchallah we can even do the full trip without it! Right now our survival depends on rice, pasta, overcooked meat and fish, and vitamin supplements. Definitely a body shock after the few weeks of food orgy back in France!

The contrast between the land and the red sea is particularly striking. You move from a desert environment to the underwater equivalent of a rainforest! Pristine reefs, countless species of tropical fish, clear warm and blue water, you name it... Yesterday we spent the afternoon at a spot called "the islands", with underwater islands of corals popping up from ten to thirty meters depth.

Gadget Google - Picasa Photostream

Now, down to the heart of the matter! After all, we did not come here to laze on the beach or drift with the current watching pretty fish. No, no, no, we came here as warriors to conquer the abyss! (and all that crap). And training is going amazingly well thus far for both Laurent and I. We train with Freedive Dahab, who are arguably the best Freediving facility in the galaxy - or the universe, whatever's bigger. At the end of the first week we are fully up to speed with new personal bests. Laurent finally hit 30 meters depth with a big smile, and I cracked PBs in constant weight without fins (50m, done in a small competition) and constant weight with fins (72m done in training).

The best part about training is that we spend thirty minutes in the water and the rest of the day sleeping to recover. I have never seen such a lazy sport... that makes you that tired! Here's my daily routine:

- yoga session to stretch all these painful muscles

- first warm up with a small hang at 10m

- second warm up with 20m FRC using a mask

- third warm up with a 20m FRC using a noseclip

- deep dive

- breathing O2 to get rid of the lactic

- out of the water!

The good thing of having worked so much in the pool in the past year is that the only limiting factors should be equalisation and handling pressure. In terms of breath hold and lactic I have got a long way to go before getting tired from a dive! The purpose of the warm ups is mainly to work on chest flexibility, and prepare the equalization before going for a target dive. My breath hold is better when I don't warm up, but I certainly don't want to risk a lung or trachea squeeze.

My goals for this trip are to reach 80+ with fins, 60+ without fins, and to dive the Arch in constant weight. It is definitely doable if I don't get sick and my ears don't get stuck, as it happened a few times in the past. To get there, my training routine is:

Day 1: constant weight without fins. Add a few meters to my previous PB

Day 2: contant weight with fins. Add two to three meters to my previous PB. In the afternoon: snorkelling session!

Day 3: rest. And when I say rest, I mean it! Lie down, sleep, eat, sleep some more, eat some more, watch a movie, sleep...

But in the end, I don't care about the results that much. As long as the dives are fun and I spend quality time in front of the Arch, it's all good! Oh, and I wouldn't mind getting a bit of narcosis some time too, for the moment it's been fairly quiet on that front...

AIDA Pool Competition

2010-09-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

Last week end I attended the last competition of the season in France, the "2e Coupe de Savoie d'Apnee Sportive" (2nd Savoie Freediving Cup). My main objective was to go and see what a big competition looks like, as in Sydney we usually have just a handful of competitors, and I knew by looking at the results register that a lot of frogs were jumping in and out of the water all year long in my native Frogland. That would show me what it may look like in Australia in a few years if the sport continues to expand!

At the back of my head was another objective, which I knew was a bit of a long shot: break the French record for Dynamic Apnea without Fins (DNF), which stands at 168m. My Personal Best (PB) in that discipline was only 150m, set two months earlier, followed by a 200m Dynamic with Fins (DYN) a week later - I described the swims and associated training in this article on the SydneyFreedivers website.

I honestly don't know why I put this pressure on myself in the middle of a nice and relaxing holiday with the family... When did it occur to me that going to a competition could be qualified as "fun"? I remember very vividly the other two I went to, and fun was not the word to describe them: intense and gratifying, OK, but stressful like hell too! Well, ok, it started with the idea to keep my level of fitness up before going to Egypt, as my short stays in France always end up with a liver failure caused by an overdose of cheese, saucisson and wine... This time I managed to avoid it by going to the pool and doing lots of Yoga, in and out of eating sessions with family and friends.

A couple of weeks before the competition, I started thinking about the swim a few times during the day, with a hint of stress, fading away quickly. A week to top time, I started having the anxiety attacks that became the standard for me before a big swim; and the day preceding the comp was spent as usual in total agony, heart rate up the roof, lack of confidence, difficulty sleeping, etc. I knew it was D-Day when I could not keep laughing at my father in law's jokes, time to get that competition out of the way!

Day 1: DNF

16:45: Well, anyway, here I am, two hours to top time, sitting by the side of the pool, not knowing what to do: it's too early to start stretching, and I don't want to go in the water before the swim. Plus, I don't know anyone in the comp, and you can clearly see that most people know each other as they just finished a season together. And I don't tend to be very social when under stress, just ask my co-workers! 16:46........... (one hour later) ..... 16:48 ..... AAaaargh, come on already!

17:45: I don't know how, but time seems to have kept its course somehow, and it's one hour to top time. OK, now at least I can keep busy with something: I lay my yoga mat, and start stretching. Good surprise, my muscles are all loose, it looks like the yoga practice over the past weeks helped a lot. I check my pulse, which is a joke, I don't know, 256 or something. Then check my forehead, is that hot in here or is it just me? Well, looks like I have a mild (psychological) fever. The tricks my body uses to try to get out of it, tsk tsk tsk...

18:00: and voila, here I am again with nothing to do - I've got to prepare a longer stretching routine for next time! I take out my suit, weights, swim cap and goggles, the organisers call three names including mine: I can start warming up. Only problem: I don't warm up, that's something I learnt a couple of months back... So that's another half an hour before I can put my suit on, and yet again, tick.... tick... tick... Damn it! You get the idea... [...] ...

18:30: Finally!!!! I put my wetsuit on.

18:32: done. Looks like I'll be boiling in this suit for the next thirteen minutes. Ha well! I go and sit in front of my lane, the two other competitors with the same top time already in theirs, and start focusing intensely on not thinking about my very dry mouth (can't swallow). I hear people talking around me but can't really hear what they say.

18:42: here we are, the real preparation. I start my breathing routine, which I don't think has any other effect than to keep me busy with something. Five seconds inhale, ten seconds exhale, close my eyes, unfocus. I listen to the organiser: "2 minutes ... 1 minute ... 30 seconds ..[big breath].. 20 seconds ..[big breath].. 10 seconds... Last breath... official top!

18:45: BOOM! Head in the water, I push from the wall, and the swim begins.
0..25m: three arm pulls to the next wall. Mmh, I have to slow down, this is too fast. The adrenaline is strong.
25..50m: two and a half arm pulls. That's it, I have my rhythm, my glides are long, I feel in control.
50..100m: my head is blank, I can feel a couple of contractions, but more like a message, I don't feel the actual pain or discomfort usually associated with them. That must be the adrenaline again. That reminds me of my 200m DYN swim and I know I can pull a new PB.
100-125m: No particular pain or discomfort, but my daemon is back, telling me to come up at 150 no matter what. Thanks for the vote of confidence...
125-150m: that's it, the lactic starts kicking in, and the real work begins. Last time, I did four strokes to hit the wall at 150, this time, only three. And I feel OK. That must mean I'm still good with oxygen! I turn and push.
150+: now it's like a roller coaster, like every new PB: the lactic is hard, I notice the tunnel vision, I focus on staying close to the bottom to avoid breaching, and start hammering: 1 arm pull, 2, 3, oops, dizziness starting, time to go! I look up, big pull, surface before touching the wall, done! The trigger that made me come up was automatic, there was no stopping it. It was exactly at the number of pulls I had decided to do when visualising the swim in my bed a couple of times in the preceding days.

I take three or four big breaths, and feel strong: goggles, noseclip, OK sign, "I'm OK". And right there, I'm back and smiling! I look at the judges and hope to get my first white card in DNF - I had penalties in the last two because of feet breaching (no, I can't breathe through my feet but some rules are just... rules) or touching the wall before my head came out... 30 seconds later, white card!!! I ask how far I went....... 167m! One meter short of the current French record, hahahaha, so typical! A tiny hint of deception to see that I missed the record by that little, but at the same time I knew I did the best I could do on that day and showed a progression of seventeen meters compared to my previous swim, so that's quickly washed away and replaced with the unmistakable joy of a new PB!

Straight after the swim (Photo: Annie Froment)

Now that I'm relaxed, I can chat with everyone and meet lots of friendly Freedivers, as surprised as I am with what just happened ("who's that guy?"). I get to chat with Guillaume Nery about his famous youtube video, Fred Buyle about shark diving and the trips he organises, and many other Freedivers, beginners and official members of the French team, organisers and safety divers. A very friendly group!

Day 2: DYN

I had promised myself that if I did pull the record I would not dive the next day and just watch the competition. Damn it, now I have to do it! Well, no surprises there, I tried to focus on the task at hand but was way too exhausted by my sadistic approach to big swims to go again the next morning... I started the swim feeling that my legs and core abdominal muscles were still lactic and not flexible at all, and thought that it could maybe improve, but at 100 I bailed out because my head was clearly not ready for another fight. Sometimes it's hard to continue when you know you're going to eat it badly! I think it was the safe thing to do, I could probably have done a 200 swim (my objective), but I could as easily have blacked out before too as I would not have bailed out after the turn at 150, stubborn as I can be. And I was not going to get my first samba or BO in the middle of a holiday!

The Podium

In the end, not only did I get a PB, but I got to stand on a podium in the first place (DNF category) for the first time in my life, hehe. And I won a Sony Ericsson MP3 phone, no less! Now, for the ego trip, here's the ranking in DNF:

Noteworthy was Alice Modolo's 123m DNF swim which gave her the new French National Record! Knowing that her PB was something like 106 before, that is a massive achievement, pulling through a funky samba to complete her surface protocol. And she swam 151DYN the next day, only twenty meters short of her PB (and NR), that shows some real strength...

Thanks and Next Steps

I would like to thank the organisers for a great competition. It was the second time they ran it and it showed: everything was well prepared, on time, and with a great atmosphere! The safety divers were very comforting and I apologise they had to swim so fast to follow my swim, but if they quit smoking it would go a lot easier. And I also thank all the Freedivers I met for their welcome, after all it's a competition people could have been defensive or aggressive but it was not the case at all.

Well, I think that's it for pool work until January. Now, the next part of the trip can start with the real fun side of Freediving: five weeks of depth training and fun snorkelling in Egypt! Oh, and I think I need to find a softer way to prepare mentally for a big swim, or I will have a heart attack before my time ;-)

Surfin' USA

2010-09-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Living in Australia, I got used to crowded line ups, so much that I more or less gave up Surfing and picked up another sport! I started Freediving during a month long flat spell which made every surfer in town quite irritable and desperate. As soon as the swell came back the water was busy as hell, making me feel like a sardine in a can, and I stuck to underwater activities. This picture illustrates very well what Sydney-siders experience daily:

(pic: Surfnation)

Come on, this is a joke! When I grew up in the French Caribbean there were maybe two or three other guys in the water, everyone was politely giving waves to the guy who missed the last set, there was no slaloming the crowd, or guys doing aggressive cutbacks and telling you to f***k off - unless you were from the mainland, of course...

When you read an article in any surf magazine nowadays, you hear that every accessible surf spot on the planet is doomed, that the last frontier is in some obscure country in Africa where you can potentially lose your life in between surf sessions. Well, that is a LIE people! There is still at least one spot which is accessible by public transportation, close to a reasonably big city where the girls are hot and the beer is cold, and where you can share great waves with only a handful of other guys. And that spot is in... New York! That's right, the big apple. Don't look at me like that, it's not my fault you were so focused on Indonesia that you missed what was right in front of your nose...

Actually, the spots are on the coast, for example in Long Beach, which is about one hour train from Downtown Manhattan, one hour from the busiest part of one of the busiest cities in the world! The best season is cyclone season, which is kicking off right now in 22 degrees water and 29 degrees outside. It does get seriously cold later though, with big swells in February creating freezing barrels in 4 degrees water and negative something outside. Here is the swell that kicked off the season last week:

Take a quick look and count the surfers: err, well, none. None paddling out, none on the wave, none on the line-up. There were actually a few guys out, but nothing that would qualify as a crowd by Aussie standards. Unfortunately, I missed that day because I was suffering from the most common disease afflicting travellers: serious hangover. Instead of these barrels, I had this the day before:

Actually, I'm only showing this to demonstrate that despite being a keen bodyboarder, I can also act like a twat and stand up on a board.

Well, OK, surfing an empty spot also comes with a few limitations - the cold doesn't count with modern day wetsuits. First limitation: the swell is often short ranged and perfect days are maybe a handful per season. But that is not that different from Sydney, where average conditions outnumber the A-frame barrels thirty to one. Then there is the colour of the water, which alternates between deep green and murky brown. How the water got this colour is a mystery, but judging by the smell, it may be linked to some twisted chemical experiment which went seriously bad. Not that it would ever bother you, I mean, if you don't mind watery diarrhoea... But who would even CONSIDER these aspects when contemplating empty barrels?

Now, as my friend Julien - who is living there and surfing this wave as soon as any hint of swell is on the chart - told me: this spot will only be good as long as the crowds are small, so we really have to keep it quiet. The last thing you would want is some idiot to post something online that would make people talk about it. You would have to be seriously stupid...

Anyway, what are we waiting for? Let's go surfing! Or if you're stuck in the office (I feel for you), just open YouTube and look for surfing videos from Long Beach and Montauk... Bahahahaha

Skate or Die!

2010-09-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

New York, New York! We moved away from the big apple when relocating to Australia, and in four years the city hasn't changed much. It is busy day and night, and doesn't let you sleep, you always feel like you're missing out on something. Our days are packed with endless walks, great food, shameful quantities of beer and wine, top music and funky looking people.

You really do see a bit of everything here, so I got a bit over-enthusiastic and thought I could probably do some Freediving training. After looking at this little guy it became obvious that I would have to find an activity that is more suited to an urban environment.

No, you are not dreaming, the water is not only green, it is fluorescent! And very shiny in the daylight too. A bit like if Hulk had drunk way too much water and had to relieve himself somewhere. Now, this was outside in a park, but the public pools were not looking very different. Also, the Atlantic ocean is just an hour away, but local Freedivers prefer to go diving in a lake inland (Dutch Springs), which apparently has clear warm water. I didn't dare ask what they meant by that.

I basically opted for a safer option, a real urban sport. The sport that makes you super cool when you are 16 with long hair and baggy jeans. The one and only: skateboarding. What I remembered of skateboarding was that it was the sport that destroys your knees and ankles, requiring hours of training for pathetic results. It is illustrated below:

Have you ever wondered how they do that? News flash: most of the times, they don't. They try, and fall, or the board goes all over the place and lands on someone's legs at full speed. And when they land a trick, that is one in every fifteen or so, they look around to make sure someone saw them doing it (Mom look, I made a castle, mom, look, moooooom). By then I was gone on my quest to becoming a new mutant form of urban skater.

And then, I met these guys through Julien, a surfer in NYC (that's yet another story to come). These guys are not your typical skaters: they actually do have a job, in finance or IT, have to wear suits during the week, shave and speak normal English. I was confused too when I met them. What I didn't know was that some brand of skateboards - called Bustin Boards - started to try and convince people to use skateboards, or more precisely longboards, to GO SOMEWHERE! I'm not sure if they understood the impact of their radical thinking, but these guys took it literally, and are basically using their boards to travel on the crazy roads of New York city, as you can see here:

PushCulture Longboarding Bustin Maestro from Meduse Productions on Vimeo.

They shot this video in a contest organised by Bustin Boards. Yep, four grown ups working day and night to shoot and edit a video to win a free skateboard, that is impressive! Even more when you talk to their wives "Oh my god, you're thirty three, and this seventeen year old kid was giving you advice on how to SKATEBOARD".

I joined them for a session in Central Park, which would be relatively simple if you removed the hills - I had to jump off the board which terrorised a few cyclists and runners - and we all came down Broadway through Times Square to go Downtown. If you have ever been to Times Square, you will understand what I am talking about: it is completely nuts, with cabs going left, right and centre, and people crossing the street everywhere. It took me a bit of time to understand the rules, but all in all it's fairly simple: red lights are just an indication, if you fall from your board the first priority is to get it back, not to stay in one piece. I mean, it's just common sense... I was reassured that no more than five guys actually died in New York when skateboarding (tetraplegics don't count), for a massive number of addicts. Well, I survived to tell the tale! Jokes set aside, it was a great ride and I can't wait to go again...

The first thing I'm going to do when back to Sydney? Get a Bustin Board!!!