Tag: duck dive

Practice makes perfect

~ @S2WFreediving ~ 2 Comments

As readers of this blog know, my challenge as a beginner freediver has mainly been equalization. This is nothing out of the ordinary as many beginners, scuba- and freedivers alike, struggle with this when they start out exploring the world beneath the water’s surface.

There is good news however and I’m the living proof of it: practice will help you!

If you’re new to this blog and don’t know what troubles I had with equalization, you can read all about it (and how to go about solving equalization issues) in previous posts on this blog. In short: I came from a place where I wasn’t able to equalize at all when diving with my head down.

I started reading about and practicing the Frenzel method for equalization (read more here). I did loads of dry training and to test my progress I went to a 5 meter deep pool every single Monday evening.

As promised before, here is a vid of one of those sessions:

It might seem we are mainly having fun, senselessly blowing bubbles. However, as I said before and probably so in slightly different words: relaxing and having fun is paramount to progress. And let me assure you, we definitely did practice equalization, a lot!

BUT… Of course I wanted to be sure the improvement in my equalization skills was not a fluke. And preferably so before the forthcoming 29th of March. That’s when I’ll be going to Germany again with World Record holder and Freedive instructor Nanja van den Broek to do my re-examination for the SSI Level 1 Freediver certificate. So… how to go about that? How to make sure I can equalize comfortably to the required depth and not go to Germany to be purely decorative again?

My initial idea was to go to the same pool in Germany where we did the deep diving part of the level 1 course (Dive4Life) and where I’d also be doing the re-exam. A great plan A! There I would be able to go deeper than 5 meters, even past the minimum of 10 meters and so be sure. Unfortunately there was just a small, tiny, itty-bitty, little problem…

I called Dive4Life to check if it was possible for me and my buddies to dive there in the near future. I turned out you can’t dive there without at least a level 1 certification. Even if you have two buddies with you that do. Even though I was (and am) bummed out, I must say: props for the strict safety standards they adhere to!

A great plan A doesn’t need a plan B, right? Wrong! Except… I didn’t have one. After discussing this impediment with the buddies that would join me, we decided to send Nanja an e-mail for tips. Turns out she has some good connections at DiveWorld in Enschede, a town in the East of the Netherlands, very near the German border, where they also have a dive tower. There, Nanja said, we’d be able to train with the three of us even with me being a “pool freediver” (already).

I gave DiveWorld a call and told them about our plan and situation. We were more than welcome. And Nanja’s name definitely carries some power! The DiveWorld pool has 10 meters of depth which isn’t as deep as Dive4Life in Germany, but it would definitely be deep enough to get some certainty about the state of equalization affairs.

I texted my two buddies and we decided on a date to go training. But let me not keep you in suspense any longer. It was pretty amazing and exceeded all my expectations! I had no trouble equalizing, we had fun, practiced some rescue dives and other drills for the level 1 certificate. I will truly go to Germany with great confidence. That’s what is was all about after all… and this awesome vid of the day of course(!):

Karamba! Keep you guys posted!

SSI level 1 freediver – 2nd course day

~ @S2WFreediving ~ Leave a comment

If you’re new to this blog, start with my first blog post by clicking here!

This day the theory was about the physiology of freediving. In the pool we further improved our techniques and practiced some buddy skills.

We talked about oxygen and carbon dioxide and their functions and influence on the body. It might surprise some of you that it is not the lack of oxygen that gives you the “urge to breathe”, but it’s the rising carbon dioxide level in the body that does so. This means it is actually the “urge to exhale”. This also means that you are easily able to prolong your breath-hold from the moment you normally feel that urge, because the oxygen level in your body would still be fine. But remember: never dive alone!

The mammalian diving reflex is fascinating as well. In this interesting TED-talk by Guillaume Néry the starts explaining about the mammalian diving reflex from minute 3:43, but the whole video is cool to watch for anyone even slightly interested in freediving:

What did I tell ya!? Cool, no?

At the pool we started with some static apnea’s, but mainly focused on a proper breathe-up, buddy skills and (of course) the recovery breath. My buddy, Peter, had some troubles with the breathe-up and signals. Since I already did the introduction to the static apnea and he didn’t, I decided to let him practice a bit more. I did no warm-ups and did a breath-hold of 2:20, not really pushing myself. Warm-ups are good to do though, because the first breath hold – to me at least – is always the least comfortable.

IMG_0471
The static apnea pool – “pierenbadje”

After the static apnea’s we geared up to do some dynamic swims, also with focus on the buddy skills. When you buddy a diver who’s doing a dynamic, you need to swim a bit in front of him and on your side so you can make a full kick with the fins on. This way you can keep up with the diver, check on the diver, check if the lane ahead is empty and without obstacles, help the diver when in trouble or when finishing the dive or cut the diver off if so necessary for whatever reason. When the diver surfaces, you (as a buddy) need to stay close and place his (or her) hand on the edge of the pool and do so as near to his head as possible. This way, if there is any loss of motor control (or black-out), you avoid the diver banging his head on the steel or concrete of the edge of the pool.

Nanja (our instructor) was impressed with our progression and the way we picked up the techniques she taught us. This meant we already got to practice some duck-dives:

The pool we practice in is only 3 meters deep, so with a decent duck dive you are at the bottom almost immediately. Even without an armstroke. Eventually I got the hang of it and the speed with which I descended was too fast for me to get my IMG_0472equalization in order. Shitballs!

This worried me a bit, since equalizing has been an issue for me, also in scuba-diving. I usually have the most trouble the first couple of meters. After that it’s smooth sailing, at least when scuba-diving. With freediving I have no experience with depth yet and I do feel equalizing will be harder since you are hanging upside down and the descend speed will (probably) be faster. Practice, practice! But only in Dive4Life next week we’ll know if I’ll actually be able do it!

Cheers! Hope you guys liked this post and don’t be shy to comment or ask anything!