Breaking The Barrier

A second personal best, two weeks on the trot. Static breath hold of 5mins dead on!!

I tried lots of different approaches to my breath ups before my statics and found that my resting heart rate moved below 55bpm when i emerged my whole face (without mask) underwater with the use of a snorkel. I did this for around 5mins before attempting another personal best this week. After speaking with Ben Noble this week i learnt that we have receptors just under the eye lids which indicate to the heart when submerged underwater.

I tried some different approaches to diet too and researched blood Ph levels and the kinds of food to stay away from and those to embrace, the more acidic food we eat the more your blood levels become acidic which results in lower Co2 being stored in the body or a higher tolerance to its effects. I don't think the time I've been on a different diet was the biggest contributing factor as it probably takes months to kick in but it certainly helped. I also took 80 contractions against the normal 60 i usually take which put on the 20secs in needed to break the barrier of 5mins.

Ben Noble

For those of you who don't know Ben Noble, Ben is Australia's deepest accountant and a great freediver. I meet Ben for the first time today before he sets off on his travels once again around the globe before finally settling down back in his native country.

Ben has given me and other new freedivers plenty of advice over the past as he continues to find his long lost love of freediving.

Ben is a DeeperBlue forums mentor and always helps out those of us with little experience. Ben has competed in the UK salt free championships, pool championships and the world championships in 2006 delivering solid performances throughout.

It was good to finally meet up with Ben today as it draws me ever closer to fulfilling my dreams as a competitive freediver in the future.

Hopefully we will meet again but next time floating on a line before a dive in Egypt! Who knows?

Training this week

I've been trying new training methods this week, well new to me. I went to my first Yoga class! I'd heard that so many other freedivers had obtained instructor level in this so i decided to give it a go myself. I enjoyed the class and the instructor said i did well, the class was mainly about stretching which i found to be a great help, next week we are doing breathing techniques and relaxation.

There is something definitely in Yoga that freedivers can benefit from and i will be going again to learn more.

I have also started running, not easy for me as I've never been a natural runner even after all those miles covered when i served in the armed forces. I started weight training two years ago as i wanted to pile on a few stone (mainly due to my work as a doorman) this is now slowly disappearing as I'm now learning that stretched muscles that are flexible use less O2 which is great for freediving. I went on my first run tonight (new trainers) and tried holding my breath in between lampposts, i could just about manage 6sec breath holds at a time whilst running. I did this for 10mins in total and came back knackered!!!

I still train using weights but as of next week it will be light lifts with high repetitions.

Freediving changes everything!

How it started

About two weeks ago i finally logged myself onto http://deeperblue.net/ after completing my AIDA freediver course last year with Emma Farrell. Naturally i passed and have been training ever since. I got the freediving bug many years ago when i first watched the film "The Big Blue" and was memorised by what i saw. It wasn't until i left the armed forces (SW Diver) and meet my wife that i realised that i could actually go and learn how to become a freediver. It was whilst being stuck at home, very ill, i saw courses in freediving! I booked up straight away. Life changed!

The course was fantasic and i didn't realise how much involved the sport was nor how widespread it was until now. I feel i have really missed out in some way as i wished i had known earlier in my life. I've made plenty of friends on the deeperblue forums, a place where meir mortals like me can talk directly to world champions and gain their wisdom in an open and honest way.

I mainly train in two disciplines, Dynamic and Static.

Dynamic is where the freediver tries to cover as much distance as possible with just one breath of air with or without the use of a monfin pictured in one of the above is my custom made carbon fibre fin. Static is where the freediver remains motionless in the water for time, this is a hard mind game and takes lots of training.

I completed a new Dynamic PB last night in the pool in which i train of 100mtrs and i am now consistently posting static times of 4mins 40secs. I would love to compete next year in the British Pool Championships to gain experience of doing this under competition rules and regs.