Ok, the competition's over, and I will do my best to recount the past few weeks and the 2 days of competition.
5 weeks ago, I was doing 6 minute statics easily, every day or so. With some helpful advice from Eric Fattah, it got easier to reach that 6 minutes. I also decided that I was going to start training with a monofin, as I had wanted to do it, but was reluctant due to the terrible blade and footpockets on the one that I owned. Regardless, I felt really good about the monofin, and over 2 weeks, became convinced that this was the way I wanted to go, and I would use it in the competition: possibly using bi-fins for the constant ballast if I couldn't get a handle on it quick enough.
I had damaged my back 3 or 4 months before, but was feeling up to doing some squats again....I hurt my back so badly that I coudn't stand up or sit for 4 days; that was 2 weeks ago. I considered cancelling my trip to the coast and competing, but after a week, I decided that I would still go.
I came out here, stayed with my friend Brent, who I had met in the September competition. Tom picked me up and drove me around, coached me and dived with me for 3 days in the sea. Eric lent me one of his favourite (out of 17) carbon mono's for the week, since my new one did not cross the border in time. Kirk and Marten also came out on Thursday to train in the sea and the snow.
Saturday was the CB competition, and my prayers to Mother Earth paid off: flat seas and sunny skies. We met Paul, who is shooting a series of documentaries for the Outdoor Life Network; they will be shown very soon starting this month (I will post when I find out the dates, etc).
Noah posted 37 metres for CB, and easily made his dive, coming up clean. I was next at 35, followed by Brent and John also at 35 metres. Brent and I both blacked out at last years comp, so were quite happy to have got the day over! Of course, when we were down there, there was the very annoying feeling that we knew we could have gone the extra 5 metres, but, cest la vie, yes? Better top have SOME points, than none for the event.
We spent some time diving on the wall, looking at the beautiful variety of sealife, where I could swear that Doug was beside me at one point.
Today, we all showed up at the pool; static was first, then dynamic. I had posted 5 minutes, which I was wondering was the right thing to do: since my back injury, I had not been able to break 5 minutes. I did my yoga, meditation, suited up, and entered the water for my attempt. My blood pressure was nice and high, but my warm up exhale and inhale statics were not good. I knew that I was in full diving mode: at any time , I could take a breath and my heart rate would drop drastically. I was perfectly oxygenated, packed only 10 times because I knew the contractions would hurt, and started the static. At approximately 2:30, I got my first contraction. When Stephanie (from the German team) started to give me my taps and counts at 4 minutes, I was already at 20 contractions, and knew that I would not make the 5 minutes. I can usually take 50 contractions that start at 4 minutes, but not today. The pain in my back was distracting me, and I believe also the constant back spasm was using precious O2. I came up at 4:32, taking a 5 point penalty for not reaching my announced time.
There were some very good performances in static and dynamic: many people hit PB's, which was great. Noah had never doen dynamic practice, and I had never used Eric's massive mono in the pool, so we all tried out our techniques during the warmup time.
Noah did 83 metres, which is outstanding, especially considering the circumstances. Brent did 78 metres, and came in overall at 3rd place. I wasn't sure how the points were being deducted for my static, but I knew I would have to beat my PB to win, if possible. I did just over 92 metres, but my overall points were 122 compared to Noah's 124: his first competition!
Mandy-Rae also set 2 records today: 100 metres dynamic, and 5:30 (I think?) in static....congratulations Mandy!
So I took second place, set a PB in dynamic, won the dynamic round, and got to spend a week diving with great people.
Tomorrow, Kirk and I (and hopefully Tom) are going out for some fun diving....I intend to dive at least my age in metres (39 tomorrow).
I hope it was interesting to read; if you have questions, etc, then post them, or email me at
greatspirit63@hotmail.com
Cheers,
Erik Young
