[cdavis]

Hi Sven

The ANSWER: pool work out twice a week, breathing through your farallon at all times while in the water. This perpetuates the lung power necessary to use that gargantuan snorkel. Do that and nothing can touch you, ever. Of course when your last spare dies and you can't have mine, thats it, game over, next stop the nursing home.

Actually, at 55 going on 56, I've had the same thoughts, so I'll be real interested in what comes out of this thread.

For me, my work is active, good for flexibility and some strength, if not aerobics. I work out 2, sometimes 3 times a week in the pool. Distance is usually about a mile, mostly aerobic, with a few negatives and dynamics thrown in to keep up free diving skills. One set I like is swim 25, hold x (working up to 45 sec), and swim another x (going from 25 to 50 yrds), good practice for real diving. In the winter and spring, I do some apnea walking and diaphram stretching getting ready for summer diving.

I stay away from stress. Family life is good. The business is mine, no employees and I don't allow anybody to give me crap except me.

My lovely wife feeds me a healthy diet. Lots of brown rice (she can actually make it taste great, incredible!), fresh vegies and fruit, not much meat. After a while a big Tbone doesn't even look good. But a big grouper filet never loses its alure.

I spend a good bit of time studying the techniques and ideas that come up on DB and trying some of them out in the pool. A few make it to the ocean. It all helps.

How is it different from back in the day? I'm a much better diver than 5 or 10 or 40 years ago, diving deeper, for longer and safer than ever before. Admittedly that is because of better technique thanks to DB, PF, etc. It would be fun to know what I could have done at 25 with today's knowledge. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I don't think it would have been much different, except for better stamina. Stamina is definately less. Working out helps a lot, and the older I get, the more I have to work out. Reducing the level of agressiveness in my diving helps make stamina loss less of a problem.

What I notice most is a mellowing of attitude. Shooting at least several coolers of fish is no longer even attractive. Agressiveness and competitiveness aren't gone, but they sure are less noticeable. I spend a small part of the day shooting dinner and the rest of the day sight seeing. Again, maybe I'm fooling myself, but the new attitude seems like a better idea.

A wise man once told me, " If you want to get rich, think about it all the time" I wasn't too good at focusing on that, but I think about diving just about all the time. (OK Sven, there's an opening too big to ignore. )

Connor