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Competition Training

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Erik

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2001
4,731
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Hi people, I thought I'd let you know how things are going as we train for the Canadian Nationals competition this May 24 to 26th.
I am in Vancouver BC, staying at my fellow compeitor Brent's beautiful house in North Vancouver for a week.
8 freedivers trained yesterday in the dark, 12 Celsius water for 2 and a half hours, diving on two lines; one 50 metres and the other longer to accommodate Tom Lightfoot's 62 metre CB immersions.
We had Andrew Brownsword, Brent Pascall, DB's own Peter Scott, Perry Gladstone from Ontario, Greg, Tom L., Aurora (from the French women's team), and myself.
Greg had broken his eardrum a few weeks back, and was in for the first time since then, feeling out his limits again.
Peter is glowing, having returned from an interesting winter in the Great White North of the Yukon. Anyone who dives with Pete will see that he belongs in the water.
Andrew brought his 50 metre line and float, which I managed to swipe for the rest of the week :) He is dreaming of poking fish with his new gun ;)
Perry has come out early to test the dark and cold waters of the Canadian Left Coast, and is doing very well....that's right, this is not Belize or the Med! So Perry wisely is working his way into the depths, day by day, and figuring out how to don/doff a Picasso open-cell suit. Lots of great new experiences for him.
Tom of course, is a powerhouse: a machine that seems unstoppable... training hard and always coming up strong. We all know who our competition is this weekend, right guys ;)
My good friend Brent, at 6'7", did a 48.5 metre dive yesterday, a PB for him, and he's pleased as hell! I lent him my carbon blades after the last competition, as he was overpowering his plastic Spora's....now he's looking at some C4's in the STIFF range, to get him around, since the Radicals look like noodles also, under his power. Note that Brent did his 48.5 in 1:18 !! Cruisin' man
:king
Peter looks more at home in the water than anyone I know...he was grazing on some seaweed, and will start eating small molluscs underwater soon, I think.
Aurora is equally comfortable in the water, doing 38 metre dives in this intimidating environment. In her heavily accented English, she desrcribed the ease of diving 44 metres in warm, blue water. Nevertheless, she again and again flipped her (barefoot!) monofin up, and descended into the sea, either diving the line, or swimming with the seal that had been following divers down one of the down-lines.
I did 37 metres yesterday, and 40 today, and I'm happy with that, since it's my first time in depth since March.
Eventually we got cold...Peter and I swam on our sides, monofins cutting through the water like dorsal fins on sharks, each holding one side of the float as we began the long swim back to shore....I am truly home, where I belong.
Warmly,
Erik Young
 
Wow, I can't believe you guys can dive in that, 12 celcius and no vis. I looked at some photo's from a Canadian regional comp, only just see the guide rope in that Dark green stuff ?

Best of luck to all of you that are competing, hope you have fun and that everyone peforms well on the day.

Erik, now your back is better you are in much better form then your last comp. So go kick some butt !

Cheers,
Wal
 
Bah, its not that cold -- we I racked up 4 hours in two dive sessions on the weekend. If that seal hadn't decided to leave I don't think I would have ever been able to coax Aurora out of the water!! And not only does she dive without socks, but she doesn't have any gloves either. She goes in white and comes out pink!

Monday was pretty dark though, and I was only down to 20m. Spent most of the time seal chasing and jelly fish dodging. :D :D :D

I'd be out during the week too, except for that darn work thing. :duh


Erik, you guys going to hit the pool tomorrow? I saw your note about going out diving and I'm wondering if you'll still have enough left for a UBC visit.
 
I will be in the sea tomorrow and the pool tomorrow night as well Andrew. I'm stuffing myself with carbs, plus tons of antioxidants to ward off the dreaded cold!
See you there amigo.
Thanks Wal, how's your training going? Any new PB's?
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
Erik,

Stuffing yourself with carbs sounds like a fun thing to do !
I'm a bit of a carb addict, nothing better then heaps of pasta or rice. Just not good to eat heapsof it all the time though :(

training is going well, although haven't had much chance to try statics lately. Was doing them at a pool at my parent's house, the water has just dropped to 15 celcius, which is cold even with my wetsuit. After doing half hour of statics my body temp just drops heaps, even when its warm ie 24+ and have a wetsuit.

Still finding it hard to relax doing a dry static, seems really hard to keep the air in. Haven't managed much above a 4:30, only a few contractions. I am doing heaps of empty lung statics, find these easier, did 2:30 the other day.

On the plus side I have now found an active buddy, and we are pool training together. Did a 100m dynamic yesterday which is a PB, alhtough I was getting close to my limits. Had no wetsuit and was cold before hand so I think I this made it a bit difficult.

I have never tried doing statics on the surface in a public pool because I'm woried about what the lifegaurds think, or getting kicked out for being dangerous. This Saturday we will bring our wetsuits to the pool, and try some statics & dynamics, pretty quiet on weekends. (If we don't get told off ?!)

My buddy is a friend I scuba dive with, and is a complete beginner to freediving, I'm showing him the ropes so to speak.
Can't believe it, the first time he did a series of dry statics, he did a PB of 3:40.

2 days later he did 5:11 !
I only broke 5 minutes a few months ago after 3 years of freediving?

He did a 3:20 wetstatic on his first attempt at the pool yesterday, without trying too hard. He can only manage a 50m dynamic at the moment but thats using crappy scuba fins.


Erik, may the force be with you on the weekend :)

Next starwars movie has just been released here, gotta go watch it soon.

Cheers,
Wal
 
Hey Wal, congrats on your 100 metres! Awesome. Your friend sounds like a natural too.
I did 44.7 metres today, diving with Tom, Aurora, Perry, and Peter P.
Our friendly seal was out again today, usually waiting at 10 metres by a knot on the line....she would watch you coming down, then follow for a while, occasionally nibbling on fins gently.
She loves Aurora, and it's mutual....the seal surfaced a metre in front of her, scooped some seaweed on its head, then dropped it in front of Aurora!
After all the target line diving, we dove for a half hour on the wall near the beach. 4 of us would breath up and dive at the same time, and it was wonderful, looking at the fish, starfish, and thousands of little jellyfish floating around. But I do admit that I wished I had my JBL when I saw a decent sized dinner swim past ;)
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
Seals are cool.

They are my favourite animal to dive with. The first time I snorkeled with one I played with and it followed me around for over an hour.

Glad to hear you guys are enjoying yourselves whilst still getting the training in. Diving with 4 freedivers down at once sounds cool !

This is one aspect that I like of scuba diving - having people to share & communicate about what you are looking at, that rarely hapens with freediving.

Erik 45m is good, specially in that temp&vis !

Have fun diving,
Wal
 
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