Here's how my weekend was. I drove to Jasper, in the Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada, which is a 4 hour drive from my apartment in Edmonton, but well worth it. I left Friday morning, avoiding all the highway weekend traffic. After setting up my tent at the campsite, I headed to Lake Annette. This lake is in a beautiful setting, surrounded by mountains and evergreens. It was a beautiful sunny day with a few clouds in the sky. I put on my 5mm Picasso suit, Cressi mask, Cressi Gara fins,6mm mits, and Apneist computor. Swimming out to get into deeper water, I noticed that there were a lot more fish in the lake than usual. This is a small lake, maybe a kilometre wide in it's widest spot, so it is unusual to see a lot of fish.
Water temp was 14C, very comfortable in this suit, and being that this lake is fed from glacier springs, visibility was 15 metres horizontal. I dove for 2 hours to the max depth of 16metres, watching the male sucker fish chase the females around to spawn. I practiced sneaking up on fish to the best of my ability; these fish are used to scuba divers so they aren't spooked unless you start acting like a predator....sit and wait on the bottom is the best.
Being that freedivers do not exist in this neck of the woods,I have no dive buddies up here, so I restricted my dives to a max of 2 minutes, with at least 3 minute breathe-ups. Nearly every time I go freediving, I reach a point where I really am just HERE, living in the now of the moment, and this day was no exception. Returning to the surface after a dive, tasting the air, floating in Nirvana, I thanked the Creator for my day, my air, the water, and my life.
Returning to the shore, I got changed, cracked open that thermos of decaf and thanked the Creator for Coffee, too. Cheers, Erik
Water temp was 14C, very comfortable in this suit, and being that this lake is fed from glacier springs, visibility was 15 metres horizontal. I dove for 2 hours to the max depth of 16metres, watching the male sucker fish chase the females around to spawn. I practiced sneaking up on fish to the best of my ability; these fish are used to scuba divers so they aren't spooked unless you start acting like a predator....sit and wait on the bottom is the best.
Being that freedivers do not exist in this neck of the woods,I have no dive buddies up here, so I restricted my dives to a max of 2 minutes, with at least 3 minute breathe-ups. Nearly every time I go freediving, I reach a point where I really am just HERE, living in the now of the moment, and this day was no exception. Returning to the surface after a dive, tasting the air, floating in Nirvana, I thanked the Creator for my day, my air, the water, and my life.
Returning to the shore, I got changed, cracked open that thermos of decaf and thanked the Creator for Coffee, too. Cheers, Erik