static dress rehearsal

[Bill]

If anyone is interested.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke-VYSv8qQw"]YouTube - Breaking the U.S. Breath Hold Record[/ame]

Lee Gruenfeld is a friend that visits Kona in October and a heck of a writer. Golf novels is his specialty. He does a daily blog for Iron Man, plays some golf and supports his wife for the race. Cherie Gruenfeld was a repeat world champion this year after injury forced her to spectate in '06.

He has become interested in static and even wrote an article (yet to be published). When he challenged me to do 8 minutes in front of the camera I failed, but it was still good training. Like I tell Kirk and Mandy, some of us teach by showing how not to do it.

 

[island_sands]

Hey Bill, that's incredible, a world class breath hold.

 

[BennyB]

Awesome Bill, just awesome.

 

[trux]

Amazing performance, Bill! But are you sure you should not be disqualified because of your age? I thought pensioners are not allowed to compete - how else can then the young freedivers ever break any record?

PS: wish you pass the magic 8 at the real attempt!

 

[naiad]

Wow! Great performance Bill. :king

 

[Waterysmile]

Excellent. Very, very impressive. Didn't look as though you needed long to recover, either.

 

[fcallagy]

wow bill well done great performance

 

[Erik]

Great job Bill.

 

[azapa]

amazing bill! I have just tried my first pool statics in a course with Martin Stepaneck and managed 4:40. I will try to improve this summer. A couple of q"s

you don't use a mask or googles, do you find any improvment (DR sensors around eyes exposed)?
do you have your eyes closed?
at what phase in the hold does your first contraction appear?

Thanks for the tips in advance.

 

[Bill]

That's a very good instructor that you have. Martin helped me over a few hurdles in diving. I don't think any one has the best answer yet. Try to set up a training program that you can stick with and the times will keep improving.
No goggles was an experiment and didn't make much difference in time but prevents making some mistakes (surface prodcedure or checking the watch) so I stayed with it. I can relax more with my eyes closed but opening them helps prevent vertigo when the safety diver seems to move me in the wrong direction and concentrating on a blurry point helps near the end.
Contractions are different for each diver. As my times improved, they started coming earlier. Now the first are mild at about 3 minutes and about 5 minutes is the worst.