sven-ster
i actually got to talk to her on the phone a few times before i signed up. her attitude towards the sport is extremely hard to explain. however, she did explain something to me in layman's terms...(and this is pretty much why i took her course)
and this is all "off the record"; i'm not going to quote her. but, i'll summarize. she was once asked why men can(for the most part) go deeper than women. her answer was something along the lines of how women don't possess the traight of "alpha dominancy" and DO possess the traight of "survival for procreation". i think it meant that men are more willing to risk their lives to be "the best". women seem to have a mortality issue to deal with and don't neccessarily like to flirt with death. this was kinda translated into our spearfishing issues.
i know that she's blacked out quite a few times and she's told us that almost all cases were brought on without warning. her mentality of "always err on the side of safety" makes her so much more effective when teaching apnea techniques. especially spearfishing, we all know that fish tend to pull us away from our buddies and we're not always there to check on eachother. to have such a cautious attitude and a mindset that plays "devil's advocate" on every circumstance, makes her extremely effective and important for the minds of spearos.
i'm in miami right now and went out yesterday. i was always consciously breathing the way she tought me and focusing on all of the techniques we learned. i had made multiple dives to 70-80 feet and felt absolutely awesome on all parts of the dive. and, this was carrying a pretty large gun and a crapload of floatline behind me! it's not that i think she's made me a better spearfisher with magic techniques, but she's showed me how to put together a multiple of things that made my performance "more possible."
i don't know how to explain it. i think the spearos might be able to relate though. here's an example... you've shot a fish at a considerable depth and he's holed-up. you gotta get back down there but you're pooped and an immediate dive would barely get you to the bottom without any time to spend there before having to head up. she tought me(specifically) how to ventilate properly, how to drop on a spot without tracking, and get to the bottom with enough reserve to let you do your business and then surface comfortably. it took a while to rid all my old habits, but once i had everything down, my deep dives were too easy, almost.
anyways, aquiles and i are considering putting together some things that would "go along" with one of her courses so that people would learn alot more about spearfishing than just the apnea part. and, it would be in the florida keys. that's a whole nother issue, though.
later,
anderson
just made my experiences there that much more enjoyable.
