Sydney Freedivers' 145Club
It started as a way for some of the longer term freedivers of Sydney to have nights at the local pool without heaps of newbies. To train on certain nights you had to be at the level of 145. That meant:
100m Dynamic Apnea (distance underwater in a pool)
40m Constant Weight (Depth diving with no change of weights)
5min Static Apnea (Breath hold face down in a pool)
The idea was: To train on these nights you had to be part of the "big boys" with the above under your belt. This worked for the duration of their training for an overseas comp at the time. After that, there was just too much interest in freedive training and shortly we welcomed all with the proviso that new people come on the Monday night when we make time to instruct on the pool safety protocol.
The three requirements above are not "walk in the park" Each one requires some serious work to achieve and the work is different for each. Master one of the above and it assists the others. After putting some people through it is apparent that Static Apnea 5 mins is the toughest. It is the one where the person is most uncomfortable for the longest time and having fresh sweet air only a few inches away messes with your head.
Dynamic Apnea is probably the easier but that is because it is fun to train. It get the basics of your finning technique down and streamlining and this gives you distance. The 145Club culminates in the Constant Weight. 40m is just enough depth to test your ability to clear your ears with that much pressure. It is enough that it is a little intimidating for the first time.
Many of the Sydney Freedivers membership have one or two of the above done. After Ant and I the first of the new bunch was Pooshkie. He did his final requirement off the coast of Sydney. You may have seen the video:
[ame=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZloiinZhE]YouTube - Sydney Freedivers - the 145 Club[/ame]
Second to full 145Club statis was Julian Chan who completed his last requirement last weekend, diving over 40m. Check the clip:
[ame=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1cQ_3VLhj4Q]YouTube - Sydney Freedivers - Return to 145 Club[/ame]
There was a prize for both first and second and there is a prize for the first lady diver of the club to make all 3 requirements $100 voucher from Fathom/Extreme. We have some the girls moving well on their training. One example is Jasmine who swum a 78m Dynamic No Fins recently.
The 145Club has become a bit of a phenomenum with divers across Australia and even internationally contacting me with information about their progress. I am working on a Safety Protocol for 145 attempts and training with workable safe proceedures. For example "2 safety divers on all attempts minimum."
Watching the divers achieve their requirements is amazing. They get such a feeling of achievement and their diving is forever changed.
Judge
It started as a way for some of the longer term freedivers of Sydney to have nights at the local pool without heaps of newbies. To train on certain nights you had to be at the level of 145. That meant:
100m Dynamic Apnea (distance underwater in a pool)
40m Constant Weight (Depth diving with no change of weights)
5min Static Apnea (Breath hold face down in a pool)
The idea was: To train on these nights you had to be part of the "big boys" with the above under your belt. This worked for the duration of their training for an overseas comp at the time. After that, there was just too much interest in freedive training and shortly we welcomed all with the proviso that new people come on the Monday night when we make time to instruct on the pool safety protocol.
The three requirements above are not "walk in the park" Each one requires some serious work to achieve and the work is different for each. Master one of the above and it assists the others. After putting some people through it is apparent that Static Apnea 5 mins is the toughest. It is the one where the person is most uncomfortable for the longest time and having fresh sweet air only a few inches away messes with your head.
Dynamic Apnea is probably the easier but that is because it is fun to train. It get the basics of your finning technique down and streamlining and this gives you distance. The 145Club culminates in the Constant Weight. 40m is just enough depth to test your ability to clear your ears with that much pressure. It is enough that it is a little intimidating for the first time.Many of the Sydney Freedivers membership have one or two of the above done. After Ant and I the first of the new bunch was Pooshkie. He did his final requirement off the coast of Sydney. You may have seen the video:
[ame=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZloiinZhE]YouTube - Sydney Freedivers - the 145 Club[/ame]
Second to full 145Club statis was Julian Chan who completed his last requirement last weekend, diving over 40m. Check the clip:
[ame=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1cQ_3VLhj4Q]YouTube - Sydney Freedivers - Return to 145 Club[/ame]
There was a prize for both first and second and there is a prize for the first lady diver of the club to make all 3 requirements $100 voucher from Fathom/Extreme. We have some the girls moving well on their training. One example is Jasmine who swum a 78m Dynamic No Fins recently.
The 145Club has become a bit of a phenomenum with divers across Australia and even internationally contacting me with information about their progress. I am working on a Safety Protocol for 145 attempts and training with workable safe proceedures. For example "2 safety divers on all attempts minimum."
Watching the divers achieve their requirements is amazing. They get such a feeling of achievement and their diving is forever changed.
Judge
