Last night I took my pregnant wife to a pool so she could have some gentle exercise and I could do some diving. The pool has 25-meter lanes going lengthwise to a bulkhead and 25-yard lanes going crosswise on the other side of the bulkhead. Two swim teams have the pool before its public swim. One swim team kept practicing through the public swim and used every 25-meter lane.
I usually have my wife spot me by means of holding onto a dowel connected to spectra line connected to my wrist. I have to be in a side lane and she walks along the side of the pool as I swim. Well the only side lanes are in the 25-meter section, which meant there was no means for her to spot me. In trials before she was pregnant she couldn’t consistently pull me up from the bottom when she swam on top, plus she couldn’t keep up with me either.
Since the situation was less than ideal I decided to dive conservatively and experiment with different weighing. No spotter for me, means I stop at 50 yards or meters. I have two necks weights, which I have made from attaching two ankle/wrist weights together. One is made up of 1-pound weights and the other 2-pounds. So through combinations I can go from 2lbs to 6lbs. I was wearing a 1.5mm suit.
I glided by pushing off the wall several times and did four 50-yard dives with various combinations. Then I put the 1lb weights on my ankles. I tried various combinations and ended up with 4lbs on the neck, 3lbs on the waist, and 1lb each on the ankles. In a glide I would glide almost to a complete stop before slowly ascending (I was in 6’ of water). But when ascending, just before the surface, my feet would sink and I would come vertical. This didn’t seem ideal, but then again this was after coming to almost a compete stop, which isn’t going to happen during the dynamic anyway.
From just a push of the wall, I could glide further than with any other weight combination I tried that evening. I realized I probably didn’t need to fin as hard and fast as I had been. In the dynamic I really had to raise the arms high to keep off the bottom of the pool, but after about the first 20-yards I got the right water column height and was able to maintain it. At 50-yards I felt better than I had on any previous attempt so I decided go for 75. At 75 I still felt good, but knew I shouldn’t push it without a spotter so I did the turn kicked twice and came up.
Simo K, might be right! Maybe some people do need some weight on their ankles if they are wearing a suit, which causes their legs to be buoyant. I am eager to experiment more with this when I have a spotter and can push myself closer to the limit. I would also like to get a neck weight like Aaron has where I can try a larger range of weights. Does anybody know where I can buy one over the internet? Aaron, how about and e-mail address or phone number to your local shop?
I’m also going to get Pelizzari's "Manual of FreeDiving" per Connor’s suggestion and try to learn what he teaches about proper fining.
don
