This is a post by Sanne Buurma.
This was the feeling I had when visiting some places in Norway. Last week I had a week off and me and my girlfriend went to visit Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Although this wasn’t a holiday filled with freediving, it definately brought me relaxation and insight on the mental level.
The travelling through countries like these is a good way for me to really clear my mind of thoughts and the daily grind. Sitting at a fjord lake and watching the mountains in the back getting lit by rays of sun beaming down through the clouds, gets my mind into drain mode. I start thinking about a lot of things and have no trouble dismissing the thoughts when I finnish thinking about them. In my experience this really has a positive effect on finding new inspiration and energy for the time ahead.
One of the most amazing places we’ve visited in the trip through Scandinavia, were the Preikestolen. The brochure told us it would be an intensive hike of about 2,5 to 3 hours, which in place would take us to an amazing view on the squared shaped plateau sticking out of a mountainside on a height of 600+ meters. Apart from the hike time, as we got at the top in 1 hour and 15 minutes, the brochure wasn’t lying. What an amazing view, which gave me a feeling as being on top of the world and you could almost reach out and touch the roof of clouds. But I think the picture best describes my perception of the feeling.
Although we were away only for a week – and even less than that as the weather had turned against us – we had a great holiday and my mind is totally relaxed and ready for some serious training. I’ll have to wait for Jorg to return from Kos and then I will gradually intensify my freediving training to a new level. One with more attention for relaxing at the right moments and pulling of a peak performance at the other. I learned a lot from the months of no competitions, which will guide me into creating a balance between the peaks and relax moments.
Sidenote
As you’ve noticed lately Jorg has really found his drive in freediving again, which is very good to see and read. I’ve been sharing the freediving passion for years with him, it’s stunning to see how much drive it gives you when you’re both excited about a sport. Especially when I’m on the down-low finding my fun in freediving again – since I started the competition break last year november – it really energizes, drives and inspires me to have a buddy totally committed to freediving again.
