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First Contractions Since A Long Time

27/12/2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

fish-is-holding-his-breathIn the last months I’ve been doing some regular (mostly dry) statics again. Once a week, sometimes even 2 times a week. End result normally was that I did my third or fourth attempt the best time, being around 2:40-3:00 minutes. Pretty mediocre and not really special.

The thing is, I don’t like contractions at all. As soon as I feel one coming in the pool during static or dynamic, it’s over for me. Since I did quite a few 3 minute holds in the last weeks, without contractions and sometimes even on very stupid moments of the day (right after dinner, or after fitness), I decided to make everything perfect for one time.

So this afternoon the kids were away, my last meal was 3 hours before, it was time. I felt pretty relaxed and decided that because the year is almost over, I had at least have to endure 3 contractions during my best static.

First was a warmup that I ended after 1:45. 2nd attempt was 2:30 which felt pretty easy. After this one I decided to do my final attempt of the day and mentally prepared for the pain called ‘contractions’.

The first minute in the hold the only thing I could think about was the pain that would come, but somehow I managed to forget it and enjoy it. Suddenly I was not relaxed anymore, because I felt a contraction coming. I promised myself I wouldn’t look on the watch, no matter what.

I tried to imagine them as waves. Contraction comes, smashes on the beach, and washes away. The pain for me was intense, but with this mind trick pretty doable. After the third contraction I decided it was enough and wait until the next contraction would set in, which would be the end of the breath hold. Around 10 seconds after the last one, I felt it coming and decided to stop. Quick breath, hold, breath and okay. No real problem

The wonderful thing was that when I looked on the stopwatch the time was on 4:03 minutes. Not bad considering my personal best is 4:35 and I did that almost 7 years ago. Pretty happy with this time. But to be honest, I’m not sure if I’m ever going to like contractions like these again.

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The Gliding Freediver

19/12/2009 By 2 Comments

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

WaterWayGlideFinFreedivingAs a result of our monofin training of the last couple of months Sanne and I have decided to get really serious with monofin training again. So we decided to order a Waterway Glide monofin.

After some tests in the last couple of weeks with the fins of Daan, Judith and Eric, the only option left to be sure for a good fin for the coming months was to get the Glide fin.

It should arrive around the first week of the new year, so hopefully our first pool training on January 9 will include the new fin already. Can’t wait to do some turns with it!

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Static With A Twist

12/12/2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

P1010524Yesterday Team Sharkbait together with Shark Sports organized the first Shark Hot Tub Static and it was fun! It was a really small competition with only 4 people, but Team Sharkbait was the force behind some new things we are trying to do with the sport of freediving.

I’ve talked before about the fact that static is the most boring thing in the world to watch for an audience. So we have some ideas how to make it more interesting to watch and especially more recognizable for people. All these different masks, preparation rituals, no talking, quietness, yoga, etc don’t make up for a fun event.

During the event yesterday we purposely prohibited warming-ups and  equipment. This way everybody was chatting, laughing and having fun, and when they said they were ready they took their 2 minute countdown and started their static.

Everybody was pretty sceptic beforehand, but I guess now they’ve tried it, it felt pretty good and especially trainable. We’ve got some more ideas for the future, so more fun competitions coming up.

Results of yesterday:

  • Sanne 4:47
  • Daan 5:03
  • Nanja 4:34
  • Natascha 4:02 (PB)
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Sharkbait Website Transfer

04/12/2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

teamIn the coming week we’re going to move  the Team Sharkbait website to our new Shark network server. While Shark Freediving was always about the world news about freediving, bringing news about records and competitions, this website was always about something else.

Team Sharkbait is about the personal freediving stories behind the people who are in Team Sharkbait. In the past we decided to break this up in a separate website, but  technology and social networking has evolved in such a way that it’s now possible to create communities that combine the best of everything.

With our new Shark network environment we will still bring the global freediving news through our frontpage but now the freedivers themselves can bring the personal stories as well. So the first personal stories we place at the Shark network is that of Team Sharkbait.

As it is a big move, you can expect a little downtime in the next week. We will keep both blogs in sync until January 1st. From then on everything will be up to date again directly from the shark network and the old sharkbait.shark-freediving.com domain.

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Out Of The Box

27/11/2009 By 1 Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

Neckweight

The Standard Neck Weight

On Thursday it was pool time with Sanne again. Time for some testing and experimenting! Now we’re training regularly again, it is also time to fine tune other parts besides the monofin kick itself. Streamlining, weighting, glide moment, everything.

At the moment we’re looking for an alternative for the normal neck weight and weight belt around the waist. While both systems have their positives, there are also some negatives. Around the neck is a pretty good place with regards to aligning, but not so for comfort and relaxation. I’m also not so convinced with regards to the streamlining of some of the neck weights I see. Especially the 5+ kg belt around the neck give some stress in the neck and drag in the water

Around the waist is a pretty comfortable place and what most people are used to. But it’s not in the center of your body and doesn’t hold you down in the right place, especially when you’ve got big lungs. Streamlining is still an issue here. But if you use half kilo blocks, it is pretty minimum, but still a disturbance in the flow.

So, we did some testing with placing weights on very strange parts of the body in also very interesting shapes. And we were very surprised about what we found out and how it worked! It coming weeks we will fine tune our new weight setup and make some video’s about it. I think a lot of people will find it ‘interesting’ and in the beginning probably even stranger then the first neck weight they saw.

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Freediving During Office Hours

20/11/2009 By 1 Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

Daan in a rather unusual normal moment

Daan in a rather unusual normal moment

This week I thought it would be fun to join some other freedivers during their training. Eric van Riet Paap, Daan Verhoeven en Judith van de Griendt were training in the Tongelreep during daytime and I was invited.

The good thing of working for yourself is that you’re flexible during office hours, so I managed to squeeze a small hour of water between customers and I could enjoy their company. As Sanne was still on Holiday it would be fun to see some other freedivers into action.

First of all, it’s always quite a shock to see that where Sanne and I keep our trainings to an hour, they are doing 4-5 hour long sessions in the water. Now I understand where those big numbers in the pool come from! If only I had the time…

Anyway, the sessions was short but fun. I tried out several monofins and decided that Judith here monofin would stand as a prototype for my own fin. What a difference with the usual fin! Amazing! Next time I don’t do a big run before going into the pool. I really wanted to give it a good try, but every time after a few kicks my legs filled up and there was nothing left. Strange feeling.

As I write this, Sanne is in the pool with Daan and Judith also testing out some monofins. Hopefully he manages to choose his fin as well, so that we can invest in a good monofin that gives good results and much less pain in the feet.

During the session on Wednesday Eric did a 187 meter dynamic and Judith a 150 meter dynamic. Big personal bests and amazing distances! Daan was feeling wacky and was screwing himself or something like that. Take a look below for some footage.

Eric van Riet Paap 187 Meter Dynamic With Fins

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Daan Verhoeven Screwing Around

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Judith van de Griendt 150 Meter Dynamic With Fins

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Freediving Lesson Topics

15/11/2009 By 1 Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

school_boardNo, I didn’t forget! I was just so busy with collecting all the document and working through them that it took months instead of weeks. Last week I finally made my final mindmap about all the different topics about freediving that needed to be transformed into interesting lessons.

As a teaser, here is the list of lessons that will come in the coming weeks. Not necessarily in this particular order, nor am I saying that this list is complete, but it’s were I’m working from.

If you have any topics that you would like to see included, let me know!

  1. General (What is, history, organizations)
  2. physics
  3. Safety (Buddysystem, Risks)
  4. physiology
  5. Breathing
  6. Equipment
  7. Mental
  8. Environment
  9. Training Techniques (Periodization, Schedules, Data analyzing, Logging)
  10. Wet specific training (per discipline)
  11. Dry Specific Training
  12. Non-specific training
  13. Advanced training (RFC, Empty, flooding, packing)
  14. Equalization
  15. Organization & Scuba
  16. Stretching
  17. Nutrition
  18. Leadership/Assistance
  19. Freediving as a business
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Finding Differences

06/11/2009 By 1 Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

IMG_3970Sanne and I had another good training in the pool. Our normal training schedule is starting to get shape again. First half is static, second is monofin. Easy does it.

We started with static again. The hot tub was filled with people from the previous diving (jump in the water type of diving) class and we  put ourselves in as well. Normally I don’t want to do static if somebody is watching my back. Crazy defect in my head just doesn’t like it when people are watching me doing freediving.

Today was different. Besides the fact that I don’t use goggles and a clock anymore for static already meant a big difference. But the fact that I started my statics with so many people in the hot tub is completly new for me. In the end I didn’t really mind doing it.

Static times are still at around 2 minutes, but it feels easier and easier and I’m doing them without goggles, which is already a big win for me. Never thought I could do it like this and stay (pretty much) comfortable.

Sanne did his required no-warmup static and managed to get to the minimum time he had to do, but there wasn’t much inspiration during his attempt and he stopped way before what he could do.

Next was monofin time. After doing a few 25 meter laps, it’s time for 25+. Legs are full with lactic acid after a few laps, so I switch to high speed, low speed, kick kick glide, etc. I do a very easy 50 meter. Sanne does a 75+ meter in a busy and unorganized pool.

Between the different laps I also do some 25 meter dynamic without fins, which feel great as well. Time for a dedicated lane during club-evening. Got the feeling that personal bests aren’t that far away anymore! Would be interesting to see a new freediving personal because the last one I did was almost 7 years ago.

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Monofin Starts To Feel Good

23/10/2009 By 3 Comments

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

img_4198We had another pool training yesterday. First time for me doing static without goggles. I even decided to stop using a breath-up technique to increase the CO2 in my body before going down. It takes some getting used too in the coming weeks. Especially to get relaxed in the mind again. Also  the water is very high up in my nose during static, and as I’m not used to that, it makes relaxing difficult.

At the end I did 3 statics without preparation. 2 minutes was the max time, but I was so high on Co2 and really not relaxed. Lets see how it goes the next time. Sanne also did a no warm up no breath-up static. The pool was even hotter than last time. So when he made the sign that he was very hot after holding his breath for over 4 minutes I made a practical joke and he had to laugh and came up at 4:10. He made it look easy!

Dynamic training was next. After a few 25 meter laps with my Gara 2000 fins(who are almost celebrating their 12th birthday!) doing monofin style kicking, it was time for the mono-fin. First two laps were the same as usual. Felt pretty good, not much upper-body movement and going fast.

But then Sanne made the comment that I should take it much easier. After doing a few easy and slow 25 meter laps, Sanne told me it looked great. I needed 24 seconds for a 25 meter lap in 8 amplitudes and it felt sooo easy. Did a total of 6 different techniques for testing it. Kick and glide, arms besides the body, etc, etc. In the end Sanne and I decided that I should stick to the 8 amplitude kick for the coming weeks and see how it goes from there.

Next week I’m going to continue with this technique training and also do some longer laps then 25 meters. Normally I got an uncomfortable feeling with dynamic at around 35-40 meters, bifins and monofin. So I’m curious how it will go with this technique. Can’t wait to test it!

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Pool Freediving Fun Again

18/10/2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

ourpool

Our Training Pool

Thursday was pool freediving again. Now that we have joined the Scubacity Diving team to make use of their training facilities, we can now start with some good trainings again. Just real freediving training.

Like mentioned previously we now also have the hot tub to our disposal. So we started the first 30 minutes with some statics in the pool. I was up first and did 3 easy statics. All around 2 minutes to test which setup I should be using the coming time. First one was with my swimming goggles and while it felt pretty okay and relaxed, the pressure on the eyes was not very relaxing.

Second static was with my favorite diving mask, my cressi-sub  superocchio. But I noticed a real difference with having much less of a diving reflex, because my face is much more covered in the mask. So for sure this option is gone now.

So back to the swimming goggles. I decided to set the timer of my watch to 30 seconds and repeat itself every cycle, so that I wouldn’t have to look. Tried it, and it felt pretty good. So good that I have  decided to leave the swimming goggles away altogether for the coming  months during statics. The only reason I want goggles is so I can see how far I am at time, and that’s exactly what I shouldn’t be doing at the moment. Will be interesting though, because it’s clear I’m still not very comfortable with spectators and my failure to deliver great statics.

monofin

Training with the Monofin

Of course Sanne made it look easy again by doing a 5:12 minute static without any problems and without a warm-up. Although I guess he was pretty warm when he was done with the static in the 37 degrees hot tub.

Second half was for dynamics. Really focusing on monofin technique and relaxation. After trying my own monofin it’s now a fact that it’s a shitty one and that I will never use it anymore. And while Sanne his monofin is much better it’s just a masochistic thing to have on your feet. The footpockets are not from this world, so we should be looking into buying a new one some time soon.

I did some 25 meter laps in a fairly easy style of around 20 seconds without getting tired. Very small amplitude at the moment to keep the upper-body as still as possible and to avoid making a snake movement. It’s still hard but in the coming weeks it should be possible to make some good progress.

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