Team Sharkbait

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Last night I drove out to Nieuw-Vennep for a static competition organized by Nanja van den Broek’s organization Enker. The traffic didn’t pose a problem as I anticipated, so I was even in time for the inscription and judge speech. Although one judge was sick and one other freediver had called in sick, the cafetaria was filled with competing freedivers. Jorg was supposed to be joining as well, by after having another session with the dentist the pain was just too much to bare and he decided to stay home. It’s great to meet people in real life, after you spoke with them over the internet, although sometimes it takes a few minutes to recognize someone (Sorry Frank )

After everybody was inscribed and preparations were made to the pool, the competition started with the safety freedivers doing their own static’s first. After that Judith van de Griendt and Mark Keijzers were the organization’s safety. Besides all the gadgetery display, the competition was fun to be competing at. Exchanging experiences and learning from other freedivers is what comes first at these events, even if you don’t compete or compete against the big guns it will always be good thing to join for the learning experience. During the event I also grabbed my Android phone and tried make something out of the live coverage for Shark-freediving.com. You can watch the material in my Ustream channel here.

I promised myself the minimum of 3m30s would be satisfactory as I agreed upon with Jorg. Got into my Elios suit, which felt strange as I was almost the only one wearing one of those these days. I watched Eric and Jouke’s performance before I entered the water and eased into the competition area. Had a few laughs with the safety and started my breath up at 2 minutes before official top. Slow breathing with a normal rythem of 5 seconds in and about 20-25seconds air out always feels comforting. One or two seconds after official top I submerged and immediately the thoughts came into my head: “Here we are again, so why am I doing this?” Time to get rid of those thoughts and replace them by the experiences I had during my work day. Worked pretty well. At about 2 minuntes the contractions started and Not much later Mark Keijzers tapped my 1st tap @ 2m30s. Tap 2 and 3 came pretty quickly and I had reached the satisfactory level for myself. It all felt ok and I did two extra taps as I had promised myself and Eric to take a few extra contractions. Came up clean and did my surface protocol, waited for Erik Skoda to present my white card and there it was another mission accomplished.

It all might sound strange for people who used to know me as a guy who could static’s over 5-6 minutes and now not even being able to do so. But this has everything to do with me getting back on my feet after a succesful step back. I take things slowly and keep the fun factor high, hopefully this way I can get myself to fight off some more contractions. As long as I’m willing to do this for my own benefit and not for expectations of others, which is mostly the thing when my head starts thinking on automatic-mode .

Nanja thanks for organizing a nice event and let me express myself in your own words: “I always love competitions like these!”

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

This is the wisest lesson I can learn from my little mishaps last Saturday. Although the bad luck came from a totally unexpected angle, this is usually how it works with testing out new setups in a competition for the first time. Everything from my prototype to a borrowed suit from Eric van Riet Paap, went fine and was no problem what so ever. It actually went wrong when I used a swim cap in combination with my normal swim goggles. As it turned out the cap-material was to slippery for the head band to not fully hold the swim goggle cups against my eyes. Immediately after take off, they started making water. Normally a little bit of water is no problem, but it kept going until fully filled and yet it kept on passing by my eyes. After 33 meters of little disorientation I called off the first attempt and surfaced somewhat flabbergasted, it was only at my second attempt I realized it was actually due to the swim cap. So having to call that one off as well. So after my both failed attempts I got rid of the swim cap and did a quick 50 meters with only my trusted swim goggles and all was fine. Lesson learned

Besides all that I had a great time safetying all other competitors doing very great performances & national records and running around for the live coverage to happen. All in all I’m very pleased with my new prototype and I will shed some light on that with more details in a next post.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

As you might have read in my previous posts, I am preparing to compete in the Shark Sports dynamic competition, this Saturday in Tongelreep, Eindhoven. I have no set goals for this competition, but I just have to prove my self a minimum I agree upon on the day itself. Furthermore I’ll be swimming with a new prototype for better alignment. In combination with the new monofin we now use, it’s going to be interesting for myself to just compete with the new setup!

Besides the fact of competing I’ll be doing safety as well, gives me a chance to wear my Gara 3000′s again.

Yesterday I’ve been setting up the streaming ability for the camera, which we are going to place behind the window at the 100 meter turn point in the pool. This should deliver a few nice images of competitors making their turn against the window. Hopefully the wireless connection is strong enough to reach that basement the Tongelreep created to view/analyze what athletes are doing underwater.

So if all is proceeding according our plans, than the competition will start at 14:00 CET, this is also the time that the LIVE internet broadcast will start. If you’re unable to join us at the Tongelreep in real life, then surf to http://shark-freediving.com/live/. I’ll start the first run, so I can do the safety for the other competitors. Hopefully it will be lot’s of fun and good atmosphere, see you all on Saturday 14:00 CET.

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

Yesterday 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)

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Last night I edited the video material we shot at the Liege competition last weekend.

The first video is Dynamic with Fins (DYN), a first timer for me at a competition to use a monofin.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdQLV4OEyHw

The second video is Dynamic No fins (DNF), especially focussed on technique and minimal amount of strokes to reach 25 meters.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxfhfGWE-7Q

Although my mission was to reach the 25 meters in 2 strokes, the positive buoyancy made it harder to accomplish. I took 2,5 strokes for 25 meters, but the speed is still at the level I like it to be.

Enjoy the videos.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Since I made a good comeback last month in the Wiesbaden competition, I have been training with a few different things. Yesterday – Sunday 25th of october – I competed in the competition in Liège, Belgium, amongst a whole bunch of fellow Dutch freedivers. It was nice to meet up with all dutch freedivers again, met a few freshly trained freedivers as well. Good to know the dutch competition interest is still around!

It was the perfect time and place to give my change of training methods a better test, as in Wiesbaden I was more focussed on proving myself I was able to do solid performances.

Dynamic with Monofin

Getting ready for the turn

The major change in dynamic with fins for me was to go for monofin. I have been training with it, but never did a competition with it. In training, my technique has been far from good and that might have been a reason as well to never show it to anyone else in a competition . But as we’re trying to change some things over time, It was a “What the heck” moment which made me decide to just do it!

Preparing myself for a push off in a 1m 25cm deep pool at one side (2m 15cm at the other end), I was surprised to see that the push off was fairly good. I had trouble finding the rythm and balance, but after lane one I was up for a turn. I remembered Pim pointing out in the briefing that there was a ledge of 10cm’s, so reminded myself last minute “Ow yeah, touch above the ledge!”. So I swam up a bit and made proper turn, trying to find balance and rythm yet again. On to the ‘harder’ turn at the shallow part of the pool, all the way there I visualized how I would try and make a flat turn, which I managed to do fairly well. But after the push-off the wall, I drifted sideways and my balance was kinda not there anymore. On my way to the 75m, I decided to call it a day as my technique is still failing me to make it a relaxed and easy run. Although I wasn’t out of breath, I think it was a good thing to make 75 meter my first monofin personal best

Dynamic without fins: 2 strokes or …
My mission for DNF was to try and make it across the pool in 2 strokes, which I had been training in the Tongelreep last Thursday. After the start I felt that the somewhat shallow pool made it harder to be properly balanced and I felt my legs drifting upwards. At the 2 strokes mark, I did not make it far enough to just glide the last bit so had to make an arm stroke to get there. The way back to 50m’s was no different and after the turn at 50 it became more vital to pay attention to technique. Because I had been focussing on that quite a lot lately, I found that holding my hands flat on my legs after the arm stroke did help in gliding further. So on my way to 75m’s I usually feel myself getting a bit sloppy on technique, so I put in the extra effort to keep the technique on a good level. All the way to 75m’s my technique was proper and it all felt good. I decided to make a turn and push off the wall and resurface. Immediately after I surfaced, the safety guy gave me the resting board and I made a clean surface protocol. A training in a training to be honest, as the line wasn’t strong enough to support a freediver hanging on it, I decided to try the board for a change at the deeper part of the pool.

Concluding
All in all this was a super training session, I learned a lot from my efforts that day. Dynamic with monofin was far from perfect, but did taste like I could do more. Also on DNF I made progress, but need to have more neckweights to be able to work with different pools.

Another lesson I learned and put to practice really well was the fact I was happy with a 4 minute 20 seconds static. With most people whom I explain this to it’s an eye-brow raiser, but this is where I am at for the moment. I need to have fun in freediving and anything more the 3 minute 30 seconds was good for today, so I’m happy with it!

At the end of the day I borrowed Daan’s monofin for a quick test. Did 50 meters with it on my normal style, which already felt so much better than my own monofin. After that Daan and Jorg asked me to try the kick-kick-glide technique and that went surprisingly well. Made to the 25m’s in 3 kick-kick-glide’s which Daan explained was a good tempo. So to get back on a comment I got from Eric van Riet Paap on facebook, yes I will be switching to monofin for now and really would like to get a glide monofin.

This all sure taste’s like more and gives me some new opbjectives and new energy to train hard! Most importantly I had a lot of fun at a freediving competition.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

The 4th and final section of the number 23 project, was the competition day. Although my enjoyment was already good after a successful training project, the thought of competing again and meeting up with other freedivers is the bonus to the project.

After arriving and getting myself inscribed at the competition, I walked away from the stand with the number 35 on my hand. After settling for a nice spot in the pool, the sun made us decide to relocate to a spot without direct sunlight. Jorg and I met up with Eric van Riet Paap and Erik Skoda, whilst doing so Andreas Hiemeyer and Pim Vermeulen also joined the conversation. Good to see others freedivers again and hearing about their progress in training and well being in general.

Time to check out the start times and wait for static to commence. Whilst the static was underway, I spoke to Eric about a Blue Seventy suit. He’d let me try out the suit to see if it made any difference for me. After trying it on I swam a few test laps, but couldn’t find my peace when I was underwater. I don’t know if it was the current in the pool or the change of wearing a suit, but I got out of the suit and did another lap. This lap was reassuring me of how I had been training before, was the way to go in the competition.

In my preparation for static I started with a 1 minute empty lungs and a 3 minutes full lungs static. Both of the preparation statics were very relaxed and at ease, with no real mind troubles and sabotaging toughts. Fueled by confidence I started my static performance. Contractions started at a normal period and at 3 minutes 30 seconds I was in my own safe zone, but could continue to the next taps. After 5 minutes and 12 seconds I really felt good about it and resurfaced in a clean recovery. Whilst looking at the judges I felt like a million bucks, the white card was presented and Jorg, Marieke & Eric congratulated me on my performance. That felt great!

The time in between the static and dynamic passed fairly quickly as I’d been talking with Michal Risian, which I’d never met in real life.

I announced 60 meters, a distance which is a perfect marker for myself. Usually between 45 and 60 meters I experience the harder part. Now I knew that 60 meters was more than enough and I surpassed this distance in a determined way. As my stroke count varied between 2,5 and 3 strokes, I started burping my way to the 90 meters. As I did not really feel at ease with all the burping and decided to call it a day at 91 meters. Yet again to make myself fel really good about my performance.

I really enjoyed the competition in Wiesbaden and meeting up with all the other freedivers. It had been a while, but taking the step back to take a brake really helped me regain myself. Now the confidence levels are up and I’m thinking of joining another competition at the 25th of October.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Not only is ‘the number 23‘ the title to a movie starring Jim Carrey in 2007, it’s also the number of days I have available to prepare myself for the Rhein Mein Cup 2009 in Wiesbaden. This year’s RMC 2009 competition takes place on October 3rd and I’ve inscribed myself for static (STA) and Dynamic No Fins (DNF).

I’ve spent serious time on a good schedule, holding all the right exercises for the preparation to competing in October. I divided the schedule into sections; Basic, Specific & Specialized. Annelie Pompe’s article “The secret of Freediving training” on Sebastian Naslund’s website, perfectly describes of what attention areas the sections exist.

The thought behind her article supports the way Jorg and I plan our training throughout a year. With the difference that we plan more around pool specific schedules, as opposed to the depth preparation described in the article. Also my schedule is not focusing on a year round plan, but I’m now on a 23 day schedule built from the same important blocks. That’s why it lacks certain endurance exercises, which have been replaced by DNF combined endurance exercises.

I’ve posted the schedule onto Google’s Document service and made it public, so you can follow the progress over the 23 days of freediving preparation training. Click here to open it.

Last weekend Immersion organized Dutch Apnea Open in the Tongelreep Eindhoven. Together with Kostas and Guy, I participated in the competition, Marieke and Jorg were there to coach us along with friends who dared to travel through the snowy weather.

As it was the first competition for both Kostas and Guy,we had practiced the rules and procedures on the Thursday before the competition. It was a good training and new ground exploration for both of them.

Arriving at the competition we looked up our Official Top times and whilst doing so you just always bump into all familiar faces. Nice to see such a large competitor field. Talking to fellow freedivers and friends filled the first hour at the competition.

After all the socialization I got to coach Kostas and Guy for their performances in static. so we agreed upon our safety-tapping strategy and set out the planning for a small schedule until both their OT’s.

Static sessions
Guy Keulemans
As the organization set up the lanes somewhat confusing for freediver participating for the first time, Guy showed up in the wrong lane. As Guy was preparing I saw the competition field being entered by an other competitor so I had to relocate Guy into the proper lane after which he was ready to do his static. Not totally relaxed, but confident he did a great performance of 2m 39s. Not topping his personal best, but usually that’s a hard thing to do in a competition.

Kostas Kevrekidis
Also Kostas showed up in the wrong lane and after relocation we got to do the warm-up static’s. Eager to go for his static Kostas did his warm-up dives properly and prepared for a very good static. Having no problems while his goggle straps almost sprung just before his OT, he didn’t really had to struggle to get a perfect 4m 36s static.

Dynamic Sessions
Kostas Kevrekidis
Not totally confident about performing a 50m+ dynamic with fins, Kostas prepared for his DYN with a warm-up dive of 50m’s, no problem at all! So Guy and I inspired him to just do a turn and a few kicks and then he could still see how he felt. That being said he started his DYN and almost got stuck in the 1st meter start line, not distracted by that fact he went for 50m’s and turned. The 2 or 3 extra kicks got more and he did a great 85m DYN. Slipping up the surface protocol made it a disqualified performance, but does nothing to the fact he really made a good effort and perfect distance.

Guy Keulemans
Guy prepared a schedule preceding his OT for DNF and the warm-up statics proved to be helpful. As the 3m deep pool posed no problem, he did a perfect 86m dynamic without fins (DNF). Seeing all the technique from our training put into practice and the points of attention for the surface protocol all went flawless.

I’m very proud of both Kostas and Guy for showing good performances!

Guy put up his pictures and movie-clips in this gallery » click here…

So…What about yourself…?
As for me, I’m currently going through a phase where I think it is best to resign from competitions for now. The pressure I put upon myself in wanting to always show the rest a worthy performance, I forget to enjoy competing in competitions like these.

For the record; my performances:

• Static: 3m 35s, the point where usually my contractions come and the first fight starts.
• Dynamic: 70 m DNF, clean and comfortable and yet again to the point where contractions and the fight start.

I wrote a post about my motivations to take a break from competitions, check it out here…

Looking back on the past few days of competition and training I must say I’ve learned quite a lot about the freediving to depth, techniques and about my approach. The depth part is a new and undiscovered area which I really like to explore more.

Besides that I also liked the competition and to meet all competitors and enthusiasts. Good to see there a lot more people out there having the same thing with freediving. All freedivers were very open to each other, helping with technique and helping out with anything.

For me I think the best for future training and depth-options in the Netherlands I’d best be of with doing FRC-dives, which give me the possibility to train for deeper dives within shallow waters.

The stretching which Jorg already told me was very important for deep dives, has proven it’s point and this should be in my preparation for future deep freediving.

Coming here I think my body was well prepared and my ears have seen multiple depth’s without tiring out on me. In my opinion the pool exercises and training from the past weeks/months really paid of in this event.

Putting it all together this whole event was about training, getting into depth’s again and totally for exploration. But in the results ending up with a reasonable 100+ points and respectable depth’s (CNF: 35m, FIM: 33m & CWT: 40m & All PB’s) on a 13th place overall is good inspiration for the future. I really like to compete in more depth competitions and explore the capabilities and moving the boundries for my body in depth.

Overall feeling I have with competitions is still that it brings a certain structure and planning which really suits me…For the Bizzy Blue hole depth-competition I liked the fact of choosing my own time of entrance to the water, which makes it like the approach Jorg and I always use for pool competitions.