Team Sharkbait

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

After another painful dentist session this week, it was a no go for the in-water training. Too much distraction by the pain prevents me of doing long workouts where I need dream-modus to enjoy it enough so that I can endure the pain.

So, instead of some long workouts I decided to test a few short workouts to see where I’m at. All without warming-up:

• Walking while holding my breath: 56 seconds
• Running while holding my breath: 28 seconds
• Walking with neutral lungs: 40 seconds
• Walking with empty lungs: 26 seconds
• Holding my breath while watching TV, 20 minutes after dinner: 2:38 minutes
• Holding my breath immediately after waking up: 2:58 minutes

I’m not writing down how long I could hold my breath on my bicycle and while driving in a car. Because that is stupid and dangerous and of course I would never do that!

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.

The CWB training progresses in a good way, yesterday I upped the schedule to starting 1min. 45sec., where as last week I started every 2 minutes to do 50 meter lanes. I did 4 lanes and noticed that the last time my legs were not giving me any propulsion, so I had to rely on the last few meters crawling only with my arms. So the focus for next week should be keeping the time at 1m45s, but then trying to do more lanes, testing and pushing my legs for more. Hopefully the recuperation time will be sufficient to let me continue doing 5 or 6 lines of 50m CWB.

Jorg also upped his schedule and made it worth his time as well. After the schedule of 25 meters, I spotted for him while he did a few maximum attempts of CWB. Starting out with about 30 seconds of CWB, he upped it by grueling himself to 39 seconds and about 44 meters CWB. Good intense training where the mental factor was the winner for Jorg.

After the nice schedules it was time for some small monofin technique training. Without any weights and holding the arms alongside the body, we tried training for the proper execution of the motion. The points I have to work on are trying to start the motion in the pelvis area, where I now start the motion somewhere half-way my back, it should start at the pelvis and then work the rest.

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

It’s clear that my crawl without breath work is helping! I’m glad to notice a few things now that I’m busy with these schedules:

1. Sticky; the more you are in the water, the better you can ‘feel’ the water. While doing a crawl in pulling myself forward, it gets easier and easier to make the water more sticky.
2. No more shoulder pain; normally when I did crawls while not on a schedule, I felt a little ‘knack’ in my right shoulder while doing the crawl motion. I’m not sure if the added weightlifting helped in fastening my shoulder again, but for sure it feels great to swim injury free
3. Zen State; because you swim the same lane over and over again, it gets easier and easier to get in a sort of Zen state, where I forget what I’m doing and am more in a dream state than in active fighting mode.
4. CO2 Tolerance; it’s clear that if you do repeated schedules of CO2 work, your body learns to work with higher levels of CO2 and work gets easier and easier every week. Not only that; I also find after doing 20-25 minutes of doing CO2 work, that things are really getting easier.  The spleen at work!
5. CO2 Headache; after a few minutes after finishing the workout, a headache turns up. Not really bad, but it’s a clear sign that the training is working and the CO2 is giving me this ‘pain’. Good to know that it works.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Yesterday I went out for a training in the Tongelreep with Jorg and CWB was the exercise on the schedule. We both started out doing our own type of CWB-exercise; Jorg did the version where he’d do 25 meters and start every 1m25s, I did 5 x 50 meters and starting every 2 minutes.

Then it was time for me to coach Jorg and see what he was capable of in maximum attempts of CWB. Very impressive to see he’s improving a lot in training. He started out with a 35 meters CWB and after that he did a 40m. To trigger that extra bit for him, we varied the approach a bit and swopped to trying to swim a full lane (50m) with only one breath or two breath’s, which made it in all a very good training for him.

Finally Jorg wanted me to do a 60 meters CWB, which has been a while since I’d done that, I started out as planned for the 60 meters, having some trouble approaching the 50 meter mark, but after the turn it all felt good again. I just kept in the same pace and thin I just had a safety stop at 75 meters, just to be sure. Where the hell did that come from . Overall it felt very good and certainly room for more, so maybe next week I’ll be upping the game and try for a longer Crawl Without Breath.

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 Sanne and I did a good freediving pool workout crawl style. While my inflamed tooth didn’t really cooperate during the first part of training where I tried to do 8×25 with 1:20 min countdown for each lap (and failed), the next part went much better.

I tried to do 50 meter laps with one minute rest in between doing crawls with 6 strokes, 1breath for 200 meters. Then upped it to 8 strokes, which still felt pretty good in a training sense of way (Ouch!). And then it was time to explore the limits somewhat and tried to do 10  strokes and 12 strokes with 1 breath each time.

It seems there is a certain technique in it. Because when I do my long distance swims (1k-2k) I use a very shallow breath, so when I’m preparing to breath I only need one stroke to exhale. This doesn’t work when you’re high on CO2 when you’re holding your breath, so in this second session I started to exhale fast in around 1,5 stroke, so that I get completely empty in between. All in all great CO2 work!

Today it was monofin testing time. Sanne brought his prototype weight that he will use on this Saturdays competition in Eindhoven. And I must say it already works great. I think he’s at 80% of solving all the problems now.

While Sanne was so nice to create a prototype that is adjustable so that it also could work with me, it still didn’t fit me So I had to do some other way of testing my streamlining. In the end it appears that 3 kilo’s is just a little bit to heavy for me, so next time I’m going to try for 2,5-2,8 kilos.

It’s really clear that the time of just playing around with a monofin without weights is over. The difference between my technique without weights and with weights is so  major, that if I wish to improve I have to use weights from now on. So time to create a streamlined weight for myself as well.

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

On Tuesday we went to the pool. Sanne for his schedule and I for my schedule. I’m pretty happy with it and how it went. It was hard for sure, but I really felt like I did a good Co2 workout. Just what I needed.

To be exact; at the end of each exercise it feels exactly the same as at the end of a static. Only here I know that if I do one more stroke I reach my goals, while at  static the end is open. Maybe it’s time again to start doing statics for certain times and do schedules with that again, now I think of it.

The 8 times 25 meter with 1:25 minute countdown cycle per lap where doable. number 3 and 4 were the hardest, but I managed to continue. The last ones felt pretty easy, so a clear example that a small warmingup for me works. Crawling with 6 and 8 strokes without breath went pretty well. I really needed the 1 minute rest period between each lap, but then again, the feeling was good and Co2 was trained.

On Thursday, as Sanne already mentioned, our new monofin arrived and it was play time. Wow, what a difference! The footpockets are so much better, and the kick so much easier. The one thing that will need a lot of practice again will be the turn. But then again, you need to enjoy the trip as much as the destination, so this will be a good challenge.

I’m wondering where this fin will bring me in the coming weeks and months! Let’s work hard, enjoy the water and get some results.

This is a post by Sanne Buurma.

Last night Jorg and I had the chance to test our new Waterway Glide fin from www.finswimworld.com and it’s hard to not like it instantly. Although I’ve already tested with Daan and Judith’s Glide fin, we now had the chance to properly train some more with it. Although the technique to use for both these fins differs, I’ll try and put down my findings for both monofins independent from the technique used.

Buoyancy

The first difference I noticed between the Leaderfin Flyer Pro and the Waterway Glide is the difference in buoyancy. The Leaderfins monofin has been built with 5 kilograms of lead in the arch, which contributes to the motion by stimulating it by lagging the motion. The Glide fin on the other hand has a positive buoyancy, which stimulates the glide phase by leveling the monofin out horizontally. I experienced the difference in buoyancy by trying to stay balanced through a 25 meter lane run. Where the Flyer Pro tends to start whirling left and right, the Glide seemed to stay at course. I checked with Jorg runs if these findings were also happening to him in the runs, which they did. So either this means, that the Flyer Pro needs more getting used to or more specific strength put into the blade. But out of the box it seems that the Glide does a better job at being balanced.

Turning

After swimming with the Flyer Pro I got used to having the weight from the arch help me in swinging the fin around and planting it against the wall quite effortless. But when I tried the Glide for a turn, I noticed that I needed to help out with my arms to swing around and plant the fin on the wall. Now of course this just needs some getting used to turning with the Glide fin, but it was a point which both Jorg and me immediately pointed out after trying it. Next training sessions will have more focus on making proper turns with the Glide, if we want to use it properly and not loose too much energy by pretending to be a bird underwater.

Pockets
Having a tight fit into the foot pockets is essential with both monofins, to keep the efficiency of the throughput of power into the fin optimal. Both fins go at this a different way and of course in that way it’s not fair to compare these versions. But as we’re giving our first impressions on the difference in these fins, we’ll do it anyway .

The Flyer Pro doesn’t really feature an internal profile of a foot, but just a pocket with a tight band around the heel. Where as the glide does feature a more profiled inside pocket, which genuinely has advantages over just having a tight fit like the Flyer Pro. Even though both fins do have a proper tight fit and do not loose a lot of energy that way, the profile in the Glide fin makes it overall more comfortable to swim with.

Overall performance
If I compare the first thing I noticed between the two fins, it’s the fact that I need far less kick cycles to reach 25 meters. Where I use 3 kick cycles or more to reach the 25 meters with the Flyer Pro, I now seemed to be able to reach the other side by only using 2 kick cycles and one arm stroke. This is due to the fact that one fin is a glide fin and the other fin for a continuous motion, but I did want to point it out. As I believe it felt less of a hard performance to reach 50 meters if I compare both fins. Which in the end matters most, because with less energy wasted it will leave you with more distance in the end.

I believe that the Flyer Pro is a very good fin, but it doesn’t work out good the way I seem to be able to utilize it. (Also the reason to put the fin up for sale.) So for the time ahead we will try and optimize the use of the new Waterway Glide fin and I will write a more detailed impression about the experience with the fin when I have been training with the fin for an extended period of time.