Every so often I feel motivated to do something with my life. Yet, I don't truly know how to make meaningful changes. A typical flash of get up-and-go results in me writing a list of goals. Usually like this:
- Get a girlfriend
- Get a six-pack
- Get better at talking to people
I went through a wave of feelings about this. The extended period between finishing exams and receieving final marks dulled my sense of joy when I got them. My next thought was immediately one that displays a pretty severe lack of self-worth and self-awareness: 'Well, if I was able to do that then obviously the subjects I took weren't hard enough.' Since then, I've came around. I was happier about ticking off a goal than the goal itself.
Suddenly, I remember that I can do stuff.
Goals for Tim, guy that did what he set out to do that one time:
- Get 2 girlfriends
- Get an eight-pack
- Make people better at talking to me
Sunday, October 13, 2013
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I've started training weekly at MSAC with a bunch of other freedivers. It's a fun bunch and they make training enjoyable, not that pool training isn't fun anyway... Last week was awful though. I was cold from the beginning and contractions were starting within seconds of starting an empty lung static. I couldn't even do a 30 second hold and 25m swim more than couple of times. Like most sessions, we finished with a few static holds in the warm pool. Sergey is the best of the group, he can do a very easy 3'30" and has been up to 4'30". I could only manage 2'05". Highlight of the session, woo! Not so much. It wasn't a good training session. That's okay though. Everyone has bad days sometimes.
This week, I was armed with not only a shortie wetsuit, but also a wetsuit jacket to go over the top and my kiteboarding booties. I undecided about whether I felt awkward or felt pro about wearing a wetsuit to a suburban pool. (1) My session started very well. Half-empty lung statics of 60" came pretty easily. Doing 25m with no fins was really easy too. I felt so good that I decided to go for a max. I knew I wanted to hit the big one-oh-oh. With Scotty watching from the side and Sergey in the pool, I donned my long fins and started a quick breathe-up. The first 25m was comfortable. I remember pushing off the wall for 50m, thinking that it came pretty early and being surprised how good I felt. 75m came and went. At 85m, I start to panic a little and increased my finning effort, rookie move. I was really feeling the lactic in my legs now. I made it to the next wall and decided that I had made it that far, I might as well turn around and push off.
Despite the panic, paradoxically, I also remember feeling supremely relaxed. It was like I was having a dream. I surfaced and my legs were shaking, just like I was shivering. My arms didn't shake much as I performed the surface protocol: I took my mask off, made the "OK" signal and said to Scotty "I'm okay". Boom, PB!
Scotty told me that it was clean, but a bit wobbly. It was only then that I realised that I did what is colloquially referred to as samba, just like the dance. The actual name for it is loss of motor control. It's pretty much a partial blackout. It's not dangerous unless it is strong enough that the freediver can't keep their airway above the water. I was a little bit hesitant to write about this for fear for whomever might read this (hi Mum, Dad). Pool training in reality is extremely safe. As I wrote about previously, the body is pretty good at protecting itself, and if it can't, my training buddy Scotty will. :)
I'm taking a bit of pride for being able to push myself. I don't see anything wrong with that. Although I may have ventilated slightly, I can be reasonably sure that my mental and physical tolerance for CO2 levels has increased. Coupled with my competitiveness and daredevil nature, I shouldn't be so surprised about pushing myself to samba this soon after starting freediving. Experiencing samba means ignoring the warning signs, so it's going to be something I think deeply about how to rectify.
- If I'm going to do a big swim, do a good breathe. There may have been a hit of hyperventilation in my breathing here because I didn't take the time to count it out.
- Don't sprint during a max! I'll internalise this with more training. It's seems like something I will go out of.
- Staying warm is so important.
- Learning to detect and acknowledge the signs of a blackout closely in should be a priority, especially when I start doing more long swims.
- Intense focus on making 100m was probably a factor. Attention should be what my body is doing rather how far away from the wall I am.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
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I got hooked on freediving in December 2012. I had high expectations for the Level 1 course in Koh Tao, Thailand. After all, my brothers and I had ditched the Full Moon Party to do something a little more our style with the last few days of our Thailand trip.
Blue Immersion freediving school is run by Akim. Basically, the coolest guy you will ever meet. He was absent on the first day of the course, but we caught snippets of info about him: former muay thai fighter, former secret service agent, 100m+ freediver, and to top it off, all-round nice guy.
Kanthin lead the course on the first day. We were guided through the physiology of freediving, in particular the mammalian dive reflex. When mammals hold their breath underwater, bunch things occur to increase survival. Things like slowing of the heart and vasoconstriction to use less oxygen, contraction of the spleen to fill the blood with more red blood cells and blood shifting to the midsection so vital organs aren't crushed by water pressure. There's also a really cool reflex called bronchospasm that closes the airways if you blackout underwater, you don't take water into your lungs.
After a bit of meditation and visualisation, we did two static breath-holds. Brendan got a ridiculous 3'15". Lachlan and I squeaked 1'15" and 1'45" minutes respectively, bottom of the class. Whatever.
Into the water for a underwater swim test with long fins on. The minimum requirement was 30m. Having done two laps of a 20-ish metre pool without fins back in Phuket, I was pretty confident. One of technique requirements is to look direct down at the rope on seafloor as you swim horizontally. With no idea of how far away the buoy waiting at the end was, the test was much harder than I expected.
Out in open water for the fun bits, buoys were setup with a rope hanging a weight at 20m, the maximum depth for the course. Free Immersion is a discipline in competitive diving where you pull down the rope head first to a certain distance, stop then turn around and come up. I was nervous. The head first thing was a bit scary and, again, not being able to see how far you had to go was too. After a couple of turns, the Holmes boys all managed to get all the way down. My slowest dive to 20m was a very comfortable 1'30" - more than my breath-hold. My dive reflex had well and truly kicked it.
We learnt to duckdive, something that feels incredibly natural to do. After doing a very solid duckdive and ending up at -4 metres within a few seconds and without equalising, I quickly learnt to pressurise my ears before leaving the surface. With this skill, we were set loose to snorkel back to the shore. The amount of freedom you're given with a bit of knowledge about your body's capacity for diving underwater is incredible. Also, learning to blow bubble rings is pretty awesome too. :)
The next day we met the elusive Akim. Just as cool as the hype made him out to be. Even better, he took our group for the open water session. I was so nervous again. The first time I pulled out at 5m for no reason. At the surface, Akim is asked what was wrong. I didn't have a good answer and he is like "well, don't stop next time."! Tough love was exactly what I needed. After tweaks to my technqiue like tucking my chin in, relaxing my arms and pulling harder at the bottom, I managed to do a bunch of dives to 20+m with a comment from Akim along the lines of "that was a perfect dive"!
Owing to my dense bones and absence of bodyfat (haha!), I was pretty negatively buoyant at the surface, even without a weight belt. When it came to practicing buddy rescues at a depth of 10m, it was a massive struggle for my buddy to hold my airways above the water. I got water up my nose, down my wind pipe. I wondered how it could have been more of an ordeal if I had actually blacked out. haha!
Back on the shore for the debrief, Akim and Kanthin commented on how fantastic we were and whether we could stay for the next level. Whether or not it was genuine or just appealing to our egos to book the next class, I was pretty happy to hear it from my man-crush.. I posted on facebook when I got home asking if Akim knew of people freediving in Melbourne to link up with. No reply. Heart broken.