JimQPublic
Registered
Here are two entries from my dive journal about the Performance Freediving Intermediate class in Malibu last weekend.
I had only done two freedive practice sessions the week before the class, and two short days snorkeling a few months prior. That's it for my snorkel/freedive experience.
Saturday night journal entry:
I'm just so jazzed I had to post. Today was my first day of taking the intermediate freedive class from PFI. It was AWESOME! The training team is primarily Kirk Krack and Martin Stepanek with Paul Kotik doing one of the lecture segments and Grant Graves as the fourth team member to keep the instructor to student ratio at 1:4.
The day was mostly classroom stuff. Although I have read something on most of the subjects touched on, the personal illustrations provided by Kirk and Martin made it much easier to understand.
We did a pool session of rescue drills and then did a wet static. The static times ramped up, with 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and finally 4:00. My best dry static (after practicing tables for about a week) had been 3:45, although I didn't try for longer after that. Today 4:00 was hard, but I did it! I guess that's my baseline PB.
My training buddy didn't expect to get past 2:00, but he almost made it to 4:00 as well.
Jim
Tuesday night journal entry:
Class is over and I'm 100% exhausted.
I did a 5:10 static in the pool session Sunday but had a bit of a samba coming up. I didn't feel good about my relaxation throughout the static. At about 4:30 I grabbed the pool wall and pulled my feet in so I'd be ready to come up. In fact I had most of my head out of the water with just the face in at that time. Definitely using too much O2 holding position. Then I came up, took a couple breaths and wobbled a bit. I remember wanting my mask off but it took about fifteen minutes before I could clearly recall that it was someone else (Kirk), not me taking it off. At the 4:45 mark I knew it was time to come up but held off for the 5:00 call. Now I know.
The open water sessions were a different story. At Catalina Island the water was much colder with much less visibility than the week prior. Plus it seemed that hanging off a float and watching the murky water made me rather queasy.
Even though I knew in my head that with a 5:00 static I should be able to easily do a long free immersion, my body kept telling me to rush. I mananged to get to 20 meters each day pulling down. Finning down my technique was horrid. I took at least 12 kicks to get to 10 meters which was as far as I went. Many attempts had me just doing crazy zig-zags in the water.
Equalizing had been my biggest concern but up to my max 20 meters wasn't too hard for me. The first day I started out with some trouble until I realized that air in my ear & hood made it hard to sense equalization. I had to re-flood the hood several times and then I was good for hands free Freznel equalization to 5 or 10 meters, after which I needed to pinch my nose & use Freznel while clicking my ears open. Day two I poked some holes in the wetsuit hood adjacent to my ears and equalization was fine. The only times I had trouble was when I craned my neck or tried to descend too quickly. Chin tucked descending at a moderate pace I was fine.
I made the foolish mistake of staying up 'till 11:30 and having two beers the night before the first ocean day. Then I still woke at my normal 5:00 AM, so I wasn't up to par that day. Also I just got a bit intimidated by the whole thing.
Overall the class was an incredible start to freediving for me. Even though I've been reading everything I can online, the lectures were all very educational.
Kirk came down with laryngitis Sunday night so Martin pretty much took over from there. Amazing guy. I never would have expected the star athlete to be such a great presenter as well. I would compare this team with Chris Carmichael and Lance Armstrong, but honestly I think Martin is a far better speaker than Lance.
In all just incredible.
Did I mention Paul Kotik? He was the unbilled hero of the open water sessions. Showing me lots of little nuances that really helped. He even showed me how to completely clear my snorkel by rolling over. How cool is that?
Grant did a good talk on the psychology of freediving. Unfortunately it didn't psych me up to relax on the way down. I think only practice will help that.
To bed now.
Jim
PS- I have a splitting headache from caffeine withdrawl. Thanks Martin.
I had only done two freedive practice sessions the week before the class, and two short days snorkeling a few months prior. That's it for my snorkel/freedive experience.
Saturday night journal entry:
I'm just so jazzed I had to post. Today was my first day of taking the intermediate freedive class from PFI. It was AWESOME! The training team is primarily Kirk Krack and Martin Stepanek with Paul Kotik doing one of the lecture segments and Grant Graves as the fourth team member to keep the instructor to student ratio at 1:4.
The day was mostly classroom stuff. Although I have read something on most of the subjects touched on, the personal illustrations provided by Kirk and Martin made it much easier to understand.
We did a pool session of rescue drills and then did a wet static. The static times ramped up, with 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and finally 4:00. My best dry static (after practicing tables for about a week) had been 3:45, although I didn't try for longer after that. Today 4:00 was hard, but I did it! I guess that's my baseline PB.
My training buddy didn't expect to get past 2:00, but he almost made it to 4:00 as well.
Jim
Tuesday night journal entry:
Class is over and I'm 100% exhausted.
I did a 5:10 static in the pool session Sunday but had a bit of a samba coming up. I didn't feel good about my relaxation throughout the static. At about 4:30 I grabbed the pool wall and pulled my feet in so I'd be ready to come up. In fact I had most of my head out of the water with just the face in at that time. Definitely using too much O2 holding position. Then I came up, took a couple breaths and wobbled a bit. I remember wanting my mask off but it took about fifteen minutes before I could clearly recall that it was someone else (Kirk), not me taking it off. At the 4:45 mark I knew it was time to come up but held off for the 5:00 call. Now I know.
The open water sessions were a different story. At Catalina Island the water was much colder with much less visibility than the week prior. Plus it seemed that hanging off a float and watching the murky water made me rather queasy.
Even though I knew in my head that with a 5:00 static I should be able to easily do a long free immersion, my body kept telling me to rush. I mananged to get to 20 meters each day pulling down. Finning down my technique was horrid. I took at least 12 kicks to get to 10 meters which was as far as I went. Many attempts had me just doing crazy zig-zags in the water.
Equalizing had been my biggest concern but up to my max 20 meters wasn't too hard for me. The first day I started out with some trouble until I realized that air in my ear & hood made it hard to sense equalization. I had to re-flood the hood several times and then I was good for hands free Freznel equalization to 5 or 10 meters, after which I needed to pinch my nose & use Freznel while clicking my ears open. Day two I poked some holes in the wetsuit hood adjacent to my ears and equalization was fine. The only times I had trouble was when I craned my neck or tried to descend too quickly. Chin tucked descending at a moderate pace I was fine.
I made the foolish mistake of staying up 'till 11:30 and having two beers the night before the first ocean day. Then I still woke at my normal 5:00 AM, so I wasn't up to par that day. Also I just got a bit intimidated by the whole thing.
Overall the class was an incredible start to freediving for me. Even though I've been reading everything I can online, the lectures were all very educational.
Kirk came down with laryngitis Sunday night so Martin pretty much took over from there. Amazing guy. I never would have expected the star athlete to be such a great presenter as well. I would compare this team with Chris Carmichael and Lance Armstrong, but honestly I think Martin is a far better speaker than Lance.
In all just incredible.
Did I mention Paul Kotik? He was the unbilled hero of the open water sessions. Showing me lots of little nuances that really helped. He even showed me how to completely clear my snorkel by rolling over. How cool is that?
Grant did a good talk on the psychology of freediving. Unfortunately it didn't psych me up to relax on the way down. I think only practice will help that.
To bed now.
Jim
PS- I have a splitting headache from caffeine withdrawl. Thanks Martin.