Brief report on PFI class Malibu

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.

Thanks for sharing. Congratulations on those amazing stirdes with your statics! What were your primary goals when taking the class? Safety, apnea performance, technique, etc.

Did they cover finning technique at all? What about Mono and no fins?

Just curious, I'm considering taking the course or someone else course or several courses

Still cracks me up that Grant doing a talk on freediving.. (inside joke)

I gotta say, for a man of his stature I never would have expected Grant to be a freediver. In truth though he seemed like a seal in the water.

ZAquaman:

... What were your primary goals when taking the class? Safety, apnea performance, technique, etc.

Did they cover finning technique at all? What about Mono and no fins?
...

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My goal was to get a jump start on freediving technique and safety so that I could be a competent buddy and find other divers to dive with. I know I'm still a rank beginner but I have a good grasp of theory, safety technique, and buddy diving procedure. I have a baseline of static performance and I know some of the sensations that immediately preceed a samba for me.

Although we were encouraged to push to the limit in our pool statics with 3 blackouts or sambas in the group, in the open ocean it was a different story with a much more conservative approach. Lots of rescue drills but no actual rescues.

Although I had learned to equalize on my own the week before- using advice from Deeper Blue and Eric Fattah's website, during the class my technique improved.

The class also covered finning technique and deeper dives. Many of the attendees succeeded in finning to 100' and greater depths. One student worked with a monofin. We didn't do no-fins. Part of the reason was that the students worked in groups of four as teams providing our own safety divers. Bifins make it easier to support a disabled diver.

Finally training and exercises to increase pulmonary capacity, strength, and flexibility were taught.

Thanks for reporting and answering my questions! Again, congratulations on your great athletic achievements. Quite extrodinary!

Hope you're enjoying the diving there, I lived in Ventura a few years ago and really miss running out to the Channel Islands for a day of diving. It's a bit more of a chore to dive here in Alaska

JimQPublic:

Although we were encouraged to push to the limit in our pool statics with 3 blackouts or sambas in the group...

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Three of them!!! Totally unacceptable from my perspective...:shakehead

What is the purpose in pushing to the point of blackout??? I have less respect for an instructor or set of instructors who literally allow students to push beyond safe limits just to satisfy one's ego - I don't care if it is in a confined setting or not. To me - it is TOTALLY unprofessional. Was there any discussion from the instructors regarding the not pushing to samba or blackout???

I have spoken at length with other top name freedive instructors on this very topic and to allow such an event to occur more than once greatly concerns them. PFI is even known by these other entities as Blackout Central. No one should be pushing to the point of blacking out in a class. PERIOD. Anyone does that in my courses, they are out of the water for the rest of the day - even if it is a pool session.

5ata:

Three of them!!! Totally unacceptable from my perspective...:shakehead

What is the purpose in pushing to the point of blackout??? I have less respect for an instructor or set of instructors who literally allow students to push beyond safe limits just to satisfy one's ego - I don't care if it is in a confined setting or not. To me - it is TOTALLY unprofessional. Was there any discussion from the instructors regarding the not pushing to samba or blackout???

I have spoken at length with other top name freedive instructors on this very topic and to allow such an event to occur more than once greatly concerns them. PFI is even known by these other entities as Blackout Central. No one should be pushing to the point of blacking out in a class. PERIOD. Anyone does that in my courses, they are out of the water for the rest of the day - even if it is a pool session.

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I gotta say Cliff, I am in total agreement here. Pushing to this point places more emphasis on the competitive aspect of the sport and reduces the recreational aspect. The unfortunate part is that when the course is over and you continue your same training regimine outside of the necessary supervision, this is simply a tragedy waiting to happen. You achieve results by staying within safety parameters not by testing them!

If you're learning how to be safe while freediving, presumably you'd be a bit better equipped if you have experienced it and/or had to help a buddy who had experienced it, no?

I see your point, but assuming you do it in a training situation under controlled conditions, isn't it a good thing? Neither my buddy nor I experienced samba/blackout during my PFI class, but I kinda wish we had, just so I'd know what the limit is like.

Jim, I understand your POV, but freediver and I both are coming from an instructor POV for recreational freediving and that pushing to the point of samba or blackout is not necessary. If one is taught more than just the physical aspects of freediving, one would never want to go to that point. I come from a general background of human behavior working with my mentor who has been a life coach and personal counselor for a number of years. Understanding male behavior is all too familar for me. Knowing that men have a need to prove themselves to other males is a basic drive.

If one has done any amount of yoga, even at a rudimentary level, one would realize that this is a place of egoic drive. In my sig, I quote Umberto and I have to agree that his philosophy rings very true - to truly freedive, is to look inside ones self - to explore who we are and why we are. It is very zen like. To freedive is about the dive, not about the performance - it doesn't matter if one dives to 5 meters, 15 meters or 45 meters. To look inside ones self and ask why is the true essence of freediving. Why do I have to go that deep? What will it prove if no one else is around?

The freediver truly dives to look inside - I teach that to anyone who takes a course from me. Aharon Solomons instilled that even more so when I trained with him and he has become a freedive mentor who commands great respect. At 69 years of age, he can freedive to 70 meters - but he really has no need to compete - I try to model my philosophy after his - freedive for the sheer joy of freediving - be very present - look inside yourself and discover the beauty of that very moment. If one freedives purely for performance - one is setting oneself up for failure - maybe something more...