Brief report on PFI class Malibu

[JimQPublic]

I think this could be a good debate. Certainly if I had a local coach where I was going to be working with him every week it would suggest a totally different method.

With PFI we had four days to cover a lot of ground. In two or three pool sessions it's hard to take untrained individuals who have never done statics and get them to a higher plane of consciousness. Certainly you can't do very gradually increasing holds while you refine technique and look for signs of imminent BO. Instead it's a basic intro and the students are offered the opportunity to take it as easy or hard as they wish. I appreciate the safe environment in the pool. I was amazed just how easy it was to push myself a few seconds too far. It made me much more conservative for the open ocean sessions.

Interesting that in the pool Kirk or Martin correctly predicted each BO or Samba in the seconds leading up to it.

Jim

 

[JimQPublic]

A clarification here regarding PFI's Intermediate level class:

Purging was taught as a useful tool for static apnea, but not recommended for our open water sessions due to the risks of blackout.

Packing was taught as part of a dry land stretching and conditioning routine. The dangers of overpacking were discussed. Packing for deep dives such as Martin and Mandy's record dives was discussed. For recreational dives in the <40 meter range packing was discouraged due to the energy and time required as well as increased heart rate.

Extreme exhalations were discussed as a training tool for diaphram flexibility and for negative pressure warm up dives. Not as part of the breathe-up for a dive though. The emphasis was on relaxed breathing and that the max 2% possible increase in O2 levels from an extreme exhalation isn't worth the work and increased heartrate.

Again, pushing to BO or samba in the observed pool static was not discouraged, but most of the training session was focused on avoiding them in the ocean.

Also the firm rule on near anoxic episodes was that they end your diving day, no matter how mild the samba seemed.

 

[5ata]

I'm going to preface by saying I'm not trying to be a jerk...

You comment about Kirk and Martin correctly predicting each BO or samba leads me to the conclusion that they have seen it on more than one occasion - ie; they happen at each PFI course. That concerns me greatly as someone who has taken their course and who has heard from reliable sources that they do occur with regular frequency during each course they teach. For me, I find that irresponsible.

As it has been said in a thread over at DB, there is more than one school of thought regarding style and technique for teaching freediving. The majority of US based freedivers exposure to a course is through PFI - and they do have excellent staff - but I personally feel that doing a "Performance" based clinic is ego centric and leads to unwise decisions for inexperienced freedivers taking their clinics.

The reason I bring up the next statement isn't to toot my own horn, but to show the depth of techniques I have experienced.

Having trained with PFI, IAFD, SAFER and most recently with Aharon Solomons (Utilizing much of Umberto's teaching philosophy) has been a real eye opener for me. Knowing what I know now, I would not have done the PFI course nor done the IAFD style of training. They are both heavily performanced based and as such, teach for reaching one's PB very quickly. Training with Aharon Solomons taught me to do the opposite - to reach only what I was capable of doing comfortably - and no more. No blackouts, not sambas, no egoically performance driven freediving. I found that my relaxation in the water increased with Aharons teaching philosophy. There was no pressure to perform. That is a very crucial element in my opinion. By not having to perform, I could concentrate on proper technique, which is now in my opinion more important that depth. If I never dive past 10 meters again, I'll still be happy. Why? Because I freedive for the sheer joy of each dive - and that is all. That is what I try to instill in those whom I teach.

Aharon is now working with me to become an AIDA 1 star freedive instructor to expound upon this - which will eventually lead to becoming a 3 star instructor over the course of the next year...

I look forward to hearing more about your freedive experiences in your DB journal

 

[5ata]

A clarification here regarding PFI's Intermediate level class:

Purging was taught as a useful tool for static apnea, but not recommended for our open water sessions due to the risks of blackout.

Packing was taught as part of a dry land stretching and conditioning routine. The dangers of overpacking were discussed. Packing for deep dives such as Martin and Mandy's record dives was discussed. For recreational dives in the <40 meter range packing was discouraged due to the energy and time required as well as increased heart rate.

Extreme exhalations were discussed as a training tool for diaphram flexibility and for negative pressure warm up dives. Not as part of the breathe-up for a dive though. The emphasis was on relaxed breathing and that the max 2% possible increase in O2 levels from an extreme exhalation isn't worth the work and increased heartrate.

Again, pushing to BO or samba in the observed pool static was not discouraged, but most of the training session was focused on avoiding them in the ocean.

Also the firm rule on near anoxic episodes was that they end your diving day, no matter how mild the samba seemed.

That is a good thing to know - they have updated their course material since I took it last - Looks like I need to revise my position somewhat on PFI