Adam and Carmen are two dedicated Marine Conservationists who trained with Freedive Flow on Gili Air to deepen their freediving to further improve their important work – an enterprise Freedive Flow is happy to support!
Adam Beard
The ocean has always been close to his heart. He combined his two main passions, diving and photography. Manta Watch Camp was naturally the next step in his career. Both Adam and Carmen are the founders of Turtle & Manta Watch Camp and they have moved across the world to some of the most remote areas in order to conserve these beautiful underwater animals while helping the locals benefit from ecotourism.
Carmen Toanchina
has been diving for more than 10 years, she is devoted to the ocean where her passion lies in teaching scuba diving and conservation. Adam and Carmen started Turtle Watch Camp last year, this was a great success with +4700 hatchlings released. More recently they have founded Manta Watch Camp. Their aim, conserving the most majestic creatures in the oceans by providing vital data through research and education.
A Need for further Knowledge
Being based on such a remote island off Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea certainly has its challenges! Manta Watch Camp’s primary focus is to research the manta rays, help protect their thriving habitat and collect and share really comprehensive data through our marine conservation and research program. We constantly found ourselves needing to enhancing our ‘advanced snorkelling’ skills, duck-diving on a daily basis down to +10m to set up our less intrusive Manta ID capturing camera. This was a hugely successful way to capture shots of passing manta rays over the period of 3-12 hours, especially during times we were unable to SCUBA dive. This method proved to be extremely effective as we managed to ID a large number of Manta rays that perhaps might have been too shy for our company whilst using SCUBA. We soon realised we were onto something…
During our first season we started seeing an increasing number of inquiries from guests that wanted to join our mission. But as many of them were freedivers we sadly were unable to accommodate them due to lack of training on our side.
The popular question, ‘do the Manta rays interact differently with freedivers?’ immediately sparked our interest. After some research on the topic, ‘The Art of Apnea Diving’, we were astonished by our findings. The fact that some divers could hold their breath for up to 8 minutes and reach staggering depths of +100m absolutely blew our minds! We began to dream of innovative ways freediving could be used to impact our research strategy and we could already see the experience for the Manta rays would be improved too. This sparked our hunger for knowledge and the desire to be able to perform breath hold dives that previously had seemed somewhat inhuman.
Manta Watch Camp Manta Watch Camp is a research and conservation program based in Papua New Guinea. They work alongside Manta Trust and Conservation international.
With the mission to gain valuable understanding and data on the Manta Rays of Papua New Guinea, by using a monitoring research program.
They work closely with local communities, tourists and government to ensure the preservation of these beautiful animals, through science, education, community based initiatives and government legislation.
Where to gain this inhuman Knowledge?
During our recent season, we finally decided to make the leap of faith and jump straight into the deep end. We were determined to expand our ‘advanced snorkeling’ knowledge and the thought of diving without the need for bulky tanks or regulators felt incredibly liberating. We also took advantage of the extra luggage space whilst travelling which was a huge bonus! As there weren’t any freediving instructors in Papua New Guinea (coming soon!), we found ourselves on route to the tropical paradise of Gili Air island, which happens to be home to a world renowned and highly recommended freediving training school.
Freedive Flow (www.freediveflow.com) has got an unparalleled reputation. Having the privilege to be visited by freediving legends such as world record holder William Turbridge really justifies their brand name and creates a really enthralling atmosphere to study and learn from the best. We were really surprised with the amazing facilities too and found ourselves extremely lucky to begin our new journey, training with such an elite group of freedivers in such an epic location!
Freedive Flow supports Marine Conservation
After a very friendly chat with Oli Christen, the inspiring owner of Freedive Flow, it was apparent that we were on the same page. We shared the story of our current project and described in great detail Manta Watch Camp’s current goals and ambitious vision for the future. It was abundantly clear that Oli had a real passion for marine conservation and it was really great to make a connection with someone who shares so many of the same values, especially when it comes to protecting our oceans. Oli is also an instructor/trainer and has many years of freediving experience under his belt. He was so supportive of Manta Watch Camp and our previous project in Malaysia (Turtle Watch Camp) that he suggested we apply for his generous marine conservation training program, that aims to support conservation projects like ours, by introducing us to the wonderful world of freediving. Finally, it was time for us to get out of our comfort zone and take a deep breath.
Back to School…
During our first week we were given some self study materials, so we could get a grasp of our new hobby. The material was supported with really useful presentations and revision-sessions with the amazing Yosh, a Master Instructor with years of experience both in freediving and close-up studies of marine life. As PADI Scuba Instructors, we found that there were some similarities, especially with the scientific sections of freediving that happened to be based on rules we were already familiar with, however, the deeper we dived into our studies, the more we realised that there were so many new theoretical and practical skills for us to learn and delving in was so refreshing.
It’s All About Technique
Despite having 2000+ SCUBA dives and 1000’s more in-water sessions, we found ourselves in drastic need to improve our technique in order to become efficient freedivers. It was just so different to what we were used to, but we embraced the challenge! We started with our confined shallow water safety & rescue training in Freedive Flow’s custom built 20m training pool on the premises of the renowned Oceans 5 Dive Resort and began learning some relaxation techniques. This was followed by our very first attempt at a Static Apnea breath hold. ‘Static Apnea‘ is the process of being face down in the water, completely still, whilst holding your breath for as long as you can. During this session, Yosh carefully watched over us, and was there to greet us when we surfaced to offer calming coaching to help us release the tension build up in the body.
This coaching session was heavily focussed on mind control training, a hugely important area of study for those thinking about having a go at freediving. After our first few attempts of static apnea, we were truly astonished that we had actually just held our breath for over 3 minutes! Remember, it was only a few days prior to this achievement where we thought this type of breath-hold required superhuman powers!
Our next session was Dynamic Apnea, which is swimming underwater on a single breath. Yosh was at hand to help us fine-tune our body position, hydrodynamics and of course our finning technique. This was the last hurdle before being unleashed in the open ocean and it was really valuable learning for us.
Continue following our story in PART II
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/8679ef_b4d524283eb94474aee6a3cd005fdd75-mv2.png416344Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2017-07-05 14:42:582018-07-24 11:58:00Manta Watch Camp – Training with Freedive Flow
Text, Photos and Animations by Freedive Flow Master Instructor MJ Kühn
When I see people tying or using knots incorrectly, I get a subtle urge to slap their hand. Like you would when seeing a toddler putting his finger in the wall socket. Rope work is definitely undervalued in freedive education. Simply put: That rope that you are diving on is going to save your life, long before your buddy even knows something is wrong.
Don’t disrespect your best friend in the water.
When it comes to knots, hitches and rope work, “It works – let’s use it” is definitely not the recommended approach. Yes, this knot or hitch may work but is it the best option? There are pros and cons to every knot/hitch and it is up to you to choose the best one.
Let me start with the basics: What is the difference between a knot and a hitch?
Knot
Knots are freestanding and hold their shape regardless of it being fixed to something. Example: The Figure of Eight
Hitch
A Hitch works solely with friction. Hitches rely on an object like a carabiner to hold its shape. Example: The Clove Hitch
Guidelines to keep you safe
Getting familiar with new knots. In the beginning always tie your knot from the same direction in exactly the same way.
Example: Position your bottom weight in front of you, with enough space that the rope can be slightly tensioned as you make your knot.
If you do this, its like following directions on a map. If you don’t know your directions by heart and you turn your map upside down. You will probably end up lost. When I teach our master students knots, I see it all the time: When they try and make the knot from a different direction or position, all sorts of things pop out except what they were planning.
Dress your knots This means keep your knots tidy. Make sure the rope stays parallel in the bends of your knots. It makes it a lot easier to untie once it’s been loaded. Undressed knots loose strength and security!
Dressed – Ropes stay parallel in the bends.
Undressed – See how the ropes cross in the bends.
Tighten your knots When a slack knot gets loaded it looses its shape (in other words: it gets undressed). The tension is not evenly distributed as intended for the knot. Slack knots that are tensioned create friction which damages your ropes.
Keep fingers and hands out of hitches When a hitch “bites”, not much tension is necessary to keep you from getting your fingers or hand out of it. Let’s say your bottom weight gets stuck on the bottom with reasonable current, and it happens just as you were making your hitch: Your hand or thumb gets stuck in the hitch and you will be pulled below the surface instantly.
Sure there’s many of us who can get out of the situation. The whole point is not to end up in the situation in the first place.
The ones you need to know!
Clove Hitch
The clove hitch is by far my favourite hitch to use for setting depths on the buoy. It is definitely my favourite to use in most rope situations. Its easy to tie, easy to untie, strong and just bites tighter the more it gets loaded. So keep those digits out of the loops.
Water Bowline
The water bowline is a bowline with an added half hitch on the tail end. When under tension the half hitch grabs onto the tail making the knot more secure. Bowlines are great in general, super easy to tie and untie even if the knot was heavily loaded. The water bowline is ideal for example to attach a bottom weight to the dive-line.
About the Author
MJ Kühn, Master Instructor and Manager at Freedive Flow, Gili Air, Indonesia
Before becoming a full-time freedive instructor I spent my time as a whitewater river guide, a whitewater kayaker and worked on oil-rigs in Africa for 3 years as a rope access technician.
Especially during my work as a rope access technician my life often depended on one single knot! In this time I built up a good deal of experience and understanding of ropes, knots and hitches. No matter what the problem is, my first instinct is always to solve it with ropes and knots. There are few things as satisfying as uncoiling a brand new rope, even if it’s not mine. I want to cuddle it, make friends with it and tell it how amazing it feels.
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/output_usQwCS-e1478407024925.gif272484Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2016-11-06 11:26:202018-07-24 11:58:01Know your Ropes
Text and Photos by AIDA Master Instructor Yoshua Surjo
In this article I would like to convey my personal thoughts on the most efficient technique to use with bi-fins. Fin kicks can make a huge different in our diving: An efficient fin kick propels us further in shorter time with minimized effort. The more efficient we are in our movements, the deeper we can potentially dive or prolong our bottom time.
I believe there are two major parts that characteristic for most efficient fin kick. These are:
– Leg position and movement
Bi-Fins technique
– Amplitude and frequency
The best leg position during a fin kick is a straight legs. To reach this position you will have to lock your knees and ankles. The easiest way to imagine it is when you are tip toeing just like a ballerina. The front kick and the back kick should be symmetrical and well balanced.
Now that we covered the leg position and movement, we are going to discuss the amplitude of our kick and the frequency. The amplitude of our kick is basically the wideness of our kick while the frequency is “kicks per minute”.
The amplitude and frequency of our kick depends on the length of our legs and the characteristics of the fins we are using. If you have a long legs, most probably you will be more suitable with softer blade and vice versa. And if you use a soft blade, your amplitude should be small with a higher frequency. Vice versa, when you are using a stiffer blades, your kick amplitude should be bigger with a lower frequency.
To soft or too hard?
If your fins are too soft, wide kicks will create more drag while the blades are fully bent. In this position the fins will no longer generate maximum power and you will need a higher frequency of kicks to prevent you from losing momentum.
On the other side, if your fins are too hard, you will need bigger amplitude to get the maximum out of your blades.
Written by: Yoshua Surjo, AIDA Master Instructor
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Untitled-2.001-copy.png768567Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2016-10-22 12:35:022018-07-24 11:58:01Bi-Fin Technique for Freediving
Why do I freedive? I can say for sure that it is not for the fame, not for the money and not for the numbers. We will have to dig a little deeper to find the answer to this frequent question.
I freedive to feel the silence. I would tend to agree if you say now that this a little cryptic. But let’s start with this: Those who did an instructor course with me will remember one of my favorite sayings: Freediving is a meditation with feedback.
When we meditate comfortably seated on our front porch with the singing birds in our ears and a fresh morning breeze in our face it is a small step to say “I am in the moment!” – the silence of the meditative state feels actually very close to the blissful morning scenery. Quite often your mind flip-flops forth and back between meditating and recognizing the birds. In fact, realizing the birds and the breeze is already giving it away that you have “left the silence”.
During freediving it is possible to find that meditative state of “being in the now” as well – some freedivers might say this is actually the goal of freediving, and I agree with that. Freediving means to become one with water and when this happens, the silence becomes palpable – you can feel the silence! This is why I freedive.
The instant my mind snaps out of the moment and I start worrying about how deep I am, how long I have been down here already, what could go wrong or what maybe went wrong in the past, I leave this meditative state. Either I can instantly find a way back into it or I will have to stop my dive. My freedive ends when I leave the meditation. There couldn’t be any clearer feedback.
In this video, Adrienne Gittus of Soulwater Productions has masterfully caught the serenity, the meditation of freediving. I hope you can feel the silence in this video, too!
Oli Christen
Owner of Freedive Flow
Instructor Trainer AIDA and PADI
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20140315-OC-PICT0030.jpg10801920Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2016-10-07 18:36:262016-10-14 17:10:06Feel the Silence
All good things come to an end. Today was the last day of working on perfect freediving with William Trubridge and Freedive Flow on Gili Air. Now, it will be up to the freedivers to implement everything they’ve learnt during the Jamboree to push themselves to the next level.
It’s a wrap! All participants of the FREEDIVE JAMBOREE – GILI AIR 2016.
Freedive Flow’s boat, the Oma Cornelius, can fit 16 divers comfortably, and carries emergency oxygen and water onboard. Today we had some new faces on board. It was great to see that Will made time for everyone, to join and film their dives, and give constructive feedback. Trubridge isn’t about ego. It is rare for someone at the top of their game to display such constant humility, patience and genuine interest in people and the environment. This is a legacy to be proud of: a legacy that inspires people to do better for themselves and for the planet.
Most divers tried no warm-up dives again, while others chose to work purely on technique. Will demonstrated the most efficient duck dives for constant weight and no fin dives. The open water session yielded 3 PBs!
Will introduced a “blacklist” on Day 1. Actions that resulted in your name appearing on the list included:
being late
losing gear
turning early
getting a PB.
The offenders’ punishment is paying for everyone’s gelatos. Will also made it to the list but Stanley ended up generously footing the bill for everyone. Terima Kasih!
This afternoon’s workshop was highly anticipated by participants. The mental aspect of freediving is huge and freedivers are always looking for ways to tap into their potential, and caging that “monkey on the back.” Will talked about visualization, affirmation and mental anchors. You can read more about this on his blog.
He also explained how to schedule a training plan and how to adapt training tables to varying intensity levels to keep the body on its toes. When a table starts feeling easy, it needs to be replaced by something more challenging.
In his final evening talk, Will gave the audience a very intimate insight to his mind during a deep dive by taking us all, step by step, through his ground breaking CNF dive to -101m in 2010.
During the Jamboree we learnt that pros also have problems sometimes, after all they’re only human. Over the last four days, Will:
had a fogged-up mask
got stung by jellyfish and FELT it
learnt how to double-daisy chain a rope
is still learning how to make bubble rings at the surface.
Some other random facts about Will:
He used to play chess competitively
He used to row competitively
His lowest heart rate is 27 bpm
I would like to thank William Trubridge for making the FREEDIVE JAMBOREE – GILI AIR 2016 an unforgettable reality. Freedive Flow wishes you the best of luck in and out of the water. Selamat jalan! And to all of you out there, we hope to see you for the next Jamboree!
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_5758.jpg6001200Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2016-09-05 16:45:332018-07-24 11:58:01Jamboree DAY 4: About Blacklists and Double-Daisies
William Trubridge is a clever guy. While his intense sessions with Freedive Flow on Gili Air he likes keeping the training plan a secret until just before the participants get in the water. Maybe this way, no one has time to worry about trying something they’ve never done before. No warm-up dives and deep training tables were the order of the day! Surprise!
Open Water Session: A freediver, a buddy and a world record holder that takes footage for further analysis
Most freedivers have a set routine that they rarely vary from. Warm up dives with hangs and FRC (passive exhale) dives usually precede the actual deep attempt. Today, Will encouraged everyone to try for their PB in their chosen discipline and do it with no warm up. He warned that they might feel contractions on the way down, and perhaps much earlier than they’re used. He added that you should not be put off by this because it means that the Mammalian Dive Reflex (MDR) is kicking in and your ascent will feel much easier than normal. Some divers felt a bit nervous about trying this for the first time but knowing that the relaxation phase would be three to four minutes really helped getting the mind in the right place. Everyone hit their target and there were even two new personal bests (PBs) in the group. What an incredible confidence boosting exercise! It is never to late to switch up your freedive routine, play around with new things and see what really works for you. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut because of an irrational fear of the unknown.
The second part of the session, deep training tables, were also fun, but fun of the “no pain, no gain” variety. Doing CO2 training benefits your body and mind because you will also feel more confident after each table you complete successfully. Since the mental aspect is huge in freediving, it’s imperative to replace “I can’t!” thoughts with “I can!”.
Sunrise Yoga Session: Maite introduces Fly-high Yoga techniques as an very effective form of stretching
A perfect way to prepare for an open water session is a dedicated yoga practice. In this morning’s sunrise yoga session our yoga teacher Maite Mendez worked on participants’ chest flexibility using straps and short breath holds. Chest flexibility is important for deep dives: it improves comfort, safety and equalization.
The afternoon session began with video analysis of the morning dives. Will highlighted the importance of hypercapnic and hypoxic tolerance training as part of a freediving regime. If you don’t have a coach, it’s easy to take it easy on yourself by making training tables too easy. You need to step back, think about your goals, commit to them by staying disciplined and challenging yourself. When your body adapts to a certain table, you need to make it harder. The key is to keep it tough but attainable. A decent training table should take between 15 to 20 minutes in the pool.
Will lead a workshop on lung stretching exercises that benefit thoracic, diaphragmatic and rigid airway flexibility needed to deep dives. Then it was back in the pool for another, more challenging training table.
The reward for everyone’s hard work was a stop at the local gelato joint, for some well-deserved sugar. No, Will didn’t have any, just in case you were wondering…
The evening’s talk centred on a lighter subject: Freediving through swim-throughs, including a freedive through the famous Blue Hole Arch in Dahab.
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Diver_Buddy_Camera.jpg5621000Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2016-09-04 14:13:392018-07-24 11:58:01Jamboree DAY 3 ..blew the other two right out of the water!
If you have to wake up for 6:30 AM yoga there are worse places to do so. Mandala Blue’s yoga shala offers a breathtaking view of the ocean, and the sun rising from behind Lombok’s volcano, Mount Rinjani.
Day 2’s open water session with William Trubridge and Freedive Flow on Gili Air focused on improving free immersion (FIM) and constant weight no fins (CNF). Will emphasized that during your base training, you should practice at a comfortable depth in order to concentrate purely on technique. The idea is to cement technique into muscle memory. After learning a new turn technique and implementing yesterday’s feedback, everyone’s dives felt easier and more efficient .
Freedive Flow is the only freediving school on the island with a custom-built two lane, 20m pool. It’s perfect for practising dynamic and no fin swimming. The No Fins workshop started off in the classroom, with video feedback and an explanation of how your dive stroke rhythm should be adapted to changing depth and buoyancy. Then everyone got into the pool for some CO2 tables. Everyone thinks that low Oxygen levels make you want to breathe but it’s actually high CO2 in your blood. CO2 tables helps your body get used to high levels of CO2 so that you can change your discomfort into tolerance.
Afternoon Workshop at the Freedive Flow Pool: Advanced CO2-Tables combined with no-fins efficiency training
During the evening talk, Will turned the spotlight on plastic pollution. This is possibly the most underrated yet most serious threat to our marine ecosystem and planet Earth as a whole. Will spoke about the Pacific Garbage Patch, an actual island of rubbish twice the size of Texas.
Here in Indonesia, plastic bags and straws are used without thought and sadly most of this will end up In the ocean. Plastic absorbs toxins like DDT, break into small pieces that are ingested by fish, crabs, turtles, whales and seabirds. Animals either die as a result of eating plastic, or accumulate toxins moving up the food chain. Studies have shown that fish that eat plastic show stunted growth and are lethargic.
It is up to every tourist to minimize the impact left behind on Gili Air. It is no longer acceptable to use single use plastic. Use alternatives: cloth-bags; re-useable containers and straws. Please join us in saying “NO” to plastic.
Bahasa Indonesian phrases
“No plastic bag.” = “Tidak plastik kantong.”
“No plastic straw.” =“Tidak pakai sedotan.” or “Tidak plastik straw”.
Evening Talk: William giving a speech about Plastic Pollution in the Oceans and what we can do about it.
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Miguel Lozano trained here before his Free Immersion world record attempt in May. Less than a month ago, Alexey Molchanov set an unofficial Constant Weight Record here. William Trubridge is currently visiting Freedive Flow on Gili Air. What is it about Indonesian waters that draws the big names in freediving? Depth, perfect water conditions and ease of access.
Oli Christen, the founder of Freedive Flow, believes that it is time to put Gili Air on the map as a world class freediving destination. Why should these great training facilities be kept a secret?
William Trubridge first met Oli six years ago in Switzerland. Now, after an intensely busy competitive season, Will went on a break, visiting New Zealand, and Japan. En route to the Philippines, he sent Oli an email along the lines of: “Hey Oli, I’m in the hood on my way to the Philippines. Still wanna do something?”. Cue the Freedive Jamboree Gili Air 2016. The four day event focuses on yoga, pool training sessions, open water sessions and evening talks presented by William Trubridge and hosted by Freedive Flow, the best freediving resort on Gili Air.
The first day started with a sunrise yin yoga session with a Pranayama focus, beneficial to freedive training. Yoga enables participants to warm up their muscles and get their minds in the right place for the open water session.
William gave a run-down on the focus of the open water session: warm ups, then a shallow depth focus on free immersion (FIM) and constant weight no fins (CNF) technique. The participants included Stanley Sradaputta, Indonesia’s depth record holder and represented all levels of experience: from beginner level to Stanley’s senior status in the sport. In this sport, there’s always something new to learn, a technique to perfect, so one’s level is pretty irrelevant.
The surface of the ocean was a mirror as we headed out on the boat this morning. Flat seas and good visibility always guarantees smiles and set the tone for a great dive session.
The buoy set up was intimate and practical with a maximum of three divers per buoy. It was great to learn a new warm-up position that allows you can keep your body relaxed and get a really good in- water static experience.
Some divers focused on their FIM technique, others on CNF. Will spent quality time with everyone individually, observing and giving constructive feedback on technique. It’s quite surreal coming up from a no fins dive and “OK-ing” the world record holder.
Most freediving courses don’t place much emphasis on no fins technique, so it was great to learn about the right rhythm, recovery, glide phase and the duck dive, which is completely different to a duck dive with fins! In keeping with Freedive Flow’s professional service, everyone’s dives were filmed for later analysis on a big screen TV.
Jamboree-Workshop at the spacious classroom of Freedive Flow @ Oceans 5: William Trubridge explains how to set the neutral buoyancy for deep freediving. (photo: Saki Ono)
The classroom session focused on proper breathing for freediving, including an explanation of what hyperventilation is and why it should be avoided. Will expanded on CNF and FIM technique and analysed the morning dives. Everyone got to practice proper FIM pulling and recovery technique on a rig set up for purpose.
Finally, Will gave a talk on diving to 100m and beyond. The talk was open to everyone on a donation basis, and all funds raised will go to a local charity that deals with the plastic pollution issue in Indonesia.
See you tomorrow for another update!
Jamboree – Evening Talk : William has a large audience on the edge of their seats with a very personal story about his journey to the latest World Record dive to -102m without fins (photo 1 and 3: Feisal)
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Wonder how it is to try freediving for the first time? Read Alyssa’s blog about her first go – thanks Alyssa, I had a blast as well!
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2013-07-05 09:59:052013-07-05 15:27:45Read that nice student-blog about freediving!
It is no coincidence that many freedivers are also adept yogis. It is pretty much common knowledge that yoga offers great benefits for freedivers, such as the pranayama exercises for breath control or udjana bandha for the flexibility of the diaphragm, just to mention two well discussed topics. But I would like to take it one step further and say that yoga and freediving are basically the same art form of body movement.
To move in water, I have to become water – but what does this exactly mean? It means that I have to learn and train to use only those muscles that are needed to move my body in a given way – and relax all other muscles completely. I have to learn to let go of any unneeded firmness and that includes tiny muscles like the tip of my little finger or my eyelid as much as big oxygen users like upper back muscles or shoulders. Now, here we got the connection to yoga: As a yoga beginner I find it very hard to keep a posture for more than a few brief moments. I guess that’s why there is this misconception of “I’m not fit enough to do yoga”. Of course, as yogis we will develop strength and flexibility, but most importantly we are unconsciously creating this unbearably high workload ourselves! How? By keeping many muscles contracted all trough holding a posture, including many muscles which are actually not needed to hold that certain position.
Here’s a little exercise for you to play around: Go into a forearm plank position, with a very straight body, only your forearms and toes touching the ground. Don’t allow your torso to neither bend up- nor downwards – keep your body straight as plank! Can you let go of firmness in your belly? Try! It is unneeded for holding the plank!
In my yoga practice I try to live up to the basic principle of letting go any unneeded firmness by constantly checking on myself:
Keep abdomen, fingers and face relaxed. Always. Wiggle the fingertips, make a little belly-roll by slightly contracting the abdomen and diaphragm alternatively and – of course – put a smile on my face.
Allow the breath to follow the move. I work on NOT to inhale purposely – it happens by itself in the right amount, if I let it to happen. This way, my breathing alway stays small and relaxed. And so does the heartbeat.
While holding a posture, I do a relaxation check: Scan the body with the mental torch (remember, dear students?) for unneeded tension and firmness – and let go of it.
Exercising yoga this way teaches my body to become a minimalist, capable to move into and hold postures with a minimum input of energy. And this is exactly what freediving is about as well. In the end, freediving and yoga are not only about static position holding, but of greatest imporntance is always the interplay of contracting and relaxing muscles – activate and let go of them in a fluent movement! It takes repetition and self control to achieve this, and, most of all, a great deal of honesty with yourself in your daily practice.
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2013-04-16 18:02:042013-04-16 18:15:09Freedive & Yoga – same same but different?
After taking his AIDA2*-course with us, Matt Beanland got this very comprehensive article in the West Australian. It appeared as a full page spread, including many shots and a fact-sheet about FREEDIVE FLOW. Please follow the link to an e-paper-version of the article.
It is so nice to see how a gifted writer can re-create the spirit of a freedive course so well. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. Thank you from my heart for this beautiful work, Matt!
Get in touch with us if you want to experience the same, we run courses in Bali and Gili Air!
Oli Christen
AIDA Freedive Instructor
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What does it mean to a newbie to become a freediver, how does it feel, what are your goals, what are your fears? For me, it’s a loong long time ago, that moment, when I held my breath under water for the first time – but I remember it like it was yesterday. The feeling of “how in the world should I pull this off?” and then, the leap of faith, trust the instructor and just DO IT. Only to discover, it’s the most relaxing, the easiest thing there is – shut down all systems, enjoy floating, allow bliss to happen.
Now, a few years later, taking students by the hand and lead them down the same road, I always wonder how they feel on this journey. You know, a so called “static breath hold” is probably the only performance you can achieve by letting go, by not doing anything – it’s a meditation with immediate feedback and no way of cheating.
With some students I speak a lot during a freedive course – while some others prefer to be left alone in their moment of facing their deepest fear – the fear of drowning. As long as they all come up with a smile, it’s all good for me. And they always do! But it’s a very special thing for me to read a comprehensive review of a course and learn more about some personal insights of a student, after a few days time to let things sink in. Please read the blog linked here (in German, but even the translator of your browser will give you a good idea of the content):
So, thanks a lot, and I hope to see you all in the water, soon!
Oli / AIDA Freedive Instructor
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2012-11-21 09:03:142013-01-04 15:31:31The Value of a Student Review
Elite surfers like the Hawaiian Mark Healy are trained freedivers. They know how to handle hold downs and thus they are relaxed and confident, even when they paddle for waves close to their personal limit – or beyond.
Keen and upcoming big wave surfers are often surprised that it’s possible to learn the basic white magic of freediving within a one day workshop. But the workshop itself is useless – it’s the following daily training that makes all the difference! It is possible to gain the same state of confidence like the pros within days, but it has to be earned.
Freediving for surfers is all about getting used to high CO2 in the body. And it doesn’t feel right at all in the beginning! We are hardwired to react on high CO2 with “the urge to breathe”, and if breathing is not possible, panic is just around the corner. Rest assured, “the urge to breathe” is nothing more than a misunderstanding. It’s nothing more than a sensation of high CO2, on which we used to react in a certain way (breathing!), but on which we can learn to react in many other ways like relaxation, save oxygen and simple endurance.
This is the basic principle of a breath hold training for surfers – learn the tools to rewire reactions on high CO2! It is important to get a basic understanding of what happens in the body during are forced breath hold – and why this doesn’t need to be a problem. Last but not least you will be trained in rescue scenarios to build your confidence in assisting a buddy in trouble.
One warning shall be mentioned here:
Surfers that undergo this training will then charge for bigger waves – and that’s what it’s all about. But fact is, surfers don’t get hurt by hold downs, they get hurt by hitting the reef or the rocks, twisting limbs or getting smashed by their own boards. So, dear surfer, the fear of drowning used to limit the size of waves you were paddling for. Now that you will be trained in breath holding, this fear will be smaller and you will charge for bigger stuff – are your skills ready for this?
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Why is it that more and more scuba divers choose to do a freedive course, or even start to train regularly as freedivers? Freediving is not just about holding your breath. Even more so it’s about becoming efficient in the water to not waste any energy and thus, air. So, the key to the growing popularity of freediving in the scuba community lies within the tools you are given in the freedive course. Lets have a look at a few of them:
You will learn how to relax your body and mind and use your breathing patterns to do so. This alone makes your scuba adventures more enjoyable, as you can now consciously work your level of activity. Or how about this one: In a freedive course you will work on your finning technique and body positioning in the water – getting both right will make you a more confident diver, even more so when you hit a current or even choose to swim across it.
Here’s one more: Did you know that there are about a dozen different equalization techniques to help that smooth descent? In a freedive course you will have a go at many of them and find the one that suits you best. Congestions of the airways are a common reason why “scubies”, as well as freedivers, have to stop their diving adventures – but congestions can be avoided by doing daily breathing exercises that we learnt from the Indian tradition of Pranayama. No congestions, great equalization.
While running a set of AIDA courses in our base in Sanur I’m happy to add some nice variety to the schedule. We will move over to the north coast of Bali for a few days of deep training:
The Lovina Deep Days: 10th-14th of March
We expect Azam Hamid from Malaysia to be here, one of the absolute pioneers of the rising S/E-Asian freediving comunity. Already here is AIDA Instructor Trainer Jean-Pol Francois, who represents no less than twenty years of competitive freediving and teaching.
Advanced freedivers are invited to get in touch for enquiries! Please also be in touch for alternative dates.
In the meanwhile, may the dive response be strong in you!
Oli
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The new media-page is now online: Pics and videos will follow frequently, so make sure you check back!
Even though there’s not all too much on it for now, the pages already show nicely how freediving covers the whole range from very relaxed, almost meditative states to pure fun and silly moments. Isn’t that what life is supposed to be?
May the dive response be strong in you!
Oli
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We at Blue Season Freedive are very exited to announce the first two AIDA freedive certifications in Bali! James from Australia and Matthias from Switzerland past all their AIDA 2* exams with a silk ribbon of excellence – while having a great deal of fun!
This is the best start we could ask for and we are looking forward to all the courses on Schedule.
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2011 is coming to an end – and frankly speaking, for the freedive community it is about time. Here are the facts:
A world record freediver died while training in his little lap pool
An instructor died training in the open water
A scuba instructor died freediving in a 33m deep tank
All those fatalities happened while the men were freediving on their own
Now the media and thus regulators are all over freediving, as it obviously is a dangerous extreme sport that has to be banned. It is not. Freediving is the safest sport in the world. But you have to stick to one simple rule: ALWAYS FREEDIVE WITH A QUALIFIED BUDDY.
Why is this so important?
The human body and mind are like the weather – there are good days, and there are bad days. On one day everything falls in your lap, the other day you struggle for every little step. Be it in the office, in your meditation or while jogging. On a slow day you get tired, you breathe hard – no problem, you just rest for a moment. It can be a problem when you are in the open water – that’s when your buddy steps in. She will tell you that your lips are purple and you should not push it today, maybe he tows you for a few meters back to the boat to help you over that leg cramp, maybe she comforts you by just being there. There’s so many reasons why not being alone out there – or in a pool. And all of them are easily helped by a good buddy.
This means in consequence: No buddy, no breath holding in water. Simple, right? To make it clear: Never ever a freediver got hurt when sticking to basic freedive safety rules – alway freediving with a buddy is arguably the most important one of them. To argue differently is nothing more than a display of lack of knowledge. This makes me angry.
And not only me. The Belgian freedive pioneer Fred Buyle did the right thing: Together with the graphic designer Pierre Lambreth he developed a logo – simple as the rule! Please read up Fred’s blog in french here and his initial blog about the topic in english.
The only answer is this: Join a freedive course to learn how to assist a freediver or snorkeler in trouble and to get to know yourself better, also as a scuba diver. It’s so simple, so easy to learn and so much more fun to share the experience!
Let’s make 2012 safe!
All the best
Oli
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2011-12-31 02:23:512015-12-10 20:09:49The safest place on earth – freediving
It happens every day, right in front of my very eyes. They gear up with masks and snorkels, shoes and gloves. Yes, SHOES and GLOVES! Then the killing starts – step by step.
I guess every coral island has low tides where the water barely covers the reef, which makes it impossible to swim off the beach. But even on small islands with little tourism I see dozens of snorkelers every day that go “well, that’s not my problem, I want to snorkel NOW”! So, off they walk right over the reef – some of them flippers-correctly-backwards – all the way to the drop-off, where they finally can start with some beloved nature-gazing. I guess they are not aware that they left a trail of death behind them to get there. Or are they?
To say it again: If you step on or even touch a coral it will take years to grow back – if it doesn’t die right away. So: No steps, no touches, only pictures, starry-eyes and bubbles, ok? Not hard to memorize. And if you really have to walk, maybe to reach a boat, do it like the locals: barefootn’!
I strongly believe it’s our responsibility as freedivers and dive pros to ask each of every one of these people if they are just unaware or purely ignorant. Please help raise awareness and.. uuhm, drown the others.
All the best
Oli
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2011-12-15 07:34:212015-10-08 11:04:19Be a Snorkeler, not a Killer
How can you possibly hold your breath for 3Min, face down in water? How about 4Min? How about the world record of 11Min and 35Sec ? Freedivers do things that seem to be impossible to the non-adept and it’s got to have something to do with that special breathing we all saw in Luc Besson’s “Le grand bleu (The Big Blue)”.
Remember that hilarious scene where the Japanese guy faints? Well, I guess he got it all wrong – because it actually is wrong.
Yes, freedivers do a lot of breathing exercises, including but not limited to yogic breathing exercises called Pranayama. You want to do daily breathing exercises for several reasons:
– cleansing of the breathing apparatus
– training of the muscles involved in breathing
– improve suppleness of the chest
– and more.. (save that for later)
This sometimes is hard work. E.g. the English name for one of the basic exercises called Bhastrika is “breath of fire”, and this for good reasons: It’s inhaling and exhaling with your diaphragma as fast and hard as you can, using your nose as a bellow.
But there’s the important notice: This is what you do in training, NOT before freediving.
Before holding your breath under water you don’t want your body to work hard, you want it to relax. And so should your mind. If you get this right, you will not waste any oxygen – neither by uncalled-for moving your body, nor by unnecessary thinking.
THIS is it. This is what will get you these unimaginable long breath holds.
Take care and always share the fun
Oli
http://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.png00Olihttp://www.freediveflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FreediveFLow_Logo_Verlauf_supersmall.pngOli2011-12-15 07:29:462011-12-15 07:29:59So, how do they do it?
1) Always share the enjoyment with a trained buddy, never hold your breath while you are alone in the water.
2) Stick to your natural, relaxed, “tidal” breathing pattern before a breath hold. There’s no voodoo, shamanic or yoga breathing that will buy you breath hold minutes in the long term.
3) When you experienced a black out, you most likely messed around with 2), but as you are still alive you obviously payed attention to 1). Learn from your experience, don’t let it happen again.
Share the fun
Oli
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Manta Watch Camp – Training with Freedive Flow
Adam and Carmen are two dedicated Marine Conservationists who trained with Freedive Flow on Gili Air to deepen their freediving to further improve their important work – an enterprise Freedive Flow is happy to support!
Adam Beard
The ocean has always been close to his heart. He combined his two main passions, diving and photography. Manta Watch Camp was naturally the next step in his career. Both Adam and Carmen are the founders of Turtle & Manta Watch Camp and they have moved across the world to some of the most remote areas in order to conserve these beautiful underwater animals while helping the locals benefit from ecotourism.
Carmen Toanchina
has been diving for more than 10 years, she is devoted to the ocean where her passion lies in teaching scuba diving and conservation. Adam and Carmen started Turtle Watch Camp last year, this was a great success with +4700 hatchlings released. More recently they have founded Manta Watch Camp. Their aim, conserving the most majestic creatures in the oceans by providing vital data through research and education.
A Need for further Knowledge
Being based on such a remote island off Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea certainly has its challenges! Manta Watch Camp’s primary focus is to research the manta rays, help protect their thriving habitat and collect and share really comprehensive data through our marine conservation and research program. We constantly found ourselves needing to enhancing our ‘advanced snorkelling’ skills, duck-diving on a daily basis down to +10m to set up our less intrusive Manta ID capturing camera. This was a hugely successful way to capture shots of passing manta rays over the period of 3-12 hours, especially during times we were unable to SCUBA dive. This method proved to be extremely effective as we managed to ID a large number of Manta rays that perhaps might have been too shy for our company whilst using SCUBA. We soon realised we were onto something…
During our first season we started seeing an increasing number of inquiries from guests that wanted to join our mission. But as many of them were freedivers we sadly were unable to accommodate them due to lack of training on our side.
The popular question, ‘do the Manta rays interact differently with freedivers?’ immediately sparked our interest. After some research on the topic, ‘The Art of Apnea Diving’, we were astonished by our findings. The fact that some divers could hold their breath for up to 8 minutes and reach staggering depths of +100m absolutely blew our minds! We began to dream of innovative ways freediving could be used to impact our research strategy and we could already see the experience for the Manta rays would be improved too. This sparked our hunger for knowledge and the desire to be able to perform breath hold dives that previously had seemed somewhat inhuman.
Manta Watch Camp
Manta Watch Camp is a research and conservation program based in Papua New Guinea. They work alongside Manta Trust and Conservation international.
They work closely with local communities, tourists and government to ensure the preservation of these beautiful animals, through science, education, community based initiatives and government legislation.
Where to gain this inhuman Knowledge?
During our recent season, we finally decided to make the leap of faith and jump straight into the deep end. We were determined to expand our ‘advanced snorkeling’ knowledge and the thought of diving without the need for bulky tanks or regulators felt incredibly liberating. We also took advantage of the extra luggage space whilst travelling which was a huge bonus! As there weren’t any freediving instructors in Papua New Guinea (coming soon!), we found ourselves on route to the tropical paradise of Gili Air island, which happens to be home to a world renowned and highly recommended freediving training school.
Freedive Flow (www.freediveflow.com) has got an unparalleled reputation. Having the privilege to be visited by freediving legends such as world record holder William Turbridge really justifies their brand name and creates a really enthralling atmosphere to study and learn from the best. We were really surprised with the amazing facilities too and found ourselves extremely lucky to begin our new journey, training with such an elite group of freedivers in such an epic location!
Freedive Flow supports Marine Conservation
After a very friendly chat with Oli Christen, the inspiring owner of Freedive Flow, it was apparent that we were on the same page. We shared the story of our current project and described in great detail Manta Watch Camp’s current goals and ambitious vision for the future. It was abundantly clear that Oli had a real passion for marine conservation and it was really great to make a connection with someone who shares so many of the same values, especially when it comes to protecting our oceans. Oli is also an instructor/trainer and has many years of freediving experience under his belt. He was so supportive of Manta Watch Camp and our previous project in Malaysia (Turtle Watch Camp) that he suggested we apply for his generous marine conservation training program, that aims to support conservation projects like ours, by introducing us to the wonderful world of freediving. Finally, it was time for us to get out of our comfort zone and take a deep breath.
Back to School…
During our first week we were given some self study materials, so we could get a grasp of our new hobby. The material was supported with really useful presentations and revision-sessions with the amazing Yosh, a Master Instructor with years of experience both in freediving and close-up studies of marine life. As PADI Scuba Instructors, we found that there were some similarities, especially with the scientific sections of freediving that happened to be based on rules we were already familiar with, however, the deeper we dived into our studies, the more we realised that there were so many new theoretical and practical skills for us to learn and delving in was so refreshing.
It’s All About Technique
Despite having 2000+ SCUBA dives and 1000’s more in-water sessions, we found ourselves in drastic need to improve our technique in order to become efficient freedivers. It was just so different to what we were used to, but we embraced the challenge! We started with our confined shallow water safety & rescue training in Freedive Flow’s custom built 20m training pool on the premises of the renowned Oceans 5 Dive Resort and began learning some relaxation techniques. This was followed by our very first attempt at a Static Apnea breath hold. ‘Static Apnea‘ is the process of being face down in the water, completely still, whilst holding your breath for as long as you can. During this session, Yosh carefully watched over us, and was there to greet us when we surfaced to offer calming coaching to help us release the tension build up in the body.
This coaching session was heavily focussed on mind control training, a hugely important area of study for those thinking about having a go at freediving. After our first few attempts of static apnea, we were truly astonished that we had actually just held our breath for over 3 minutes! Remember, it was only a few days prior to this achievement where we thought this type of breath-hold required superhuman powers!
Our next session was Dynamic Apnea, which is swimming underwater on a single breath. Yosh was at hand to help us fine-tune our body position, hydrodynamics and of course our finning technique. This was the last hurdle before being unleashed in the open ocean and it was really valuable learning for us.
Continue following our story in PART II
No more ear infections: Vinegar!
The Master Student
“Your freediving doesn’t matter anymore – it simply must be top-notch!”
The Master Student Program – Why?
by Oli Christen
I made a short video about this statement and why I think it describes nicely one of the main differences between instructors and other freedivers.
The Master Student Program is a great opportunity to make this transition.
Oli Christen
Owner of Freedive Flow
AIDA Instructor Trainer
PADI Instructor Trainer
Know your Ropes
Text, Photos and Animations by Freedive Flow Master Instructor MJ Kühn
When I see people tying or using knots incorrectly, I get a subtle urge to slap their hand. Like you would when seeing a toddler putting his finger in the wall socket. Rope work is definitely undervalued in freedive education. Simply put: That rope that you are diving on is going to save your life, long before your buddy even knows something is wrong.
Don’t disrespect your best friend in the water.
When it comes to knots, hitches and rope work, “It works – let’s use it” is definitely not the recommended approach. Yes, this knot or hitch may work but is it the best option? There are pros and cons to every knot/hitch and it is up to you to choose the best one.
Let me start with the basics: What is the difference between a knot and a hitch?
Knot
Knots are freestanding and hold their shape regardless of it being fixed to something. Example: The Figure of Eight
Hitch
A Hitch works solely with friction. Hitches rely on an object like a carabiner to hold its shape. Example: The Clove Hitch
Guidelines to keep you safe
Getting familiar with new knots.
In the beginning always tie your knot from the same direction in exactly the same way.
Example: Position your bottom weight in front of you, with enough space that the rope can be slightly tensioned as you make your knot.
If you do this, its like following directions on a map. If you don’t know your directions by heart and you turn your map upside down. You will probably end up lost. When I teach our master students knots, I see it all the time: When they try and make the knot from a different direction or position, all sorts of things pop out except what they were planning.
Dress your knots
This means keep your knots tidy. Make sure the rope stays parallel in the bends of your knots. It makes it a lot easier to untie once it’s been loaded. Undressed knots loose strength and security!
Dressed – Ropes stay parallel in the bends.
Undressed – See how the ropes cross in the bends.
Tighten your knots
When a slack knot gets loaded it looses its shape (in other words: it gets undressed). The tension is not evenly distributed as intended for the knot. Slack knots that are tensioned create friction which damages your ropes.
Keep fingers and hands out of hitches
When a hitch “bites”, not much tension is necessary to keep you from getting your fingers or hand out of it. Let’s say your bottom weight gets stuck on the bottom with reasonable current, and it happens just as you were making your hitch: Your hand or thumb gets stuck in the hitch and you will be pulled below the surface instantly.
Sure there’s many of us who can get out of the situation. The whole point is not to end up in the situation in the first place.
The ones you need to know!
Clove Hitch
The clove hitch is by far my favourite hitch to use for setting depths on the buoy. It is definitely my favourite to use in most rope situations. Its easy to tie, easy to untie, strong and just bites tighter the more it gets loaded. So keep those digits out of the loops.
Water Bowline
The water bowline is a bowline with an added half hitch on the tail end. When under tension the half hitch grabs onto the tail making the knot more secure. Bowlines are great in general, super easy to tie and untie even if the knot was heavily loaded. The water bowline is ideal for example to attach a bottom weight to the dive-line.
About the Author
MJ Kühn, Master Instructor and Manager at Freedive Flow, Gili Air, Indonesia
Before becoming a full-time freedive instructor I spent my time as a whitewater river guide, a whitewater kayaker and worked on oil-rigs in Africa for 3 years as a rope access technician.
Especially during my work as a rope access technician my life often depended on one single knot! In this time I built up a good deal of experience and understanding of ropes, knots and hitches. No matter what the problem is, my first instinct is always to solve it with ropes and knots. There are few things as satisfying as uncoiling a brand new rope, even if it’s not mine. I want to cuddle it, make friends with it and tell it how amazing it feels.
MJ Kühn
Also follow my blog on Raw Adrenaline!
Bi-Fin Technique for Freediving
Text and Photos by AIDA Master Instructor Yoshua Surjo
In this article I would like to convey my personal thoughts on the most efficient technique to use with bi-fins. Fin kicks can make a huge different in our diving: An efficient fin kick propels us further in shorter time with minimized effort. The more efficient we are in our movements, the deeper we can potentially dive or prolong our bottom time.
I believe there are two major parts that characteristic for most efficient fin kick. These are:
– Leg position and movement
Bi-Fins technique
– Amplitude and frequency
The best leg position during a fin kick is a straight legs. To reach this position you will have to lock your knees and ankles. The easiest way to imagine it is when you are tip toeing just like a ballerina. The front kick and the back kick should be symmetrical and well balanced.
Now that we covered the leg position and movement, we are going to discuss the amplitude of our kick and the frequency. The amplitude of our kick is basically the wideness of our kick while the frequency is “kicks per minute”.
The amplitude and frequency of our kick depends on the length of our legs and the characteristics of the fins we are using. If you have a long legs, most probably you will be more suitable with softer blade and vice versa. And if you use a soft blade, your amplitude should be small with a higher frequency. Vice versa, when you are using a stiffer blades, your kick amplitude should be bigger with a lower frequency.
To soft or too hard?
If your fins are too soft, wide kicks will create more drag while the blades are fully bent. In this position the fins will no longer generate maximum power and you will need a higher frequency of kicks to prevent you from losing momentum.
On the other side, if your fins are too hard, you will need bigger amplitude to get the maximum out of your blades.
Written by: Yoshua Surjo, AIDA Master Instructor
Feel the Silence
Text by Oli Christen, video by Adrienne Gittus
Why do I freedive? I can say for sure that it is not for the fame, not for the money and not for the numbers. We will have to dig a little deeper to find the answer to this frequent question.
I freedive to feel the silence. I would tend to agree if you say now that this a little cryptic. But let’s start with this: Those who did an instructor course with me will remember one of my favorite sayings: Freediving is a meditation with feedback.
When we meditate comfortably seated on our front porch with the singing birds in our ears and a fresh morning breeze in our face it is a small step to say “I am in the moment!” – the silence of the meditative state feels actually very close to the blissful morning scenery. Quite often your mind flip-flops forth and back between meditating and recognizing the birds. In fact, realizing the birds and the breeze is already giving it away that you have “left the silence”.
During freediving it is possible to find that meditative state of “being in the now” as well – some freedivers might say this is actually the goal of freediving, and I agree with that. Freediving means to become one with water and when this happens, the silence becomes palpable – you can feel the silence! This is why I freedive.
The instant my mind snaps out of the moment and I start worrying about how deep I am, how long I have been down here already, what could go wrong or what maybe went wrong in the past, I leave this meditative state. Either I can instantly find a way back into it or I will have to stop my dive. My freedive ends when I leave the meditation. There couldn’t be any clearer feedback.
In this video, Adrienne Gittus of Soulwater Productions has masterfully caught the serenity, the meditation of freediving. I hope you can feel the silence in this video, too!
Oli Christen
Owner of Freedive Flow
Instructor Trainer AIDA and PADI
Jamboree DAY 4: About Blacklists and Double-Daisies
All good things come to an end. Today was the last day of working on perfect freediving with William Trubridge and Freedive Flow on Gili Air. Now, it will be up to the freedivers to implement everything they’ve learnt during the Jamboree to push themselves to the next level.
It’s a wrap! All participants of the FREEDIVE JAMBOREE – GILI AIR 2016.
Most divers tried no warm-up dives again, while others chose to work purely on technique. Will demonstrated the most efficient duck dives for constant weight and no fin dives. The open water session yielded 3 PBs!
Will introduced a “blacklist” on Day 1. Actions that resulted in your name appearing on the list included:
The offenders’ punishment is paying for everyone’s gelatos. Will also made it to the list but Stanley ended up generously footing the bill for everyone. Terima Kasih!
This afternoon’s workshop was highly anticipated by participants. The mental aspect of freediving is huge and freedivers are always looking for ways to tap into their potential, and caging that “monkey on the back.” Will talked about visualization, affirmation and mental anchors. You can read more about this on his blog.
He also explained how to schedule a training plan and how to adapt training tables to varying intensity levels to keep the body on its toes. When a table starts feeling easy, it needs to be replaced by something more challenging.
During the Jamboree we learnt that pros also have problems sometimes, after all they’re only human. Over the last four days, Will:
Some other random facts about Will:
I would like to thank William Trubridge for making the FREEDIVE JAMBOREE – GILI AIR 2016 an unforgettable reality. Freedive Flow wishes you the best of luck in and out of the water. Selamat jalan! And to all of you out there, we hope to see you for the next Jamboree!
Jamboree DAY 3 ..blew the other two right out of the water!
William Trubridge is a clever guy. While his intense sessions with Freedive Flow on Gili Air he likes keeping the training plan a secret until just before the participants get in the water. Maybe this way, no one has time to worry about trying something they’ve never done before. No warm-up dives and deep training tables were the order of the day! Surprise!
Open Water Session: A freediver, a buddy and a world record holder that takes footage for further analysis
Most freedivers have a set routine that they rarely vary from. Warm up dives with hangs and FRC (passive exhale) dives usually precede the actual deep attempt. Today, Will encouraged everyone to try for their PB in their chosen discipline and do it with no warm up. He warned that they might feel contractions on the way down, and perhaps much earlier than they’re used. He added that you should not be put off by this because it means that the Mammalian Dive Reflex (MDR) is kicking in and your ascent will feel much easier than normal. Some divers felt a bit nervous about trying this for the first time but knowing that the relaxation phase would be three to four minutes really helped getting the mind in the right place. Everyone hit their target and there were even two new personal bests (PBs) in the group. What an incredible confidence boosting exercise! It is never to late to switch up your freedive routine, play around with new things and see what really works for you. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut because of an irrational fear of the unknown.
The second part of the session, deep training tables, were also fun, but fun of the “no pain, no gain” variety. Doing CO2 training benefits your body and mind because you will also feel more confident after each table you complete successfully. Since the mental aspect is huge in freediving, it’s imperative to replace “I can’t!” thoughts with “I can!”.
Sunrise Yoga Session: Maite introduces Fly-high Yoga techniques as an very effective form of stretching
A perfect way to prepare for an open water session is a dedicated yoga practice. In this morning’s sunrise yoga session our yoga teacher Maite Mendez worked on participants’ chest flexibility using straps and short breath holds. Chest flexibility is important for deep dives: it improves comfort, safety and equalization.
Will lead a workshop on lung stretching exercises that benefit thoracic, diaphragmatic and rigid airway flexibility needed to deep dives. Then it was back in the pool for another, more challenging training table.
The reward for everyone’s hard work was a stop at the local gelato joint, for some well-deserved sugar. No, Will didn’t have any, just in case you were wondering…
The evening’s talk centred on a lighter subject: Freediving through swim-throughs, including a freedive through the famous Blue Hole Arch in Dahab.
Jamboree DAY 2: Morning Bliss and Pool-Workout
If you have to wake up for 6:30 AM yoga there are worse places to do so. Mandala Blue’s yoga shala offers a breathtaking view of the ocean, and the sun rising from behind Lombok’s volcano, Mount Rinjani.
Day 2’s open water session with William Trubridge and Freedive Flow on Gili Air focused on improving free immersion (FIM) and constant weight no fins (CNF). Will emphasized that during your base training, you should practice at a comfortable depth in order to concentrate purely on technique. The idea is to cement technique into muscle memory. After learning a new turn technique and implementing yesterday’s feedback, everyone’s dives felt easier and more efficient .
Freedive Flow is the only freediving school on the island with a custom-built two lane, 20m pool. It’s perfect for practising dynamic and no fin swimming. The No Fins workshop started off in the classroom, with video feedback and an explanation of how your dive stroke rhythm should be adapted to changing depth and buoyancy. Then everyone got into the pool for some CO2 tables. Everyone thinks that low Oxygen levels make you want to breathe but it’s actually high CO2 in your blood. CO2 tables helps your body get used to high levels of CO2 so that you can change your discomfort into tolerance.
Afternoon Workshop at the Freedive Flow Pool: Advanced CO2-Tables combined with no-fins efficiency training
During the evening talk, Will turned the spotlight on plastic pollution. This is possibly the most underrated yet most serious threat to our marine ecosystem and planet Earth as a whole. Will spoke about the Pacific Garbage Patch, an actual island of rubbish twice the size of Texas.
Here in Indonesia, plastic bags and straws are used without thought and sadly most of this will end up In the ocean. Plastic absorbs toxins like DDT, break into small pieces that are ingested by fish, crabs, turtles, whales and seabirds. Animals either die as a result of eating plastic, or accumulate toxins moving up the food chain. Studies have shown that fish that eat plastic show stunted growth and are lethargic.
It is up to every tourist to minimize the impact left behind on Gili Air. It is no longer acceptable to use single use plastic. Use alternatives: cloth-bags; re-useable containers and straws. Please join us in saying “NO” to plastic.
Bahasa Indonesian phrases
“No plastic bag.” = “Tidak plastik kantong.”
“No plastic straw.” =“Tidak pakai sedotan.” or “Tidak plastik straw”.
Evening Talk: William giving a speech about Plastic Pollution in the Oceans and what we can do about it.
DAY1 @ Jamboree Gili Air 2016
Miguel Lozano trained here before his Free Immersion world record attempt in May. Less than a month ago, Alexey Molchanov set an unofficial Constant Weight Record here. William Trubridge is currently visiting Freedive Flow on Gili Air. What is it about Indonesian waters that draws the big names in freediving? Depth, perfect water conditions and ease of access.
Oli Christen, the founder of Freedive Flow, believes that it is time to put Gili Air on the map as a world class freediving destination. Why should these great training facilities be kept a secret?
William Trubridge first met Oli six years ago in Switzerland. Now, after an intensely busy competitive season, Will went on a break, visiting New Zealand, and Japan. En route to the Philippines, he sent Oli an email along the lines of: “Hey Oli, I’m in the hood on my way to the Philippines. Still wanna do something?”. Cue the Freedive Jamboree Gili Air 2016. The four day event focuses on yoga, pool training sessions, open water sessions and evening talks presented by William Trubridge and hosted by Freedive Flow, the best freediving resort on Gili Air.
The first day started with a sunrise yin yoga session with a Pranayama focus, beneficial to freedive training. Yoga enables participants to warm up their muscles and get their minds in the right place for the open water session.
The surface of the ocean was a mirror as we headed out on the boat this morning. Flat seas and good visibility always guarantees smiles and set the tone for a great dive session.
The buoy set up was intimate and practical with a maximum of three divers per buoy. It was great to learn a new warm-up position that allows you can keep your body relaxed and get a really good in- water static experience.
Some divers focused on their FIM technique, others on CNF. Will spent quality time with everyone individually, observing and giving constructive feedback on technique. It’s quite surreal coming up from a no fins dive and “OK-ing” the world record holder.
Most freediving courses don’t place much emphasis on no fins technique, so it was great to learn about the right rhythm, recovery, glide phase and the duck dive, which is completely different to a duck dive with fins! In keeping with Freedive Flow’s professional service, everyone’s dives were filmed for later analysis on a big screen TV.
Jamboree-Workshop at the spacious classroom of Freedive Flow @ Oceans 5: William Trubridge explains how to set the neutral buoyancy for deep freediving. (photo: Saki Ono)
The classroom session focused on proper breathing for freediving, including an explanation of what hyperventilation is and why it should be avoided. Will expanded on CNF and FIM technique and analysed the morning dives. Everyone got to practice proper FIM pulling and recovery technique on a rig set up for purpose.
Finally, Will gave a talk on diving to 100m and beyond. The talk was open to everyone on a donation basis, and all funds raised will go to a local charity that deals with the plastic pollution issue in Indonesia.
See you tomorrow for another update!
Jamboree – Evening Talk : William has a large audience on the edge of their seats with a very personal story about his journey to the latest World Record dive to -102m without fins (photo 1 and 3: Feisal)
Read that nice student-blog about freediving!
Wonder how it is to try freediving for the first time? Read Alyssa’s blog about her first go – thanks Alyssa, I had a blast as well!
Freedive & Yoga – same same but different?
Relax and Shine
(c) Oli Christen
It is no coincidence that many freedivers are also adept yogis. It is pretty much common knowledge that yoga offers great benefits for freedivers, such as the pranayama exercises for breath control or udjana bandha for the flexibility of the diaphragm, just to mention two well discussed topics. But I would like to take it one step further and say that yoga and freediving are basically the same art form of body movement.
To move in water, I have to become water – but what does this exactly mean? It means that I have to learn and train to use only those muscles that are needed to move my body in a given way – and relax all other muscles completely. I have to learn to let go of any unneeded firmness and that includes tiny muscles like the tip of my little finger or my eyelid as much as big oxygen users like upper back muscles or shoulders. Now, here we got the connection to yoga: As a yoga beginner I find it very hard to keep a posture for more than a few brief moments. I guess that’s why there is this misconception of “I’m not fit enough to do yoga”. Of course, as yogis we will develop strength and flexibility, but most importantly we are unconsciously creating this unbearably high workload ourselves! How? By keeping many muscles contracted all trough holding a posture, including many muscles which are actually not needed to hold that certain position.
Here’s a little exercise for you to play around: Go into a forearm plank position, with a very straight body, only your forearms and toes touching the ground. Don’t allow your torso to neither bend up- nor downwards – keep your body straight as plank! Can you let go of firmness in your belly? Try! It is unneeded for holding the plank!
In my yoga practice I try to live up to the basic principle of letting go any unneeded firmness by constantly checking on myself:
Exercising yoga this way teaches my body to become a minimalist, capable to move into and hold postures with a minimum input of energy. And this is exactly what freediving is about as well. In the end, freediving and yoga are not only about static position holding, but of greatest imporntance is always the interplay of contracting and relaxing muscles – activate and let go of them in a fluent movement! It takes repetition and self control to achieve this, and, most of all, a great deal of honesty with yourself in your daily practice.
Enjoy yoga while your stay in Bali!
May the dive response be with you!
Oli
Freedive Flow in the West Australian Newspaper
AIDA Freedive Course with Freedive Flow
After taking his AIDA2*-course with us, Matt Beanland got this very comprehensive article in the West Australian. It appeared as a full page spread, including many shots and a fact-sheet about FREEDIVE FLOW. Please follow the link to an e-paper-version of the article.
It is so nice to see how a gifted writer can re-create the spirit of a freedive course so well. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. Thank you from my heart for this beautiful work, Matt!
Get in touch with us if you want to experience the same, we run courses in Bali and Gili Air!
Oli Christen
AIDA Freedive Instructor
The Value of a Student Review
Freedive Open Water Session (c) Matt Beanland
What does it mean to a newbie to become a freediver, how does it feel, what are your goals, what are your fears? For me, it’s a loong long time ago, that moment, when I held my breath under water for the first time – but I remember it like it was yesterday. The feeling of “how in the world should I pull this off?” and then, the leap of faith, trust the instructor and just DO IT. Only to discover, it’s the most relaxing, the easiest thing there is – shut down all systems, enjoy floating, allow bliss to happen.
Now, a few years later, taking students by the hand and lead them down the same road, I always wonder how they feel on this journey. You know, a so called “static breath hold” is probably the only performance you can achieve by letting go, by not doing anything – it’s a meditation with immediate feedback and no way of cheating.
With some students I speak a lot during a freedive course – while some others prefer to be left alone in their moment of facing their deepest fear – the fear of drowning. As long as they all come up with a smile, it’s all good for me. And they always do! But it’s a very special thing for me to read a comprehensive review of a course and learn more about some personal insights of a student, after a few days time to let things sink in. Please read the blog linked here (in German, but even the translator of your browser will give you a good idea of the content):
http://knipsfisch.de.dd11900.kasserver.com/wordpress/?p=1538
So, thanks a lot, and I hope to see you all in the water, soon!
Oli / AIDA Freedive Instructor
Freediving for Surfers – now what?!
Keen and upcoming big wave surfers are often surprised that it’s possible to learn the basic white magic of freediving within a one day workshop. But the workshop itself is useless – it’s the following daily training that makes all the difference! It is possible to gain the same state of confidence like the pros within days, but it has to be earned.
Freediving for surfers is all about getting used to high CO2 in the body. And it doesn’t feel right at all in the beginning! We are hardwired to react on high CO2 with “the urge to breathe”, and if breathing is not possible, panic is just around the corner. Rest assured, “the urge to breathe” is nothing more than a misunderstanding. It’s nothing more than a sensation of high CO2, on which we used to react in a certain way (breathing!), but on which we can learn to react in many other ways like relaxation, save oxygen and simple endurance.
This is the basic principle of a breath hold training for surfers – learn the tools to rewire reactions on high CO2! It is important to get a basic understanding of what happens in the body during are forced breath hold – and why this doesn’t need to be a problem. Last but not least you will be trained in rescue scenarios to build your confidence in assisting a buddy in trouble.
One warning shall be mentioned here:
Surfers that undergo this training will then charge for bigger waves – and that’s what it’s all about. But fact is, surfers don’t get hurt by hold downs, they get hurt by hitting the reef or the rocks, twisting limbs or getting smashed by their own boards. So, dear surfer, the fear of drowning used to limit the size of waves you were paddling for. Now that you will be trained in breath holding, this fear will be smaller and you will charge for bigger stuff – are your skills ready for this?
Check the course program for more information and schedules.
Bali Beatings Flyer
May the dive response be with you
Oli
Freediving for Scuba Divers – why?
"The Scuby", by Azam Hamid
Why is it that more and more scuba divers choose to do a freedive course, or even start to train regularly as freedivers? Freediving is not just about holding your breath. Even more so it’s about becoming efficient in the water to not waste any energy and thus, air. So, the key to the growing popularity of freediving in the scuba community lies within the tools you are given in the freedive course. Lets have a look at a few of them:
You will learn how to relax your body and mind and use your breathing patterns to do so. This alone makes your scuba adventures more enjoyable, as you can now consciously work your level of activity. Or how about this one: In a freedive course you will work on your finning technique and body positioning in the water – getting both right will make you a more confident diver, even more so when you hit a current or even choose to swim across it.
Here’s one more: Did you know that there are about a dozen different equalization techniques to help that smooth descent? In a freedive course you will have a go at many of them and find the one that suits you best. Congestions of the airways are a common reason why “scubies”, as well as freedivers, have to stop their diving adventures – but congestions can be avoided by doing daily breathing exercises that we learnt from the Indian tradition of Pranayama. No congestions, great equalization.
Come and visit us on http://www.balifreedive.com.
Lovina Deep Days announced
While running a set of AIDA courses in our base in Sanur I’m happy to add some nice variety to the schedule. We will move over to the north coast of Bali for a few days of deep training:
The Lovina Deep Days: 10th-14th of March
We expect Azam Hamid from Malaysia to be here, one of the absolute pioneers of the rising S/E-Asian freediving comunity. Already here is AIDA Instructor Trainer Jean-Pol Francois, who represents no less than twenty years of competitive freediving and teaching.
Advanced freedivers are invited to get in touch for enquiries! Please also be in touch for alternative dates.
In the meanwhile, may the dive response be strong in you!
Oli
New Media Pages
[singlepic id=4 w=320 h=240 float=right]Dear all!
The new media-page is now online: Pics and videos will follow frequently, so make sure you check back!
Even though there’s not all too much on it for now, the pages already show nicely how freediving covers the whole range from very relaxed, almost meditative states to pure fun and silly moments. Isn’t that what life is supposed to be?
May the dive response be strong in you!
Oli
Premiere: First ever AIDA Freedive Certifications in Bali!
This is the best start we could ask for and we are looking forward to all the courses on Schedule.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with freedive instructor Oli for more information, we are looking forward to get you wet!
Oli
The safest place on earth – freediving
Safety first - always! (c) P. Lambreth
2011 is coming to an end – and frankly speaking, for the freedive community it is about time. Here are the facts:
Now the media and thus regulators are all over freediving, as it obviously is a dangerous extreme sport that has to be banned. It is not. Freediving is the safest sport in the world. But you have to stick to one simple rule: ALWAYS FREEDIVE WITH A QUALIFIED BUDDY.
Why is this so important?
The human body and mind are like the weather – there are good days, and there are bad days. On one day everything falls in your lap, the other day you struggle for every little step. Be it in the office, in your meditation or while jogging. On a slow day you get tired, you breathe hard – no problem, you just rest for a moment. It can be a problem when you are in the open water – that’s when your buddy steps in. She will tell you that your lips are purple and you should not push it today, maybe he tows you for a few meters back to the boat to help you over that leg cramp, maybe she comforts you by just being there. There’s so many reasons why not being alone out there – or in a pool. And all of them are easily helped by a good buddy.
This means in consequence: No buddy, no breath holding in water. Simple, right? To make it clear: Never ever a freediver got hurt when sticking to basic freedive safety rules – alway freediving with a buddy is arguably the most important one of them. To argue differently is nothing more than a display of lack of knowledge. This makes me angry.
And not only me. The Belgian freedive pioneer Fred Buyle did the right thing: Together with the graphic designer Pierre Lambreth he developed a logo – simple as the rule! Please read up Fred’s blog in french here and his initial blog about the topic in english.
The only answer is this: Join a freedive course to learn how to assist a freediver or snorkeler in trouble and to get to know yourself better, also as a scuba diver. It’s so simple, so easy to learn and so much more fun to share the experience!
Let’s make 2012 safe!
All the best
Oli
Be a Snorkeler, not a Killer
It happens every day, right in front of my very eyes. They gear up with masks and snorkels, shoes and gloves. Yes, SHOES and GLOVES! Then the killing starts – step by step.
I guess every coral island has low tides where the water barely covers the reef, which makes it impossible to swim off the beach. But even on small islands with little tourism I see dozens of snorkelers every day that go “well, that’s not my problem, I want to snorkel NOW”! So, off they walk right over the reef – some of them flippers-correctly-backwards – all the way to the drop-off, where they finally can start with some beloved nature-gazing. I guess they are not aware that they left a trail of death behind them to get there. Or are they?
To say it again: If you step on or even touch a coral it will take years to grow back – if it doesn’t die right away. So: No steps, no touches, only pictures, starry-eyes and bubbles, ok? Not hard to memorize. And if you really have to walk, maybe to reach a boat, do it like the locals: barefootn’!
I strongly believe it’s our responsibility as freedivers and dive pros to ask each of every one of these people if they are just unaware or purely ignorant. Please help raise awareness and.. uuhm, drown the others.
All the best
Oli
So, how do they do it?
How can you possibly hold your breath for 3Min, face down in water? How about 4Min? How about the world record of 11Min and 35Sec ? Freedivers do things that seem to be impossible to the non-adept and it’s got to have something to do with that special breathing we all saw in Luc Besson’s “Le grand bleu (The Big Blue)”.
Remember that hilarious scene where the Japanese guy faints? Well, I guess he got it all wrong – because it actually is wrong.
Yes, freedivers do a lot of breathing exercises, including but not limited to yogic breathing exercises called Pranayama. You want to do daily breathing exercises for several reasons:
– cleansing of the breathing apparatus
– training of the muscles involved in breathing
– improve suppleness of the chest
– and more.. (save that for later)
This sometimes is hard work. E.g. the English name for one of the basic exercises called Bhastrika is “breath of fire”, and this for good reasons: It’s inhaling and exhaling with your diaphragma as fast and hard as you can, using your nose as a bellow.
But there’s the important notice: This is what you do in training, NOT before freediving.
Before holding your breath under water you don’t want your body to work hard, you want it to relax. And so should your mind. If you get this right, you will not waste any oxygen – neither by uncalled-for moving your body, nor by unnecessary thinking.
THIS is it. This is what will get you these unimaginable long breath holds.
Take care and always share the fun
Oli
Three thoughts to safe freediving
To be safe in the wet:
1) Always share the enjoyment with a trained buddy, never hold your breath while you are alone in the water.
2) Stick to your natural, relaxed, “tidal” breathing pattern before a breath hold. There’s no voodoo, shamanic or yoga breathing that will buy you breath hold minutes in the long term.
3) When you experienced a black out, you most likely messed around with 2), but as you are still alive you obviously payed attention to 1). Learn from your experience, don’t let it happen again.
Share the fun
Oli