Sunday, April 22, 2012
FDD LAST CHANCE WC QUALIFYING COMP
30th May to 4th June
This is a 3 day CWT/FIM/CNF/DYN/STA competition, designed for those who want to qualify for
AIDA Team World Championships 2012. Two competitions days will be for depth disciplines
(you choose between CWT/FIM/CNF) and one day will be at the pool (you can do both STA and DYN).The 3 training days will be held at the Blue Hole and dedicated to depth disciplines, but
if you want you are free to go to the pool and train there (as long as you have a buddy!!).
The Canyon Estate Resort is located next to the Canyon dive site area (where the competition pool is) and it’s a beautiful new hotel right on the beach front. It’s half way between Dahab and the Blue Hole, so in the mornings we will pick you up directly from the hotel:)
Program:
30-31-1: Training days at the Blue Hole
2: STA-DYN Competition
3-4: Depth Competition
The package includes:
- 7 nights accommodation in double rooms at Canyon Estate Resort or equivalent. Breakfast is not included.
- 3 training days in Blue Hole (2 sessions each day).
- 3 competition days
- Transportation between the hotel and Freedive Dahab.
- Transports to and from Blue Hole every day.
- Buoys, ropes and weights.
- Lotta, Linda or one from the FDD team as training coaches.
- Counter ballast, surface camera, safety divers, doctor and oxygen for dives below 60m on the competition days
Price: 310€ (If you are alone, add 45 Euro to the price for the single room).
If you only want to participate during one competition day the price is 50 euro. If you only want to participate during the 3 competition days the price is 120€.
Monday, April 2, 2012
FDD Dahab Festival Competition
15-20 April
This is a 2 days CWT/CNF/FIM competition, where you can decide which discipline you want to do and when. For example you can do only one of the three disciplines during all competition days. As usual, we want to keep it small and cosy, and therefore the maximum number of athletes will be 20. Maximum depth is 90m. We will use our funky underwater counter ballast system! This competition is an AIDA International Competition with AIDA RANKING STATUS,and WR STATUS, but it will be up to the athlete to cover the WR procedures and doping test expenses.
Bottom camera footage available for AIDA nationals that require it for national records.
Price: 310€ .(If you want to stay in single room, add 45 Euro to the price). If you only want to participate during the competition days the price is 100€
Included in the price:
- 7 nights accommodation in double rooms (at Canyon Resort Hotel)
- 4 training days in Blue Hole (2 sessions each day)
- 2 competition days
- Transportation between the hotel and Freedive Dahab.
- Transports to and from Blue Hole every day.
- Buoys, ropes and weights.
- Lotta, Linda or one from the FDD team as training coaches.
- Counter ballast, surface camera, safety divers, doctor and oxygen for dives below 60m on the competition days.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sailing trip in Turkey with Freedive Dahab
Info:
Dates:
1st to 7th of August 2012.
For the moment the dates are still changeable, depending on the wishes of our guests.
In case of more bookings we can also reserve the boat for the following week (8th to 14th).
Where:
We leave from Marmaris’ marina and we sail around the Datca peninsula. To get to Marmaris you can fly to either Bodrum (70 km away) or Dalaman (50 km away). We can arrange your airport pick up for 60 euro.We will sail to a new destination for
1 to 3 hours every day.
Crew:
Linda as Freediving instructor/ coach/ safety/ deckhand (boat slave).
Sigi as skipper. Sigi lives in Dahab but bought the boat in Turkey to escape the heat during the Egyptian summers, and we think it was a very good idea! She has been sailing since 2008 and of course she has a sailing license.
Boat:
The sailing boat is 10.5m long and the max number of freedivers we can take onboard with us is 4.
Meals:
Meals are not included in the package price. However, we will all contribute to fill the cupboards with food before leaving the marina and we can cook breakfast and lunch onboard. For dinners we can go to local restaurants since most of the evenings we will moor on a jetty in secluded bays.
Expected price for a meal in such restaurants is 10/20 euro.
Freediving:
Max depth available - around 60 meters.
We will be able to do 2 freediving sessions per day.
We can either do training in the morning and fun diving in the afternoon or just concentrate on line diving all day.
We take freedivers at all levels as long as they have done at least a beginner course in the past or they have a good Freediving background.
Equipment:
Guests must have their own equipment. We will however provide buoys, ropes and bottom weights.
Prices:
If 2 people join: 650 euro/person
If 3 people join: 600 euro/person
If 4 people join: 500 euro/person
Minimum number of freedivers required is 2.
for info contact us at info@freedivedahab.com
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Satisfaction Guarantee Policy!!!!
We are happy to announce that from now on FDD will have a Satisfaction Guarantee Policy on our Mouthfill Courses!!!
In fact, if you didn't succeed in learning the Mouthfill during one of our courses, you will get back up to 65% of the price!
How does it work? Sign up for a Mouthfill Course and if at the end you feel you didn't get what you were expecting you only pay our regular training fee (between 32 and 60 euro per day depending on the dive location and the number of people participating).
Keep in mind that in order to participate to a Mouthfill Course you need to be at the very least a VERY comfortable 30 m freediver.
If you already have experience in deep diving and mouthfill practice, but make the usual mistakes (losing air, bad control of air, diaphragm tension, run out too early and so on) then you can book a single day tuition (100 euro/day/person). OUR REFUND POLICY IS APPLICABLE ALSO TO THIS!
More info on the Mouthfill Course HERE
So, what are you waiting for?
photo: Jacques De Vos
In fact, if you didn't succeed in learning the Mouthfill during one of our courses, you will get back up to 65% of the price!
How does it work? Sign up for a Mouthfill Course and if at the end you feel you didn't get what you were expecting you only pay our regular training fee (between 32 and 60 euro per day depending on the dive location and the number of people participating).
Keep in mind that in order to participate to a Mouthfill Course you need to be at the very least a VERY comfortable 30 m freediver.
If you already have experience in deep diving and mouthfill practice, but make the usual mistakes (losing air, bad control of air, diaphragm tension, run out too early and so on) then you can book a single day tuition (100 euro/day/person). OUR REFUND POLICY IS APPLICABLE ALSO TO THIS!
More info on the Mouthfill Course HERE
So, what are you waiting for?
photo: Jacques De Vos
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Teaching Hyperventilation
Hyperventilation is science, but it’s not.
If we could measure our arterial CO2 levels as we breathe up it would be science, but since we can’t then it’s not. You can't say for sure if someone is hyperventilating or not, you can only guess.
Hyperventilation can be one of the worst subjects to teach. However you approach it it’s so easy to contradict yourself.
For example, let’s take one of the scientific approaches, the volumetric one.
The average person has a tidal volume of 500ml, and breathes between 10 and 20 times per minute.
Good, so you take 500 and multiply if for 15 (which is in between 10 and 20) and you get 7.5 liters.
According to the standard definition, hyperventilation is breathing more than needed.
So if you breathe in more than 7.5 liters of air per minute, you are hyperventilating.
If this is true, all freedivers are hyperventilating.
Now consider than the standard Freediver will inhale between 50 and 75% of his VC during his breathe-up, that a standard breathe-up is 3-4 minutes, and that the breathing rhythm is 4 seconds in and 8 seconds out.
So let’s be conservative and take the lowest values.
The average male has a VC of 4.8 liters, half of which is 2.4 (breathe up volume per each single breath).
4 plus 8 equal 12 seconds, which means that in one minute our guy breathes 5 times.
Now, 2.4 times 5 = 12 liters breathed per minute (which is 62% more than the 7.5 needed) and he does that 3 whole minutes, which means a total of 36 liters of air instead than the regular 22.5.
That is surely to be considered hyperventilation. Or not?
Now go tell your students that hyperventilation is dangerous and is a big no-no in Freediving, and then you teach them to breathe like that.
So if we want to be consistent then we should teach the Tidal Volume approach.
The instructor tells his/her students that they must breathe their TV during the breathe up. This is the only way not to hyperventilate, according to volumetry.
Haha, who does it, really? Surely not many.
Then there is the confused approach: Hyperventilation is bad, but you can’t breathe normal before a dive or you won’t get anywhere and therefore a bit of over breathing is the right thing to do in order to lower down the co2 and get later contractions. But not too much, just go by feeling.
Uh-uh, now you just told your student that hyperventilation is bad, and that he should hyperventilate, and don’t clarify how much.
That’s of course what most of us do as freedivers, but can we really say it to students?
Then we have the down to earth approach.
If you don’t feel any of the symptoms of hyperventilation then you are not hyperventilating. Bit simplistic, but very easy to explain.
But can you really have noticeable symptoms even for slight hyperventilation? Just because you don’t feel anything does it really mean that you didn’t hyperventilate? It seems a little dangerous to use this with beginners, because they don’t even know how they feel, let alone how they are supposed not to feel.
So, in conclusion:
The Volumetric approach: waste 1 hour of classroom, and leaves people more confused than before.
The Tidal volume approach: unrealistic; don’t preach what you don’t practice!
The Confused approach: the most realistic, but dangerous and confusing when teaching.
The Down to earth approach: too vague and potentially dangerous.
So what do we do?
What I tell my instructors is not to make things too complicated, and not to be too theoretical.
During the breathing sessions we let them practice hyperventilation and we ask them to describe what they feel. We then let them practice proper breathing while watching out for even the lightest symptoms.
In the pool/sea I breathe with them following their own rhythm, and if after a few breaths I feel a bit funny then I assume they are hyperventilating and I ask them to slow down.
We tell students we don’t hyperventilate.
Technically it is a lie...but it's a good lie, that saves trouble and confusion. At a beginner level people don't have enough understanding to handle the complicated truth!
I can see how this subject can raise questions and disagreements, and can feed a strong debate. So feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you think and how you handle the subject with your own students :)
photo: Jacques de Vos
If we could measure our arterial CO2 levels as we breathe up it would be science, but since we can’t then it’s not. You can't say for sure if someone is hyperventilating or not, you can only guess.
Hyperventilation can be one of the worst subjects to teach. However you approach it it’s so easy to contradict yourself.
For example, let’s take one of the scientific approaches, the volumetric one.
The average person has a tidal volume of 500ml, and breathes between 10 and 20 times per minute.
Good, so you take 500 and multiply if for 15 (which is in between 10 and 20) and you get 7.5 liters.
According to the standard definition, hyperventilation is breathing more than needed.
So if you breathe in more than 7.5 liters of air per minute, you are hyperventilating.
If this is true, all freedivers are hyperventilating.
Now consider than the standard Freediver will inhale between 50 and 75% of his VC during his breathe-up, that a standard breathe-up is 3-4 minutes, and that the breathing rhythm is 4 seconds in and 8 seconds out.
So let’s be conservative and take the lowest values.
The average male has a VC of 4.8 liters, half of which is 2.4 (breathe up volume per each single breath).
4 plus 8 equal 12 seconds, which means that in one minute our guy breathes 5 times.
Now, 2.4 times 5 = 12 liters breathed per minute (which is 62% more than the 7.5 needed) and he does that 3 whole minutes, which means a total of 36 liters of air instead than the regular 22.5.
That is surely to be considered hyperventilation. Or not?
Now go tell your students that hyperventilation is dangerous and is a big no-no in Freediving, and then you teach them to breathe like that.
So if we want to be consistent then we should teach the Tidal Volume approach.
The instructor tells his/her students that they must breathe their TV during the breathe up. This is the only way not to hyperventilate, according to volumetry.
Haha, who does it, really? Surely not many.
Then there is the confused approach: Hyperventilation is bad, but you can’t breathe normal before a dive or you won’t get anywhere and therefore a bit of over breathing is the right thing to do in order to lower down the co2 and get later contractions. But not too much, just go by feeling.
Uh-uh, now you just told your student that hyperventilation is bad, and that he should hyperventilate, and don’t clarify how much.
That’s of course what most of us do as freedivers, but can we really say it to students?
Then we have the down to earth approach.
If you don’t feel any of the symptoms of hyperventilation then you are not hyperventilating. Bit simplistic, but very easy to explain.
But can you really have noticeable symptoms even for slight hyperventilation? Just because you don’t feel anything does it really mean that you didn’t hyperventilate? It seems a little dangerous to use this with beginners, because they don’t even know how they feel, let alone how they are supposed not to feel.
So, in conclusion:
The Volumetric approach: waste 1 hour of classroom, and leaves people more confused than before.
The Tidal volume approach: unrealistic; don’t preach what you don’t practice!
The Confused approach: the most realistic, but dangerous and confusing when teaching.
The Down to earth approach: too vague and potentially dangerous.
So what do we do?
What I tell my instructors is not to make things too complicated, and not to be too theoretical.
During the breathing sessions we let them practice hyperventilation and we ask them to describe what they feel. We then let them practice proper breathing while watching out for even the lightest symptoms.
In the pool/sea I breathe with them following their own rhythm, and if after a few breaths I feel a bit funny then I assume they are hyperventilating and I ask them to slow down.
We tell students we don’t hyperventilate.
Technically it is a lie...but it's a good lie, that saves trouble and confusion. At a beginner level people don't have enough understanding to handle the complicated truth!
I can see how this subject can raise questions and disagreements, and can feed a strong debate. So feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you think and how you handle the subject with your own students :)
photo: Jacques de Vos
Friday, September 23, 2011
Freediving Diseases: The Chicken Syndrome
The chicken syndrome is a condition which affects freedivers during training and competitions.
It was never thought of being contagious until yesterday, during the aida CWT world champs.
In fact, most athletes seemed to have been exposed to the virus overnight, since the next morning, during their dives, most of the deep freedivers turned way earlier than the announced depth. If the virus has spread accidentally and coincidentally or if instead it was carefully planted by the French team we don’t know yet.
Scientists all around the world are on their way to Kalamata, to study the phenomenon, find its causes and hopefully find a cure for this horrible condition. I tend to believe the French did it, but of course at the moment I can’t base it on any other certainty than their proved dodginess when it comes to sport.
The freedivers infected by the chicken syndrome will have their own prize ceremony, and they will be rewarded with gold, silver and bronze eggs:
The gold egg to Sara Cambell who turned an impressive 80 meters before the plate.
The silver egg to Rune Hallum, who turned a mere 68 meters earlier.
And the bronze for Jens Berger, who turn 64 meters too early.
However, very surprisingly, instead of being happy about their achievements, these champions go around denying their contagion to the syndrome, and blame instead their early turns to the trauma of having assisted to a fellow freediver’s black out, which personally I find a very lame excuse.
Ok, the guy wasn’t breathing for like 4 minutes and there was a river of blood running, and everybody freaked out and thought he was dead, but come on, what is one little insignificant life compared to the glory and fame of a gold medal?
That’s why Natalia, who is a real champion, came to me while it was all happening and asked me if the guy was dead and which line she was supposed to do her dive, and five minutes later she set a new world record. That’s how you do it.
And on the other hand, if someone decides to kill himself that should be his own business and it shouldn’t affect other people’s lives.
However, enough with philosophy, let’s see the statistics.
36 women competed:
22 white cards (65%)
3 black outs (10%)
9 early turns (25%)
56 men competed:
24 white cards (40%)
8 black outs (15%)
23 (twenty three!) early turns (40%)
13 announcements below 100m (22%)
So, which conclusions can one draw from this?
First, it’s clear that 15% more men are more susceptible to the Chicken Syndrome than women.
Second, it’s also clear that 55% of the men think that they are better than they are.
Third, that 55% of the men have a bigger ego, which is also shown by the bigger percentage of black outs.
Fourth, that most men have smaller brains than women (proven by their ability to dive deeper).
Here below you can see the cwt official results:
(double click on the pictures to enlarge)
Sorry for the lack of pictures: too much drama and no happy pictures, so i put my camera away because i didn't feel like documenting the drama; enough people had to see that against their will.
I got 2 happy faces, Giorgos and Anna and you can see their smiles here below.
It was never thought of being contagious until yesterday, during the aida CWT world champs.
In fact, most athletes seemed to have been exposed to the virus overnight, since the next morning, during their dives, most of the deep freedivers turned way earlier than the announced depth. If the virus has spread accidentally and coincidentally or if instead it was carefully planted by the French team we don’t know yet.
Scientists all around the world are on their way to Kalamata, to study the phenomenon, find its causes and hopefully find a cure for this horrible condition. I tend to believe the French did it, but of course at the moment I can’t base it on any other certainty than their proved dodginess when it comes to sport.
The freedivers infected by the chicken syndrome will have their own prize ceremony, and they will be rewarded with gold, silver and bronze eggs:
The gold egg to Sara Cambell who turned an impressive 80 meters before the plate.
The silver egg to Rune Hallum, who turned a mere 68 meters earlier.
And the bronze for Jens Berger, who turn 64 meters too early.
However, very surprisingly, instead of being happy about their achievements, these champions go around denying their contagion to the syndrome, and blame instead their early turns to the trauma of having assisted to a fellow freediver’s black out, which personally I find a very lame excuse.
Ok, the guy wasn’t breathing for like 4 minutes and there was a river of blood running, and everybody freaked out and thought he was dead, but come on, what is one little insignificant life compared to the glory and fame of a gold medal?
That’s why Natalia, who is a real champion, came to me while it was all happening and asked me if the guy was dead and which line she was supposed to do her dive, and five minutes later she set a new world record. That’s how you do it.
And on the other hand, if someone decides to kill himself that should be his own business and it shouldn’t affect other people’s lives.
However, enough with philosophy, let’s see the statistics.
36 women competed:
22 white cards (65%)
3 black outs (10%)
9 early turns (25%)
56 men competed:
24 white cards (40%)
8 black outs (15%)
23 (twenty three!) early turns (40%)
13 announcements below 100m (22%)
So, which conclusions can one draw from this?
First, it’s clear that 15% more men are more susceptible to the Chicken Syndrome than women.
Second, it’s also clear that 55% of the men think that they are better than they are.
Third, that 55% of the men have a bigger ego, which is also shown by the bigger percentage of black outs.
Fourth, that most men have smaller brains than women (proven by their ability to dive deeper).
Here below you can see the cwt official results:
(double click on the pictures to enlarge)
Sorry for the lack of pictures: too much drama and no happy pictures, so i put my camera away because i didn't feel like documenting the drama; enough people had to see that against their will.
I got 2 happy faces, Giorgos and Anna and you can see their smiles here below.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Depth WC 2011 - Thoughts on Freediving Athletes
Being an athlete is a hard, hard job.
Every day, during competitions athletes get exposed to environments such as this:
And this:
And this:
After the hard training sessions, athletes are forced to days and days of mentally and physically challenging periods called “rest”, or “recoveries”.
During these periods, they are not allowed to do anything else than stare out at the horizon, and being exposed to frustrating views such as this:
And this:
Elite freedivers are exposed to 2 different forms of BO.
The first, also known as SWBO affect the Freediver toward the end if his dive, caused by lack of oxygenation to the brain (Shallow Water Black Out).
The other, even more dangerous form of BO (Body Odor), affects athletes mainly during tedious and uneventful event committees, bus rides to the opening ceremonies and every situation where a substantial number of athletes share small and possibly enclosed spaces.
It takes lot of training and perseverance to train tolerance to this last kind of BO. You can contact ms. Hansson (member of the Swedish team) a specialist in this field, who offers 4 days intensive training programs aimed at decreasing the susceptibility to BO.
In order to become more connected with their inner self and gain better mind control, Freediving athletes practice a great amount of yoga.
Practicing Yoga has the non-negligible side effect of attracting the attention of the athlete of opposite sex.
For this is reason, Yoga is mostly practiced by the slutty freedivers.
In the evenings, athletes eat their healthy, and alas, highly unexciting dinners.
Then, usually at night, they practice meditation, an oriental discipline that puts them more in touch with their spirituality.
That’s why freedivers are loving and sensitive human beings, and they walk around exchanging signs of peace and love.
In fact, during a recent interview, mr. Tranfield (senior member of the British team) declared that freediving will save the gays.
He is a great believer in this, and he wasn't ashamed of saying it while pinching mr. Lemarc's (french male freediving groupie) nipple.(If someone has a photo of that, please give it to me).
On a final note, I’d like to point out that being a jugde at a Freediving World Champioship is even a harder job.
Every single athlete is kissing your ass and trying to bribe you with cookies (mr. King, USA), coffees (mr. Vermeulem, NL, who’s not even competing), ice creams (ms. Prinsloo, RSA), and by doing immoral things like stealing your noseclip and then returning it and implying that you should give them a white card for that. Yes, Czech guy, i’m talking about you; I don’t know your name, I but I know who you are.
Ms. Carlsson (FIN) even begged me to allow her to kneel next to me and fan me to relieve me from the discomfort of the midday heat.
Really, how dare they think they can buy me with a cookie! This is utterly outrageous. As written on the info board at the reception of the Messinian Bay hotel, it's at least 200 euro for a white card (I have to split 50/50 with the other judge and pay a 10% cut to the JIL for his silence).
So as you can see being a judge is not that profitable an activity.
Every day, during competitions athletes get exposed to environments such as this:
And this:
And this:
After the hard training sessions, athletes are forced to days and days of mentally and physically challenging periods called “rest”, or “recoveries”.
During these periods, they are not allowed to do anything else than stare out at the horizon, and being exposed to frustrating views such as this:
And this:
Elite freedivers are exposed to 2 different forms of BO.
The first, also known as SWBO affect the Freediver toward the end if his dive, caused by lack of oxygenation to the brain (Shallow Water Black Out).
The other, even more dangerous form of BO (Body Odor), affects athletes mainly during tedious and uneventful event committees, bus rides to the opening ceremonies and every situation where a substantial number of athletes share small and possibly enclosed spaces.
It takes lot of training and perseverance to train tolerance to this last kind of BO. You can contact ms. Hansson (member of the Swedish team) a specialist in this field, who offers 4 days intensive training programs aimed at decreasing the susceptibility to BO.
In order to become more connected with their inner self and gain better mind control, Freediving athletes practice a great amount of yoga.
Practicing Yoga has the non-negligible side effect of attracting the attention of the athlete of opposite sex.
For this is reason, Yoga is mostly practiced by the slutty freedivers.
In the evenings, athletes eat their healthy, and alas, highly unexciting dinners.
Then, usually at night, they practice meditation, an oriental discipline that puts them more in touch with their spirituality.
That’s why freedivers are loving and sensitive human beings, and they walk around exchanging signs of peace and love.
In fact, during a recent interview, mr. Tranfield (senior member of the British team) declared that freediving will save the gays.
He is a great believer in this, and he wasn't ashamed of saying it while pinching mr. Lemarc's (french male freediving groupie) nipple.(If someone has a photo of that, please give it to me).
On a final note, I’d like to point out that being a jugde at a Freediving World Champioship is even a harder job.
Every single athlete is kissing your ass and trying to bribe you with cookies (mr. King, USA), coffees (mr. Vermeulem, NL, who’s not even competing), ice creams (ms. Prinsloo, RSA), and by doing immoral things like stealing your noseclip and then returning it and implying that you should give them a white card for that. Yes, Czech guy, i’m talking about you; I don’t know your name, I but I know who you are.
Ms. Carlsson (FIN) even begged me to allow her to kneel next to me and fan me to relieve me from the discomfort of the midday heat.
Really, how dare they think they can buy me with a cookie! This is utterly outrageous. As written on the info board at the reception of the Messinian Bay hotel, it's at least 200 euro for a white card (I have to split 50/50 with the other judge and pay a 10% cut to the JIL for his silence).
So as you can see being a judge is not that profitable an activity.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July FDD Competition, 20th and 22nd
20th of july, day 1
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Linda, 65m cwt, Yellow card (grab)
Ali, 25m cwt, white card,NR
Lotta, 50m cwt, white card
Wendy, 50m cnf, white card, NR
Le Marc, 65m fim, white card
Stefan, 73m cwt, white card, NR
PREFACE
For almost the first time since 2007 I decided to compete again.
Almost, because I actually competed last week in Sharm, in a mini competition arranged by Marco for some Danish guys. Since Marco needed more (good looking and graceful) peeps for the cameras and since I’m currently (happily) unemployed with not much to do, I thought it would be fun, and announced 55 meters in FIM, which I thought it would have felt like a joke.
Well, it didn’t, and it wasn’t fun at all. All because of me Potta.
PROLOGUE
Of course me Potta and I are attached at the hip, so if im going to sharm to compete sure enough me Potta will do the same. (Btw, if somebody is still confused about the identity of this me Potta person, first they must be slightly retarded, and secondly it’s time they know that me Potta is my Swedish alter ego, Lotta Ericson, former world record holder and owner of half of FDD (the messy half)).
Anyhow, that one day in Sharm Potta tried to get the full FDD ownership by attempting to murder me through poisoning.
Knowing that the smell of her truly toxic sunscreen is making me sick, she smeared half a kilo of it on her mouth, and then drank from our common water bottle, AND THEN she offered it to me. Of course I felt immediately sick and the doctors on the boat almost had to intervene. I tried to explain that me Potta was trying to kill me but nobody took it seriously because me Potta always looks so nice and innocent when she wants to.
Then of course since I was in my suit for over an hour, in the middle of the salty sea with 50 degrees Celsius outside and no drinking water available, I almost died or dehydration, which was of course part of Potta’s evil plan to have me dead in case the poisoning wouldn’t work.
However, I actually managed to survive, and made my dive, which of course made Potta get even wilder and determined to kill me at the very next occasion.
CHAPTER 1
The next occasion presented itself just a few days later when she encouraged me to participate to this new comp, which was organized by us for a bunch of the Dahab freedivers, plus Le Marc, who no matter what you do to avoid him, he’s always in your way.
I didn’t know what Potta would be up to this time, other than she was also competing, so I had to spend the whole time watching my back just in case she came behind me with a knife or something. That didn’t make my warm-up very relaxing, let me tell you.
Then, since she obviously didn’t succeed and was very pissed off about that, threatened judge Jacques that she would fire him if he would give me a white card, so the poor thing had to come up with this absurd story that I grabbed the buoy before surfacing and gave me a yellow card.
Here the incriminated exit. It would be obvious even to a child that there is nothing wrong with it.
Here below me Potta in the act of threatening Jacques. She can be very scary indeed, so I don’t blame him.
Second judge Paola, who doesn’t know anything about Potta evilness and Jacques chicken-ness, was having a little nap during my dive, so she didn’t even see my exit and couldn’t do anything about it.
Here me in the act of politely protesting to the judges, while Potta is very pleased with her evil deed.
Judge Jacques even fucked up my count down because Potta told him so. You should see how terrified he was, and every time she was close to him he would start shaking. His hands were shaking so furiously that he even dropped an 8 kilo bottom weight.
Here below you can see Jacques defending himself against me Potta when she wanted to beat him up after he dropped the bottom weight.
We even had to ask Sara to borrow her bottom weight, and of course that little greedy witch wanted money for it.
CHAPTER 2
Since one of the FDD staff was competing, one was judging and the other one was at home busy dying of dehydration and yalla yalla (probably caused for some obscure reasons by evil me Potta) we were short of safety divers, so me Potta forced me to do safety after my extremely deep dive to 65 meters, probably in the hope I would get DCS and die.
The other safety diver was rasta Marco who is also currently (happily) unemployed (god bless the revolution!!).
Anyhow, back to the point, after me it was Ali’s turn, and he did a dive to 25 meters CWT. Which was very cool, since he just finished his level 1 course with Jacques; furthermore, because Kuwait doesn’t have any other active Freediver, Ali happened to set the first Kuwaiti national record.
Here Ali during his breathe-up.
After him, it was me Potta’s turn. She did 50 meters without crying, which is like, the second time it happened since 2003.
Actually she looked quite happy when she came up, which for a moment even lead me to hope that she would drop her evil purposes.
Then it was the turn of Wendy and her bionic eye. See below.
With a 50 meter CNF dive, she made a new Dutch record.
After her it was Le Marc, who showed no respect for other people personal belongings and sat on my noodle as if it was his.
Le Marc, who never got a white card in his life despite having attended way more competitions than me, had Sara coaching him. As I previously mentioned, Sara is a witch and a black magic practitioner, and she sold Le Marc soul to the devil in exchange for a white card. Which worked.
Here Le Marc soon after Sara told him he has to give up his soul. He was unhappy for about 5 seconds, but then he changed his mind.
If I didn’t know for sure that the devil and Sara were involved, I would have thought that he got the white card because finally he announced 65 instead than 70 meters.
And here Potta thinking she can even be eviler than the devil, and tried to touch Le Marc so that he would get a red card.
The devil paralyzed Potta for about 15 seconds, just in time for Le Marc to be given his white card. I was hoping that he would keep Potta paralyzed and quiet for longer, but not even the devil is capable of that much.
Then it was our superhero Stefan, who, after having got his first national record during TD, by doing a beautiful 60m CNF dive, today he got his second national record with a 73m CWT dive! We are so happy for him that we even forgave him for being German.
Here Stefan smiling after his dive.
EPILOGUE
The day ended successfully with all white cards except mine, and the best thing is that all Potta further attempts to my life failed and I made it back to tell the tale of this fantastic, hot day.
Stay tuned for the next competition day, on Friday the 22nd.
Weather forecast say scorching hot also tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and so on until mid October, but that’s ok, because I have a 6 horsepower air conditioning unit, and a big iron gate with rusty spikes and a high wall to protect myself from Potta.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Linda, 65m cwt, Yellow card (grab)
Ali, 25m cwt, white card,NR
Lotta, 50m cwt, white card
Wendy, 50m cnf, white card, NR
Le Marc, 65m fim, white card
Stefan, 73m cwt, white card, NR
PREFACE
For almost the first time since 2007 I decided to compete again.
Almost, because I actually competed last week in Sharm, in a mini competition arranged by Marco for some Danish guys. Since Marco needed more (good looking and graceful) peeps for the cameras and since I’m currently (happily) unemployed with not much to do, I thought it would be fun, and announced 55 meters in FIM, which I thought it would have felt like a joke.
Well, it didn’t, and it wasn’t fun at all. All because of me Potta.
PROLOGUE
Of course me Potta and I are attached at the hip, so if im going to sharm to compete sure enough me Potta will do the same. (Btw, if somebody is still confused about the identity of this me Potta person, first they must be slightly retarded, and secondly it’s time they know that me Potta is my Swedish alter ego, Lotta Ericson, former world record holder and owner of half of FDD (the messy half)).
Anyhow, that one day in Sharm Potta tried to get the full FDD ownership by attempting to murder me through poisoning.
Knowing that the smell of her truly toxic sunscreen is making me sick, she smeared half a kilo of it on her mouth, and then drank from our common water bottle, AND THEN she offered it to me. Of course I felt immediately sick and the doctors on the boat almost had to intervene. I tried to explain that me Potta was trying to kill me but nobody took it seriously because me Potta always looks so nice and innocent when she wants to.
Then of course since I was in my suit for over an hour, in the middle of the salty sea with 50 degrees Celsius outside and no drinking water available, I almost died or dehydration, which was of course part of Potta’s evil plan to have me dead in case the poisoning wouldn’t work.
However, I actually managed to survive, and made my dive, which of course made Potta get even wilder and determined to kill me at the very next occasion.
CHAPTER 1
The next occasion presented itself just a few days later when she encouraged me to participate to this new comp, which was organized by us for a bunch of the Dahab freedivers, plus Le Marc, who no matter what you do to avoid him, he’s always in your way.
I didn’t know what Potta would be up to this time, other than she was also competing, so I had to spend the whole time watching my back just in case she came behind me with a knife or something. That didn’t make my warm-up very relaxing, let me tell you.
Then, since she obviously didn’t succeed and was very pissed off about that, threatened judge Jacques that she would fire him if he would give me a white card, so the poor thing had to come up with this absurd story that I grabbed the buoy before surfacing and gave me a yellow card.
Here the incriminated exit. It would be obvious even to a child that there is nothing wrong with it.
Here below me Potta in the act of threatening Jacques. She can be very scary indeed, so I don’t blame him.
Second judge Paola, who doesn’t know anything about Potta evilness and Jacques chicken-ness, was having a little nap during my dive, so she didn’t even see my exit and couldn’t do anything about it.
Here me in the act of politely protesting to the judges, while Potta is very pleased with her evil deed.
Judge Jacques even fucked up my count down because Potta told him so. You should see how terrified he was, and every time she was close to him he would start shaking. His hands were shaking so furiously that he even dropped an 8 kilo bottom weight.
Here below you can see Jacques defending himself against me Potta when she wanted to beat him up after he dropped the bottom weight.
We even had to ask Sara to borrow her bottom weight, and of course that little greedy witch wanted money for it.
CHAPTER 2
Since one of the FDD staff was competing, one was judging and the other one was at home busy dying of dehydration and yalla yalla (probably caused for some obscure reasons by evil me Potta) we were short of safety divers, so me Potta forced me to do safety after my extremely deep dive to 65 meters, probably in the hope I would get DCS and die.
The other safety diver was rasta Marco who is also currently (happily) unemployed (god bless the revolution!!).
Anyhow, back to the point, after me it was Ali’s turn, and he did a dive to 25 meters CWT. Which was very cool, since he just finished his level 1 course with Jacques; furthermore, because Kuwait doesn’t have any other active Freediver, Ali happened to set the first Kuwaiti national record.
Here Ali during his breathe-up.
After him, it was me Potta’s turn. She did 50 meters without crying, which is like, the second time it happened since 2003.
Actually she looked quite happy when she came up, which for a moment even lead me to hope that she would drop her evil purposes.
Then it was the turn of Wendy and her bionic eye. See below.
With a 50 meter CNF dive, she made a new Dutch record.
After her it was Le Marc, who showed no respect for other people personal belongings and sat on my noodle as if it was his.
Le Marc, who never got a white card in his life despite having attended way more competitions than me, had Sara coaching him. As I previously mentioned, Sara is a witch and a black magic practitioner, and she sold Le Marc soul to the devil in exchange for a white card. Which worked.
Here Le Marc soon after Sara told him he has to give up his soul. He was unhappy for about 5 seconds, but then he changed his mind.
If I didn’t know for sure that the devil and Sara were involved, I would have thought that he got the white card because finally he announced 65 instead than 70 meters.
And here Potta thinking she can even be eviler than the devil, and tried to touch Le Marc so that he would get a red card.
The devil paralyzed Potta for about 15 seconds, just in time for Le Marc to be given his white card. I was hoping that he would keep Potta paralyzed and quiet for longer, but not even the devil is capable of that much.
Then it was our superhero Stefan, who, after having got his first national record during TD, by doing a beautiful 60m CNF dive, today he got his second national record with a 73m CWT dive! We are so happy for him that we even forgave him for being German.
Here Stefan smiling after his dive.
EPILOGUE
The day ended successfully with all white cards except mine, and the best thing is that all Potta further attempts to my life failed and I made it back to tell the tale of this fantastic, hot day.
Stay tuned for the next competition day, on Friday the 22nd.
Weather forecast say scorching hot also tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and so on until mid October, but that’s ok, because I have a 6 horsepower air conditioning unit, and a big iron gate with rusty spikes and a high wall to protect myself from Potta.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
TD 2011 - RESULTS
CNF results:
Individual results:
First places, Miguel and Sara won 2 Meridiens (the Scubapro freediving computer with the incorporated heart monitor) AND Smoothskin Neptune wetsuits!!
Second places, Michael and Wendy won Nylon Neptune wetsuits and awesome Neptune dive bags.
Third places, Jakas and Olga, won Neptune buoys.
Team results:
Team SSI Canarias won 3 Neptune buoys!
Team Nasha Russia won 3 Neptune lanyards!
And the luckiest ones, team Chichichaestli, won 3 awesome FDD t-shirts.
Thanks to SSI for sponsoring our competition!
And thanks to SCUBAPRO and NEPTUNE for the most awesome prizes!
Friday, June 24, 2011
TD 2011 - DAY TWO
Day two, constant weight. Here the result list:
And here is the total points so far:
Remarkable things of the day.
Miguel has a cousin, his name is Alex. Alex speaks no English and the only sentence he can utter in English is: “he’s my cousin!!” referring to Miguel, every time Miguel does something remarkable. Now, today he must have got tired of being known only because of his role as Miguel cousin and came up with something more original: he showed up late. Which is not so original, because Miguel does it all the time. However, 10 minutes before his top he was nowhere to be seen, and he confessed later that he ran to the toilet (nobody asked to do what) and since he didn’t have much time to do a breathe up he used all of his 29 seconds after official top, and while I was already holding my red card to show him, he managed to take a breath and dive before I could say 30.
Now someone must teach him how to say in English “I’m the one who dived at -29 seconds!”
After him came Greg. Greg announced 40, and because im retarded I set the rope down to 42. So he does his dive, turns early (at exactly 40), comes up, does the SP shaking his head, and gets a white card. You should have seen the confused look on his face. Poor Greg. On the other hand this is what happens when you go to a comp organized by a bunch of grannies.
Fanny and Carolina today stayed a bit more conservative and both got white cards. However, they are both looking at me with the evil eye. Fanny, who’s in the “when we’re 30 you’re dead” team, may not have appreciated the subtle sarcasm i used towards her team, and Carolina was obviously unaware that Santi was being bigamous (what do you expect from someone called Jakas??)(and how is that supposed to be my fault anyways??).
The Russians all did well today, lots of white cards for them, except that they scare the shit out of me when they hiss at me after their dives. Especially Irina, who is such a sweet a pretty looking girl, you would never think she would be capable of making such an evil sound. Why can’t they do the recovery breathing like anybody else?
Le Marc obviously wanted to prove me wrong, so today he announced 65, and he actually made it! this is the first time he ever comes up with a tag. Too bad he got the discipline wrong and he dived FIM instead than CWT, so he got a red card anyways. Le Marc needs to focus a bit more, just like our bottom camera.
Talking of which, today it fucked up again, and only got half of the footage right, and the rest is still blurry. For heaven’s sakes, how difficult is for a camera to focus? This is all it has to do.
We had a few 70 m dives, with Evgeny, Max and Trevor and they all got whites, and after them came the Jakas, who announced 75 and made it nice and easy.
Then was Yuri turn with 77.
here you see him while he's sucking on the oxygen, after hissing at Lotta.
Yuri should challenge Trevor into an ascent race and see who goes faster. Me and Remy were dying to keep up with them.
Michael, who now think he’s unbreakable because of the rusty carabiner, became too careless and forgot to let go of the rope before dipping his face and got a yellow card, just like a proper beginner. The bad thing is that because of that he missed the swiss national record. Michael, maybe the rusty carabiner is cursed and you will need to buy a new stainless un-cursed one in my shop!
Sara did her 80 m dive and came up yawning, so I guess that it didn’t feel too challenging.
And then it was the turn of Miguel the trouble maker, who announced 90 m again.
Since he’s too lazy to read the rules, he probably didn’t know you can’t have the lanyard on the same hand of the official watch (for some mysterious reason that nobody could ever explained to me), so we had to move his computer just before his dive. Then as I safety him I realized his lanyard was disconnected from the rope and was just hanging on his side. He had it on when he started and he had it on when he turned and then he claims that he didn’t do anything to it and that the holy mary must have intervened with s miracle. Which was a bit of a pointless miracle, since you are supposed to get a red card if you don’t dive with your lanyard. Judges discussed briefly and in a moment of confusion gave him a yellow card. I think that also the holy mary didn’t read the rules very well.
see the evil look he gave at the camera? it wasn't because of the yellow card, but because hiss cousin wasn't there to brag.
In the breaks, Jacques is whoring to get a new free pair of fins, let's see how that works out. So far he got 5 le and a bedouin bracelet.
CNF starting list for tomorrow
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