A good day.

Static apnea session

It has been a day of learning with Hanli Prinsloo a professional freediver from Cape Town. 

The day started with a hour and a half of Yoga and breathing exercises. That in itself was an eye opener as it was the first time that I have ever done Yoga. Trust me I can feel it today. The stretching that was achieved was amazing and the results together with the breathing exercises delivered results far above what I ever imagined.

My personal best breath-hold for the morning ended up on 2min 50 sec.

The most interesting aspect of the theory that followed was the manipulation of the body's responses to push the envelope of the breath-hold or apnea and naturally this is key when wanting to freedive to whatever depth you are trying to achieve.

Static apnea was then practiced in the pool and Hanli coached us through the various breath-ups and breath-hold attempts. My first attempt was a 1min 26sec, with the second attempt coming in at 2min 05sec. My dive buddy Dean and I then did a 4-5 min breath-up and my personal best on this day was a 3min 10sec breath hold. With this I must admit I was very pleased and it can only get better from here.

Line set to 15m.

We then hit the sea, or should I say the sea hit me.OK, I did three 5-6m dives, but the actual achievement for the afternoon was not loosing my lungs over the side of the boat. A swell of what looked like 6 foot to me was enough to call 6m the mark for the day. I felt great under the water, but with all the energy wasted trying to keep my lungs in my body I felt drained very quickly.

So that was the day, great bunch of guys Lance, Johan, Dean, Fritzel I mean Fritz and Thomas, not forgetting Hanli that shed some light on my path moving forward.

For me its Yoga and back to gym to get ready for next months advanced breathing course.

I am definitely happy with that 3min 10sec!!!

Starting again...

So it all started in Shanghai in 1927, well ok it started some 18 years ago for me, when I had the chance to see the biopic of the aforementioned birth date of a certain Jacques Mayol, born in 1927. A rivalry in the 50's with Enzo Maiorca seen above with Jacques is what the biopic was based on and the focus and determination of the two men especially Jacques not only captured but has always fascinated me. Although the former  is my namesake, thats about where the similarity ends. Inspired by Mayol, the reality of experiencing freediving and the art of apnea had to wait till 2010. Why 2010? Who knows, but when the times right, it's right!

So the time had come and before there was going to be any breath-ups or freediving I had to get fit.So the training started and the end result of the two months training was a inguinal hernia. Not great, but such is life. A small op and 8 weeks rest and voila......I mean whats another 8 weeks anyway, who's counting...

Welcome to "My Personal Blue"...