Geneva, my love...

One of the good things when attending freediving competitions is that you meet a lot of friendly people and very often you hear them saying things like "...hey, you should come to our competition..." or "...yeah, and you can stay in my place..." and usually you would be thankful but not take advantage of the offer.

Well, this time, I did. And it was great! Geneva is a lovely city, easyjet is getting me there cheep and Cedric is an absolutely wonderful host! Thanks man!

On my last comp in Berlin I decided I need to get away from too many people that know me. It is just too distracting some time to welcome everyone and have a small chat. Then again, you meet a lot of the "usual suspects" and it's part of the thing to be in this community of people with that really strange hobby.

And so it was that I felt very comfortable in a strange place with a lot of familiar faces around me. Far away and yet so close.

I did not really bother me that easyjet lost my monofin on the way because Joachim was willing to lend me his old Waterway (same model as mine). He is such a great guy! Even the fact that the organization , by mistake, took my personal best's as my announced performance did not put me off. In fact, I was enjoying coming in late and having all the time I want for preparation.

That led to a wonderful start with a personal best in DNF of 68m. 6 meters more then I had done before. I must admit that this was the discipline I was focusing on most. For one because it was a 25 m pool and at home we only have a 50m pool for the competition so I will never ever do DNF in competition there.

The STA did not go so well. I was trying a dry preparation as the static competition was in the same pool as the dynamic (they can lift the bottom of the pool from 1,90 m to 1,20m!!!) and the water was really cold. After freezing my ass off in Copenhagen last year, I did not want to get in the water for any preparation dives. And that did not work.

My DNY in 25 always sucks. I did the third turn as I had sworn to myself to do but then I was really fed up with it. I used to think the number of turns is the reason behind that but it's not. I like turns. I'm actually good in it. I just don't find the time to get into my rhythm in a 25m pool. I kick off and after a couple of kicks that go soso, I find it and... have to turn. I kick off again and the feeling is gone. In a 50m pool I feel I have much more time to find the nice water feeling I need.

So there is one more thing to work on. Get that feeling after the first kick.

Before traveling back I took the time to spend a day in town walking around sightseeing and having fun and then I saw him. The highest mountain of western Europe. The white mountain, Mont Blanc. And it was calling me. I swear, it’s true. So next year, I’ll be back. And I’ll bring not just dive gear then.