On track for the World Championship

Now, look at what Elisabeth did in her last training:



There must be something in the water over in Aarhus. I'm so looking forward to the World Championship. I hope to see some really extrodinary performances...

Training at the BBH

While Elisabeth is down at the Bizzy Blue Hole, I am sitting here in my flat hunting for a job.

I must say, it is quite challenging and takes a lot of concentration to not think of them in Dahab. Especially when the go diving with sharks.



But while Elisabeth is diving deeper and deeper (doing her PB of last year's BBH today, 61m) I am very happy that people like Daan are looking after her.

Surprise success in training

Now look at that...



I don't really know where that came from but the good vibes at the training with Anna and Elisabeth must have had an effect on me.

I usually take the role of the whip swinging coach, these days, making them do another dive and telling them what their arms, legs and bums are doing when they should be doing something completely different. One time, when they were really fed-up with me they turned around and said, now you do a dive!

Now there was no way backing out for coach Martin. Keeping the moral of the troop and restoring credibility and respect was only possible by getting in the water and doing a nice 50m+ dive. An in fact, the dive was so nice, on Sunday, after standing in the water for 2 h and without all the big fuzz of a breath-up and all that, I felt like doing it again.

And so I set off to a dive of 75m. It was not the perfect dive, I know. I did not pack enough air and was sinking which caused me swim up and not really glide as much as I wanted to and I totally forgot about collecting my legs and all that... but hey, I did 75m when my PB is 79m...

The training with Anna must be having an effect on me after all... Still, I keep stepping on that scales in the change room just to reassure that I'm not losing any weight at all. Anna says it's because I'm building up so much muscles at the same time but that could be just a trick to lull the coach.

Coaching Anna v.B. in the pool

As you may or may not have heard, Anna has announced a National Record attempt. Well, in fact, she announced three.

After vaporizing the women’s depth records last year she is now turning to the pool disciplines. She announced to break all static (6'07"), dynamic (134m) and dynamic without fins (99m).

Now, Anna is not known to be a very big fan of the pool. So how is this possible? One thing is that she is actually staying in one place for more than 2 weeks. Another is that Elixia, her fitness club and sponsor, is willing to give her all the opportunity to train whenever she wants. They even gave her a 3 months membership card for a trainer to coach and safety her through the training. And this is where I come in.

So, what do you do when you have a 25m pool, a gym and training buddy just 5min from your doorstep? I tell you, you train 8 times a week (no kidding!)!

Through the last week we trained 6 times in the pool (every discipline twice) went on a strength circit and to a spinning course. Wednesday is the only day off, which is giving me some time to write about the training... ;)

As a start we wanted to see where Anna stands and so she did three max dives ending up at 100m DYN, 80m DNF and 4'14" STA. Pretty impressive when you think of her PBs of 117m, 68m and 5'08".

After that we went into strength and technique training. In DNF the difference that this training made was very soon visible. Training the strokes and kicks separately and a generally improved balance made her reduce the strokes per lane from 5/6 to 3 and a half.

Monofinning is still a different game. There, we did mostly focus on gaining the strength necessary to kick down the fin. Anna decided to leave her Waterway Glide fin at home for this one and start with a fin that is not so buoyant. As the pool is only 1,30m deep we also put some emphasize on the turns.

In static we did some nasty CO2 tables (1min hold, 1 breath, 1min hold). Yesterday, she did another STA max and ended up at 5'01". So we are closing in on her PB and moving forward to the big number.

So far Anna has shown an incredible will power and not flinched once when I was pushing her limits. Let’s see how long she can keep that up because I do want to see where her limits are.

I did not get around to take some pictures yet but will do that later. I do have some crap technique videos but was not allowed to release them... ;)

Tomorrow, Anna is doing another DYN max... let’s see how it goes...

Success in training

I just wanted to let you know that I was doing 4:16 min static and 75m DNF (dynamic no fins) in training on Wednesday. That is only 0,6 points less than my performance in the RMC.

I am very happy I was able to repeat that. It shows me that I am on the right track. I found my way back into static and want to continue doing 75m dives in training in order to go further.

- 30 m constant weight no fins

Long time no news from the diving Martin but I'm busy.

On Saturday, my sweet mermaid convinced me to try something really crazy. Diving without fins...

So far I have been successfully avoiding that discipline arguing that everything that moves under water has some sort of fin so why shouldn’t I? But I had left my mono fin on land and had done a 40m dive with the bi-fins so I thought... what the heck...

Dove down, got below the point where I'm sinking, enjoyed the ride until I thought "hey, you'll have to swim all the way back up again!". So I turned, started swimming and had the feeling of still falling. I continued to swim and it got better... slightly better. Then I remembered that I had not pulled on the line to give Elisabeth a signal that I'm coming. So I did that. It did not help my ascent but then the swimming got better. Slightly better. When I saw Elisabeth safetying me, I was quite happy. But there was still 20m to go up. I can tell you, that was the hardest 20m of swimming I have ever done and my arms never felt so dead.

But, when I got out of the water my Mosquito showed 30,7m! That is 5m deeper than a certain mermaid... ;)

Oh, and the German Lake Record in this discipline lies at -36m, a performance that I judged at the Apnoe Happening in Hemmoor this summer.

Safety: Elisabeth

Back on Track

Today, I felt like I had some strengh back and so schedueled a training dive.

I prepared quite intensive for it because I do not have so many days left to do what I came here for.

With the wonderful help of my loveley mermaid, I managed to dive down to -45m which is my personal best from last year. The dive went all well until the last 2 meters where I could not equalize any more and then I forgot to look out for the arch at the bottom and hurried back up... :(

But I am confident, that I can do that again and a bit more. So tomorrow I will rest and "just" safety all the other family members who gathered for this competition and probably announce -47m for the day after tomorrow.

Wish me luck... (although, luck is not a factor)

Training in Dahab

So now I have finally made it out to the El Dorado of the freediving world. Dahab really rocks and I had a very good first training reaching -40m easily.


BUT then... Dahab is unfortunately a place where you get diarrhea as well. And that is no good for freediving . So I was totally paralyzed yesterday and had to skip training today as well.

But then I was getting in the water to have a go at the “bells” which is beautiful.

Since I am missing two training days now, I will not compete on the first competition day and will try some more deeper dives tomorrow.

Underwater Football with Christian Redl

Just when I thought things were getting kind'a quiet I got a call from the notorious self made freediving professional Christian Redl.



As the season for underwater ice hockey seems to be over, the publicity expert has been thinking up a new thing. This year Austria and Switzerland will be hosting the UEFA European Football Championship. What reason moor you need to think up underwater football?

And who would an Austrian choose as an opponent? The Germans!

So, I'm asked to put together what will be the first National Underwater Football Team in order to play a friendly mach against Austria. The mach will take place in Vienna on the 26th of April.

It looks like German dive magazine tauchen will sponsor our team to go down there.

Today we had our first training. We have already discovered some very useful techniques. Of course we will not talk about them here… ;)
Once we find out how big the goals are goanna be we will play a little more. I will keep you updated.

Training with the fin swimmers

It is Saturday morning, 6 o'clock and the alarm is waking me up. There must be a mistake why would it do that? It is time to get up to go to training.

So me and Elisabeth grab the mono fins and get going after a small breakfast. We meet outside the pool of the FEZ Berlin with a bunch of fin swimmers who look equally happy about the fact to be starting training on a Saturday morning close to 8 o'clock.

Everybody shuts up when the coach arrives. Volko Kucher is an ex-coach of the national fin swimming team and he seems a bit surprised to actually see me. On the phone he had told me that this training would be the only possibility to join the training during the week that Elisabeth is visiting me.

So we get in the water while the rest of the fin swimmers is getting into their tough training. I have searched Volko's council at the beginning of this year short after I got my first mono fin. Then, Volko was kind of skeptic whether a guy in my age would be able to get into the wave anyways, but he gave me some well received tips.

Soon after he tells us to start with diving dolphin kicks on the back (no fin) he looks at me amazed. Obviously I surprised him with my improvement. He tells me to use more tension in the body in order to turn that wave into a better propulsion, keep the knees together and kick down as much as up.



When we put on our fins and do some actual diving, he comes back with some more hints. He cannot help but tell me that I would really look like a fin swimmer now. He is timing me a couple of times. 26 s for 50m. That is fast for me and due to the extra hard up kick. The I do another one in 24s. That is way too fast because my legs are getting lactic. But it is good training. Good for the technique and good for the feeling.

Elisabeth enjoyed the training just as I did. Only she gets fewer tips. Actually it is only one, really. Increase the amplitude of your kick. If she was German, I am not sure if Volko would not try to get her on his team.

While the swimmers are doing their last laps, Elisabeth and I are going crazy taking pictures in the beautiful pool.

Then, it is Saturday morning 10 o'clock. Time for breakfast and maybe some sleep...

100 m DYN in training

So today was the first training after I cought a cold in Danmark. I was really not happy about the fact that I did not get to train too much lateley because the Long Night of Apnea is drawing ever closer.

But then!!! HAHA! After the usual warm-up (400m swim) and bustimng my ass doing the dolphin kick without a fin (8x25m) I did my technique training with the fin (6x50m) and that felt so good and easy that I decided to have a little break and do a max dive...
I did 100 m DYN then! And it felt goood! It felt like, why not making the turn...

I am so, so happy. All this training did have an effect and I really feel like I can improve once more.

I must admit a lot of that is due to the excelent coaching and training of Elisabeth. She is really good in finding out what is going wrong and how to fix it.

So I'm very much looking forward to the competition now.

Training in Århus, home of the champs

No, this is not a scene from a competition. This is a very normal training day in the Århus Freediving Club, Denmark. As my most favorit mermaid is studying here I have the chance to train with these guys and I would be stupid not to take that.

I totally understand now why the Danes are the reigning team world champion! The atmosphere is just wonderful and very productive. It is actually hard to loose motivation when there is someone putting his head under water all the time.

So we start with mono fin technique. Without the fin... :( So its more like mono technique no fin (MTNF). My first attempts are rather bad. I am very stiff and kicking hard with the legs to make it to the other side of the pool. Then Elisabeth shows me the video and starts correcting the movement.



And yes, one can actually see the beginning of a wave going through my body. I did not make it through the pool but the technique looks so much better there. I was so happy about the improvement that I had to put on a fin and try thins again.



Comparing it to the first training videos I posted here, I can say I am very happy! Comparing it to Elisabeth's technique video I can say I am crap!

PS: Never mind the green color. It's the light, not the water... ;)

Slowly, slowly... but I'm getting there...

What a wonderful day to go training. It was all rainy all day long. So I got my suit and headed for my peace of paradise... the pool!

After the usual static training (two warm up dives and three dives with at least 2 min fighting to 4'+) I went to practice the mono technique a little moor. Elisabeth taught me a quite nice way to check myself and focus on different aspects.

So I started with 200m swimming, then did one 25m lap with biiig dolphin like duck dives just to relax the body and get into diving mode.

Then 4 laps focusing only on the uper body where the move starts.
4 laps focusing on keeping the legs straight and kick up just as much as down.
4 laps focusing on keeping the arms straight and not move them up and down.

Then I did 6 laps focusing on all three. Here is the outcome:



I know, the arms are moving and the knees are bending but if you’d have seen me two weeks ago... you would not believe your eyes...

One more is here:



If you happen to know something about this and have a tip for me, just comment on this. It is highly appreciated.

New PB in CWT - 45m

After a very long and very tiring weekend in Hemmoor I came home with a big smile on my face.

The reason for this is easy to guess. I did dive to a new personal record of -45m!

We arrived in Hemmoor on Friday night and jumped in for a night dive. On Saturday we did one very nice dive at the Rüttler, a concrete building (thingy) under water starting at -18m going down to -32m and I picked up a nice little stone there. At the second dive we went to a different spot where I picked up a stone in -44m (PB).


And then, yesterday morning, I wanted to take that one step further and went down to -45m at the platform provided by AIDA Germany.

The lake at Hemmoor is really perfect for a training like that as it has all you need from shallow water attractions like uw forests with a lot of fish to mid depth attraction all the way to a full functioning counter ballast system ready for anyone who wants to train deeper... That makes it my PB lake...

Of course, my little mermaid had to break my balls by diving just 1 m deeper… She sure loves a competition. So, Nordic Deep, here we come...

Buddy: Elisabeth and Johannes

Safety: Johannes

CWT to -40 m - I loved it!

Today at training I did a wonderful -40 m CWT dive. The thing that makes me feel so good about it is the fact that this was really easy!

I had a very good feeling when I first dipped into the water. My first preparation dive, I wanted to do to -20 m. It all went so smoothly that I had to stop myself at about -27 m.

Today I really felt like I am actually gaining onto my big goal this year - to hit -50m.

Unfortunatelly I did not get to do another dive. But next weekend I'll be back and then the light is going to hang a little deeper...

Locatrion: The pich black lake of Wildschütz. It is an old pit with a maximum depth of 74 m.

Buddy: Clemens, Jonas and Wolle

Safety: Wolle

Elisabeth doing a 50m DYN

And one more with 25m.