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.

Video of the best dive ever

Rhein Main Cup 2008 - PB DNF 79 m!!!

Another one down... but for a long time this is the first competition with two successful dives.

I was taking away the pressure of the static dive by reducing both my announced performance and my own expectations. After all, I was there for the dynamic dive. So with an astonishing late and relatively short worm up of only three dives around 2min I got to 4:09 min and only stopped because I wanted to save myself for the DNF. I must say that Stigs method of training and diving really changed this discipline around for me. Daniel did a nice job coaching me. I cannot remember when I had a more relaxed competition dive.

Then came the big dive. I was maybe slightly more nervous which I was treating with the usual mambo-jumbo (yoga, music, meditation, autogenic training, visualization).
When I finally got in the water I was so relaxed I had to mess it up. For some strange reason I closed my eyes after pushing off. Now, that can be good for a nice and sleepy dive... but it was not. When I opened them again I realized I was off track. Not much but a bit. When I got to the wall I turned and pushed off and... closed my eyes again!?! Result: I was not pushing off straight but down and hit the ground at about 4m from the wall. Well, that woke me up a little but did not really help me.
At the next turn I tried so hard to make it a good one that I messed that up as well slipping and sliding with my feet along the wall and crouching my body together way too much... nothing like the nice and easy turns I usually do. When I finally did push off (with not so much of an effect) I thought, well that’s nice, you only have one more chance to make one good turn in this dive.
With my previous PB being 72m, I never really made a third turn before, though...
On the way down to it things were getting a little funny but I wanted to get there. The will to make that turn was stronger than the fear. I remembered my first 100m DYN dive. Also no perfect dive with a lot of will power and like then I focused on the line and sad to myself, it's now or never! Stick to that line and you'll get there.
And when I eventually did, I made the best turn of that dive, pushed off and made for the edge of the pool. There, I took off my mask before I started shaking like I have never done before. I was doing the samba, I had problems taking off my nose clip and the magic words "I am ok" sounded so strange that I apologized to the judges and said them again. After Pim gave me my white card he said he wanted that video to use for educational purpose... That says a lot!

But, it is official! New PB in diving on one breath without any fins: 79m!

I really hope my next competition dive is going to look a lot different and I can improve this. I am on track with my little plan so this one was maybe not the luckiest but it was one step on the way to get to 100m. Now that I have overcome lane 3 it is time to start thinking about lane 4. I love this sport!

PS: After the competition I was elected Vice President of AIDA Germany. I want everyone to address me like this from now on. Well... at least once.. for the fun of it... ;)

PPS: I have a video of the dive but I wont show. Not just because it really looks like I do not know what I am doing but also because I think the camera man was drunk and I dont want you guys to get sea sick.

EEC on YouTube

EUROPE EVOLUTION CUP 2008

The reason why I did not write anything about this wonderful event is simply because I was even more unfortunate then in Dahab.

Just before the first competition I caught a virus. I felt a little weird in the morning. Would not eat at all. And then after announcing the performances I felt like all energy was drained from me. I really had problems to keep myself upright. No good!

That was it for me on that weekend. I did not get in the water onece. Exept my feet when I coached Elisabeth and Natalia (yes, she asked me to coach her through her worm-up:). And that was it. Luckaly we had a great time in Venice, a place where one should only go when happy in love.

Never the less I want to bring your attention back to the website of the EEC since they have just published a first video of the event. The cameras they had in place where really impressive and I hope we will see more of this in the future.

Emergency call for Long Night of Apnea, Berlin 2008-11-15

Only 4 weeks to go and we still have very little registrations for the Long Night of Apnea.

Please register now or we will have to cancel the competition.

Register here!

or send an email to m.mueller@aida-deutschland.de

The LNA is the competition with the longest tradition. This year it is the 11th time national and international athletes come together for STA, DYN and the world famous 16x50m.

Accommodation is cheap in the club house and the atmosphere is very German, so very cozy.


If you had plans to come, regiser NOW! If you had not, THINK ABOUT IT! You are all welcome!

FIM here I come

I have just been looking at my list of personal bests (no, not because I am so much in love with myself but because I am worried) and I have decided that next time I go in the water I will crack that free immersion record.

-33 m was just a little try when I had nothing else to do. It is in no relation to the other targets I have hit and it has been lingering around here for moor than a year now...

It has to go away! Wish me luck...

- 30 m CNF in competition at the Nordic Deep

This was a nice dive! A very nice dive, indeed!

After my rather confused training dive in Wildschütz I wanted to know whether I can do the same in competition.

When we got to the platform I was calm and focused, when I went to the line I was picturing the dive. Five seconds after TOP I was going down. No problems coordinating swim strokes and equalization. below 15m I started sinking and before I knew it I was at the bottom plate fiddling around with the tag for a couple of seconds to get it on my arm and not loos it.

Then I made the strongest pull ever that was rocking the boat quite a bit. Anyway, that initial impulse made it so much easier to start the swimming. After my first stroke I really could see myself going up, a sensation I was missing last week when I had the feeling to still be falling.

When I saw the safety, I was already enjoying the gliding and soon felt the uplift of the positive buoyancy. I was choking a bit when I gave my OK to the judges but that was more due to the excitement then to the dive.

Right after the dive (as after every successful dive) I was sure I could have put some meters on. And that might even be true. But this is a good point to start. -30m is a nice depth to achieve and may be the first step in the right direction towards deeper dives to come. I am very happy about it.

It is wonderful to dive in a discipline where not equalization but your physical strength is stopping you. After most of my latest CWT dives I was rather frustrated because I came up fresh and strong having no problem to swim all the way down until the ears would not allow me going any deeper.

Let’s see how long it takes until I hit that frontier again.

Judges: Sebastian and Hanli
Safety: Jens
Coach: Elisabeth
Fotos: Matti Luukkonen

Dive station in Wildschütz

The dive school at my favorit trainig lake has made a long plan come true and sunk a station for decompression to -8m depth.



Now this is too tempting for a bunch of freedivers not to go and check it out.



And then, allways remember to breath out on the way up... ;)



They are sinking another, even bigger station this week. I can't wait to go and dive in...

- 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

108 m in DYN and a white card

Last weekend I was lucky enough to participate in the coolest pool competition there is.

See the video, it was just great. Usually pool comps are indoors and after 2 h your head is aching because of the air and you are getting cold quite easy.




But not this time! Fresh air, relaxing in the sun and enjoying the sunlit water. Not to mention the bbq by the pool after a long competition day.

Thank you Kurt for making this happen!

New PB in Competition!!! -47m

This was my day! Everything, really everything worked just how I wanted it.

My tactic retreat yesterday was just the best thing to do. I was busy anyways because of both safetying and judging in the water. But it was good not to rush the big dive and get some rest.

Then, when I woke up this morning I felt so confident, it was almost scaring me. The training dive to -45m felt more stressful than this. Had a nice light breakfast, went out to the Blue Hole, did my yoga, did my meditation, visualized the dive, got in my wet suit and went out to sea. All very casually and calm.

For worm-up I did two FRC dives to -10 and -15m practicing mouth-fill technique and equalization. Then, Elisabeth pulled me over to the competition zone.

When I dived in, I hit the "duck", the little yellow paddle boat that Sebastian turned into a CBS platform, but that did not distract me. I went down.









I equalized almost 3 times a second. In about -30m I got a nice mouth full of air that I was using quite nicely until around -42m. There, I don't know why, I lost it... And there was now was getting it back. Equalizing did not work anymore so I had to take my chances. I was riding my ears for the last 5 m, grabbed the tag and took off again.

Despite the trouble at the bottom I managed to stay calm and move up nicely along the line. I sipped in the air, I used earlier to equalize the mask (that is new for me) and I was slowing down when I saw Annelie, my safety diver.

Out of the water I took a deep hook breath and performed a nice surface protocol and obviousley sank back into a little trance or some sort of worshipping the rope... who knows...

In any case, I was the happiest diver on this planet after I got my white card.

And whats next? Maybe a -50m dive on Friday...??? Who knows...?

Safety: Annelie Pompe
Coach: 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.

Freediving is sexy

On my journeys through the world wide web, I have just come across a wonderful website about IWASE Yoshiyuki (岩瀬禎之) and his work.

Taken between 1931 and 1964, his pictures are a very rare documentation of the life of Japanese Ama (海女) who most people know as "pearl divers" but where in fact also harvesting seaweed and sponge.



In most documentations and literature about freediving these women are mentioned as an example of how this most natural way of diving is and always was part of harvesting sea goods.

Iwase's collection is not only a stunning historical document but also a proof of how sexy freediving can be. The original idea of mermaids comes to mind when watching these Silver Print photographs.

Unfortunately, today’s Ama are dressed in neoprene and in average 50 to 60 years older than the girls Iwase shot as being an Ama in not really a desirable profession for a young Japanese women.

So check out the side and enjoy the view into a different time and space.

PS: There is a nude section as well but I like the Ama pictures much better. Must have something to do with the goggles...

News on UW-Football

The size of the goals is that of a normal standard ice hockey goal.



Seems like the austrians had those as a left over from the under water ice hockey.

Oslo Freediving Club in the NavyTank in Berger

As Elisabeth posted on her blog, the Oslo Freediving Club took a trip last weekend to the Training facility of the Norwegian Navy in Håkonsvern, Bergen.

Georgios posted a video on YouTube now and I hate myself for being stuck here with work. I so much wanted to be there with these guys.



Anyways, I hope to see some of them in Dahab at the Bizzy Blue Hole and one day get another go on this beautifull pool.

The rules

Ok, so here is the first draft of the rule set:

Size of the field: 5x10m
We will be playing two half times of 20 minutes.
Both teams consist of three players. Two of them will be playing and one is going to be exchanged. Very likley we will be exchanging a lot.
There will be no corner balls but free kicks. The penalty kick will be from 1,1 meters. There will be not goal keeper. In the event of a penalty kick there will be one player guarding the goal but that player can not use his hands.
One referee will be in the water and one outside. The referee outside the water will be observing the outs mostley.
Grabing a player is a foul and will be panalised with a yellow card. Two yellow cards are a red card and result in the sending-off of the player. The third player can then stepp in but there will be no more chance to exchange any players.
Logically there will be no offside as there will not be that long shots.
No fins or shoes are allowed. But you can wear weights.

Thats what I know this far. I will have to find out about the size of the goals next.

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.

Results from 3rd German Championship / 10th Berlin Masters Cup

The results are online.

I will write a little more about the comp when I find some time... there must be some left somewhere, I just cannot find it under all those papers on my desk.... ;)