I'm back!

I can't believe 5 months has passed since the 100ft Freedive Challenge! It's been a really busy 5 months for me.

I've mostly been reading these...

Studying these...

All in the hope of becoming one of these...

My course of study doesn't finish until June and, if I'm doing things right, I should have at least a few interviews over the summer.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team ** (Harry, Tom D and our instructor Hannah) visited the Only One Apnea Centre in Egypt over New Year for some warm water freediving. I *wish* I could have gone with them - they said they had an amazing time! Here they are:

So...the question is: What now? The freediving season has started and Harry's already been down at Saltfree for depth training.

Well, I feel a bit like I'm back at square one. The kind of hours I spend studying means that I'm i) overeating (mainly Jaffa Cakes) and ii) totally sedentary. I haven't been to training at the pool for about 4 months and I haven't been depth training since the day after the challenge. The less said about my gym (non) attendance, the better.

My initial plan was to continue pool training over the winter and enter my first freediving competition next weekend. - the Great Northern pool competition. My lack of training and the pressure of exams means that I won't be competing. Harry will be competing and I'll be cheering him on!

Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that all these negative thoughts are actually a cunningly disguised Diving Demon. I'm going to have to check with Mark, who is the expert on such matters. Perhaps I could make some progress this season. I have to accept that I will have limited time to train and must therefore make the best use of the time available.

With that in mind, I'm heading down to Saltfree on 14 April for my first depth training session since the challenge.

I've really enjoyed writing this blog. It's even inspired me to start blogging in my 'other life' as a wannabe lawyer - here and here. I've connected with people all over the world, made some new friends, learnt a lot and received incredible support and encouragement. While the 100 ft Freedive Challenge is over, my freediving journey has just begun. I'm going to keep writing the blog but we might have to rename it - any suggestions gratefully received.

I'll sign off with a TED talk by Tanya Streeter on redefining limits in freediving - and in life.

I made it!

I made it to 100ft!




...and we made over £1000 for the work of the Multiple Sclerosis Society!

I finally got my sunny weekend - it was 22 degrees. In October. In WALES! Look, blue skies...

I decorated the pontoon in MS Society colours...

...and made sure that there was some information about MS for people to read.


I was a bit nervous, since it was over a month since my last depth training session. I'd been preparing for this dive for months and I knew I only had one opportunity to get it right. Lots of people had sponsored, coached, buddied and encouraged me and I really wanted to live up to their faith in me!

Stretching in the sun and chatting with everyone helped to calm my nerves a bit and I got ready for my warm-up dive. The plan was to do one warm-up dive to around 20m to check equalisation and buoyancy.

Equalisation and buoyancy were fine, but the diving demons were putting up a fight. I didn't hear the alarm I'd set on my computer to go off at 12m so I was finning most of the way down. I felt quite tense and had what felt like contractions on the way down, which freaked me out a bit!

After the warm-up I sat quietly for ten minutes, going through the now-familiar visualisation of the dive. Then it was time for the dive...there was a bit of extra pressure having people watching but that was easily outweighed by the amazing feeling of having so many friends there rooting for you to succeed...it was definitely a team effort!

The team...



"Three minutes..."I lay back in the water, closed my eyes, and concentrated on the feeling of the sun on my face.

"Two minutes..." I imagined the tag waiting for me at the bottom of the line.

"One minute"...I tried to breathe normally, which wasn't easy with all the butterflies in my stomach.

"Ten seconds..." I exhaled fully and took my last breath, filling my lungs from the bottom, then feeling my ribcage expand, the air fill my upper chest and rush through my throat.

"Official top..." Duckdive into the green, the first few kicks...
...and my nerves vanished. I didn't think, I just felt. Felt the hypnotic rhythym of movement in a monofin. Felt the water flowing over my face. Before I knew it, I heard the alarm for 15m, stopped finning and started gliding. The glide was almost imperceptible at first and was only really speeding up when I reached the plate. Not being used to collecting the tag, I fumbled about with it for a bit. Adrenaline shot through my body as I realised I'd made it! A couple of powerful kicks and I was on my way to the surface. I saw Gary, my safety, and smiled, water creeping into my mask. The sun had turned the shallow water a beautiful colour green and I looked up to see the silhouettes of my friends waiting for me. I didn't want the dive to end and almost stopped finning just so I could spend a few more moments underwater. I reached the surface and there was relief and laughter and whooping and lots of splashing!

Here's a brilliant video of the dive that Sam made for me. The first dive is the warm-up and the second is the 100ft dive (skip to 1.42 if you just want to jump to the 100ft dive).



The rest of the afternoon we spent playing on all of the aeroplanes, containers, tanks, tubes, and buses that are sunk in the quarry. The weather was so beautiful that no-one wanted to get out of the water!

We emptied Tescos of burgers and steaks before heading to the stunning Beeches campsite to pitch our tents for the night. We had a celebratory barbeque and I discovered the art of properly toasting a marshmallow. Toasted marshmallows are possibly the best post-diving food ever.

After a late night chatting, we woke up on Sunday to blue skies and a view of the tree-covered hills and misty valley below. We headed back to NDAC for some more freediving and a very special competition; the NDAC Deepest Bikini Freedive Competition! Saltfree sponsored the competition, my instructor Hannah agreed to match whatever we raised and I somehow got all the guys to sign up! Some needed more encouragement than others, who frankly jumped at the chance of some cross-dressing :-p.

Here is the (frankly hilarious) result of our afternoon. It was FREEZING! Sam filmed the whole thing in her bikini - she's one tough mermaid.

It was a perfect weekend, and I will remember it forever.

THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who made a donation to The 100ft Freedive Challenge for the MS Society! Your generosity has been astounding; we smashed the fundraising target of £1000. The money we have raised will help the MS Society continue their groundbreaking work researching treatments and a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. As most of you know, I decided to raise money for the MS Society because my Mum lives with MS. She's very shy but she wanted me to pass on her thanks to you all for supporting this challenge, and the MS Society.

I want to say thank you to my Mum. I wanted to recognise her courage and perseverence in the face of MS and to let her know how much I admire her kind and hopeful nature. I hope that the money we have raised for MS research goes some small way toward doing this.

The 100ft Freedive Challenge wouldn't have been possible without the sponsorship I received from Saltfree Divers. Sam Kirby was incredibly supportive of the challenge from the very beginning and kindly provided me with the training, kit and facilities I needed to make it successfully to 100ft. I received excellent instruction from Hannah Thurston McGowan, whose enthusiasm, patience and encouragement transformed me from a quaking newbie into a confident beginner freediver. I did all my depth training for the challenge with Saltfree; their set-up for freediving at NDAC is second to none. If you're thinking of doing a freediving course, I can highly recommend doing it with Saltfree. I'm saving up for my AIDA*** already...

I also want to say a huge thank you to Mark Harris of London Freediving. To have someone with Mark's experience and insight guide me into the world of freediving has been a real privilege. Mark's coaching for the challenge was invaluable; it allowed me to reflect on and improve my training in a structured way. I was also one of many people who have benefited from Mark's commitment to education in freediving, which I greatly admire. Earlier this year Mark ran two fantastic seminars on constant weight for everyone at London Freediving. He also led an open Frenzel workshop and organised a one-to-one session for me on stretching exercises. Mark's been there to answer all my questions (there have been a lot) and I know I can trust him to give me thorough and balanced advice in the future. I am super-excited about a little prezzie I ordered for him that's just arrived in the post!

Thank you to everyone I trained with this summer, both the pool and in the lake - it's been great fun! Joining such a friendly and inspiring group of people has been the best part of this whole experience :). I have been amazed at how many people have been willing to take the time to help me to improve; I'm really grateful.

Special thanks go to my awesome AIDA** buddies Harry and Tom, who gave me confidence by assuming I'd be able to keep up with them! Also to Tim, who's been a great friend and training partner and who saw potential in me that I didn't know I had.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to all the readers of this blog. I'm astonished that the blog has had over 6000 hits from all over the world! It's been really nice to know that there have been people following my freediving journey - I hope you enjoyed reading!

I can't imagine life without freediving now. I'll post once more on this blog to let you know what I'm going to do next!

Thank you again, everyone!

Lots of love,

Grace

3, (Radio) 2, 1, Dive Day!

It's now less than 24 hours before the 100ft Freedive Challenge for the MS Society and boy, have I been busy!

Tonight, I had the opportunity to talk about freediving and the 100ft Freedive Challenge on Radio 2 - the most popular radio station in the UK! I felt a little underqualified, having taken up freediving only 5 months ago. However, Matt, the presenter, explained that what they are looking for is enthusiasm for the sport - and I have that in spades! I hope that this came across and that I was able to express something of the freedom and beauty of freediving. Huge thanks to everyone who listened and contacted me to express their support. If you weren't able to listen live, you can listen to it here:



Graceonradio2 by samdive

If you're here because you listened to it, then thank you for visiting! This blog is a record of my training over the last 5 months as I have been preparing for the '100ft Freedive Challenge for the MS Society'. You can catch up with my journey to this point, less than one day before the dive, and learn loads about freediving from a beginner's point of view. If you're interested in learning to freedive, you can visit the websites of Saltfree and London Freediving, the clubs with which I train, or you can find a full list of clubs at the British Freediving Association website. Do it - you'll be amazed at what you can achieve!

Aside from writing frantic notes before the radio interview and texting pretty much everyone in my address book, I have been getting creative with my glue and marker pens to create some posters to put up around NDAC (because you're never too old for art and crafts). I also bought some disposable underwater cameras so that we can all take some silly photographs for the blog and to send to the MS Society fundraising team, who kindly telephoned me today to wish me good luck.

Mum can't make it to Wales for the freedive, but we spoke this evening and she said she'd be thinking of me and will have her fingers crossed. I have strict instructions to text her afterwards!

Saltfree are also organising a "Deepest Bikini Freedive at NDAC" competition this weekend - cross-dressing not only permitted, but encouraged! For every person that enters the competition, Saltfree will donate £5 to the MS Society. My amazing instructress, Hannah, has agreed to match whatever we raise as she sadly can't be there to watch. I'll also be missing my coach Mark, who is abroad, but I know both he and Hannah will be rooting for me :). I have a small suitcase-load of bikinis guys, so there will be no backing out with lame excuses!

It would be great if we could meet the £1000 target! This money will help the MS Society continue to fund research into treatments/a cure for MS and to provide specialist MS nurses - we've currently raised £750 and we're soooooo close! If you'd like to donate you can:

• visit my JustGiving page or



• text the code AEJE82 and the amount you want to donate, e.g. £7, to 70070

Thank you to everyone who has donated already!

Rather than dwelling on the fact that 100ft is approximately equivalent to a ten storey building, or 6 London buses stacked on top of one another, I will tonight be doing my breathing exercises and visualising the dive, step by tiny step.

There will be plenty of time to reflect on the last 5 months. I also have many people to thank, including the thousands of people who have visited this blog, and I will do so after the dive. I'm excited to see many of my freediving friends, who have given me so much support, in the morning. But right now I'm going to sleep, dreaming of the deep green and the challenge ahead...

Freediving, Graphs and Geekery

On Sunday night I went to a book club (don't laugh). I thought that this was a
pretty geeky evening. However, upon checking my emails I was relieved to discover that at least one other person was engaged in an equally geeky activity. Tim had lent me his heart rate monitor during our last DNF training session and on Sunday evening I received an email attaching the graphs he’d created on his computer.

If you read the previous post, you’ll know that last week at London Freedivers I joined Tim and Nick in their punishing (at least for me) DNF training. The graph below shows my heart rate over the first exercise, which involved 10 repeats of 33m DNF, leaving every 1min 30seconds. This means that the slower you swim the length (helping you to relax and conserve energy) the less time you have to recover before the next length.

Graph 1 - CO2 DNF Table

The next graph is a DNF swim of about 50m, which I did with at the start of the session. I had contractions quite early and came up 4 strokes after the first contraction.

Graph 2 - 50m DNF

Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact time I started and ended the dive, so it’s a little bit difficult to draw conclusions. Bearing this in mind, I find the following points most interesting:

1. As you can see, my heart rate drops by 70bpm during the dive! It’s very cool to be able to see the effect of the dive reflex in pictorial form. If I remember correctly, I had a 3 minute breathe-up before the dive.
2. The graph shows that my heart rate is lower at the beginning of the breathe-up than it is at the end! This is at odds with what I would expect; I’d expect a gradual lowering of heart rate during the breathe-up and then a slight peak caused by stress immediately before immersion. It looks like I need to review what I’m doing for my breathe-up.
3. My heart-rate is elevated before the breathe-up even begins. I just measured my resting heart rate on the inside of my wrist sitting in the café and its 69bpm. Even this seems a bit high – I’m going to blame it on my lack of aerobic fitness (or on the hottie sitting at the next table reading Hemingway). Assuming immersion occurs just before 03:20, my heart rate is nearing 90bpm at the start of the breathe-up and it rises to 115bpm immediately prior to immersion.
4. Assuming (again) that I end the dive at approximately 03:21:20, there is a subsequent leap in heart-rate within a very short space of time – surely this can’t be good for you?!

OK, I have to rush off to training at London Freediving now! Harry's down in London doing a placement at the London Diving Centre and will be training with us tonight :). If anyone has any comments on the graphs, I would love to hear them...

Go Great Britain! and "No Fins? No Fear."

Go Great Britain!

Mike Board, Dave King, Georgina Miller, Liv Philip, Sara Campbell, Dave Kent, Ed Wardle and David Tranfield are the British athletes who will be competing at the AIDA Individual Depth World Championships, which is taking place in Kalamata, Greece from 15th - 25th September 2011.

The very best of luck to all of the GB athletes! Two UK records were broken at the 4th Mediterranean World Cup, which took place in Kalamata on 12th-14th September, so I expect that there will be some fantastic performances at the World Championships too!

We'll of course also be cheering on our freediving friends from all over the world! A full list of athletes competing can be found here. For those following online, there are some exciting action shots of the World Championships 2011 taken by Fred Buyle here. By perfect and beautiful contrast, Daan's captured some thoughtful portraits of freediving athletes from all over the world on his blog here.

As for me, pool training for the 100ft Freedive Challenge for the MS Society continues...and I seem to have inadvertently enrolled myself on a no-fins Training Schedule.

No fins is the discipline that I worried I might have a lot trouble with. Although I like swimming, there's no hiding that from a technical point of view I'm rubbish; I haven't been to a swimming lesson since I was at primary school. However, I'd surprised myself with a 15m CNF repeats at NDAC and decided to see what I could manage in the pool. I did a few lengths trying to copy the right technique and asked for some tips from Daan, which got me to 50m. I then decided to just see how far I could swim and made 70m, which was a bit of a surprise!

I was dimly aware that Tim, Nick and Ed were doing some no-fins exercises at London Freedivers and asked to join them at the next session, thinking that I might learn more that way. What I didn't realise was that they had recently started out on a Training Schedule. Note the upper case - it's relevant.

I soon realised that this wasn't just experimenting with a few exercises, this was a proper Training Plan of 12 weeks, with "easy", medium and hard targets. It has so far involved pain. Pain and comradeship, though, which makes it more fun!

One of the things I like most about training with Tim is that he assumes I'll be able to achieve anything I set out to do. He's also a great teacher, knowing when to encourage, when to give pointers, when to bribe me with Green and Blacks' Maya Gold chocolate and when to tell me to shut up and grow a pair.

This is fortuntate, because when he told me that the first exercise was 10 DNF repeats of 33m leaving every 1 and a half minutes, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get past length number two. Never mind being horribly aware of the fact that everyone else in the group had done well over 100m DNF and was much better than me.

The first week I tried this exercise, I couldn't manage ten repeats despite having lots of encouragement from everyone. I had to have a break and missed out length number 4. The week after I missed out half of length 5. For some reason the middle lengths, lengths 4, 5 and 6 are the hardest, physically and psychologically, especially when you start having contractions after just a couple of strokes. The last two sessions I managed all ten repeats - it's really motivating to see the difference that even a few weeks of training can make!

We've also been doing some other exercises to improve stroke technique, such as lengths using arms only and swimming exercises using just one leg. This is quite funny to watch; I was genuinely shocked by the difference between the strong kick of my right leg and the ineffective flailing of my left. I've struggled to get my weighting right but have almost got it sorted. Even though it's not quite perfect, the number of strokes I use for each DNF length has decreased and the time it takes me has decreased by about 10 seconds.

I haven't set any targets but I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can improve over the coming weeks.

The 100ft Freedive Challenge is approaching alarmingly quickly and although I can't do any CWT training between now and the day of the 100ft dive, my pool training is helping me to remain positive and focused. The MS Society have been helping me out with fundraising for the Challenge and have even been following the blog! I've been really touched by the donations that have been made by my Mum's colleagues at Durston House School and I know that Mum has been too - thank you!

Mum's been completely supportive of my decision to raise money for the MS Society but highly disapproving of the means by which I've chosen to do so (she suggested sponsored knitting instead). However, I've noticed that Mum's initial refusal to talk about freediving (on the basis that I was going to end up dead - it's the only time in my whole life I've ever heard her swear) has recently transformed into a kind of wary acceptance. She says she's now enjoying my blog - "Hi there" if you're reading, Mum!



My Yia Yia (Greek for grandmother), Mum and Me.

In which I consider a career change, have a dress rehearsal and make friends with some perch.

This week I've been busy preparing for the start of my Bar Course; doing work experience, trying (and failing) to do some revision and painstakingly sorting out the mounds of paper balanced precariously on my desk.

I've spent 1 year studying, 1 and a half years working and 6 months interning in order to put myself in a position to take the Bar Course. As I marked the start date of the course on my new academic calendar, I suddenly realised that this halcyon summer of freediving will soon be drawing to a close. After The 100ft Freedive Challenge, I won't be able to train at Crystal Freedivers because I will need the time to study. Similarly, I can't be traveling to Wales every month for Saltfree meets at NDAC.

I was feeling a bit down about this when an email pinged into my inbox... 'Freedivers Required for UK Film Shoot at Pinewood Studios'. "What the hell", I thought. It can't hurt to consider an alternative career as a freediving stunt double! So I've applied. I'll let you all know what happens!

Sunday was the last scheduled Saltfree meet before the 100ft Freedive Challenge on 2 October and the last chance for me to do any Constant Weight training. It was a beautiful, if cold, day on the platform and it was great to see Hannah instructing some new AIDA** divers. Here they are doing their stretching... and at the end of the course! Harry, Tim, and Ryan were the regular Saltfree-ers in attendance and Chris joined us from Up North for his first trip to NDAC. Here's Chris with his home-made freediving rig, which looks to me to be extremely saleable! Ryan said that he doesn't have any pictures of himself underwater. My camera's rubbbish but I took a few snaps. They're not great, but they do convey the "cool as f***" demeanor that Ryan has ascending from a freedive, no matter the depth (and he's hitting some pretty impressive depths). Come to think of it, he maintains this demeanor above the water as well... When he wasn't being a boy racer... Harry was working on his no-fins, which is already very good...

On Tim's advice, I did a full "dress rehearsal" of the dive; countdown, surface protocol, everything. The main thing that was different was having to grab a tag at the bottom of the line. The tag is attached to a carabiner with an elastic band, and the carabiner is clipped over the rope. We sent the tag down the line, holding the rope to feel the vibrations as it fell to the bottom. It seemed to take ages to get to the bottom plate, which didn't help my anxiety. I'd already been in the water a while and it was quite cold, so I was an interesting shade of blue before I even started the breathe-up!

The "dress rehearsal" went mostly to plan, except:
- with all the nerves, my duck dive left much to be desired;
- my turns at the bottom are still rubbish, when I remember to grab the rope at all - thankfully there's no-one down there to see; and
- most amusingly, I had a bit of a struggle trying to snap the elastic band which releases the tag! It was really stretchy and while wrestling with the damn thing I was giggling and thinking how funny it would be to do all this training, just to be beaten by a bit of rubber!

It wasn't really a full dress rehearsal, though, as I only yesterday received my MS Society running vest, which I'll wear over my wetsuit on the day. Here it is - what do you think?!



I've also received balloons, stickers, and posters and I'm fully intending on decorating the pontoon in bright orange on 1 October!

Since it was a cold day most of us were finished early. I think Tim started mentioning a burger even before lunchtime, although I did manage to persuade him to dive the bus, which was sunk only a couple of weeks ago. As it was Chris' first time at NDAC I couldn't let him get out of the water without showing him some of the attractions in the lake. Like me, his favourite were the containers and tubes... here he is coming out of one of the tubes...


I decided to take a quick video of the containers and tube, and was delighted to see a couple of large perch handing around the end of the container, who posed beautifully for the camera. Here they are showing off their green-gold colours.











40 minutes later, we were both exhausted, and headed up to the picnic tables, where we found the others. One of whom had nodded off...
It's a bit scary to think that I've done my last constant weight training session before the 100ft dive. I can't wait for the big day to come around and am pouring all my effort into fundraising as much as I can in the next couple of weeks. If you meant to donate but it slipped your mind, do it now! Theres a blue donations box in the top right hand corner of the blog which will take you to my Just Giving page. Thanks! Right, I'm off to training at Crystal Palace now, expect another update on Friday :).

Mermaid in Mytelini

I had to make a rather shamefaced confession to Mark at training on Thursday...

Mark obviously noticed that I have attended pretty much every training session and meet since the '100ft Freedive Challenge' began in May, since a couple of weeks ago he decided that it was time to have a few words with me about the importance of rest. Rest is important in any sport, including freediving, and actually helps to improve performance as well as reducing the risk of physical and mental "burn-out". Thing is, I'm not very good at it. I can't seem to get my head around the fact (and it is a fact) that improvements can be made by anything other than hard graft.

Mark suggested that an upcoming trip to Greece with relatives would be the ideal opportunity to take a break from apnea training, and I agreed. However, as the date of departure drew closer, the thought of being in the blue, warm Mediterranean without my monofin was keeping me up at night. I bubblewrapped my monofin, borrowed a good fin bag and flew to Mytelini...

I did rest in Mytelini.

I watched the sun come up...

Gazed on beautiful views...

Read lots of books...Blood and Sand by the BBC's Security Correspondent, Frank Gardener; Empire of the Summer Sun by S.C. Gwynne about the rise and fall of the Comanche Indians; The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, for about the 10th time; and the rather less exciting Contract Law by Ewan McKendrick.

And ate lots of delicious Greek food. Yum.

However, I also did some freediving! I joined Lesvos SCUBA, and we made two trips to the waters surrounding an island that lies just off Petra. Despite the Mediterranean being sadly overfished, the underwater landscape was stunning. As I was breathing up through my snorkel, I watched the shoals of black fish congregating above the pinnacles. I spiralled down the pinnacles, which were studded with black sponges and red starfish, and led down to a mosaic of huge slabs of rock. Following their dramatic countours to the sandy sea bed, I swam around the patches of sea-grass, watching the fish darting in and out and wiggling my fingers at the clams to make them snap shut. Lost in the experience, a few light contractions reminded me that I couldn't stay forever, so I kicked a few times before drifting slowly to the surface, watching the sun's rays flicker through the blue water...

I know some people who feel that this is the only kind of freediving worth doing, and who cannot fathom why anyone would spend time lying motionless in a pool or swimming up and down a line. It was certainly very different from static or line diving, but the experiences were so different that I don't think they can be usefully compared. I can't imagine giving up either. The freediving I did in Mytelini was a rest in one sense, since it allowed me to freedive simply for the joy of exploring the underwater landscape, without concentrating on reaching a target, or improving my performance.

You can't keep me away from training for long though, and I was back at the pool a couple of hours after my flight landed, sheepishly confessing to Mark that I hadn't taken his good advice. "I knew you wouldn't be able to do it", he laughed, shaking his head at me! Sorry Mark!

The pool session was fantastic - I've joined Tim and Nick's punishing dynamic no fins training schedule and am just about managing to keep up - more on this later... I'm off to Saltfree tomorrow and I'm really motivated to try and perfect the 100ft dive, since this is likely to be my last session before the challenge.

See some of you tomorrow - hope you are all enjoying the end of the summer :).

August Antics...

I think I speak for all of those present when I say that this weekend's Saltfree meet was fantastic! There were loads of divers on the platform and a really friendly atmosphere, as usual :). Here's a photo of Gary in 3D glasses, rummaging around in his kit bag for a harmonica (don't ask). We at Saltfree Divers are definitely not "up own chakras".

The sun was shining (sporadically) and the water was (relatively) warm! Tom's lovely girlfriend Silvia joined us on the platform as a spectator, and asked us lots of difficult questions. I got caught out by the obvious one: "why do you freedive?", which will be the title of a future blog post, since I really enjoyed listening to other people's responses.

I'm pleased to say that I made my first dive to 100ft this weekend! It was a really special experience and I was delighted that my AIDA** instructor Hannah was able to buddy me! Hannah's a great instructor and friend who has been cheering me on since my very first freedive - thanks Han :).


Happy pre-dive Hannah!

I've previously mentioned that there's the exiciting possibility of a competition setting for the 100ft Freedive Challenge. There's a huge difference between diving to 100ft on a relaxed August meet, and diving to 100ft under competition conditions in October so there are still many challenges ahead:

1. I get nervous. Really nervous. Shaky and nauseous and hyperventilating style nervous, which can't be good for freediving.
2. Fundraising. There's still lots of money to be raised before I meet my fundraising target, despite having flyered colleagues, pestered friends and approached local businesses...I even sent a press releease to the local papers! I was looking at the stats for this blog and realised that if the MS Society got £1 for every unique hit, I would have almost TREBLED my fundraising target. So if you're enjoying the blog, please donate a couple of quid to the MS Society! Go oooon...donation box is in the top right hand corner.
3. Equalisation. I've now reached the point where equalisation is my limiting factor. Between 30m and 33m, I can no longer equalise using Frenzel alone.


Team Smurf: Tim and Dave

One of the things I like best about freediving is that experienced freedivers will often help you out, simply becuase they love the sport. I'd already attended a workshop on Frenzel equalisation run by Mark at London Freedivers to help one of the regular freedivers, so I was confident I was already using this during constant weight dives.

However, once diaphragmatic Frenzel started to fail, I had little idea what to do next. Luckily, Dave King stepped in and explained to me the reason why I was now experiencing problems equalising. He showed me how to use mouthfill and Frenzel in combination and demonstrated how partial and full exhale dives can help to train this technique. Dave buddied me until I was doing the exercises correctly and made sure I had all the information I needed to use them safely. Thanks again Dave, if you're reading :). I'll be concentrating on equalisation technique and relaxation in the final weeks leading up to the official dive, so there'll be more on this later...

Harry and I "warming up"

I've also learnt lots by buddying the other freedivers. Safety diving is a real skill and thanks to the direction of Mike and Ryan I feel as though I've improved lots in this respect. I was privileged enough to buddy Ben Poole to a new PB this weekend - congratulations Ben!

Lest anyone think it's all PB's and no play at Saltfree, here's a run-down of the "recreational" side of things this weekend ;)

• A bottle rocket competition, judged by general consensus, with points for height, speed, and projection. Special mention to Tim, Gary and Ryan for their persistence and dedication to finding exactly the right technique... Video below.
  
  
  
  
  

Fun but slightly masochistic no-fins relays to 15m!

Tandem constant weight freediving :D

Great evening in The Boat pub; talking freediving, drinking beer and eating brownies and cheesecake (OK, that was mainly me).

There's loads more to say, but it'll have to wait until I leave my job at the end of this week and have time to write all the blog posts in my head! As usual, comments, tips and donations gratefully received :)

Breaking news from the MS Society!

It's been a brilliant 3 days, with news of a huge clinical trial into a potential treatment for MS (and two personal bests)!


Today, I left work and got on the Tube. It was quite late, so there were plenty of free seats and spare copies of the newspaper lying about. I put the 'Manual of Freediving' in my satchel and picked up the Evening Standard to see this story on the front page...





You can click on the picture for a link to the full article.


The MS Society and the UK Stem Cell Foundation are jointly funding a number of studies to investigate whether the use of stem cells can help to slow, stop, or even reverse the damage caused by MS to the brain and spinal cord.


My heart always skips a beat whenever a story like this appears. They appear surprisingly frequently but it's a long and difficult road from clinical trials to an effective and affordable treatment.

When someone you love has MS, you feel so helpless watching as they get progressively more disabled. They can get much worse almost overnight, as in a relapse or attack, or it can be a gradual process. Maybe one day out shopping you notice that their leg is dragging much more than usual, or you see their hands shaking while they try to hold a mug, or you start "hugging" by linking your little fingers, because proper hugs hurt too much. Mum doesn't really open up to me about her feelings about the future of her health (she's intensely private, and that's why I haven't mentioned her more on the blog). I imagine that for Mum, as for the poet Colette Waller who I featured in my last post, it ultimately comes down to being terrified of getting worse.


So the search for better treatments or a cure for MS feels like a race against time for my family. It's fantastic to see charities collaborating to fund international clinical trials into cutting-edge treatments for MS. If there is hope that by the end of these trials a treatment is in sight that might help my Mum, then I have all the motivation I need to get me to 100ft.

To learn more about this particular research, please see the video below:



Yesterday, I managed a PB in Static of 4mins 45sec!

The day before yesterday I managed a PB in Dynamic of 120m!

Mandy Mermaid and the Fluffy Contraction Bunnies...

Following my sports coaching session with Mark, I arrived at Saltfree eager to dive a few feet closer to the 100ft goal. However, on the boat over to the platform, I realised I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of no warm -up diving - I'd become rather attached to my usual routine of "fannying about at fifteen meters"!

In charge of the platform for the day was Mandy Mermaid. Mandy won the Mermaid Challenge, a competition run by Saltfree to discover new female freediving talent, and went on to set a UK record in dynamic! The most recent chapter of Mandy's freediving story is equally as inspiring. Last year Mandy developed Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a life threatening disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis. After what she describes with characteristic understatement as "a bit of a struggle", her bravery (and her freedive training) helped her to beat Guillian-Barre. Back in her wetsuit, Mandy is not only excelling in competition, she also recently completed the Great North Swim to raise awareness of Guillian-Barre and fundraise for CLIC Sargent and the RNLI. To read more and donate, please click here :D.

I'd met Mandy once before and was really happy when she said that she liked the blog! I asked her for some advice. She summarised the theory behind no-warm up diving and explained that I might feel contractions earlier than usual with this approach. Seeing my grimace, she attempted to convince me that this was a good thing! "Contractions are actually helpful; it's your dive reflex kicking in!" she said. "Just imagine that they are happy fluffy contraction bunnies hopping around in your chest", she advised, before we both started giggling!

Fluffy bunny...



















Evil contraction bunny...

As planned, I did stretching and breathing exercises on the platform and then went straight for 30m. The dive was fantastic! The first ten meters (my least favourite part of the dive) passed quickly and felt foscussed, I enjoyed a long glide and was almost surprised when I reached the plate. There were a couple of light contractions on the way up but I knew to expect them and they didn't bother me. I did have to try and stop myself thinking of the contraction bunnies and grinning inanely though! So it's 98.43 feet and counting, everyone :D.

Photo of the 98.43 ft (or 30m) freedive below, courtesy of Harry:










With the 100ft almost in sight, I've had a little time to sit back and reflect. When I first set out on the challenge, diving to 100ft seemed an almost impossible goal. Now it's within reach I realise that I've been so concerned with actually being able to complete the challenge, I haven't been spending as much time as I should raising awareness of Multiple Sclerosis and the reasons why fundraising for the MS Society is so important.

I'd like to share the stories of two women with you; Genie and Collette. Genie is my aunt and godmother, and Collette is a poet, who I have never met. They have a lot in common; both have chosen to explore their experience of MS creatively, Collette through poetry and Genie through music. Both are positive and inspiring people. I hope that the story of each will go some way to explaining how deeply MS affects your life and how important it is that research continues to find a cure.

Genie
Genie is my aunt, who developed MS aged 24. She teaches jazz and classical piano, makes music and runs Stream Records, a label for disabled musicians.

It took 5 or 6 years before my MS was diagnosed, and I was quite relieved in the end. It was like having a golfball in the back of my head. I thought I was going insane! MS affects people in different ways. It affects my balance and my senses. I don't use a wheelchair, but it's obvious something is wrong with me. The doctors said things like, "well you're going to have to learn to live with this". It's not easy, but music helped. I started to write songs to express what I was feeling. I came across a disability magazine that was advertising for musicians and put together a band called 'Fish Out Of Water'. We got loads of gigs, became involved with Disability Arts, and I got funding. It was great. And I was a working musician! But the mainstream music industry doesn't want to know about disabled musicians. That's why I started to get their music out there. Some people suggested that I should register as a charity, but why does disability always have to be about 'charity'? I want to engage with the world on its own terms.Sadly disabled musicians don't break into the mainstream very often. But you can't give up. You have to make the world take notice.

Collette
Collette has a particularly aggressive form of MS. This article tells her story and in the accompanying video she reads from her collection of poems, 'Party Girl', before MS left her unable to speak or write. I've posted one of her poems below.

Scared
When I'm around
Others
Who have MS
It frightens the shit out of me
All these poems are saying just one thing
I'm scared of getting worse.

Please donate a few pounds (or more, if you like!) to the MS Society, to enable their amazing work to continue :).

Sports Coaching and Static :)

It struck me a couple of weeks ago that the 100ft Freedive Challenge is approaching alarmingly quickly! My head was spinning with questions; whether I was training enough, how best to structure my training, where to find information on new techniques, whether anyone was likely to sign up to a meet in October so that the challenge could go ahead, how to budget for some equipment I needed, what safety support would be required...

Fortunately, I received an extremely well-timed email from Mark, suggesting that we set up a few sports coaching sessions in the run-up to the 100ft Freedive Challenge. As you might imagine, I jumped at the chance to talk through some of my questions.

Mark explained to me at our first session that I would be leading the discussion, and emphasised that his role as coach was to help me explore the options open to me, rather than prescribing a particular course of action. At first I was slightly disappointed; a small part of me had hoped that I'd be handed a fail-safe training plan to follow, which would ensure success for the 100ft Freedive Challenge and lots of donations for the MS Society! However, I soon realised that part of what makes freediving so exciting is that it is, in many ways, an individual journey of discovery. I'm wary that I might be straying into "wanky" territory here, so I'll try and explain what I mean:

1. You're on your own at the plate, that's for sure;
2. I would imagine that in such a 'mental' sport, each person's unique psychology would have a significant effect; and
3. There's still lots of scope for experimenting with different approaches to training.

By the end of our first discussion, we'd assessed the current situation, explored the options available and created a plan of action. I left feeling really positive about the progress we'd made. Over the next couple of weeks I drew up a budget, investigated different training options, and eventually drafted a training plan. I then asked for Mark's suggestions, opinions and advice. Mark suggested a number of diffferent approaches for training, including setting up a yoga and meditation session with Mariette and organising the 'Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight' seminar. We're still working on the logistics side of things but there are rumours of an exciting competition setting for the 100ft Freeedive Challenge...

In our second session, we focussed specifically on determining my limiting factor on depth. We discussed the progress I'd made a a result of the 'Dealing with Diving Demons' seminar, considered adjusting my weighting, and decided that I'd experiment with a "no warm-up" or "one warm-up" approach during my next CWT training session. This led to some interesting results...more on this to come.


At training with London Freedivers last week I was paired up for static with Georgina Miller (George). I have to admit to being a bit intimidated at first, since she holds a UK record in this discipline. However, she was really friendly and quickly put me at ease. We decided to do a CO2 table each and I discovered that they're even more relaxing when done in the pool :). Except when the blokes in the next lane are trying to make you laugh during a 30 second breathe-up, of course! George's expert eye was able to see that I held tension in the back of my neck and shoulders and she gently reminded me to relax these parts.

Toward the end of the session, George suggested we try an exercise she had come across on a course run by Umberto Pelizzari. I lay on the surface, breathing gently and tried to completely relax all my muscles. George occasionally asked my to hold my breath and moved me around in the water by applying pressure to different parts of my body. By doing so she was able to identify areas of tension. When she told me to relax my arms, my first thought was that they were already relaxed! By as soon as I turned my mind toward them, I realised that I had bunched up my shoulders and was holding my upper arms stiffly away from my body. She said that I would enjoy my statics more if I consciously relaxed each part of my body, particularly those parts where I tend to hold tension. I'll definitely be trying this next session. I just wish that someone would agree to drag me gently through the water by my arms and legs during static; it's the best relaxation method I've yet come across!

Next time, 'Mandy Mermaid and the Fluffy Contraction Bunnies'!

If only they were this cute!

Milestones and more...

"I'm a freediver, it's sunny. Why am I sat here scanning documents?..."

- Sam

Well, quite. The lack of updates recently is because I've been spending far too much time at the office, twitching my mermaid's tail irritably under the desk and gazing wistfully at my freediving computer background.

It's only been three weeks but I'm in withdrawal. Symptoms include: spending too much time on DeeperBlue during my lunch hour, trying to convince myself I can blow my scholarship money on a freediving holiday to Tenerife, sneaky 25m DNF's during swimming sessions and unexpected feelings of nostalgia at the smell of neoprene (no, really).

My last trip to Saltfree was a good one though! It was great to meet some of the Great Northern contingent, who were really friendly and supportive of the Challenge. Some have already made a donation to the MS Society - thank you very much guys, it's much appreciated :D. With so many people on the platform and the sun breaking through the clouds for the first time in weeks, there was a bit of a holiday atmosphere!




Harry and I were having a bit of a lazy day...lots of stretching on the platform, numerous shallower warm-up dives and lengthy breaks in between freedives to drink redbush tea, soak up some sun and have a natter. By contrast, the Great Northern contingent adopt the straight-in-and-straight-down-the-line-to-a-PB method! As a result, we were the source of much amusement. "Oh!" said Ben as I was putting on my monofin for my 25m attempt, his wide-eyed innocence belied by the barely-suppressed grin, "are you actually getting in now?!".



Luckily for us, by the end of the afternoon we both managed to add our own PB's to the brilliant results already achieved by our friends. Harry easily reached 27m FI, while I managed 25m CWT. It feels like a proper milestone along the way to completing the 100ft Freedive Challenge! Mark's seminar on "Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight" helped in two important ways: 1. I was able to try and deal with any uncertainty and nerves during the warm-up dives; and 2. Using visualisaion during the dive meant I felt much more focused and in control.


Harry gave me the psychological boost I needed before the 25m dive using a bit of a cheeky trick. Knowing that I was more than capable of it, he set the line to 23m in order that I'd exceed my PB without knowing it. "How was it?", he asked as I surfaced. "Great!", I smiled in response, "but it was only 21m". "Oh no it wasn't!" he replied, "I set the line a bit deeper". He couldn't say anything after that because I was simultaneously trying to hug him and drown him.

Since then it's been pool training only. A friend's wedding last weekend meant that it was out of the wetsuit and into a floral dress and jewellery, which I must admit felt quite strange! By all accounts I missed a fantastic weekend at Saltfree, with Sam and Hannah teaching loads of students and some regular Saltfree-ers taking a dip. Particularly proud of my AIDA** course mate Tom D, who made a PB of...wait for it...39m! See below for a brilliant photo taken by Hugh last weekend; more are available on the Saltfree Facebook page, if anyone needs further convincing of how much fun Saltfree courses are!



Pool training is going swimmingly *cough*. No movement on the PB's, which stand at 105m DYN and 4min STA respectively. However, I've been trying out loads of new training exercises: dynamic tables, sideways and upside-down monofinning, lengths as fast or as slow as possible, lengths using as few kicks as possible, almost drowning laughing while attempting to blow bubble rings and, best of all, static dynamics. These involve a short static followed a length of dynamic, all on one breath. The statics are gradually increased; I think we were doing about 1 min static at 3m, 33m dynamic by the end, which felt very comfortable. I'm not sure how it works, but I feel like someone's put me in a sleepy trance.

Tim's training for a triathlon at the moment, so is usually speeding lengths on the surface. When he has a chance to freedive he's been using a heart-rate monitor to investigate the effect of various breathing techniques (you can take an IT geek out of the office...). I've been buddying and have been intrigued by the results, as described after he's done all his computery-analysis on the information. On Thursday of last week Tim kindly lent me his heart rate monitor and buddied me while I did 100m DYN wearing it. I'm really excited to see the results and will post them here soon.

I'm looking forward to meeting Mark on Thursday for some sports coaching (more on this to follow). It's also T - MINUS 4 DAYS AND COUNTING until the next Saltfree meet. Hope to see some of you there!