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!

Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight

You know a seminar’s going to be interesting when it begins by asking the participants whether or not any of them ever hear voices! Mark’s seminar sought to address the negative thoughts that can sabotage your dives; he called them “Diving Demons”. Diving demons can take many forms and are quite personal; mine are a voice in my head telling me to turn and give up on the dive, or a feeling of “I don’t like this, I don’t feel good”, which creeps in half-way through a dive. Someone recently described a dive to me in which they said their “mind was in ‘let's get the hell out of here NOW you idiot’ mode”.

The thing that all diving demons have in common is that they are manifestations of an internal dialogue. One of the more tongue-in-cheek comparisons Mark made, obviously playing to the two ladies in the room, was the debate you have with yourself when you’re about to spend a substantial share of your week’s wages on a pair of shoes!

I’m pretty sure my own diving demons are the only thing stopping me from making better progress in constant weight. It’s not my breath-hold that’s the problem, nor even my scrappy monofin technique. It’s simply that I’m *whispers* scared.

The negative thoughts always occur in the first part of the dive, during the time that I’m expending energy counteracting the positive buoyancy. Sometimes I can dismiss them and relax, but occasionally they’ll follow me all the way down to the plate, or make me turn before it. The strange thing is that as soon as I’ve taken the first few kicks toward the surface, all my negative thoughts vanish and I feel like I could have stayed down there forever! I’ve tried several things which have helped to some extent:
1. static hangs at gradually increasing depths; and
2. turning at the plate and then coming up very slowly, hand over hand.

Mark encouraged us to be receptive to any negative thoughts during warm-up dives. More often than not, these thoughts tend to be a bit diffuse but sometimes it is possible to identify a concrete anxiety or fear. In both cases, Mark suggested that it is helpful to try to counteract the negative thoughts with positive thoughts: for example, by recalling positive experiences and by reasoning that the depth is achievable, that your training has prepared you thoroughly and that you have great support. Resolving the internal dialogue during warm-up dives allows you to approach the “final” dive with a clear head and positive mindset.

He also mentioned that listening to your inner voice may also help you to identify situations where you’re attempting something beyond your limits, for example a 40m dive when you’ve only ever done 25m.

Mark then turned to visualisation of constant weight dives, which can be used as another method of dealing with diving demons. He shared with us his own constant weight dive, breaking it down step-by-step. I picked up a few things that would be useful for me to try, for example, setting alarms to know when to switch into the glide phase and how to make more efficient turns. Mark encouraged us to do a deconstruction of our own constant weight dive, numbering each stage. He advised that we then use visualisation to memorise it. We can draw on the memorised dive to prepare for a good performance in our actual dives since it can contribute to improving our confidence, helping to control anxiety and making the dive seem as though it is one that we have already successfully completed.

He noted that we can also use visualisation during the dive itself by focusing on the next step to be taken, even if that step is to “let go and relax”. Using visualisation during constant weight dives can have the following benefits:
1. You’re less likely to make a mistake during the dive;
2. You’re less likely to have a problem with surface protocol;
3. If your mind is occupied with visualising the next stage of the dive, there is less room for the Diving Demon to distract you!

As always, Mark emphasised that what works for one person may not work for another. He also asked us to try these techniques out during practice, rather than taking them straight to a competition! He then opened the floor to questions. My question for Mark was: “Which part of the dive do you find most stressful?” He finds the time two minutes before the dive most stressful, when there is a lot of activity around him, he can feel the tension in the atmosphere and he is being ushered toward the line. He said that when it gets to one minute before the dive, you have to mentally commit to the dive and it gets less stressful from that moment on.

I asked one of the experienced freedivers for his take on the seminar and he said that he found it really interesting to listen to Mark’s point of view. He observed that freediving is often seen as a “dark art” sport, where you have to learn something that makes you super-human. He felt that we don’t share the simplicity of the sport enough and that talking about it helps.

I have to say, I now feel ready to get back in the water and slay those diving demons Buffy-The-Vampire-Slayer-style. Bring on freediving at Salfree this weekend!

After the lecture we had a great pool session. It was particularly nice to have Harry, who lives in Birmingham, come and play! His DNF is pretty amazing. Congratulations go out to Tom, who made a personal best of 30m CWT last weekend, during possibly the rainiest weekend of freediving ever seen! For those of you who don’t remember or aren’t regular readers, Harry and Tom were on my AIDA** and are now my regular diving buddies.

Lastly, I thought I’d post my spirometry results. I haven’t had time to make much sense of them yet, but maybe someone out there can shed some light on them.

Saltfree Weekender or 'I'd rather be freediving".

NB: the slideshow at the bottom of this post doesn't work properly unless you click on the post title and view the post on its own, as opposed to viewing the whole blog.

I'm supposed to be freediving at London Freedivers right now. I had a lovely static session planned but was struck down by the dreaded lurgy and am in bed. Symptoms are blocked sinuses, fuzzy ears, sniffles and sore throat, so it's not going to kill me. However, I'm diving at Saltfree this weekend and thought it would be best to take some painkillers, pop some echinacea pills and down several pints of water containing effervescent vitamin C tablets. A bit like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted but what can you do?

It's not all bad news though - I had a brilliant dynamic session at Crystal Freedivers last night at which I completely surpised myself with a 100m dynamic. Crystal Freedivers train at the the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, which has a very spacious 50m pool. It's great to be able to get into a rhythym doing dynamic without worrying about turning so often. My turns need a lot of improvement, they look somewhat like an underwater car crash at the moment. The regulars are all very friendly and there is a real mix of experience levels from GB team members to newbies like myself. Tim's always on hand with hints and tips and has devised loads of fun dynamic exercises which make the hour fly by! I particularly liked the one which involved a 20m dynamic, doing a 10 second static and then 30m dynamic, which kind of simulates the phases of a CWT dive. Georgina (George) was also training and kindly let me borrow her super-speedy monofin to do a few 50m sprints - it felt like flying!

It turns out that one of the trainers at the swimming pool is a professional fin-swimmer who couldn't help but cast a critical eye over my shoddy monofin technique.
"Tsk", he says, as I surface. "Grace, your elbows are out here" [makes silly 'walk like an Egyptian' pose].
"Here, sit on the side of the pool...put your arms up". I comply, desperately trying to hide my reseblance to a seal as I use my limited upper-body strength to haul myself out of the pool.
"THERE" he grunts, yanking my elbows together. I emit a suppressed squeak.
"The arms", he explains, "must be like this, otherwise you are ruining your hydrodynamic profile". He demonstrates, contorting himself in a frankly disturbing manner.

I took his card and am still pondering whether I should man the f*** up and attend a few of his classes to sort out my technique.


Lastly, I should mention that the weekend before last Harry, Tom and I headed to NDAC for more freediving with Saltfree. Deepest Dave, Tim and Gary were hte experienced freedivers in attendance, and they looked after us really well, sharing their hints and tips. It did mean that I was the only girl though, and there was a fair amount of testosterone flying around, although mostly in the form of chat about peeing in your wetsuit. Come on Saltfree ladies, get down here!

Harry took some fantastic photos of the weekend and he's given me permission to use them. Here they are! Look out for the dirty gnomes...

View all

Get your own

Pool Training and the Haenyeo

There's been loads going on over the past couple of weeks pool training-wise; I've tried to provide a short update here. I've also been working on a freediving escapade to South Korea to visit the Hanyeo...more details toward the end of the post...

I'm really enjoying static and recently made a personal best of 4 minutes! I've been observing the sensations that occur during statics, which seem to be quite individual to each person. Mark, for example, doesn't get contractions. He says that it's not necessarily an advantage but I'm still really envious! This is how it feels for me at the moment although there are obviously variations depending on how hard I've been training, how tired I am, whether I've had a crap day at work etc...

• During the breathe-up: At the start of the breathe-up I often feel nervous. I try and let go of any expectations about the times I "should" be making. Initially I try to simply observe what my breath is doing naturally, before gradually deepening the breath and extending the exhales, keeping a relaxed rate of about 6 breaths per minute. It's much easier to relax with my eyes closed and I can hear my heartbeat slowing down during the extended exhalations. During the last breath I feel my heartrate pick up. On a good day I'll feel as though I'm just about to fall asleep...
• 0' -1'50 Usually relaxed and happy. Sometimes singing to myself. Sometimes imagining that I'm floating in a warm ocean at night, far from land, underneath a bright canopy of stars and a full moon creating what looks like a slick of quicksilver on the waves . I duckdive and find myself in the middle of a pod of whales, all calling to each other. I felt a bit embarassed about this until I started asking other freedivers what they thought about during static. There have been some interesting answers, which have convinced me that I'm well within the realms of "normal"!
• 1'50-2'10 Really could do without this part. Tightness in the throat and chest, and horrible feeling of suffocation. I know the contractions are coming and tense up anticipating them.
• 2'10 Contractions start. They're almost a relief after the feeling of suffocation. How they feel is really variable. Sometimes they start like a flutter in the diaphragm and build in strength and frequency. If I've been particularly tense waiting for them to start the first one can feel like a kick in the chest. Scan my body from head to toe, identifying areas of tension and trying to release them, which can help to reduce intensity and frequency of contractions. I'm not comfortable, but on a good day I can "accept" the contractions and they pass through me like waves.
• 2'50 Contractions have increased in intensity and frequency and I start to count them. I count down from 100 but have got nowhere near 0. Counting down rather than up helps psychologically.
• 3'30 Open my eyes, watch the light playing on the tiles at the bottom of the pool. Stretch out my whole body a couple of times. Put my hands out to the side of the pool and grip it hard. Put my feet down. Listen to the encouraging words of my buddy for motivation.
• 4' Breathe!

I'd like to find a way to become more comfortable during the early stages of the contractions - if you have any suggestions, let me know! During my second static session I had some strange feelings toward the end of my last breath-hold. I felt euphoric and a bit shaky and wasn't as focussed as I usually am during the last 30 seconds so I came up early. I'm hoping it was just because I'd been a bit slack doing my CO2 tables that week since I was bedridden and vomiting for two days!

I found this video really interesting. I expected that people who had really long static times would start their contractions later but it turns out that his contractions start only slightly after mine do!




I'm making some progress with dynamic too. The distance has increased a little bit in each of the three dynamic sessions I've done and I'm starting to get used to my monofin. I've been marveling at the beautiful dynamic of Elizabeth Kristoffersen, she's so elegant and effortless. I still don't have any real idea of what constitutes the correct monofin technique, but I no longer feel "off-balance" and I can find a rhythym. Mark G kindly buddied me during my first dynamic session and gave me some tips, and Gary and Tim helped me to sort out my weighting and encouraged me to play around with speed!

I thought that the best way to get an idea of what I was doing wrong was to take a short video. Here it is - don't laugh! Constructive criticism appreciated.




In other news, I've been getting excited about a Royal Geographical Society grant called 'Journey of a Lifetime'. It provides £4000 funding to allow you to travel anywhere in the world and create a radio programme about your journey. When I first posted this blog, a friend working in South Korea told me about the "Haenyeo" or "Jamnyeo" of Jeju island and since then I've been fascinated by them.

The Haenyeo are 'sea women' or 'diving women'; spirited female freedivers who have a long history on the volcanic island. They freedive for octopus, sea-urchins, seaweed and shellfish, making many dives each day and spending minutes at depths up to 20m. Once shunned for their dangerous and difficult work, the Haenyeo have been romanticised by the tourist industry and named "the mermaids of Jeju island".

However, their numbers are rapidly declining; from as many as 30,000 in 1950 to only 5,650 in 2003, of which 85% were over 50 years old. The young women of the island want the urban lifestyle of their peers in Seoul rather than the tough physical challenges of the life of a Haenyeo. The rapidly expanding manufacturing and tourist industry poses challenges for protection of Jeju's unique underwater environment. It is likely that the Haenyeo will soon disappear. Who thinks that I should look into applying for the grant to visit the Haenyeo?

Thank you to Amamarf and Leonard Symeonides for your donations - I don't have your email addresses but I wanted to show my appreciation - hopefully you'll read this post!