Freediving Competition in Badhoevedorp

So the competition is over now, I feel less stress and learned a lot.

Recalling the events

November 22

I missed the chance to register when registration went open 22th of November, as it appeared all places were gone during the daylight and when I tried signing after dinner there were no free places already. I mailed the organizer and appeared 3rd in the waiting list.

January

It was silent till the beginning of January, and as the competition was planned on 19th of January, I was less and less sure that I will be attending.

January 6

6th of January I’m receiving an email from the organizer that I have a place and I paid the fee immediately. Notified my buddy that he’d become my coach now and started thinking about how I am going to be ready in less than 2 weeks, when I was not even practicing CO2 tables for last 2-3 weeks!

Rest of the week

I started exercising everyday, not hard, but to bring me to some sort of active state. I also had a concert that week’s Friday, which required some serious attention and practice, so I skipped the Friday’s freediving training. But Saturday was swimming a lot and felt very exhausted by the end of that day.

I planned to do CO2 and O2 tables on Monday, the 13th, Wednesday and Friday, finishing with personal best (PB) attempts and not doing any breathholds on days in between.

January 14

14th of January new email from the organizer with additional information, where I first time see (probably I should’ve known this to be true) that I need to have a valid medical certification for diving. Funny mooment is that I had planned a med checkup next Tuesday, 21th of January. It was a tight evening trying to find a solution till I remembered, that I have a certificate from the last year, which is valid for 3 years.

January 15

Wednesday, the 15th: I was doing the O2 table (first time ever) and made a PB record at the end. Normally I am waiting around 5-7 minutes (counting cooldown and breathups) after finishing a table and before attempting a PB.

Heartrate

SpO2 and first contraction

Contractions

And PB attempt, heartrate

And SpO2

January 17

On Friday, in the pool, I was trying to go “the competition’s” way and started with O2 table as a warmup. I was very disappointed with how it went: it felt very anxious, not relaxing and more annoying and obligationing than fun. I didn’t complete the full O2 table. Here is to compare heartbeats and temperature (of the watch contact area) of Wednesday’s and Friday’s O2 tables:

Wednesday

Friday

January 18

Planned initially to swim/snorkel in the pool in the evening, but was not allowed due to diver’s training on the same time. Left the day only with indoor cycling at low rates. Also that day I’ve received the starting list from the organizer, which opened my eyes to the rang of athletes I was going to compete with and the time I was demanded (by myself, only my poor self, who somehow tightened all these mentally during last weeks) to show.

At that moment I only noticed Eric van Riet Paap, who is holding national record (NR) of 08:01 since 29-03-2009, and that I was one of the 6 with announced performance (AP) over 4 min and one of the 4 with PB over 6 min. That knowledge “helped” me a lot.

January 19 — the Day

We arrived without rush, 15 minutes before registration, and talked through the plan. Max was our cameraman, Akim was my coach. Organizer found me and notified that my AIDA account was inactive and she would not be able to register my results in the aidainternational.org. We rushed to solve the problem with Dutch Freediving Association (DFA) and agreed to have my account activated while all the necessary paperwork being done in next 24 hours.

Then we filled-in the registration papers, which were confusing as I need to fill in AP and PB for CWTB while it meant to be DYNB.

And then DFA lady said that she can’t find my AIDA account, so we rushed to help her find that account. Again, it appeared that I need to select AIDA Netherlands in my account to appear in her search, which she actually did herself on my phone :) and I was eventually activated. And that news I brought to the organizer. Seemed everything was ready to start preparing for the competition.

My official time (OT) was 15:07 – when I should hold my breath for the best, and warmup at 14:37 — the time I was allowed to enter the pool. We entered the pool area 15 min before 14. And I started with CO2 table on the yoga mat. I decided not to do O2, as I thought I would be tight on time and remembering Friday’s results, it could be less relaxing and more annoying, which I didn’t want now. The CO2 table started with very hot feeling during first hold (I was in the short-sleeve rushguard), but all the rest appeared to be very chill and I felt more like I’m at home.

I ended up CO2 surprisingly fast, I thought I’ll need to stop it prematurely to be able to take wetsuit on before the warmup time. But I had plenty of time after I finished the whole CO2 table, so I very slowly put myself into the 1.5 mm wetsuit, while still sitting on the yoga mat.

Then I slowly slipped into the pool at 14:37. As we agreed with the coach, he was taking care of the time and I tried to think less and be sleepy-alike. I remember I felt a little-bit cold in the water and started slowly breathing for relaxation.

Soon I’ve got news from my coach: he wanted to make a hold some time before the OT, so I would not loose the CO2 tolerance (and the rest of the warmed-up effects) before OT. I completely let my coach do his thing – at the end we all were here to learn and that meant we experiment, so I replied with — Just tell me (when) 2 minutes (of breathup have started). And then I had 2 minutes and a hold. I made a full 100% hold and proper surface protocol (SP): first noseclip and goggles off, then OK sign and verball phrase — “I’m OK”. Then I continued breathups for relax, laying in a 40cm pool with my head on a side.

After some time, coach said that I’m still too early for OT and he thinks of repeating the hold for the same reasons. So I made another 2 min breathup with my hands and feet slightly shaking from feeling chill. Then was a full 100% hold. I do remember my feelings in the beginning: I feel it light-blue (yes in colors) and calm and nothing is disturbing me and I feel very happy that this hold started like that, so if at my OT I have the same beginning than I’ll be super good with the attempt. Ending ans SP was good, so I continued breathing to relax afterwards.

And then moving to the transition zone: I was trying to not to lift the body out of the water to not push my heartbeats, probably I was looking like a sea-creature, who was interested in what’s going on at the side of the pool. I welcomed the judges and the safety. Then the judge asked to put my watch on top of the wetsuit, coach commented that I don’t need them so I just took them off and put on a pool side. Then was 2 min before OT, 1:30, 1, 30… 20… 10… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… and somewhere I started my breathhold.

I remember same “qualities” of the beginning: light-blue and calm and a little-bit shaking in arms and feet. And I do keep my eyes closed. I have them closed during exercises at home and during holds in the trainings and I had them closed during the competition day. I played 12 bars of the Blue Monk song in my thoughts, that normally takes around a minute. My coach was checking me every minute as we agreed. He later started talking to me, probably giving me some time information. I think, I remember feeling/seeing (with my eyes closed, yes) signs of hypoxia or of getting closer to that state or border, I am still not so experienced about that. It’s when the area you kinda looking at becomes more gray-ish and you see an violet oval appearing in the center and starting to get more colors. I planned for that sign, and I planned to stop when it appears.

But now I’m not so sure that I saw it that day, I only can tell it based on the video recording.

I open my eyes… I see ceiling, lights safety diver’s face, my coach looking to me from the top. I have no goggles nor noseclip, but I show the OK sign and reply — “I’m OK”. And the judge shows the red card to my face. I immediately understand what just happened and I accept it, no thoughts of arguing — “I’m OK”. I feel like after a very refreshing and good sleep. That was a good attempt: 5:19, but I got disqualified (DQ) because of blackout (BO).

I was feeling recovered in 2-5 minutes or so, we were staying on the side of the pool and were chatting. Judges and medics came by and said that they decided to not allow me for the dynamic part of the championship, as it is not known how much time body needs to recover after BO and it’s not safe in this conditions to do underwater swimming with breathhold. I had no complains, I agreed with their decision and said thank-you for caring about me. And I started feeling a huge relief as I suddenly did not need to perform for the whole rest of that day.

Later, I was invited to April’s competition in Eindhoven in 50m pool, where I immediately registered and paid the fee :). Then, while watching the competition as spectaculars, we had nice talks with that medic lady. We can later put real goals for upcoming competitions, like gaining white cards and performing on 80%, while learning the procedures and getting used-to the atmosphere of the competition and freediving events.

Later, by the end of the dynamic section of the competition, I discovered that more top athletes were actually in the starting list: Heike Schwerdtner (GERMANY) with world record (WR) in STA and 3 NR-s, Nanja Van Den Broek (NETHERLANDS) with WR in DNF, I was very impressed!

Video of all 5:19 minutes and a blackout

My training week

Competition results

The team

Conclusions

1. Pay attention to the recovery breathing: it slipped away from my attention in last weeks, and as I can see it didn’t become second nature, I need to focus on training proper recovery breathing and make it an automatic action.

2. Do not close my eyes during the attempt. Coach said that’s a common advice, as without eyesight I will lose connection to the reality.

3. Set goals of achieving white cards and performing at 80%. Learning the process and feeling naturally at competitions.

4. Think about the knees of the wetsuit: looks like I rubbed them on my new wetsuit, should I use a cheap wetsuit for STA or pay attention for kneeling position?