The Apneist's Journal - AAAC freedive Competition 29 april 2007 (LONG)

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April 29th, 2007

08:44 pm

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AAAC freedive Competition 29 april 2007 (LONG)
Today was the first competition organized the Apnea Academy Amsterdam Club. The competition wasn't organized in Amsterdam, but in Beverwijk. The competition was held in Sportfondsenbad Beverwijk.

Main organiser was Glenn Venghaus aided by the crew of Apnea Academy Amsterdam. 12 competitors from all over the Netherlands competed during this competition in the disciplines Static and Dynamic Apnea.

I stayed in Amsterdam during the weekend at's Logpoes and we left at half past ten in the morning for Amsterdam station. There we teamed up with Daan Verhoeven on his way towards Beverwijk. Eric van Riet Paap picked us up from the station and dropped us at the pool.

After finding our places the long waiting and relaxing started. For me, it was the first competition of the year, and almost the first competition in a year. To start with I wasn't mentally relaxed at all.

Partially this was cause my preparation. I used my original complete dry preparation that I had developed for the Vancouver competition in 2004. What I didn't had realised is that I used wet training techniques over the last few months. I might have felt better if I had used a wet preparation instead. Secondary, I felt in retrospect that I was too social. I need some time to get use to the surroundings and the competition organisation, especially when it is the first time of the season. Some points to keep in mind for future competitions.

During the first part of the static apnea competition, I did a service to one of the new freedivers. One of the divers from DTH (Pauline op den Kelder) needed a coach for her dive. I decided to help her out and this resulted in a static apnea dive of two minutes and forty one seconds. Quite good since she announced just one minute.

At the second part of the static competition it was my turn. While feeling a bit uncomfortable, I knew for sure that I could hold my breath for at least four and an half minutes. I only used noseclips and also knew that this would enhance my diving reflex which would help me strongly. While my mind was far from relaxed, I felt my physical body completely relaxing after less then a minute.

I can testify that it is a strange experience to have such a difference between mental and physical state. While it wasn't pleasant at the time of the performance, it gives a strong boost of confidence to experience that your body can accomplish the performance while the mind isn't in the mood.

At the end of the performance I slowly rose out of the water. Just as planned. First arms to the side of the pool to find stability. Then slowly pushing my legs to the floor. Secondly getting your head out of the water and breath. Remove the noseclip. Giving the OK sign. And say: "I am okay". To say that sentence was in my case a bit difficult since I tend to open my mouth during breath-hold and some water was in the way.

To my suprise, spectators commented on how relaxed I was during the dive. Again evidence that I should trust my body more as doing what is need for these breath-hold. The time? Five minutes and thirty six seconds. A new personal best and the second best time of the competition.

I wasn't the only who did a great performance. Eric van Riet Paap, my partner in crime did also a personal best in competition with 5:57. Together we had the first and second place in the ranking of Static Apnea with Sanne Buurma ending in third place with five minutes and thirty three seconds.

You can imagine how happy I was after such difficult preparation. However the competition wasn't over yet. The second part of the competition existed of Dynamic Apnea without Fins. This has been historically one of my difficult disciplines. This would be the third time ever performing dynamic without fins in competition. The previous time was in Wiesbaden 2001 and Heemstede 2006.

So after congratulating others with their performances and a shower, I went back to my spot to rest a bit more. I guess that I probably relaxed too much, because after a visit to the toilets I just had less than two minutes to go to the pool for my attempt. To illustrate how late I arrived, I was still getting my leadweight mask and swimming cap right in the last thirty seconds before departure.

The countdown started and finally I took some breath, filled my lungs with air and just start swimming. Again, some presetted reflexes kicked in. This 50 meter pool has a deep part at the end of the pool, which is over 3 meters deep. To avoid diving in to this depth, I use my ears to feel how deep I was.

While my ears prevent me from covering more distance than needed, they didn't help me to avoid the mistake I made while putting on my mask and swimming cap. At 25 meters in the dive, water started leaking in to my mask. It didn't develop too fast, so I could adapt to it during the dive. At 50 meters into the dive, my mask was flooded. I am not sure why I didn't decided to abort the dive there. My body felt as normal as during a dive, but I had decided in advance that I should try to do more than the 60 meters I do normally. While it isn't fun to have your diving mask flooded, I could still sufficient to continue.

After 85 meters I broke the surface and was able to give a clean OK protocol. Glenn told me he already had noticed the problem before I started swimming. While adjusting the mask and the cap, I had put my cap under my mask and therefore caused the leak that flooded my mask. Nevertheless, my previous personal record was 66 meters and this was an hugh improvement. With this dive, I ended fourth in the Dynamic Apnea ranking, while being the only one diving without fins. Static and Dynamic Apnea combined resulted in the fourth place overall.

Other divers did also great with Daan Verhoeven with 126 meters, Eric van Riet Paap with 120 meters and Sanne Buurma with 108 meters.

Two personal bests, second in Static, fourth in Dynamic and fourth overall. I did quite good performances under the circumstances I created for myself. So as you can imagine, I am a very happy freediver. That Eric van Riet Paap won, with Daan Verhoeven second, just more increased my happiness.

It was a great competition indeed!

Current Location: Amsterdam
Current Mood: accomplished
Tags: aaac, ata, freediving

(Leave a comment)

Comments

From:	(Anonymous)
Date:	April 30th, 2007 07:26 am (UTC)

Well done !!

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Hi Rik,

I am happy to see that you enjoyed yourselve. This is why we did the competition. To see happy faces and hear happy stories is our reward.
And what more can you ask from yourselve than 2 personal best in a competition ???
See you soon in the water somewhere.

Greetzzz,

Glenn Venghaus
www.apnea-amsterdam.com
www.glennvenghaus.com

(Reply) (Thread)

From:	(Anonymous)
Date:	April 30th, 2007 08:10 pm (UTC)

Re: Well done !!

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Thanks Glenn! I am happy to participate in the next competition!

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	(Anonymous)
Date:	April 30th, 2007 10:12 pm (UTC)

Re: Well done !!

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Hoi Rik,

Nog super bedankt voor je hulp !! En natuurlijk gefeliciteerd met je pr's!

Groetjes Pauline

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From:	apneist
Date:	May 2nd, 2007 06:20 pm (UTC)

Re: Well done !!

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Geen probleem! En jij hebt ook goed je best gedaan hoor!

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From:	logpoes
Date:	May 3rd, 2007 03:37 pm (UTC)

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Congratulations honey! You did great! :-)

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