Great news

Two wonderful years with freediving and travelling was made possible with the sponsor help from Nordea. A few days ago I got the best news I could get from them, that they wanted to sponsor me for another year. On December 21st I had a meeting with the bank director in Gjøvik, Jorun Slora Løkken, to sign a new contract for 2008.

I feel very fortunate and pround that Nordea has seen the potential in me and wants to help me on the way to getting even better in freediving. This is what makes going to worldchampionships happen, even when I'm on a student budget! So, big thanks to Jorun and Nordea for sponsoring me.

It's all in the mind

I woke up feeling tired, with stiff muscles and not much energy for the days training in the 50m pool. But I went.

Stig Severinsen and I were the only freedivers in the pool, so we started off with some pure swimming training (as we need one person for safety while doing dives, and we both wanted to get warm first). Despite my already heavy legs, I wanted to do at least one longer dive.

I first did dive to 75m, which surprisingly didn't feel too bad. Stig asked if that dive was supposed to be the long one, and then I thought "no way, I'll show him I can swim further". The next dive I found back to some of the fighting spirit that I've felt missing lately. I wanted to dive furter, and didn't care about the contractions or heavy legs. The turn at 100m was so nice and comfortable, and with a few more kicks I came up at 112m.

It was one of those small victories that might seem unimportant for others, but means quite a deal to you right then. So cheers! And to anybody who's looking for the key to achieve better, I'd say it's all in the mind. In turning it back the right way...

Step by step

After The Long Night of Apnea, I took one week off before I went to the water again. Then I begun itching to start working on the issues that had kept me from performing like I wanted to. So I went back to training, but started very slow. The sessions were doing mostly swimming, some technique and relaxing in the sauna. Step by step I started increasing the distance from 50m to 75m, but working on staying confortable and relaxed.

Now I'm finally back to really enjoying the trainings again. After spending 3-4 weeks swimming and diving just a little further every time, I feel my confidence is building up again. And the result? Sunday I did 4*75m and 2*100m, and the last one with a turn. It's not great distance or anything, but I did those dives feeling so much stronger than before.

Tuesday I even did static. And something strange happened, I got into the zone again. Didn't start the training with any expectations at all, the time didn't matter. I wanted to be able to deal with the contractions, unlike the last to competitions.

I was thinking about all the good things in my life right now, all the things I'm enjoying and the things I'm looking forward to. And I cleared my mind and told myself to live this very moment, right now. What I wanted right then was to experience the dive.

And I did. With a very calm mind and my focus on nothing at all. I did 5 statics and increased the time slowly every time, ending up on 4.15. I wasn't pushing or stressing or having doubt, just diving. So I was very happy with that.

I'll keep the training up for another week, and then it's time for a christmas break!

Long Night of Apnea, Berlin 10. nov.

I'm very glad I have some good friends to chat with and to help me out, because right now I'm having a down period with my freediving. Lot's of feelings and thoughts running through my head, but I'll take the time to sort them out.

I failed in both static and dynamic this competition, and simply did the 16*50m to try have some fun. (And it was, even though Yamina really kicked my ass! Next year, I'll be training 5 days a week for this one and see if I'm still swimming like a turtle...)

After two competitions without being able to achieve, I feel dissapointed and low on confidence. I feel I can't even swim 75m or fight any contractions at all. And I don't feel the competitive edge that drove me to swim furter... Maybe it's been a long season, maybe I'm putting the bar too high, maybe I feel too much anticipation.

I don't know yet, but I do know I will be back and I will kick ass again.

Time off in Berlin

After a couple of very intensive days of studying and finally the exam, I had a week of holiday! So I packed the tango shoes and the monofin and took the bus to Berlin and Martin.

Although we took it nice and relaxed, I got to do some nice training, both running and technic training with the previous coatch of the german finswimmer team. That was fun!

I also got a guided tour in Potsdam by Siri, a friend of mine who moved down there for half a year.

All in all it was a very nice week and I was not so happy to go home. There's things to look forward too though, like going back to Berlin next weekend for the freediving competition Long night of apnea :)

Visiting Gjøvik

I was having some days without any lessons at school in front of my anatomy exam, so I thought I might as well take my books to Norway and study there while seeing friends and family.

Strange enough, nothing seemed to have changed much! It was very nice though :)

A pool filled of mermaids

The club where Eva and Maria train in Copenhagen, USG, is a very interesting mix of freediving and swimming, hard core training and fun. Their coatch has a reputation of making some exausting programs and a loud voice to make everybody get moving in order to get it done.

I was training with the club once before, so I knew what to expect: 25-75m dives in sets of 3-5 with short breaks and different styles (no fins, no fins with no legs, short fins etc. And NO neckweight). We also did some regular swimming, and with the kick board and pull bouys.


In the end of the session I was helping Eva and Maria out a little with showing some new guys monofin technic. One of the very cool things about this club is the number of members, more than 50 if I remember right. And more is coming. So hopefully there will be more and more upcoming freedivers from the city of the mermaid soon :)

Back into training

I'm afraid I haven't really been up for alot of blogging the last weeks. After the competition in Copenhagen, I was feeling tired and got sick some days later. The motivation to go training has been almost non excisting and I've felt so bad those times I went in the water. It's really strange how sometimes I can feel so strong, while other times I can't even do 75m in dyn...

But yesterday I was back. Took my bike for a trip around a lake close by to look for good tracks to go running. The air was crisp and fresh, the sun shining and I found some really nice paths in the forest. Guess there's no excuse to stay at home then!

Today I went to the pool together with Sanne and had a wonderfull training. When I dipped into the water, I felt at home again. The good feeling was back, and that made me very happy.

I might not be 100% healty yet, so I didn't want to do too much. After a little warm up, I did 2x 75m and one 100m in dyn. It felt so much better than last time I tried, and that was all I wanted. Then I did 16x50m to prepare for Berlin, starting at 1.10 the first 12 times and at 1.05 the last four. I felt pretty strong, so I know I can do less than this (17'50) at the competition. I'll just keep on training... :)

PS: Tomorrow I'm off to Copenhagen before going to Norway on Tuesday. I'll be joining the mermaids for a training, which I'm really looking forward to!

Copenhagen Open, 29.-30. September

So, another competition over and back home again. The results were pretty crappy, mostly due to some overtraining beforehand, but still it was fun.

It was nice meeting up with the copenhagen guys again and also some people from abroad ( two lovely finish girls, Igor and Peter Bovie). The organizing was very well handled and the pool was nice, so hopefully Eva will make another Copenhagen Open next year. With a little more people competing, I think it can be even better. I'll start the advertisement right away... Anybody interested? :P


Martin and I even got to do a little sightseeing because of a nice late schedual on sunday. Where we went? To see the little mermaid of course!

Different kind of mornings

Today I woke up and realized how dark it is in the mornings now. The daylight is lasting less and less as the season is changing, and it made me dream back to the summer, to the warm sun and the wonderful freediving I did in Croatia.

There we started the morning with some yoga, stretching and static training before breakfast. Then later we would go dip in the ocean. Pretty good days I'd say!

Not going to the worlds in Sharm...

I won't be going to the individual depth worldchampionship in Sharm el Sheik this autumn. It was just not working out this time, as I'm having my exams in the same time period, and money is also an issue.

It feels quite sad not being able to meet up with friends who's going there, some of which I haven't seen since the worlds in Hurghada. Thomas Grindevoll will be the only norwegian freediver competing, and I wish him the best of luck!

But there will be other championships and other competitions. My plans for the rest of the year is so far to compete in Copenhagen Open 29.-30. September and 10th Long night of apnea in Berlin 10. November.

Busy week

I'm afraid I wasn't so good at blogging last week, but still proud of myself since I did quite some good training. The weekdays are pretty busy here though. I'm at school from 8:00 to 16:00 or something, going off to training either 19:00 or 21:00, and doing some homework in between. Not so much time for writing blog posts or vacuuming... Luckily there's some weekends in between to look forward to!

My training last week was something like this:

Monday - STA training
Doing one 3 min warm-up, then 3 x 2 min fighting (so time starts when I get my first contraction, which is around 2.15-2.45).

Tuesday - Mostly swimming, total 3000m
500m warm-up, 3 x 200m (25m easy dyn with small fins/25m crawl, then repeat), 100m free, breast swim: 300m only arms , 300m only legs, freestyle: 200m puls, 8 x 50m dyn with monofin, 8 x 50m dnf, 400m free

Wednesday - spesific training
Dyn longer dives with monofin: 75m, 76m and 100m
16 x 50m, start time: 1'12 the first 14 times, then 1'10 and 1'08 = 19min in total! New pb ;)

Thursday - light technic training
Some swimming for warm-up, then 12 x 50m with monofin focusing on different styles and general technic.

Friday and saturday - on the couch, taking care of my tired legs

Sunday - spesific training
Dyn longer dives with monofin: 80m, 100m and 110m
10 x 50m (too tired and too little time to finish it), start time 1'10-1'05, varying a little after how much acid I had in my legs :S

Now it's monday again, so I'm soon off to the pool. This week I'll take a little more rest though, as I'm competing in Copenhagen Open on saturday and sunday. My shape feels okey, so we'll see what happens...

My first real 16x50m

I'm quite happy with myself today! Not only did I manage to finish all the 16 laps in the 50m pool, I also felt much stronger than I had thought I was. My main goal was to find out which level I'm on and then where I want to go.

I had put my watch on a 24min count down, giving me 1min and 30 sec for each 50+break. It was an easy number to keep track on, and not too hard work I later found out (as I finished at 22'30 instead). I'll do another try with a little less break and try to get the time below 20min atleast.

Tomorrow I bet I'll feel my legs!

Updates: Catching up

Still more coming: Check out the folders competitions and training. New posts about the world championship in Hurghada ++

The hardest part of the training

is sometimes to simply get to the swimming pool. These days it should be very simple as I live 5min walk away from it, but it still takes will power. Coming home from school, making food, doing homework and then running off to training feels exhausting sometimes. The thing to keep in mind though, is that once I slip into the water and get the monofin back on, everything is alright. It's cold and calm, and both your pulse and your shoulders drops... It's peace.

I had a very nice training monday, together with Sanne, Lars, Kurt and many more from Aarhus freediving club. I was doing some laps of regular swimming, then training the abs and back muscles with speedy dolphin kicks both uw and on the back at the surface. I also focus alot on the technic on my trainings, as this is a very important part in swimming efficiently with the monofin. And the more you do it, the better it gets!

I also started my training for the 16x50m at the Long night of apnea in Berlin in november. This is real training, high efficiency and alot of lactic acid! I'm not really a fast swimmer, so I'll have a lot to work on there. It's also crucial to have some tough muscles that can last 20-25 min with very little oxygen... I was starting off easy, didn't time the breaks etc, but even so my legs were quite stiff the next day. Wish me luck!

PS: Yes, will also need to practice my buble rings :)

The first tango in Århus

Last night I went to my first milongo in Århus since moving down, and it turned out to be a great night. I came one hour early to join the intro salon first, where alot of other new people also showed up and we where welcomed and tried out some of the beginners steps. Then the real milonga started, where you dance with alot of different people and really have fun. After having spent almost four hours on the dance floor, I simply had to go home and try to make my feet recover. Because on sunday there's a big tango happening, within the festival Aarhus Festuge, which I'll have to take a look at...

Moving from a small town to a bigger one has some advantages. One of them is that there are milongas (dance nights) here every other friday, and courses and training evenings. In Norway I had to travel to either Lillehammer or Oslo do dance argeninte tango...

Of course the scene isn't as big as the one in Berlin, where I've been dancing several times, but hopefully I'll get to dance more regularly now and learn more.

First day at Uni!

Waking up early again after a long summer break wasn't really pleasant, but I survived with the help of some hot coffee. I'd already had some problems getting around to the right places in Århus as I don't really know the town yet, but now I had a big university campus to cope with too! And the worst part is not the high amout of different buildings, but that they all look the same with their yellow brick stones and green surroundings.

It was a long day with welcome speeches, campus tour, buying books and learning the names of my fellow class mates. There's certainly a different feeling to this, but I really like the fact that I'm finally a student. And I must admit I even look forward to the first lectures after looking through one of the books I bought about human physiology. It's interesting! And for those of you who don't know (or don't remember the difficult name), I'm studying Molecular medicin.

Life in Århus

Breakfast can be tricky without a sufficiant number of seats. Cardboard boxes may work, or they may make you fall over a few times...

Anyway, the coffee tastes extra good in a new home and you don't mind having towel curtains for the first week or so.

With some good help from Martin, I also got to put up a lamp. Total costs: 85 DKK, inclueding light bulb. Thank God for Ikea!

1. place Nordic Deep -07!

This years biggest freediving event in Scandinavia (and maybe even Europe?) is over now, and I'm already looking forward to next time. Organizer Sebastian was working hard along with his crew, and with a little help from the athletes as well, it really worked well:) At least I had a lot of fun, a good time and some nice diving.

After some bad training days where most things felt wrong for me and two competitiondays without much to speak of, I had one wonderful day Saturday where everything fell into place. In the morning I made a very easy and comfortable CWT dive to 54m. I really felt good, even at the bottom place getting the tag!

Then in the evening I competed in both DYN and STA since I wanted to collect some more points for the overall ranking. Swimming side by side with Eva, my competition instincts kicked in a little and I made myself keep swimming. After 150m I came up feeling very strong and happy, but didn't take it all out because of the next day.

Even the static worked better this day and after the dynamic, I jumped in my suit again and did 5:08 (without my usual warm up).

Sunday was the very last competition day and my last attempt of a deep dive. After the succesful dive yesterday, I had annouced a new PB with 57m. The weather was nice and the ocean flat, but my body was tired after the long week. I also had a bad tension and some pain in my shoulder and neck, so didn't have much fun getting ready. I went down, but at about 45m depth, I had some "no good" feelings and the urge to turn. Which I did at 50m. The dive was clean, yellow card for those 7m, but I was happy enough:)

In the end I realized I had actually gathered all my points during only one day! And it was enough to give me the 1.place among the women, just like last year. I'm very satisfyed with that result and also happy with my cool diploma (no, it's not a cow fish, it's an orca...).


Results are finally up: http://www.fridykning.se/nordicdeep/gaseresults07.html

And a report: http://www.fridykning.se/nordicdeep/gasereport07.html

Training weekend in Hemmoor 3.-5. august

It was just wonderful to be able to take my wetsuit and monofin and travel to the lake in Hemmoor, Germany, for some training towards Nordic Deep. We dipped in the water already friday night, and twice on saturday and sunday.

Here's Johannes, me and Martin after a nice session.

The lake is simply a playground, with a sailboat, truck, plane and underwater forest. The water has a beautiful green blueish color and the visibility is very good.

There is also a dive platform with lines and counterballast system, everything you need to do a real training. I had a few nice dives around 40-46m, but I did feel it had been a while since last time I did deep diving (easter...).

The weather was great with sun and blue sky, and we made a wonderful barbeque after all the diving.

Moving in

The big trip to the flat land of Denmark went from Gjøvik to Larvik by car, then the ferry over to Hirtshals and finally arriving in Århus around noon 2.august.

I must admit I did not manage to pack light this time either, so we had the car all filled up and the hanger too (is that the right word?).



Unfortunatly, my wonderful new bed was just an inch too big to fit into the elevator, and my dad and I had to carry it up to fifth floor... Well, some more strair exercise?

After some cleaning, it was time for the thing I had been looking forward the most: getting the furniture up and all my stuff to it's place! Stick around for the "finished!" pictures.

Just made my day...

I just found out I've got into university!!! So now it's for certain, on 1.august I'm moving to Aarhus, Denmark, to study molekular medicin and train freediving. Really, I can't wait:)

Oh, by the way. there can't be a university logo better fitted for a freediver than this one?

Stair apnea?

Today's freediving training and preparation for Nordic Deep was a 530 step walk all the way from ground level to the golden gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral. And what a great view! Though I must admit I much prefere depth for hights, and my stumack was not too excited...

We also went to see Tower of London, Tower bridge etc. and tomorrow we'll probably check out some more museums. I'm pretty sure all this walking around is gonna give me legs of steel, so Natalia should better watch out soon. 200m, here I come!

A new way of traveling

On my way to the airport, I get the feeling of something missing. Check for my passport, it's there. And my wallet too. Even my sun glasses. My beloved speedo bag/suitcase is packed with clothes, good walking shoes and the bikini just in case. Hmmm.... MY MONOFIN!!!

When my parents asked if I wanted to join then for a week in London on their expence, it wasn't a too hard question. The only thing that worried me was going somewhere without my monofin and without some plans that inclueded freediving. Afterall, I hadn't done this kind of "normal vacation" since may 2006...

These first two days have been okey. London is really packed with people, really really packed. The tube is hot, the weather is wet, the shops are expencive. But hey! It's a new place and new things to see. That makes up for alot of things. Still miss deep water though:)

World championship dynamic A finals, 174m!

Swimming next to Natalia Avseenko, Natalia Molchanova, Eva Johnsen and all the other girls I felt both strong and very small. But hey, it worked out fine! 174m and a silver medal... (the first one in norwegian freediving history)

Training monofin technic

Video from Croatia

More videos on http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=NitramRellim&p=r

Freediving in Pula, Croatia

Holiday or training? Both please!

My coach and boyfriend Martin and I travelled to Zagreb and then Pula one week before the world championship in Maribor to do some freediving. The water in this area is not much deeper than 40 meters, but that’s plenty for some fun diving, which was the main objective.

The ocean was warm, blue and beautiful. Even if there was not too many big fish, there were plenty of tunnels, caves and wrecks to explore. From our hotel apartment at the Horizon, we walked 50m to get to the swimming pool. From the swimming pool, we could walk straight down to the ocean and go diving, which we did a couple of times (at night actually!). What more can you ask for?

The place was just perfect for what we wanted: yoga, stretching and static in the mornings, breakfast on the veranda, a walk in the city or a boat trip to the wrecks. Then a nice dinner at the restaurant with fresh fish from the sea. I think we’re going back!

In Pula we were diving with Oscar, Marco and the other guys at Orca Divecenter . After giving our monofins a few weird looks, they helped us out with weights and took us along for some wreck diving. We can highly recommend these nice people. They even came along to try a little freediving, not bad!

Pictures from Aarhus

The result list, some info about the shark event and pictures can be found on http://www.aarhustriplechallenge.dk/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/aarhustriplechallenge.

Aarhus Triple Challenge 2007

One year had passed since I attended my first freediving competition, which was also in Århus. Going back there this time, there were quite a few expectations to meet. It was my first pool competition with the new monofin and the last rehearsal before the WCh. So, according to Murphy’s law, something had to go askew.

I missed the first day of the competition since I had my last exam that Friday, but straight after that was done, I went to catch the plain. Finally I made it to Copenhagen after a 1,5 hours delay, which meant I had to take a later train, arriving in Århus at 1 o’clock in the night! Then Peter, who was supposed to meet me, had went home to Randers. In the end it was the saving angel Kurt (organizer of the competition) who picked me up and got me a place to crash for the night.

Saturday I did a 4 min static and a 100m dynamic with fins, but much more important (and much more fun) was diving with sharks at Kattegatcenteret. It’s hard to explain the feeling of freediving/playing around in this HUGE aquarium with fish, stingrays and small sharks, and even look out on the people! I went into the water in my suit first, since the water was only 15 degrees. But Anneli didn’t have her suit and she managed, so I decided to give it a try.

With the freezing water that almost took my breath away, I really felt I was freediving. Gliding effortlessly around with the sharks and feeling my pulse drop down… Next time I wanna jump in with the BIG ones!

Sunday gave me at least one ok dive, but also a lesson to take home. With some nice coaching by Yamina, I managed a 5.33 in STA, which was enough to satisfy me for this time. For the dynamic, I looked at Peter doing his 214m, Yamina doing her 149m and really imagining myself doing a long dive as well, at least touching 150m. When the countdown started, I felt myself being straight down nervous, for the first time.

So of course my mind played a trick on me, convincing me that there was no way I could go all the way. Just before the turn at 50m I got my contractions (pretty much like normal), and I just gave up. I came up so disappointed, not caring to do any SP or anything and feeling like a complete failure.

This was my first overall bad competition without any PBs, national records or other things to feel good about. But when thinking about it, this was bound to happen sooner or later. So I’ve chosen to make this a lesson for the future, not set up the expectations and a fixed goal, but doing what I do because I love it. After all, the reason why I do freediving competitions is because I like to challenge myself and the limits. Then there’s no giving up…

Murky Mjøsa

So diving at home is possible and it is fun, after all!

For the first time ever since I started freediving, I have actually been diving (not just dipping) in the lake that is right next door, in Mjøsa. It is the largest lake in Norway and my home town Gjøvik is located at its shore.

Now, if you are diving with a freediver who is as crazy about that element as you are, the water can be really mirky and really scary, but you will dive and finde the bottom! And so we did. I must admid, without that little flash light on mymask, I would not have dared it but now my new personal home diving CWT record is: -26m!!!

And it is dark down there... ;)

A fish tank in Mjøsa

What do you do if you are a tv reporter planning to intervju a freediver? You would want to get some cool video, but what if you don't have an underwater camera and camera man (also called Diver)... Well, then you go to the closest Pet Shop and ask to borrow a huge aquarium.

This was actually the case when the local tv station wanted to make a report about me 26.july -06, shot in the local lake of Mjøsa.

So they had me talking, putting on my gear and swim around a little for the camera. But what don't you do for the sport, right? Was fun with the aquarium though :)

Easter in Dahab

Luckily I had enough money from working to take off for a week of freediving in my Easter holiday. At a later point, I hope to make myself write about my trips more thoroughly, but there's no chance I will get to do that now. Even so, I will post a few lines and pictures from last year in near future.

Back to Easter! I had got my (not so cheap) flight ticket in good time and for some reason I was lucky enough to have my holiday corresponding with a small competition held by Freedive Dahab. I had planned to dive with Lotta and Linda anyway (after all, I got to stay in Linda's guest room...), so this was just a great opportunity to get more competition experience.

Quite a lot of people happened to be in Dahab this period, both for training and for the competition. This included Thomas Grindevoll, my only fellow competing Norwegian freediver, Karen, his saving angel of a girlfriend who helped out together with Pia (another sweet girl), my not-that-sweet-although-dear friend Daan from the Netherlands and my new friends from Mad Cup, the swiss guys: Joakim and Cédric. There was also some Italian guys competing and Swedish Rolf presently living in Sharm which I was diving with last summer(!).

Oh and NOT to forget the sweet sweet monofin goddess Natalia Avseenko and friendly Patrick who was the our guides to an unforgettable dive-through of the Canyon (please check out Peter P's video on youtube to get an idea of what I'm talking about, you find it among the links).

Of course there were all of the Dahab natives present, Annelie, Sebastian (not really native, but close enough), Emil, Andy, Sara, Ali, Mahmood, Noseclip and Frenzel, all the camels and the goats...

Arriving on Sunday, I had my first training the next day. One day was not really enough to get used to depth again before the competition, which was Tuesday and Wednesday. My body and especially the ears were not really cooperating with my mind the two first days, but on the wednesday, I made a nice and easy dive to 45m and got a white card. Then on friday I finally did some more depth, hitting 51m twice. I was really happy about these dives as almost everything was working fine, counting the kick cycles, gliding, equalisation (even though my mouthfill is still running out at 50...) and I felt strong.

For the second session Friday, we dived the Canyon. I simply have no words for it other that it was the most amazing dive I've done so far and I will keep the memories in my heart.

What to do when html codes is greek and the wallet is sleek?

Then you get your butt going and start a blog. Just hope I figure out how to upload some pictures here... oh, and how about video? ah, well there's always a nice little button called "HELP"!