What a day: CWT 65m NR and CNF 40m NR

I'm gonna put some more reflextions on this day later, but thanks to Martin, the news got out yesterday already.

And thanks to Fredrik, it made it to Dagbladet, a large norwegian newspaper!

I couldn't be more happy or satisfied, making both my dives on a single day. Not only where they national records, but also pbs of 4m each!

Even the 40m CNF dive went without problems, but afterwards I was dead tired. So I'm having a day of complete rest before the last competition day. Let's see what happens then ;)

Freediving Ras Mohammed

We had a great day freediving on the famous national park Ras Mohammed. Fredrik Naumann came along to take some stunning pictures, which can be seen here.

Photo and copyright: Fredrik Naumann

There was a very friendly turtle swimming around, just grassing on some corals and watching the excited freedivers pass by. I think I love turtles even more after this encounter, and I already had a crush on them before.

I also enjoyed the boat trip out back and forth. It just feels good to be really out at sea. The fun part was that the whole boat was packed with freedivers, not a singel tank on board!

CNF 36m PB

I'm surprising myself with the fact that I am capable of diving without fins. Before I always complained about my bad feet stroke and the fact that I'm equalizing with my hands, but it doesn't seem to hold up anymore (also due to the noseclip). So no more complaining, just training hard...


When swimming back in, we found this huge morey eal crusing in and out of the corals just on the entry to the Blue Hole. It was a big fat guy, and I even got a picture!

A flat sea and 61m

This morning I got up extra early to do yoga with Hanli and the other freedivers. The sea was completely flat, everything was quiet and calm. Just a lovely start of the day.


Then, when I got to the blue hole, I realized I had forgot my suit! Luckily I got to borrow a suit from Klara, and could get in the water and do my dive. I got down to 61m, managed the equalization and had a lovely swim back up.



The duck is launched and swimming, and we had a team relay competition out in the bay today. I was on a team with Fanny and Daan, but I can't really say that we were really fast. The czechs won with a speedy speedy swim, three divers, 20m/30m/40m all disciplins. Tomorrow it's the "noseclip only" competition, so more fun!

Training is on track

Hit 55m in CWT today, feeling good and strong still. I got to take a look at the beautifull arch before I turned around and swam back up to the surface. I also gave CNF another try, going for 35m. But I had a couple of problems with my noseclip, the bottom plate etc, and left it for another day.

We're all having a good time here in Dahab, and it's getting more and more crowded in the Blue Hole. I'm still pretty healthy (which is good by Egypt standard) and keep rinsing my ears and drinking water with salts. And if our neighboors are not too loud, I also sleep well at nights ;-)

The Bizzy Blue Hole 2009 competition started officially yesterday with a head-to-head static competition. I competed against Agnes in the first round, and went off to meet Klara in the semi finals. I beat her too, just after about 4 minutes, and got to the finals with Flavia and Hanli. But I must confess that it's not much fun doing three static attempts in a row with minimal preparation time between, and on the last dive, I came up early. Flavia won, Hanli second and I third. We all had a fun time!

The water is lovely, also in the bay, where Klara, Jens and I was swimming around a little. Maybe I'll just stay here.. forever!

New pb and hammerhead shark!

The day started with a very nice and relaxed 50m dive, which boosted my confidence. The equalizing works well so far and my body is getting used to the pressure again. It can only go deeper from here.

I decided to take a little rest while the others did some dives, and try a CNF dive. My pb and NR in this disciplin was set two years (!) ago to 25m, and it was really time to break it. I set the line to 30m, took the fin off and put the noseclip on.

On the first try, I completly lost track of the thin line. You don't see much without a mask and really have to focus to keep going down straight. I also got problems with the noseclip, started swallowing air instead of pushing it out to my ears. Turn around and try again! I had promised Martin a pb this day, and wasn't gonna go out of the water without one.

I went down again, focusing only on keeping the air in the right place and following the line. I swam down to about 25m and then falling the last bit down to 30. The way back up was a joy, even though I could feel my arms. It felt much better that I had expected and I know I have much more in me!

If the good dives were not enough, we had the pleasure of seeing this beautifull hammerhead shark in the Blue Hole! It was swimming in between our lines, followed by a group of amazed freedivers, before it found the way back out to the big ocean again.

Big thanks to Alex (shark photographer!) for the pictures.

2nd day and a little deeper

Made it to 45m today, safety by Ingela and shot by Klara.

We had a lot of rope trouble to start with, which messed up the first session for me. But after food and a nap, I was ready to try again. This time if felt much better. Even the cnf feels good now (22m), so that's a major step forward!

As a little treat after diving, I had a banana pancake on the beach. I love this place, the weather and maybe most, the sea!

Arrived in Dahab

After a long flight with some extra waiting, lost luggage and a lot of sudoku's solved, 4 sweds, Trond Klimek and I arrived in Sharm el Sheik. We got picked up by Sebastian, organizer of the Bizzy Blue Hole competition, and drove through the mountains to Dahab.

It feels very good to be back here (it's been a whole year!). Things are pretty much the way they were. The goats still eat paper, the camels walk the streets and we are woken by the morning prayer of the neighboring moske. And the blue hole is as lovely as ever.

I went into the water for the first training session today, and managed to do exactly what I had planned: a few warm ups to get the feeling back, one time 41m CWT and then playing around with CNF and the noseclip on the second session. It works much better than before, so I have high hopes that I'll be able to do a decent CNF NR this competition.

We're going training tomorrow as well. "We" are an increasingly large amount of freedivers from Norway, Sweden, The netherlands, South Africa, France, Czech Republic, Brasil, and some more countries. The atmosphere is good and the spirit strong so far. I'm looking forward to next week when three more norwegians are coming to join the company, Bjarte, Steinar and Fredrik.

That's all for tonight, but pictures will follow shortly. I'll have to get some sleep if I should be able to get up in time for yoga tomorrow morning...

Training in Berlin: 106m DNF

With some inspiration from Anna and a gentle push from Martin, I did gave DNF another go. The result: a 106m long dive which felt good!



It gave me a good dose of motivation for training further and I'm starting to look farward to my next pool competition in Stockholm 9.-10. May. But before that, I get to go deep again. I'm off to Dahab and Bizzy Blue Hole on the 17. April. Can't wait!