1. place overall

I must confess I'm very very happy with the results and the whole trip! The diving went almost perfect. I was doing the exact depth progression that I had hoped for, my ears were fit and working and I managed to stay pretty healthy. That's a very important part when in Egypt...


The 65m dive was one of my best deep dives ever. I felt the urge to turn around at some point, but managed to turn my mind back to relaxing. The last five meters I was fumbling a little with the equalizations, but reach the bottom without problems. The arch opened up like a big door of light and was so beautiful! I haven't had this much time to look at it before, and I enjoyed it alot. The way back up felt quite long and lactic legs meant I had to take my time, but at the surface I was still completely clear. There's still more meters in me!

I had such a good time with the group of nearly 50 other freedivers, old friends and new. I'm always sad to leave Dahab and the Blue Hole, and I hope it won't be another year before I come back.

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...

Swimming through the Canyon, Dahab

Maybe it's the thrill of diving into a dark hole at 27m depth, knowing the exit is some 15m away. Or maybe it's the beautiful patches of light finding it's way through holes in the roof of the cave. Swimming though the Canyon was certainly one of my best freediving moments. Check it out!



I hope to go back there soon! Thanks to Daan for filming and Martin for putting the video together and filming part of it.

Designated scientists

Erika and team even brought their lab out on sea two of the competition days to measure the oxygen saturation of the deep freedivers shortly after surfacing. One sign of a lung squeeze (an injury that can come from the lungs not coping with the big pressure at depth) is a reduced oxygen level in the blood up to several hours after the dive.

I showed a 99% saturation just two minutes after coming up from 57m in CWT, which is very very good. This means that my body had got the time to adjust properly, and that I was well within the depth limits that my lungs can handle. Very good indeed!


I also tried Sebastians spirometer, measuring my lung volume. On a normal inhale, I had 4,59 liters of air. This is an increase from a test last autumn which showed 4,3 liters. Most likely it is the repeated deep diving, the morning yoga and lung stretching that has worked for me.


So, even though I don't have those huge "Stig-" or "Dave Mullins-lungs", they are adapting to my freediving :)

With packing (gulping extra air) I reached 4,94 liters. This isn't as much as many other people get from doing packing, but I'm not eager to stress my lungs too much and overdo this. Packing is only safe if you train it regularly and correctly.

And again, it's not all about how much air you bring down there, it's also a lot about how good you are at saving oxygen...

The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

Erika Schagatay, a swedish scientist from the Mid Sweeden University, was in Dahab for the Bizzi Blue Hole competition doing a research project on the spleen. She has done several projects about the human diving respons previously, and now her focus is on the effect freediving has on the spleen.

She has previously been to Nordic Deep , doing a set of spleen on the freedivers there, and has confirmed the fact that the spleen contracts during repeated breath holds. This releases extra red blood cells which the freediver can utilise to store more oxygen and prelong the breath hold. Erika estimates the effect to give up to 30 sek extra in a static attempt! I think I wanna take good care of my spleen now....


I gladly participated in the test, which inclueded two dry breath holds with different warm ups where my spleen was measured continously by ultra sound. The heart rate and oxygen saturation was also measured throughout the test. The main question Erika was asking this time was when do the spleen contract? Their results will be very interesting and might give us freedivers a better idea of how to warm up for a max dive most efficiently.


As you can see on the next picture, my spleen definatly contracted during a static apnea, which means it is a good idea for me to do one or two warm up dives before a max. Then I will have more red blood cells in circulation, and will be able to dive deeper. I must say the human body is a brilliant organism, and the more I learn, the more impressed and curious I become.

A little reflection on a great time

Well, what can I say? So many things can go wrong or turn out some other way than planned, which I’ve had on a few occasions before. I’ve had my eardrum perforated, have been running out of training time or being stuck at a certain depth. But this time the Blue Hole was on my side and gave me a wonderful time freediving.


Not only did I reach a mark (the 60 meters) that I’ve been wanting for a while, I also found the real joy in being down there. These dives during both the training and competition has left me with a lot of confidence and renewed my motivation again. I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to have these two weeks in such a wonderful place with a lot of great people. I’ll do my best to keep this “feel good” feeling and use it for the next months of studying until I once again can go deep diving…

Also thanks for all nice comments, e-mails and general friendly support! And a big hug to all the guys from Bizzy Blue Hole, hope to see you folks again soon :)

The last day: 61m CWT NR!

Yesterday my stomach was giving me some troubles and I didn’t do much climbing. Luckily, today I was feeling almost 100% again, only a little tired. That didn’t keep me from having another wonderful dive, breaking the 60m mark with a new pb and record to 61m! It really feels like I’ve broken down some barriers in my deep diving now, and I’m really really happy :-)

The dive went as planned, with the usual number of kicks down to about 33m, getting the mouth fill ok and then just falling, falling, falling. I’m so much more relaxed in the sink faze now, and the discomfort and stress I used to have at the bottom is nearly gone. Two meters ahead of the turn I must have done something strange and lost part of the air in my mouth, but still could equalize enough to get to the bottom plate and grab a tag.

The way up again it was going through my mind: “You did it! Now just get to the surface and you’ve done all you wanted to do.” It was a great feeling, and after a strong surface protocol I was going “JIIHAA!” These three dives, 57m, 55m and 61m, gave me the first place in total points. We even finished off the day with going horse riding on the beach, so that’s close to a perfect day…

55m Free Immersion, a 10m increase!

Last time I did free immersion was actually Nordic Deep 2006, where I did a 45m dive and national record. As I've developed alot in depth since then, I was ready to push the record a bit further and announced 55m.

It turned out to be another calm and enjoyable dive, though my arms are not as strong as I'd like them to be and the total 110m up and down took me close to 3 minutes to complete(!). I was strong and clear, and got my white card :) It was nice to know that I can make such a long dive and come up fine. It means I have capasity for some long and deep dives in the future.

I'm really happy with the last two days and my new pb's. Tomorrow we have a day out of the water and we'll go climbing in the desert instead. Freedivers going high! And on friday is the last competition day with all the final excitement as I'm positioned first among the women so far...

New Norwegian record: CWT 57m!

Today was one of those great days where people came up getting one white card after the other. The ocean was flat, no waves at all and the air was hot. At the last training session I reached 55m with air still left in my mouthfill, so I figured I could try to add a couple of meters to my pb and nr.

The dive started well. I lost track of my kick cycles a little bit, making me slower, but I got going better around 20m. When I reached the falling face, I managed to relax completely and only focus on the equalization and the mouthfill. Suddenly the bottom plate was already there, I grabbed a tag and kicked off upwards.

I was feeling very strong and good on the decent too, and the surface protocol was perfectly clean. Then I realized “wow, this was easy! I can do this stuff.” That is such a nice feeling and a boost for the confidence. Yes, I will go deeper and explore my capacity, and I will enjoy it along the way.

Bizzy with training

For once the bits and pieces seems to fall into place and I'm getting deeper and more comfortable every day. Yesterday I was out diving with Alex from Lituania, Weine, Klara and Ingela, as Martin was sick. Today he was better luckily, and we had a really good day at Blue Hole.


We started off with a training session, where I did a couple of frc-dives (breathing out before diving) to prepare for a deep dive. Then I breathed up, Klara did my count down and off I went. The equalisation went well, I had air left in the mouthfill and felt good. But at 50m the rope was completely hooked up on the wall of the Blue Hole, and I had to turn around...

After a little rest and helping out the other divers at the bouy, I made another try to go deeper. I reached 55m, still comfortable and with air left, and came up again very strong. This is equal to my pb, so I was very satisfied. I'll take a break off tomorrow and then it's Tuesday and first competition day!

Bizzy Blue Hole: tuning in

I'm finally back in Dahab, Egypt, for training some deep freediving and attending a competition during the event Bizzy Blue Hole. Dahab is a center for freediving, but these days it's especially busy ere, more than 40 freediver will be in town for the event! Martin and I arrived on Tuesday, and by now we've got into "Dahab mode", which means freediving and more freediving...

Our days here start with an early hour of yoga to prepare the body for the training, then a little breakfast and packing the bags to go out to Blue Hole. I've had some good trainings on Wednesday (30m), Thursday (40m) and today (41m), slowly adapting my body to the pressure and the physical work of diving deep. Today we also had a 4 hour long yoga workshop with world recordholer and yoga teacher Sara Campbell which gave a lot of inspiration!

Dahab is full of camels, goats, beduin kids selling bracelets, good atmosphere and genuine egyptian life. Everything goes a bit slower than in Europe and you can let your shoulders drop down. And when you add great blue water, a 90m deep training spot and beautiful fish, what more can you want?

More pictures, updates about trainings and competition are soon to come :)

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.