Showing posts with label Freewc09. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freewc09. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 September 2009

Freediving - a learning experience


One thing I've learned through my time as a competitive freediver, is that we're not that competitive at all... The best parts are often when we're all together, having fun and enjoying life (under water).

I've got some great experiences and lots of nice memories from the World Championship in Aarhus, and these were some of the highlights:

Parading through the streets of Aarhus with my Norwegian team (more than one person!!!). Read more about AIDA Norway here.

Coaching Maria Livbjerg right before her silver medal DNF dive to 147m.

Making friends with the japaneese team and getting one of those cool t-shirts.

Being awarded an "honorary kiwi" by sweet Kathryn and her friend: the kiwi him/herself.

Head the applause when Anna, my trainingbuddy and coach, kicked my ass in static with 6:12.

Beating my own deamons and that old DYN record with a dive to 183m :)



Watching the historic prize ceremony where Bjarte Nygard became Norway's first ever World Champion in freediving. He really deserved that one!

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Beautiful static pictures


Morten Bjørn Larsen
, danish photographer, took some great pictures from the competition and was kind enough to give me a copy of the ones he took of me. You can see his pictures in my other posts from the DYN and DNF disciplines.


Also static can look cool if you know how to shoot it ;) This is Anna coaching me on the warm-up before my static dive to 6:02.

Friday, 21 August 2009

DYN qualification: 178m and NR

I came up maybe a little early in the static finals, at 5:14, but maybe it was a good idea to save some power for the dynamic qualification. This was the one dive I did not want to mess up in any way...

5 minutes to official top I was listening to Maria Mena's "Calm under the waves" and slowly turn away from this world and into the dive. I kicked off and then pretty much fell a sleep the next 100m. It was a beautiful dive and I kept telling myself that I want this, I really want this. Then I saw the markers for the 175m, did another stroke and came up with a big smile.

With this dive, I'm officially back! After two years, it was about time with a new pb... It's been hard getting back here, but I have learned so much through the struggle and now I'm feeling stronger than ever before.

Tomorrow I will dive in the A final. All these max dives are pretty hard mentally and physically. It will be a good test for my legs. They got pretty lactic and even walking some stairs is hard work. I wonder how diving will be...

Thursday, 20 August 2009

STA: 6:02 and A-finals!


Sometimes the body works for you, and even static is not that horrible, almost enjoyable. Today was one of those days. Much thanks to my lovely coach Anna, I made my first static past 6 minutes since the world championship in Hurgada, 2006.

It was such a lovely dive, and I came up with more to go. I even made it into the A-finals, so I will dive side by side with Natalja, Kathryn, Lotta and the rest of the girls tomorrow morning.

Now I've gotta go rest and prepare for the DNF B-finals, which starts at 19:00. :)

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

New norwegian record: 118m DNF!!!

I had a great start of the competition with a clean and nice 118m dive, which is a new national record by 5m. I also made it into the b-finals, which means I'm swimming again tomorrow and have a chance to improve the record still.


The static competition is tomorrow morning and I'm starting at 10:34. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

FreeWC09 and Team Norway

More and more athletes are arriving in Århus now, and everything is starting to be ready for the worldchampionship. The opening ceremony is this afternoon and the competition starts off with DNF tomorrow. My training has been going well, and I'm feeling confident so far :) See the full schedual and more info at www.freewc09.dk.


From Norway we are a almost a full team, two women and four men. This is a new record! It's very nice to have both new and more experienced athletes joining. To read more about the norwegian team members and AIDA Norway, check out the blog.


On Friday, a package arrived for me. It was a sponsored, brand new Speedo Fastskin suit! As I've been working alot with DNF recently, I have discovered the importance of glide... And this suit is a big improvement there, compared to the normal swimsuit I've been using. Big thanks to Speedo!