Easter in Gjøvik

After spending a weekend in Bergen, I took the train over the mountains and down to Gjøvik where I spent the easter with my family. After having got used to the danish winter, it was great to be able to go snow boarding or just having fun in the meters of snow that's still left. Jiiiha!

New video and pictures from the navy tank!

Here's some new pictures that Steinar took in the tank. Enjoy!









And bubble rings are always fun...


And this is another video that Georgios filmed and cut, showing me and the other OFK freedivers.

About the tank in norwegain

A blog post at Dykkesiden in norwegian.

Video from the diving tank

Georgios from Oslo Freediving Club put together this video clip from Håkonsvern

Diving at Håkonsvern, 14.-16. March

Every freediver’s dream is to have a deep pool in the back yard to go training, even when the sea is too cold. The 18m deep tank located at the diving school of the Norwegian Navy in Håkonsvern, Bergen, is exactly this kind of place.

This is where I had my first monofin experience two years ago. Last weekend, I and 5 other freedivers from Oslo Freediving Club, went back to Håkonsvern for some fun diving and training in the wonderfully deep pool.

It’s not every day that civilians gain entry to Håkonsvern and especially not to go diving in the tank, but with the help and good connections of Trond Klimek, a freediver and teacher at the diving school, we were set up with two diving sessions both Saturday and Sunday.

After a briefing about the tank and the training that goes on there, we got the swim suits on and went to jump into the 33 degree hot water. Then silence fell, only interrupted by breathing sounds and fins breaking the water.

I used the chance to practice some frc dives (breathing out), equalization and “no-fins” diving. I realized that in order to do some proper breast strokes, I will have to use my nose clip instead of the mask and maybe get a pair of fluid googles. Good experiences in preparation for the deep diving in Dahab in April!

My sinuses were giving me some problems equalizing both the last session on Saturday and on the first one on Sunday. But still, just being in the nice, blue water, blowing air rings from 7m or hanging around at 10m was making me very happy.

Of course on a club trip like this, we were chatting about techniques and training, equipment and gossip. We watched the extended edition of The Big Blue and had a big portion of Italian pasta. All in all a very nice weekend and a big thanks to those who make it happen (Steinar? Gordon? Noen andre?) and to Trond of course J Hope to see the Oslo freedivers again soon!

Stepping in the right direction

Reaching goals feels good, even if they are small and only a part of bigger ones.

When planning the training, I wrote down a progress in STA and DYN for every week that I hoped I would reach. And so far, it's going well. With two times past 5 min in static last thursdag and 6x75 and 2x100m during last week, I'm even a little a head the first plan. Especially the static was a big surprise, as it's been a long while since I've felt like I could do anything there. So this ment a big jumpt for the motivation and I'll just try not to get too eager...

Already I feel that my body is getting back in shape, and I've started to do more spesific training, preparing my body and mind for diving a bit longer. I do for instance 3x200m monofin kicking on the surface, but with small rubber fins and swimming on the back, which is training the back and stomack muscles. To train the legs, I often do sets of 50m dyn (8-16 times) with a limited break between.

Today I'll be training static again together with Sanne and Stig, and I'll see if I can make those 5 min again. On Wednesday it will be some DYN dives and swimming, Thursday another static session and on Sunday I'm planning a max dive. Wish me luck!

Preparing for the indoor German Championship

Now I'm getting started with the training for real again. I just checked my calender and it seems that Christmas, travelling and being sick has kept me away from my beloved monofin for 6 weeks! I can't remember when that happened last time...

To prepare for the upcoming competition in Berlin, I set up a 3 weeks program to get as quickly as possible back in shape. It consists of swimming (increasing the distance of each session up to 3000m), static (working up some confidence and relaxation) and dynamic (building up the distance towards 125m on trainings) 4-5 days a week. I will post more on this later.

Today I was in the water, swimming 2000m and doing some 50m dives. I realized one point where my flexibility was a lot worse than normal, my ankle! I guess I'll have to invest some time into stretching as well. Other than that, it felt wonderful to be underwater again and I'm already looking forward to training tomorrow :)