Phase One Nearly Done

Just one month left before the CIPA Open in Nice kicks off. Last weekend, I spent a very pleasant 2 days training with my saltFree mates at the NDC. The two main objectives for the weekend were to do a 50 metre dive, and a 20m+ dive with the new housing ( without camera inside ). The dive went like a dream, apart from a sticky right ear about 2m from the plate. It was just good to get there, as it’s been 8 months now since hitting anything deeper than about 45m. Housing internals stayed nice and dry with all knobs and buttons fiddled with at 25 metres. The NDC was the wettest I have ever seen it on the Saturday, and the busiest I have ever seen on the Sunday. The saltFree’ers were a bit more thinned out than usual, but no less good company. Sometimes the peace and quiet of diving with two or three others, easily makes up for the shallower depths we often dive in those situations.

I’ve also nearly completed the intermittent hypoxia training phase, of my two-phase static training programme ( see previous posting ). This is very experimental, and something I may well not repeat again. The unconventional ‘IHT’ has been demanding, and co-incided with a certain amount of not feeling 100%. I’ve had stomach pains and mild nausea, along with general tiredness and feeling ‘washed out’. There’s every possibility that this isn’t actually doing me any benefit, and could actually be doing the opposite. At least I have been through the hypercapnia training before and had no ill-effects, so I feel confident going into this phase.

Last but not least, I have decided to announce my static record attempt to the BFA. Records Officer Steve Fuller encouraged me to take this step, in order to raise the profile of UK freediving. As BFA Press Officer, I can hardly argue with that.