morning gruel

like i said, no brain damage

When people find out that I freedive, they often ask me how long I can hold my breath. When I answer six minutes, I often get incredulous looks -- like they think I'm lying or something. Then they go on to say things like, That's impossible, you get brain damage after four minutes.

Well, here's something for the non-believers. Oh, and hopefully the rest of you are interested too. This is the video footage of me at the nationals, holding my breath for six minutes and four seconds. It's a personal best.

Don't worry, the video isn't six minutes long -- they fast forward through some of it. And for those of you who really want to see what a competition's all about, here's video of my dynamic swim and my ocean dive.

All this and not the slightest bit of brain damage. Then again, how would I know?

What was I talking about?

six minutes without brain damage

This past weekend I participated in the Canadian national freediving competition. Morgaine and our friend Heather came out to cheer me on. It was great to have a fan base!

The static apnea event was held on the first day of the competition. Static is possibly my favourite event of all. If you don't already know, it simply consists of holding your breath while floating face down in the water. I have aimed for a six minute hold twice before in competition and blacked out both times. (Don't worry, there's lots of safety people and procedures.) But this time I finally managed to hold my breath for six minutes and four seconds -- my personal best time ever! Let me tell ya, six minutes is a pretty long time if you're not breathing. I placed second in the static event as another competitor was able to hang on seven seconds longer for a total time of six minutes and eleven seconds. But I can't complain about coming in second. I mean come on, personal best!

The dynamic event was on day two and I swam a respectable 75 meters in the pool. I think I could have gone farther, but one my goals for this competition was to pull off perfect performances and not black out or get disqualified.

On day three we hit the ocean. As you may recall, I had a minor injury in training a couple of weeks back and I was unable to dive to the depth that I wanted without risking further injury. So I did a short, clean dive to 15 meters. Unfortunately, doing such a shallow dive kept me out of the running for a medal. But I still had a great time and it was a beautiful day to be in the ocean.

And then to finish off my AMAZING weekend, I broke my fin. Yup, I broke my specially ordered from the Ukraine, took months to get here, hand-made fiberglass, rather expensive monofin. It now looks like this:

Note the large tear right up the middle. I'm hopeful that I can repair it though. Anyone out there good with fiberglass?

Anyway, it was a great weekend and Morgaine took some wonderful photos which may show up on her blog, but I'm guessing we might have to wait until wedding season is over...

holding my breath for three days

The Canadian national freediving competition begins today.

Can't write... holding breath...

pearl diver in training

I was freediving in the ocean this weekend to prepare for the national competition in a couple of weeks.

It was a great day for diving. The sun was out, the water was calm, and I was with a great group of people. I planned a dive to 26 meters (about 85 feet), which if successful would be my deepest dive ever. My deepest before now had been 25 meters so 26 wasn't much of a stretch. My warm-up dives were easy. I was in a great mental and physical condition to do the dive. I rested on the surface of the ocean and listened to my trainer countdown. Finally I took one very deep breath and dove.

It was an easy dive. When I hit the 26 meter mark I felt that I could easily go further. I swam back up and got to the surface safely. I was thrilled with my accomplishment and I felt great... except for the fact that I couldn't really catch my breath. I felt congested. You see, one thing that happens when you dive deep is your lungs fill with fluid in order to compensate for the extreme pressure your body is under. This is part of the natural human response to being underwater. Usually the fluid is reabsorbed into your body after a few minutes and the congested feeling goes away.

But the feeling didn't go away as quickly as it should have. The thing is, I had incurred a slight injury to my lungs. It was my own fault, as I had made a slight mistake on my technique during descent. It's too complex and too uninteresting to non-divers for me to explain it all here. But the result of the injury is that I am now out of the ocean for a couple of weeks and out of deep diving for several weeks. What that means is no deep diving at the nationals, which will probably keep me from placing in the top three. But I can still do my best in the pool events and I know I'm going to have a great time.

out of focus

After my rather limp day of training last week, I realized that in order to do my best at anything I have to focus.

You see, I have many things that I want to do in my life. What that means for me is that I tend to do things in bits and pieces and, more often than not, not quite complete anything to its fullest potential.

This lack of focus has always been a problem for me. But I have finally decided to kick this problem. So, as I have a freediving competition coming up in four weeks, for the rest of the month I will focus my attention on training and only on training. Other projects can wait, but that competition is quickly approaching and I have to ready myself. There will be no writing (except for my blog) even though I have a book project and a stageplay to finish. Because I need to learn to focus.

Just diving. Only diving. Only training. After the competition I can focus my energy on something else. In this way, I will learn to complete projects with my fullest attention. I will learn to see something through to the end and not just do it half-assed. Only diving. Only training. That's it.

That was the plan I came up with yesterday. And then this morning the computer called to me. You see, I have been teaching myself InDesign so that I can design my own book projects and make them look exactly the way I want. And it's just so much fun! So I didn't get much training done today. But boy, my book is lookin' good!

the eye of the tiger shark

Last night I was at the UBC pool doing my freediving course.

It was the eighth week of a twelve week advanced training course. Now, this is not my first freediving course. In fact, all of the stuff that we've been taught so far is stuff that I already know. So last night when we hit the pool to do some training I thought, this will be easy. But for some reason it wasn't; I found that I underperformed significantly when compared to training I've done in the past.

The funny thing is, I know that I can do better. I could have done better. But the truth is, I kinda gave up last night. For some reason I just wasn't all that interested.

And now I have started to worry. Where has my competitive spirit gone? Does it still exist or do I really not care? Am I really not interested in exploring my full potential anymore? I mean, just last year I felt so great about my training, about winning a medal, about my potential for world-class standing in this sport. But more recently I've been questioning the point of competition, of trying to be THE BEST at something. What is the point? Why do I want to be better than someone else at something? Why do I even want to do better than I have in the past? These are the questions that I'm struggling with in the lead up to the national competition at the end of the month. These aren't the most ideal questions to have in my mind going into a competition. But I think they're good questions all the same.

i am the grand marshal of the cakefest parade

Last week I got back to the gym...again.

You see, I have the Canadian National Freediving Competition coming up at the end of May and I haven't been training properly. I've watched my eating habits veer toward unhealthy. I've skipped working out if it looked just a little too chilly outside when it was time to get up and go to the gym.

This was pretty much the same place I was in before the last competition when I blacked-out twice and therefore finished LAST. So proper training has begun. Running, gym, eating right. I've got about six weeks to be where I want to be physically and mentally. No problem.

Or so I thought. I remembered that it's Morgaine's birthday this weekend. And what comes with a birthday? Cake! What's the big deal about cake, you ask? Well, last year after my birthday I decided that one cake wasn't enough. Over the next few weeks I staged my very own cakefest, which is kinda like Oktoberfest with pints of chocolate icing instead of beer. My cake craze signaled the downfall of my personal fitness regime over the winter.

And it's funny how after eating lots of cake other unhealthy foods seem a little less unhealthy. Suddenly a grilled cheese sandwich is good for me because it has less sugar than cake. And chips have less fat. A milkshake has no flour, therefore less carbs. Even skinny little bio-engineered Pocky looks like a healthy option next to a big fat slice of chocolate cake.

Perhaps when cake is presented this weekend I should summon the kind of willpower I use when I hold my breath. A difficult task indeed because for me it's actually easier to hold my breath for six minutes than to say no to a piece of delicious birthday cake.

the collector

I received a 'friend request' on facebook yesterday.

The thing is, it was from a person that I have never met who lives in Croatia. I've never even heard of her. So I look at her profile. Okay, she's wearing a wetsuit in her photo and she lists freediving as one of her interests. On further investigation, I find that we have two friends in common who are also freedivers and who are also wearing wetsuits in their photos. Hmm, in my profile picture I am wearing a wetsuit too!

So I have to wonder: Is she a friend 'collector', someone who seeks out people with similar interests and asks them to be her friend? I imagine her as a child, pinning butterflies onto a large board in her room. A little label under each one states species, location, date... Perhaps now freedivers have become her thing with facebook being the virtual board she pins us all on. We do, I suppose, make for an interesting collection as we are a somewhat rare species with small pods spread throughout the world. So she sees someone with a wetsuit and thinks, I must have them for my collection.

Then I remember something about freedivers: they like to travel. Maybe she's thinking ahead, creating this global network of freedivers so that she'll always have a place to stay anywhere in the world. Well, if she ever ends up in Vancouver I suppose she can stay on my couch for a night or two.

But the minute she tries to stick me with a pin, she's out.

will do a backflip for fish

Strangest thing I've done this week: Underwater Easter Egg Hunt.

That's right, my freediving club held an underwater easter egg hunt yesterday. Of course, you can't just throw a bunch of eggs into the ocean. We used golf balls. So there I was in the ocean, diving for golf balls. Now, it is unlikely that this is your idea of a good time. But I have to tell you, it was a blast.

When I got out of the water holding a handful of golf balls, there were people on the shore looking at me like I was an alien. That's when I realized it: this is strange. So then I asked myself, how did I develop into a person who would think that this is a good idea?

I have to blame it on my grandparents. Growing up, they had a pool that I spent EVERY SINGLE DAY in. When they realized that I liked swimming underwater, they bought rings that I could dive for. They bought hoops that I could swim through. And my entire family would watch as I fetched the rings that they had thrown in.

And now I realize that from young age I was being prepared for life. I was being encouraged to explore my potential and hone my natural abilities. Unfortunately, I have the same abilities as a trained dolphin.

I wonder if there are any openings at Sea World.

i hate to admit it

Here's something that I never admit to...I'm sick.

I am very proud of my resilient constitution. In the past, when everyone around me has been incapacitated by the flu or a cold, I have remained completely oblivious to what it even feels like to be sick. Anytime I've felt something coming on, one good night's sleep and I've been 100%.

But this cold has lingered. I actually feel quite well except for a throat so sore that I'm currently living off of hot water with lemon and honey. And now I can't help but wonder what has changed in my life to make me susceptible to illness...

It's probably my job: All of the sick people coming in and handing me money -- the number one pathogen carrier on the planet.

Yup, it must be the job. I'm sure it has nothing to do with swimming in the ocean in February.