Bye World Championship

Photo Kimmo Lahtinen

Well I got to be honest, it feels a little empty right now. I made an effort to prepare myself for this competition and I really enjoyed the training I did prior to the event. I like pushing on to see where it will take me.
I knew I had not done enough water training. But I also knew I had done quite a lot of dry training.

But I had no idea how the competition would be like or how to behave around the other good athlete. Or how they would behave around others. You just never know.
I should not have worried. I met so many cool and nice people that also are really good freedivers which makes for an interesting combination. So many good tips and advices. So many ideas I got from watching people prepare, train, compete. Some extremely relaxed and some extremely focused.

I didn't feel like I wanted to go to the WC and just see how it goes and hope for the best.
I set some goals for myself. More than just try my best and have fun.

- I wanted white cards and be top 10 in both DNF and Static.
- I also wanted to beat the swedish record in DNF of 162 meters in the final.

Photo Kimmo Lahtinen

Sounds a bit arrogant since I have only done 134 meters DNF in competition and 6.31 min in Static.
But I don't see it as arrogant. And I see it as fun.
Setting high goals doesn't exclude having fun and being relaxed. Plus you always finds a way of pushing youself. I know some see freediving as this pure thing that is holy and it is wrong to have any kind of ambition with numbers. All about emotions.
I too like what freediving is doing to my body and how it makes me feel.
But I ALSO like what ambition and goals and determenation are doing to my freediving...

Did I make my goals?'
Yes. And no. I finished 8th place in the DNF with 155 meters and finished 9th place in Static with 7.15 min.. So 7 meter short of the swedish record. But I gave it a fair try. I couldn't gone any longer that day. But white cards and PBs in all of the events.
And the best 10 days in my short freediving life...

 STA 7.15 min Filmed by Stig Severinsen

  DNF 155 meter

STATIC FINAL

On the last day of the WC it was the Static Final and there was a great final heat at the end between some heavy-weights where the medals were going to be handed out. Or so we thought...Goran Colak had early on done a 8.10 min hold and probably thought that was a bit weak for a medal and Adrian Kwiatkowski had done 8.09 min.But in the final heat the always smiling Guy Brew drifted away after little over a minute ( packing BO?) and left were William Trubridge, Ulf Dextegen and Alexey Molchanov.
Trubridge came up first on 7.21 min and the two silver and bronze medalists from the last WC stayed down and looked really strong. Then Ulf came up on 7.57 min with a white card and then Alexey on 8.03 but got a red card and disqualification.
So gold to Colak, silver to Kwiatkowski and bronze again to swedens Ulf Dextegen. Really impressive...

I did a competition personal best with 7.15 min and finished on 9th place and was pretty happy with the way the dive went. Felt better from the beginning and had control all the way. My thoughts wandered away a few times but I managed to slow the thoughts down  to slow motion and kind of enjoyed the experienced.

Photos from a film by Stig Severinsen

Coach Petter ( in fashion trendy shorts) again did a great job. Not to much talking but the right words at the right times. He is also really relaxed before the dive which makes it easier to stay focus, without overdoing it.

Il Capitano Philip was busy with his camera and  took some great photos during the hole competition that we might see more of some day. He has a way with pictures...

Static Qualification

In the Static qualification there were a lot of results around 6-7 min and a few ones over 7 min from the big names like Ulf Dextegen (7.28), Alexey Molchanov (8.03), Goran Colak (7.20) Guy Brew (7.11).
By the look on there faces there will be alot more to come from them in the Sunday final.

I made it to the final with a 6.53 min breath hold that had it's ups and downs.
Did a sloppy last breath and wasn't sure how much to pack and did a few to many  which made the first couple of minutes really uncomfortable. But I managed to get a positive feeling after a while and got more confident that I could stick it out. But again, rookie mistakes that I hate to do. So back to the drawing board and stay with what I know and have been doing. It will probably work better than something I come up with in the last minute...

Coach Petter and Il Capitano Philip took a break from the seaside resort and headed back up to the mountaines where the coffe always taste good and the surroundings are a little different.

Bar Centrale in Agordo

Friday is the final in DNF. Big day...

Static No

I'm slowly getting back to feeling good about Static again thanks to warm ups.
After my second competition where I did 6.11 min I thought things had to change, so I started training only with No Warm Up. Basically just breath normal for a few minutes and then I did one purge and the final breath.
It started off feeling quite ok and the contractions started coming around 3 min but never to heavy. I did a few nice tries over 7 minutes and I felt great coming up. Which is the hole idea with No Warm Up.
The unpleasent part starts quite early but is under control, and the you are very clear headed for the last fight part of the breathhold. I was never close to samba.

But then I started taking it a bit further and did No Breath Up. Basically just take one breath and go. No deepbreating, no purge, no nothing. And an amazing thing happened. I was up to 7 min easily right away and did 7.30 min even after some light exercise. It felt unbelievable.
I thought I was gonna go to 9 min in a weeks time...
Not so much..
Before I knew it contractions started coming at 2.30 min. Then 2 min. And then..
I started giving up breathholds at 3 min.
What the hell???

After some headscratching and talks with the Static king of Sweden Ulf Dextegen
(who´s always doing No Warm Ups but has also been at the same crossroad) I decided I was not ready or experienced enough for this.
So I took a little break from Static and started slowly with Warm Ups again and it just feels...like coming home.
We´ll see where it takes me but I think for the World Championship this is the right path for me now.

Static Apnea 6.31 min

My first result in a competition.I didn't find the "happy place" that is so important in Static, but I knew I could still get a decent result out of it. I had done this dive in my head quite a few times, and really gone over what I should do then and how it should feel there and what if and so on. In the end, none of that happened of course, and I was left with just trying to fight it out. The fight I really enjoy. Since I mostly done dry statics I was never comfortable floating and trying to relax. When I got something to hold on to it got more relaxing and I knew I could do it.
I have to start training wet.