AIDA 2 star free diving Part 2

Rosie and I underwent the second part of our AIDA free diving course yesterday. We met Steve in the classroom at Capernwray, and sat the exam. Whilst it was not too taxing, it did check quite thoroughly whether I had been listening or not!

We then went into open water. We got weighted correctly and initially, it was just pulling down the line to 6m, and getting the feel for head first descents. Given my emphasis on good trim and body positioning on scuba, descending upside down and deliberately limiting my field of view felt very weird. We then progressed to 12m descents, I delayed equalising too long and had a few ear problems. These descents were "swimming" ones-not using the line to pull down, and duck diving from the surface. We both (I think) were finding that there was quite a bit of task loading. Trying to co-ordinate good diving style, finning technique, equalisation, "breathe ups" and body position during ascent and descent meant that I was unable to clear my mind and I think that this somewhat affected my performance.

Session 2 involved working up to some more depth. Rosie got down to over 17m, and I got to 15.5. I had a "good" learning experience when I tried to equalise, and some how managed to get some water in my mouth. Rather than do the obvious, and spit it out(!) I got a bit freaked out! Steve was with me (and actually supported my airway) so there was no risk as such, but it did spook me. It took a few dives for me to re-gain my confidence. Lastly, we looked at dealing with sambas (blackouts) at the surface-rescue techniques.

I was a little disapointed by my performance to be honest, and found that the clarity that came so easilly in the pool eluded. This may have been due to task loading, I don't think it was due to confidence in water. Once again though, Steve and team did a great job! Our final session is next Wednesday and am looking forward to it!

Free Diving AIDA 2 star

Rosie Hancock and I started our AIDA 2 star freediving course with Steve Millard on Sunday. We did a theory session-looking at the different competition disciplines, anatomy and physiology, nutrition, mind set and equipment for free diving. I have always breathed out during breath hold, and I have now found out why this is way bad! The breathe out "full" sensation is your bodies response to elevated CO2-by breathing out you are effectively lowering the P02, which could cause black-outs. In the afternoon, it was off to the pool for static and dynamic apnea sessions.

This was the really interesting part! Contrary to my expectations, your breath hold improves with repeated attempts (well up to about 5) The mammalian diving reflex is activated by repeated submersion, and it actually gets easier once it has kicked in. Anyway, my fourth attempt gave me a time of just under 3 mins, and Rosie's fifth 3:27. We then did static apnea, having spent some time practising turns and starts. I had a go with a mono fin-which I found quite straightforward. In scuba we used to teach a technique called dolphin kick, and the monofin works pretty much the same.

While we were in the pool 2 of Steve' s students acheived PB's for static apnea of 5 minutes- so we have some way to go!

Tomorrow we are writing the exam and doing some dives in open water. If equalisation goes OK, the plan is to get to 20m I believe!

I wanted to do this course for interest, and also to try and use the techniques as a stealth method of interacting with marine life, particuarly for photography. I used to spear fish years ago, and there is no doubt that the lack of bubbles and noise make marine life easier to approach. I'll continue to add to my blog as the course progresses, but so far, it has been not only interesting, but also suprised me in how my performance can improve with skilled tutelage

Sea Kayaking today

Caron and I went out for a paddle today. Force 5-6 winds limited our duration, but I actually managed to do some surfing in our new P&H Quest.