Team Sharkbait News

This is a post by Sanne.

Looking back at 2009 shows us that we’ve really gotten the best out of ourselves by finding the roots of our fun for freediving. Both Jorg and I had been searching for this important factor for a while, but it seems we both found it and are very much motivated for a new year of freediving. As Jorg already posted a set of goals for the new year, I need not say more that he’s motivated and ready to go.

Fun & Lessons learned
For myself when I look back at the last year it started out with my search for fun in freediving and I had no real distance and time goals set out. During the search, which lasted from January to about October, I was getting more and more interested in competing again. But as I really wanted to find out if that was really what I wanted, I had to hold myself off from competing. The first part of the year I spent a lot of time relaxing in the water and doing the other stuff I love to do, filming, producing and writing about it. I wrote a lot of “How-to” articles, which are very popular when I check the Google Analytics panel.

In september I could not keep myself from starting project “The Number 23” and thus inscribing to the Wiesbaden competition, which posed as a good marker to see if was capable of competing again. Wiesbaden turned out to be very succesful and I showed myself that I could do statics again without bailing early. Next test on the list was to see if I was able to cope with results that were not as high as I can, but werre still results I could live with as I did my best for them. So I went to Belgium with no high expectations and pure for fun and meeting up with everybody and it turned out I can easily live with performances I did my best for and not as far or long as I should be capable of. A big lesson learned in this year and the start of a new approach.

Furthermore a lot has happened and changed throughout the year, I got my balance for DNF sorted out better, made my first steps into actually competing with a monofin and improved a few monofin personal bests along the way. As I think back of the travelling I’ve done it’s quite a list: Austria Cuba, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark & Sweden) & Slovenia. Not all of them have been for freediving, but that’s not the point of all my travelling .

2010 – This year
We’re on the virge of getting into more monofin training and thourougly testing a Waterway Glide more intensively. This will bring new motivations along and a lot of nice training we’re both looking forward to. My goals are to enjoy freediving with my new mindset and see which distances and times it will bring me. Sounds like a no goal year, but it’s a real goal for me . The first test will be on the 23rd or January when Shark.nu is organizing a nice dynamic competition, let’s see what I can do with the Glide monofin.

Statistics
Even though we had a hick-up on our Google Analytics account, the statistics counting from 2nd half of May to the end of this year shows the trend of our visitor’s Country of origin. In total 4,606 visits came from 102 countries, I’ll post the top 10 countries:

1. United States
2. Netherlands
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. Poland
6. Czech Republic
7. Belgium
8. Australia
9. Canada
10. Spain

The top 5 referring sites, without shark-freediving and social sites like Twitter & Facebook are:

1. forums.deeperblue.com
2. apnea.cz
3. totalimmersion.net
4. dfa.nu
5. lubosub.com

The top 5 Search terms were:

1. monofin technique
2. freediving materials
3. finning technique
4. wiesbaden aida freediving
5. freediving mask

Thank you
It’s very motivating to see so many people know and find their way to our site and articles. We really appreciate all the feedback through comments and e-mail. We love answering your questions and continue to do so if they are related to us & freediving that is . We plan to continue on this course in 2010 as well. although the start for sharkbait is a bit different, as the website is ported over to the Shark-freediving.com portal and now has a different address: http://sharkbait.shark-freediving.com/. Which had also been the reason for me not to post any stories until the site had been fully ported over into the new environment. If you might spot any irregularities please contact us.

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

In the coming week we’re going to move  the Team Sharkbait website to our new Shark network server. While Shark Freediving was always about the world news about freediving, bringing news about records and competitions, this website was always about something else.

Team Sharkbait is about the personal freediving stories behind the people who are in Team Sharkbait. In the past we decided to break this up in a separate website, but  technology and social networking has evolved in such a way that it’s now possible to create communities that combine the best of everything.

With our new Shark network environment we will still bring the global freediving news through our frontpage but now the freedivers themselves can bring the personal stories as well. So the first personal stories we place at the Shark network is that of Team Sharkbait.

As it is a big move, you can expect a little downtime in the next week. We will keep both blogs in sync until January 1st. From then on everything will be up to date again directly from the shark network and the old sharkbait.shark-freediving.com domain.

This is a post by Sanne.

Last Friday I joined up with Daan, Judith and Pim for another freediving session at the Tongelreep. The pool was still swarming with swimmers doing laps after their performance in the Swim Cup, so we had to wait about 15 minutes. Of course we could easily use this time for some catching up , also Pim brought along the special underwater lensed goggles from Kerian Hibbs. Strange how your depth perception can be confused, when you’re not used to these goggles.

After the catching up it was time to do some dynamic’s. I got to borrow the Waterway Glide Fin from Judith again, who swam a fantastic 150 meters with it last week. So from that point of view it was no excuse to not try and at least do a 100 meter dynamic with that monofin. They also made me promise to add a turn when I reached 100m…good thing!

Daan asked me if I liked a 2 minute countdown, but for now I j ust wanted to do it. So I got into the water and took a few deep breath’s and went for it. Coming up to 50 meters my technique was still constant and I had my first contraction at 45meters. I Made the turn and tried to get back into the rythem of kick-kick-glide, but in a strange way I couldn’t really focus on the rythem. So I think I was alternating between kick-glide & kick-kick-glide . Never the less, I reached 100 meters fairly easy and reminded myself to the promise I made, turn at 100m! I made the the turn, did a small kick and glided to 108 meters. Did my surface protocol and recovered fast, I quote Daan on my dynamic: “in speedo’s, without packing and not enough neckweight, coming up like he just did 75. The kid’s got talent” really flatters me and makes me confident again.

We had a great time training at the Tongelreep, atmosphere was good. We were also very eager to see Pim do some freediving training again, he managed his own prediction of 7 meters DNF and superseded it with at least another 40 meters Well done!

Daan broke his Big Fat Bastard 2 and when I write this already made a Big Fat Bastard 3, what a massive thing . Judith did a training of easy 50’s, as she already proved to be able to swim quite the distance, quoting Pim: “a distance Sanne and me can only dream of”.

This is a post by Jorg Jansen.

Sanne and I had another good training in the pool. Our normal training schedule is starting to get shape again. First half is static, second is monofin. Easy does it.

We started with static again. The hot tub was filled with people from the previous diving (jump in the water type of diving) class and we  put ourselves in as well. Normally I don’t want to do static if somebody is watching my back. Crazy defect in my head just doesn’t like it when people are watching me doing freediving.

Today was different. Besides the fact that I don’t use goggles and a clock anymore for static already meant a big difference. But the fact that I started my statics with so many people in the hot tub is completly new for me. In the end I didn’t really mind doing it.

Static times are still at around 2 minutes, but it feels easier and easier and I’m doing them without goggles, which is already a big win for me. Never thought I could do it like this and stay (pretty much) comfortable.

Sanne did his required no-warmup static and managed to get to the minimum time he had to do, but there wasn’t much inspiration during his attempt and he stopped way before what he could do.

Next was monofin time. After doing a few 25 meter laps, it’s time for 25+. Legs are full with lactic acid after a few laps, so I switch to high speed, low speed, kick kick glide, etc. I do a very easy 50 meter. Sanne does a 75+ meter in a busy and unorganized pool.

Between the different laps I also do some 25 meter dynamic without fins, which feel great as well. Time for a dedicated lane during club-evening. Got the feeling that personal bests aren’t that far away anymore! Would be interesting to see a new freediving personal because the last one I did was almost 7 years ago.

This is a post by Sanne.

As this was the section in which I would focus on the technique aspect of my freediving, I put all of these into my training. The specialized training section focuses on:

• Technique
• Speed
• Stroke
• Depth

This week and last week I didn’t really wanted to push my mental limits in preparation for the competition, so I chose to only go for the static in the pool which resulted in a nice reassuring time of 5 minutes 09 seconds. Enough for me to still enjoy and reassuring me on the current path.

Technique

Arms stretched OK

Tuesday I put all my effort in getting my new arm stretch in my system. I have to keep telling myself now, RIGHT over LEFT and Lock right thumb. But today Jorg and I went out for the speed, stroke and depth training and by my own surprise I kept doing it the other way around… So it’s not hard coded yet, but I’ll give it some time and all be well. The other focus point is my leg stroke, which used to have a huge scissor in the technique and on top of that I might not have put the maximum force in the stroke at the time. So tuesday I really focussed on these points by thinking back to my breaststroke fins training. Which really helped me on finding the proper point of scooping the water.

Speed check
For the speed check I had been timing my dives and after today’s training with Jorg we decided on the following times, divided into the different parts for DNF:

• Inhale & immerse: 3 seconds
• Push off & lane: 25,5 seconds
• Turn: 1,5 seconds
• Coming up & Elbow on edge: 1,5 seconds

We calculated the time I had to do over a 50 meters DNF in a somewhat slower execution style: 3 + 25,5 + 1,5 + 25,5 + 1,5 = 57 seconds. And as the calculation was put to the test, it actually was a perfect hit, where I did it in 57 seconds exact. Even though the DNF I do is somewhat slower as I am capable of doing (Push-off and Lane in 22 seconds), this totally makes it feel more relaxed. For now we set the speed check at: 50 meters / 57 seconds = 0,877 m/s.

Strokes count
Tuesday I counted my strokes in a 20 meter pool and came to 2 strokes with the new alignment weight of 3 kilograms around my neck. Today in the 25 meter Tongelreep pool I did two different speeds and the slower one which I’d like to go by now takes me about 2,5 strokes and the somewhat quicker version I’ll need 3 strokes. Which already is a big improvement and showing the alignment is working out.

Depth control
As an added control measure Jorg also spotted my depth, which varied throughout the training of today, but overall this had to do with the lack of reference as the 25 meter pool in the Tongelreep is also 5 meters deep. I think I’m much better in a pool of about 1,8-2 meters in depth to control my depth and not loose too much effort on that point.