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What a freedive! I do not have any other words for it… Jorg and I went out for a freedive in Bosmolenplas, Panheel. We would have gone to the pool for freedive training, but the weather was extremely nice, so we decided to head for Panheel. The parking lot was filled with Scuba divers, suiting up or their dives. We unpacked and got ready for freediving, getting into the elios suit in the hot sun proved to be challenging

After we put on the C4’s and masks, we dove down to the first object in the lake, right away we spotted a nice perch hovering around the object. Just cool to see…

Continuing to the 10m buoy to check visibility, we noticed that nothing had changed since the last dive. It had slightly improved to a visibility of 6-7m, but below the 7-8 meters deep it all got blurry and green-ish. So we enjoyed the freediving by making bubble rings, which we had been practicing in the pool for quite a while now. Just an amazing thing to watch these bubble rings.

On our search for the PADI-object which helps fish and their habitat, we bumped into a pyramid object filled with tiny fish.

After that we found the PADI-object and with that we found the Pike we saw the last time. He was at the same location hovering in between the vegetation, accompanied by a perch family as well.

As we both felt like doing a little deeper dive, we continued to the 23m buoy to check out the depth’s again. Jorg hasn’t been doing depth since last year June, so we were eager to see how that would feel. After his first reconnaissance freedive he was exhilarated with the ease and enjoyment.

On our way back to the side of the lake we tried to make some more bubble rings and spotted yet another perch… Just so much fun and enjoyment in 1 hour and 35minutes of freediving.

Like I said at the start, what a freedive!

The freediving bug has really got me, again. Besides writing some daily posts on Shark Freediving about freediving news, competitions, records and a lot more, I find myself practicing freediving a lot (compared to the last year).

Besides the outdoor and pool work I did in the first week, I find myself holding my breath ‘to practice’ on very different occasions. Yesterday evening for example me and my girlfriend were in a small hotel pool just for some relaxation, but I couldn’t resist by doing some underwater laps dynamic no fins style. I had to turn many times because the pool was small, but the good thing was that I wasn’t interested in the length I did. I was just feeling it again, instead of measuring.

Not only I get the need to hold my breath in the pool but even outside the water I notice that I hold my breath again. For example walking up the stairs, sitting on the bicycle, walking from my home to my sons school, driving in the car (yes, that IS dangerous!) and some other moments through the day. The last time I did this was in the first 3 years of freediving when I just started!

Wow, the freedive feeling is back and it’s feeling great again!

Although this is an ongoing process, which in my case will never seize to exist (because I love it), the web-design for the website has changed. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to integrate everything back into one place again, which Wordpress is actually capable of. The only thing that still needs work is the forum, but that can stay this way for now, until I find time to redesign and integrate it.

I deliberately used the ‘Read more’ for this article, so it doesn’t use up the website more than needed. I would really like to invite the people who read our content through RSS or mail to take a look at the website to see if they can find all information.

Read more…

Little over a month ago I purchased a nice little gadget which lets me record in High Definition quality (720p). The gadget is just as small as a phone and weighs even less. It’s a Flip Mino HD and it brings mobile HD video to your doorstep. So the perfect opportunity for me to test it and thus I’m bringing it to the freediving we do.

Check out this small video clip in HD

This is just a short impression clip we shot during the last 2 training sessions (The last run of 1m 30s static schedule of Indoor & Outdoor freediving in Bosmolenplas, Panheel), so far I think the FLip Mino HD can bring us that extra footage we can use in our video clips » enriching the freediving experience like we do in the moment.

Now all we need is a underwater casing for this small and mobile HD recorder, as they only feature an underwater casing for the Flip Ultra.

After a good night sleep after my successful first pool training I just wanted to do some deep freediving again. Of course it would be better to do some freediving in Egypt or the Maldives, Sanne and I would have to settle for Panheel in the south of the Netherlands.

So on Saturday morning it was time to pack my bag again with my freediving gear. That has been a long time! Glad I cleaned up the garage the week before so I knew where I left all my stuff.

Again Sanne picked me up and before we could drive to the lake I had to do a small medical test. It’s always fun to see a doctor’s face and expression when you talk about freediving! Fortunately it was a fast doctor so after 20 minutes it was time to go to our final destination.

When we arrived after a 30 minute ride the sun was shining and the water looked flat. I really was looking forward to dive in. I brought 2 wetsuits: my 2,5 mm elios and my 5 mm submarine. As I was planning to put on the elios because it gives me great flexibility, Sanne heavily disagreed. He already did an outdoor freedive session 2 weeks ago with his 6,5 mm and it was still very colt.

As Sanne has believed in my coaching advice in the last year it was time to turn the roles and listen to him So I took my old submarine suit and before we knew it we were already standing in the water. The water felt great and the good suit, socks and gloves prohibited flowing in of any water. Even when I put my head in the water it still felt comfortable.

First object to conquer was the closest buoy with had a line to 10 meters. I just took a few breaths and went down. When I thought I was halfway I already hit the bottom plate with my hands. Wow that went fast! I just relaxed over there and when I felt the urge to breath I want up again. First dive, dive time 1:10. Not bad for a first.

Sanne and I alternated some dives at the buoy and then it was time to take the next object; another buoy with a line to some “treasury” at 10 meters depth. This really started to feel like more! When I came up again I looked to the 35 meter buoys that were far away from where we were. Would we do the 15 min swim again to there on the first day?

No, just relaxing! So it was time to visit the flora & fauna habitat they setup in the lake. An object with trees on it and made so that divers can go to a small short tunnel of around 10 meters. First dive down to around 6 meters I didn’t look properly and had a small collision with a big eel which had a bigger neck then me! Damn, it’s good to freedive.

After I came up Sanne went down and came up reporting that he saw a big pike. Life is good! This is the stuff I’m doing it for. The next 10 dives were all to watch the pike swimming around in his habitat. It such a pleasure to watch this. Great stuff! Even did some FRC dives to keep under easier.

After watching the pike for around 15 minutes we did 2 dives through the small tunnel and enjoyed it a lot. The water in the lake was pretty okay until 5 meters depth. The tunnel was at 7 and was pretty dark. I couldn’t see Sanne who was right in front of me.

Last object to conquer was another 10 meter bouy. There were some scubadivers over there and it’s always fun to watch scubadivers doing their thing without noticing that we are hanging right besides them watching them at 10 meters depth.

To finish of the session we tried to dive from the 10 meter platform we started with back to shore. Only thing is that I made a mistake and started of the wrong side from the platform. That probably explained why the bottom wasn’t going up.. But as always fun to do!

After more then 1 hour in the water it was time to get out completely psyched up and ready to do another dive. Exactly the feeling I needed for the coming week!