Traveling to Wiesbaden was a fun trip again…although it tends to get boring for TomTom 150km without exiting the highway.

Arriving at the pool where I met Andreas Hiemeyer, he had just finished his static in 5:13, so he was very proud of doing so. Good to see him progress that good. Registering and putting down my gear next to the swedish competitors, Jorg had found William on the way in and Eric van Riet Paap also came to check up on things.

Static
Eric and I were the lanes next to each other and Eric asked me not to peek during our performances Luckily for him I had quite a bad day with keeping my mind occupied for 5 minutes or more. The mind being stronger than my will, giving into it after only 3:24, where the fighting usually starts. I think the picture explains the way I felt after such a nice static… Eric finished in a stunning 7:07, also taking the Dutch record which hadn’t been broken in almost 3 years.

Wiesbaden
In between the static and dynamic we had some time to kill and we took the car and investigated the center of Wiesbaden, had a Bradwurst sandwich and a Zuckerwatte (lots of sugar :P) and visited a few sport shops. Sitting by a nice lake, having beautiful weather did make the day complete, ready to get back to the pool.

Dynamic with fins
With the terrible performance of static in my mind, Jorg and Marieke (my girlfriend) made a bet; If I was to go under the 100m dynamic, it would be me paying the meal at Burger King on our way back. If I managed to break my personal record, Jorg would have to pay the meal. So for those people who were standing at the side of the pool, not knowing why Jorg kept shouting about Burger king…now you know.

The performance was on the automatic pilot, performing like clockwork (1 min 20s = 100m) and wanting to only make the 100m mark. Not for a burger, not for the bet, but just for me. As I never wanted to do a dynamic like last year. That was the one and only reason I did surface at 100m. Andreas was swimming in lane 2 together with my official top and managed to do a nice 107m (2min 40s), making it to the overall 5th place!

Overall
Overall Wiesbaden was not bad, we had a great day, loads of fun and the performance of 100m was just fine, but static was Aaaahhh.

We said goodbye and got ourselves a nice tasty burger on the way back…

Check the gallery for more pictures

…is a thing I keep in mind all the time. The “Sharkbait”-way has always been different and throughout time we’re trying to open up our view on the approach to freediving to the outside world.

I know that trying to be different and proving it whilst doing so is quite the bumpy road, as the difference triggers a certain expectancy from the opposer. That’s where I get my drive to show there is a different approach to things.

I originate as a soccer player, always working hard and trying to make my effort for the team in a way they get energized to play better. Making the step to freediving at the end of 2003, was refreshing and challenging. Over the first years I got a kick out of a good training, trying to improve, perform and rise to the edge. The major difference for me was that I now had a challenge within myself, where my mind proves to be an unexplored area.

Me being a disbeliever in the start, where I believed 5 minutes was the limit for me…Jorg has been there to support me with the same way of thinking. Stimulating me in a pursuit of showing a different approach to freedive training and rising above myself.

I know I’m on a distinguished path, proving it by approaching the freedive-world differently and showing respectable performances. I’m not in an urge to convince the world our way is better, merely showing there IS a different approach to freedive training & performance!

What’s this? Another project 13? Well, yes and no. It’s another 13 weeks of training but it will be completely different then the first project 13 we did this year. We ended project 13 unofficially on June 28th with some in-water tests and I was pretty pleased to see the results of that.

So what happened after that June 28th test? Sanne did try some dry statics, but truth to be told while his body still could continue, his will to do so was empty. And that’s exactly why we decided that he would continue his dry statics after his vacation to the Dominican Republic.

But even after his wonderful and relaxing vacation it was clear that it was better to hold of from statics a little longer and in the end, because of a lack of a real training program, he didn’t do anymore dry statics at all until now!

So what did we do in the month August and September? Actually not much at all with regards to freediving training. We did around 6 outdoor freediving sessions and a few pool sessions for the fun of it. And that’s really about it. No dry freediving exercises, just having fun.

So 2 days ago we had a freediving competitions in Wiesbaden, which Sanne will tell you more about in a few days. It was a fun and good competition but not for the reasons most people will think of. It really confirmed some of the things we already found out in the two weeks preceding the competition and only strengthen the ideas and blueprint I already set out for the next 13 weeks.

I’m not going into full detail about it yet, but general goals for the next 13 weeks is for sure lactic acid work, max performance training, the monofin and especially mind game tricks! Like I told you in my conclusion of the last project 13, Sanne his body is in tremendous shape so that is for sure not the problem. We’re going to tackle the rest of the stuff that we didn’t reach yet. With the first project we learned how to fine tune the body and now we have to learn how to fine tune the mind.

So today is the first day of week 1. What does week 1 consists of? To be honest? Not that much! The first week is only there to get used to the new exercises and to train with a training program again. So no freewheeling anymore. Dedication and intensity is once again the thing that will drive Sanne through his exercises. And this week it consists of 2 pool sessions and a few fitness sessions and that’s about it.

See you next week, where I will talk more about some of the different aspects of the new program. And if you want to support Sanne with his new program, then leave a comment on the site! It’s always great to see support from people.

After project 13 and my trip to the Dominican Republic, I haven’t really been training for freediving since I came back from the Caribbean. When I returned we did visit the outdoor waters of Panheel a few times, but my time in the pool was still zero. Since friday 31st of august I’ve been doing a small test training to establish my current freediving capabilities.

The first day was really a test day and brought us to the knowledge I did not really go back in shape. To be sure we planned a few extra tests for last Friday and an easy 75m DNF, was a result of my mind thinking 75m was enough. I wasn’t even close to being out of breath.

After that we picked up a test with a freediving specific exercise I did almost throughout the whole project 13. This exercise is about maximum output on the physical part versus efficiency on the breath holding part. During project 13 when I surfaced after such an exercise, I was pretty much always gasping for fresh air, because of the intensity. So my guess was I’d be beat by the time I reached my goal for that day… But as it turned out I had to upgrade the distance with 10 extra meters to gain the same effect of gasping for air again.

Brings me back to my current path where I can start training again with a great shape and full of new energy. Next week at September 22nd I’ll be competing in Wiesbaden, to put my current shape against my test results from the past 2 weeks.

Things I haven’t checked out yet are my static performances, drywalks and dynamic with fins. So this Friday I’ll be bringing my newly bought C4 Falcon 25 to the pool and test them against my freediving performances with the Gara 3000. Hopefully it will bring more control to my fin stroke and make it more fluent. I’ll report about our findings this Friday, so stay tuned