Today I’ve been to a boat store to pick up the accessories for my lanyard and mounting them into a proper lanyard. Earlier this week I had to order a few of the components as he didn’t have them in stock. So I ordered a carabiner which could clip around a cable of at least 15mm and a quick release hook with a workload of 200 kg and a maximum load of 400kg. Both components are stainless steel and have a length of 70mm and respectively 35mm.

Combining them into a lanyard was the next step in the “making of…”, so by the rules I figured that a cable length of approximately 500mm would do the trick. So we took a plasticized wire rope and fixed a cable-guide (for a minimal bending radius) and mounted the carabiner and the quick release to the 500mm wire rope. The wire rope is clamped and shortened, leaving no loose ends to scar me or tear my suit.

The quick release is attached to a ankle/wrist band with quite a large D-ring, but it suits the design in proportions. This band is also used for fitness exercises for the legs and covers the working load as well. As an extra safety measure, as seen in other lanyard designs, I added the quick release and attached a rope with a ball to that (of course I still have to shorten it).

With all things mounted together the distance between the center of the 15mm cable and the center of my wrist will be approximately 700mm, which seems like a good length. The total weight of the lanyard is just under 300 grams, so I reckon I’ve thought of all the points described in the regulations. I hope the lanyard gets considered valid to AIDA regulations and does it’s job when the emergency poses.

Let me know what you think of my lanyard…

Last Friday Kostas invited a few friends from Bruxelles over to freedive with us at the Tongelreep, Eindhoven.

We started of in the training pool where we analyzed the technique and showed them a few of the exercises I normally do. But most important we had fun doing some laps in the 50m pool.

After that it was time to go to the -5m pool, where we reserved to freedive for a short while. It’s always too short in time to be there, as the water is always very clear. It proves to be a perfect area to make some bubble rings to swim through. Although it maybe “only” 5 meters of depth, it’s very nice to make a few freedives there. Our guests from Bruxelles seem to agree to that.

It’s been an enjoyable evening again and we have been invited to visit them back in Bruxelles sometime, although they had to admit their pool wasn’t comparable to the Tongelreep Thanks for visiting us and I hope you enjoyed it.

Yesterdays performance went really good, with a 50m warm-up I was ready to go and realize a personal best for me in a competition of 94m’s. They actually penalized me for pulling, but then again pulling and pushing off from the bottom are rules made for things you won’t gain a single bit extra to your performance.

I’m very pleased with my result and that’s what counts.

After a good night’s rest we’re getting ready for my OT’s in static at 9:45 and dynamic with fins at 14:51.

After that we’ll be having the dinner and after that we’ll drive home again…for monday, work, school and life continues

As a new year has come along, Team Sharkbait’s best wishes go out to all our readers. Also a big thanks for the people who keep visiting back here!

Here’s a small statistics update since our new site started february 2007: 41 posts, 20 comments and about 6500 visitors from 91 different countries.

Thank you all for tracking my freediving blog!

Upcoming Events 2008
The new events have also been chosen for the first 4 months of 2008.

26th and 27th of January
7ème Coupe de Dauphins, Geneva, Switzerland

Status:
National Open with AIDA Ranking Recognition WR with doping-test
Disciplines:
Static (STA), Dynamic with fins (DYN) and Dynamic without fins (DNF)

William Winram asked us to drop by in this competition when we were at Wiesbaden last year, so I’m looking forward to this!

12th - 18th of April
Bizzy Blue Hole - Dahab, Egypt

Status:
National with guest with AIDA Ranking
Disciplines:
Constant Weight No fins (CNF), Constant weight (CWT) and Free Immersion (FIM)

We talked to one of the organizers in the Tongelreep Eindhoven during one of our training sessions, she would be thrilled for us to compete and report from the event.

19th - 26th of April
Shark-Bait Xplores Sharm El Sheikh

Status:
Personal freediving Xperience and lot’s of freediving fun
Disciplines:
Xploring depth’s whilst totally relaxing and enjoying the coral reefs

A well deserved holiday with my girlfriend at the nice coral’s of Sharm el Sheikh! Nicely closing the first 4 month’s of 2008. After that it’s back to the drawing board and hit the waters of the Tongelreep in Eindhoven again

Is there such a thing as training too much…I think it depends on what your goals are and how you implement them into your life. In the past six months I had quite a few questions coming to my mind about my goals, motivation and what I like to do in life. It occurred to me that I experience more joy in freedive training itself then participating in a freediving competition. Although it’s always a lot of fun to go to freediving competitions, it doesn’t bring me the joy a training can bring me. But don’t get me wrong that I’m going to set back in my participation in freediving competitions, I just like to highlight the fact of enjoying training.

Whilst training I can focus on my goals more easily, whilst keeping in mind that I’m doing it all to make progress in my freediving experience. When Jorg and I set goals for a certain period, these goals will keep my mind strong for a “down” period where I don’t have a strong motivation. When I go into the gym for my fitness-exercises, I won’t think about how big my arms will get after training them. My thoughts will be that I’m training for my overall body fitness and I’m trying to stay in shape so that I can elevate my freediving performances due to a fit body. I’ve found that to be a good motivational factor to get more from my training and myself.

So how come you never see it paying off in competitions? That’s the question… and not a odd question to ask. But if I look at my training and performances during the past freedive years, I’ve booked some serious progress over those years. For me knowing that I’m capable of doing a 7 minute static and actually doing it in a competition is a world apart. I’d rather do this in training and see Jorg smile about it*, then doing this in a competition where proving yourself means more than the performance itself (in my experience).

* An example actually caught on camera: at the end of this clip from my 13 project Jorg was just as pleased as I was with my 125m performance.

I enjoy my training and I will train as much as it takes to keep myself satisfied whilst relaxing at home.