Today we agreed to meet up at 9:30 to do the relay freedive where 2 teams head up against each other in a speed relay session. the dives should have all the 3 styles; free immersion, constant weight with fins and without fins to a depth of 20, 30 and 40 meter. The team can decide which style to go with which depth.

I teamed up with David and Muir and we were up against a danish team, Muir got his first 20m without fins properly and David did his 30 meters with fins and with hang-over, after which I headed down for the free immersion to 40 meters. But at 33 meters the equalization proved to be a bit harder, which must have been the stress of time related competition. So I returned to the surface without a tag and we were disqualified :). Actually we didn’t really stand a chance against the first danish team. They got all depth within 2 minute and 30 seconds. Good fun to participate in!

For the second part of the day we set out to the canyon, which is a dive area nearby the Blue hole. David, Marieke and I went in the water with a buoy and got out to the point where the entrance to the fish bowl was. Prepared the buoy for easier descent. The entrance of the fish bowl is at about 16,5 meters, which we descent to with a free immersion style to save energy. First David showed me where the entrance was and after that we took a few minutes of rest and prepared for a dive through the first part of the canyon.

We dove down and got into the fish bowl, which was a kind of underwater underground cave in the shape of a bowl, at the end of the bowl the path bended down to about 23 meters to end up underneath a massive crack through which we ascended to the surface again. Breath-taking to do this and really got imprinted in my mind. We mad e a second dive down there and I filmed David going through this cave…awesome pictures and never to forget, this is what freediving is about!

At around 16:00 we headed out to sharm el sheikh to have the rest of the holiday in the Reef Oasis Beach Resort.

After our arrival at the airport we got through customs and there was a cab-driver waiting to pick us up. He brought us to Dahab in quite a good tempo, we were a bit confused by the way they communicate on the road here, but after a while the flashing and claxon fade into the background.

As we’d just checked into the hotel (Nesima), Rahel called me to meet up with the rest of the group. So there we ate a quick meal and met up with all the other freedivers around.

We managed to tag along with the excursion next day to Ras Mohamed. With a few check-ups and a bag searches, we were on a boat to the dive area. A nice quiet place surrounded by mountains and a few other boats.The first stop was a good warm-up area with a few corals and a lot of trigger fish.

After a nicely cooked meal on the boat we were on our way to the 2nd and last site for that day. This site featured a nice long coral wall and one beautiful cave to freedive through. I think that was quite an amazing part of the day.

Time to head back to Shar el Sheikh and from that point we travelled back to Dahab. When we were back there was a small briefing about tomorrows schedule. We’re asked to meet up at the pool of Nesima to do the magic 3 and team relay static. After that I’m going to finally meet the Blue hole and hopefully with a nice line to dive by.

Counting down the days has stopped, packing the freedive gear is done. I think it’s time to travel to Egypt now… As you might have read in my previous posts I’ll be taking part in the Freediving Competition: Bizzy Blue Hole (Dahab, Egypt). A depth competition featuring 3 of my favorite disciplines when it comes to depth; Constant Weight , Constant Weight Without Fins and Free Immersion. In the preceding weeks I’ve been preparing for this competition and also finally made my very own lanyard.

The global plan for me for this event are as follows:

12th of April
Departure @ Schiphol Amsterdam & Arrival @ Sharm el Sheikh & transfer to Dahab

13th of April
Training day in preparation of the competition.

14th of April
Training day in preparation of the competition.
There are also events planned on this day:

• Magic 3 - Hold your breath - stop at what you think is 3 min.
• Team static breath hold - Relay teams of three against other teams.

15th,16th and 18th of April
Aida Freedive competitions - disciplines: FIM/CWT/CNF. Furthermore on the 18th they might plan another Unassisted series of attempts.

17th of April
Resting day or training day

19th of April
This will be our last day at the Blue Hole , depending on the sistuation I might participate with the relay freedive that has been organised.

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

27th of April
Arrival in Amsterdam

I hope to have some kind of an internet connection so I can write a few updates on how things are going. If not, you’ll just have to wait for me to get home, or Jorg might write a few lines here to keep you posted.

Preparation for the Bizzy Bluehole competition (http://www.freediving.biz/Bizzybluehole/) in Dahab is reaching it’s final steps, although I’m still waiting on a confirmation on certain points.

My Suunto D3 is in the diveshop to get it’s battery replaced and maybe they can fix the cracked button as well. Although the button works, it would be better if it’s working good and I do not have to press multiple buttons to get the same result, hehe :D. So I hope I’ll be able to actually record my depths in Egypt and post them back later on this Blog.

Creating a Lanyard is also on my ToDo-list and I’ve gathered some information on the topic and it seems the rules are strict yet unclear due to interpretation differences. But I’ll just create a lanyard and post it up here for some criticism and alter it by the feedback I receive.

Of course my training schedule will get it’s focus on the depth-related exercises like equalization, breathe-ups, surface/recovery breathe-technique, dry-walks, (dry)statics, etc. So stay tuned for some more blogging on this topic.

As I reported earlier about my DNF, time for the details about the other two disciplines, the second day of the Coupe Dauphins, the disciplines static and dynamic with fins were on the program. The static wasn’t really what I’ve hoped for as I bailed out on a 2:58 with enough air to do more, but my mind was not strong enough to challenge the contractions.

I’m hoping to find myself back in how I used to be able to do static. I’ll keep trying though, loosening up during a competition is an essential point in this matter. Because the dry-statics in the week before, were no problem.

However the dynamic with fins was a success, we planned to do a 110m performance today. This is according the schedule that I’m currently following and last Friday I had to do a 105m and did 107m…so for today we planned the 110m, a clear goal!

Before I started my dynamic we went to Chamonix (Cha’Mone-X) to get up the mountain and enjoy some seriously nice views from the mountains (as the Netherlands don’t feature this a lot :P). Driving back to the pool and arriving about 20 minutes for my Official Top, I changed into my swimming gear and prepared to walk to my lane.

30 seconds for official top entering the water, 3 breathe-ups and I was on my way…feeling comfortable at 20m’s I surprised myself with already being in the end of the lane, but that didn’t influence the rest of the performance. At 100m’s turning point I was made up my mind that half-way the pool was a good point to come up.

Reminding myself not to perform some nice pulling keeping my hands close to the chest and throwing my arm on the ledge as soon as I surfaced. I get into all this background info, as this is a marker or me to know that I’m totally in control of the whole performance, which was a 112m (112,5m as I planned it in the middle of the pool ).