Tag Archives: apnea

Heart to heart,

picture of a heartThe heart is a pretty amazing organ. You only get one but if you’re lucky maybe you get to share it today and every other day with someone else.

As freedivers you gradually learn to control it better, mainly by slowing it down. Relaxing, breathing, calming. You can also train it to react to a form of autogenic training. The heart just pumps away, second after second. The way it evolved from when you were a foetus in your mothers womb is pretty amazing. Starting with two cavities like a fish, it further divides to three cavities like an amphibian as if preparing us for a life both above and below the water and finally to four cavities and our mammals heart. The slowdown of the heart (bradycardia) is a well documented dive reflex when we are immersed in water. This happens to everyone, even people who hate water and panic, eventually their heart rate will fall too.

A freediver simply trains to work this reflex. It makes you a “better” freediver. More relaxed and at home in and under the water. It also makes for countless hours of fun at medicals. At the end of the day it still needs care. Regular exercise gets it going faster, relaxation and meditation gets it going slower. Some people will say you only have so many beats in it anyway so whats the point? Like anything if looked after, it will look after you.

Stressing the heart through exercise is a good thing. Stressing it through stress is a bad thing. Seems pretty simple to say, sometimes harder to do in reality. If you have never worn a  heart rate monitor during exercise please try it. If you freedive, try it during a breathhold. It’s amazing to see what happens. You can listen to mine here. This was part of the Doc on ! we were part of which is here.  We could have gone lower but as you hear the Doc’s machine could have been damaged. Was really cool afterwards when he showed me the flatline too. Anyone’s  heart will do this with the right training and time. Nothing special about mine, except of course to me. Negative stress raises the heart rate and keeps it raised in our flight or fight response throughout the day. That stuff causes heart disease. Raising it far higher for brief periods during exercise helps prevent heart disease.

An amazing organ, an amazing muscle. It can catch you out of course. Sometimes when you least expect it. Walking down the street your eye might just connect with that someone special and your heart stops, even if only for a moment. Don’t worry it will start again, hopefully.

Happy Valentines Day.

Swim into 2014

Great northern pool comp 2012 002

 

 

OK so for any of you guys swimming more in 2014 or loosing weight etc here are some pointers.

 

Disclaimer, I am not a swim instructor but swim 2k most nights with drills and 3 k if going long so am reasonably competent. If you find it difficult to swim more than 10 lengths of a pool without stopping I would suggest go to a swim class or one to one for a few sessions.

 

1. When you are going swimming, swim. Seems pretty obvious but 80% of people talk at the end of the pool while they take a break for a minute or two. That minute becomes 10 and you start swimming when you start getting cold. Plan your rest breaks 2 mins tops and talk in the steam room or Jacuzzi when your session is finished. Don’t talk, swim

2. This one is mainly for the guys. Get tight shorts or jammers. Board shorts and baggies cause a MASSIVE amount of drag, that you won’t believe until you try the others. Let’s be clear, I am not recommending the Budgie smugglers/bannana hammocks but rather the tight fitting shorts, the length of which is up to you. Yes you will think people are looking at you etc but actually they are not ( how vain are you brah? ) and you are going to be in the water shortly anyway. As you get older you care less what people think.

3. Warm up, if you can stretch a small bit before the swim. If you feel you will look like a twat stretch before you go out.  Decide beforehand how many lengths you will do, then how many as a warm up, say 20-25% of your total. Allow about 10% of your total for a warm down. This just means taking it easy in both. Ignore the desire to keep pace or race with someone swimming in the same lane or beside you.

4. Drills. Don’t do the same thing every night. I do drills two nights a week and a long straight swim one night. Some drills: catch up, this slows the stroke down. Your leading hand stays on the surface of the water until the recovering hand joins it. Fists, swim with your hand in a fist using your forearm to catch more water on the stroke. Board/float, swim lengths just kicking with the float in front of you. Speed set, flat out as fast as you can, swim up take a breath or two then swim back down slowly. Repeat as much as you can. If the pool has a minute counter at the end watch that, decide on a set amount of time for two lengths. The faster you do one the more time you have for rest. Try swimming with a pull buoy for a few lengths, if you notice how much easier it seems your legs and feet are causing you drag and need to be worked on. Youtube is your friend here. Swimming instructors will all have an opinion on drills so see disclaimer above but work for me. You can lose weight swimming but you need to do it fast and have a reasonably high length count I think. Your arms should be hanging off you at the end of a good session.

5. Etiquette. Apart from the normal pool rules there are a few unwritten ones that may seem obvious and some that don’t. Don’t dose yourself in deodorant/aftershave prior to swimming, it gets in the back of my throat, you complete bastard who ever you are. If someone is swimming behind you and they are faster let them pass at the end of the next length. Some swimmers will tap your feet to give you an indication. Stay to one side at the end of the lane if resting as staying in the middle will be in the way of people turning. Think about the other persons speed if you are about to do a slow drill, don’t set off in front of them.  Don’t be afraid to use the “fast” lane. Many of the swimmers are the same as you or slower than you think and if you let people pass you will have no worries. Swimming with someone faster than you is good. It brings on your own swimming. If they are slower use them as a guide.

6. Hydrate, Unless you are swimming/training for more than an hour avoid the sports drinks. Drink water and sip between sets. Sports drinks add too much sugar so make no sense if trying to loose weight. Just be water.

7. Slow down to speed up. Work on reducing the amount of strokes to do a length, work on slowing down over a long distance so you keep that pace and a faster time overall.

Lastly and this is one I saw on facebook. It doesn’t matter what you eat between Christmas and New Year. It matters what you eat between New years and Christmas.

Just keep swimming, it will do good in your heart, your body, your mind and your freedive training.

 

 

2014, Journeyman or “The Journey, man!!”

Boat through the rocks

 

Isn’t that what we are all on here on this terrific little spinning globe of liquid and some clay we reside on ?

 

 

 

So it’s that time of year when we set out our goals, aspirations, wishlists, to do lists for the year. In order to achieve our ideal. Our ideal weight, career, relationship, life etc. When we finally get feed to the fishies does it all matter?  I’d sure like to think it does.

The Zen master said, once you achieve nirvana, all that’s left to do is laugh, he also said this could be a good thing or a bad thing we don’t know the full story so lets not get too excited or depressed about where we are right now. It’s the busy season for self development and goal setting. Worthy ideals, even if only a few take them through to achievement. It’s surely about the journey rather than the destination, right? Yes the journey is dammned hard at times but every so often you look around and see someone else,s journey that you would not wish upon your worst enemy. So like the swell studded Ocean, the peaks and troughs come marching along. Sometimes you are on the crest of the wave and loving it and sometimes you are in the trough getting the shit kicked out of you. It’s a good an analogy for life and  should be taught in schools I tells ya.

So despite our goals we may feel like we ended up back where we started or at times even further back than that, do not pass go, do not collect €200 etc. But it’s a long road and the time will pass anyway. The time will pass anyway. You may have heard it said that there is no difference between the optimist who says everything will work out in the end but does nothing about it and the pessimist who says it can’t be helped and so does nothing about it.

Research has shown that it’s not actually the achievement of a goal that brings us satisfaction ( although that’s a good thing ) but the progression towards that ideal. So we feel crap when we stagnate and good when we are making moves towards something. So with 2014 around the corner it’s time to bust a move. Grab the swimmers, the runners and the notepad and decide what 2014 will do for you rather than you for it. All part of the journey.

See you out the back.

 

Competitiveness

monfin

 

 

That sure is a tough one. Where do we draw the line in competitions?

 

 

The line is always part of a balancing act. If we are not pushing ourselves are we progressing?

This runs amok in all sports I suppose, well maybe not darts. Train too much and you get injured, don’t train hard enough and you fall behind other team mates or the competition. It’s a very difficult one in freediving. The pressure, pardon the pun again seems to build and build as we chase that ever elusive number. Our freediving mentors tell us to relax, train thoughtfully and slowly and the numbers will come and they do. But easier said than done.

Sometimes it’s trying when you see someone effortlessly do in a day what took you months or even years to achieve. That’s talent but it will only go so far without proper training. Like any discipline after a while we hit a plateau and need to change some part of our regime to start noticing improvements again.  The experience of others has shown us that our bodies adapt to the stress and pressure but sometimes we do push them too far. The samba, blackout or squeeze for the freediver, the crippled knee for the footballer or runner.

Mentioning football brings me to a pet hate that I suppose is mostly apparent in team sports and while I am sure it is also the case in some individual sports I can’t ever recall seeing it in the freediving world. That is armchair critics. I really do want to jump down the radio and smack the head of the commentators or now they have fans that are allowed ring in and vent their spleen on why such a player or manager is crap and what they should have done. I have tried but I can’t seem to get my arm down the speaker and into the radio station to smack them around a bit. It’s unusual for me to be listening in the first place I suppose. I have never seen anything remotely like it in freediving but maybe I have been living a sheltered life. In competitions I have gone to, all I have mostly seen is encouragement, often with competitors coaching each other to possibly beat each others positioning. Many derive a great pleasure in helping even if it means they lose their own “record”. Yes it’s a comp so sometimes things are protested if required and the professionals have their sponsors to think about so it’s often at the smaller competitions that you see the greatest spirit. The one thing I have never heard is from a spectator saying they should have done this or trained that way etc.

In the end the competition is always within ourselves anyway and what we could do yesterday may not be possible to do today. We really need to listen to our bodies and see if it’s fear or common sense holding us back. It’s a long road traveled alone and like our seasons and our dives, sometimes you have to plunge into the cold darkness in order to return to the light.

 

Keep swimming towards the light brahs.

Happy Christmas to you all. Feargus.

Saving Private Ryan.

saving-private-ryan_400

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s an epic film.

I usually cry (wait boys don’t cry) get a lump in my throat at two points in the film.

The opening scene where Ryan is literally struck down with grief as he visits the graveyard. That emotions are actually that strong, that not only can they stop you in your tracks but actually cut the legs out from under you. The action scenes and story takes over after this. The last scene then is the next one, where he is back at the graveyard and asks his wife ” tell me I’ve lived a good life”. This post obviously isn’t about the film but about a “good” life. The definition of that is up to you.

Yesterday the world lost someone who had truly lived a good life by any which way you measure it. Mandela showed us the power of forgiveness. He didn’t tell or try to instruct us, but lived and showed us so many lessons. His book is a hard read but a rewarding one. Talk about seeing change in your lifetime. Imagine the contrast of living/existing for so long in that cell, going on to lead your country and in essence lead the world.

It’s kind of hard for any of us to compare ourselves to someone like that and try to hold a candle to them but I don’t think that matters. The old cliche of, if you make a difference in just one person’s life it’s worth it, holds true. I suppose cliches always have some truth in them. I used to use them all the time but now I avoid them like the plague.

A short time ago the freediving world lost a brother in an incident during a competition. It was the first time a competitor lost their life in an AIDA run competition. You can read about it here with a good article by Sara. Lung squeezes are nothing new in deep freediving but probably have not being taken seriously enough. The speed at which people progress is phenomenal but worrying at the same time The freediving world is a small community that straddles the Oceans so while I had never met Nick I knew people who had. Their updates on FB etc allowed us a little glimpse of the guy and like so many others in this sport I know I would have liked the guy. At the end of the day he was a brother lost to the sea. The competitive push of many people is so strong  and sometimes it can lead to very dangerous places.

It’s a fine line between living the life and losing the life but surely still better than just existing, just waiting till its over, the last sorrowful breath. Why not plan or better still do something today to make it beyond “good”.

 

 

Inspirational!

Gleniff Horseshoe, waiting for Gandalf.

 

 

So this will be old hat to some of you. Went to see my sister in law complete the Dublin city marathon a few weeks back.

 

 

I was literally bowled over. Spectating at Mile 16 or thereabouts near Terenure so the runners were well in the thick of it. So, so many personal battles going on in front of you, you can see the pain, frustration and every so often joy on the faces as they pass. You only get a fleeting glance as they whizz pass. So many running vests emblazoned with their own name, their own charity or in memory of someone close to them. They pass in the hundreds and thousands. The encouragement from the crowd is infectious and it’s no time before you are shouting out the name of some one you never met nor will see again or calling out their county if sporting their county colours. Hopefully you’ve added something to their thoughts, taken their mind off the pain even if only briefly.

The other thing that struck me was the shapes and sizes of all the competitors. There were a good percentage that to my mind didn’t look like they were runners but were on course for a sub 4 hour run. Goes to show what i know and the old chestnut of not making assumptions based on appearances. You never see the passion, drive and commitment that precedes all that of course. No one just decides to run a marathon. I have written before about my own running exploits and I suppose a marathon is the ultimate run of runs, then you read about ultra marathons and well, where does it stop really? I’d love to think about doing one, just once but the fear of injuries, training schedules and failure is daunting. Then you go see one and it’s “oh ok time to get my shit together”

January is fast approaching and so all the gyms and pools all over the world will be inundated with new years resolutions only to be finished by mid February. But good health is for life and not just for Christmas so maybe start before the maddening crowd get in.

The main things is to do something active, run, swim cycle, surf whatever, anything to get the heart racing, the muscles tired and the brain concentrating on healthy physical stress instead of man made modern pace of life crap stress. It’s such a good buzz for body, mind and soul. Especially if you can get out into nature while you are doing it.

As the famous running shoe company logo said, “Just get it done”. I think.

Do you really need to breathe?

 

 

Head in the kelp

Head in the kelp

Ouch that smack across the face hurt and the words “of course, don’t be stupid” were none too pleasant either.

I am not suggesting that we don’t need to breathe indefinitely. Just asking a question. As freedivers we do stop breathing for an unusual period of time when compared to non freedivers.

 

 

If you averaged it out over a lifetime it would probably add up to quite a lot. One exercise or training tool is the CO2 table which essentially has you decreasing your rest period between breath holds. One great experience I had involved an extreme version of that, for me at least. I remember calculating afterwards at some stage that over the last 15 minutes of time I had really only been breathing for two minutes when you add it all up, all the recovery breaks, or something like that. It wasn’t a proper table but still a bit of a mind job.

Breath holding is weird, I’ll be the first to admit it but it’s also amazing how the same people who call it weird continue to ask other questions about it, so it’s also curious to many.  All I can say is it’s good. It feels good, it seems good. It relaxes me, makes me feel at peace, one with the Universe and the Ocean. All tranquil and hippy. A lot of people need to smoke stuff to get that feeling.

It does kill some brain cells, let’s be clear. DAN has done some fantastic research on it.  Now brain cells die all the time and I usually mange to cause a massacre via my old friend whiskey at weekends in “Shoot the Crows”  an infamous spot in Sligo town if you ever visit. So I am not overly concerned by that but it’s good to be aware of it.

When you do stop breathing the initial response is panic, but that goes away and after a while a really deep mellow buzz comes along. Breathing and not breathing (apnea) is used in meditation and Yoga  so there has to be something in it. I think when we stop or arrest that primordial urge we take control of our lives, even if only for a few seconds or a few minutes. Literally take control of our life.

Or so we think, because eventually the superior intelligence that is the great unknown and at the same time the super familiar will take over. The body kicks in, the subconscious takes control, our diaphragm contracts like a hiccup and we lose that intense relaxation. We are brought back to earth, back to ordinary life, our body makes us breathe. If we still struggle and resist for too long  it says fine, watch this and you black out. A bit extreme but you didn’t do what your body was telling you to do so what were you expecting? You need to listen more man. After a short period it forgives you, you breathe again and it gives you back your consciousness.

For me the benefits have far outweighed any possible/potential side effects.

But you can always stop breathing again, rinse and repeat.

 

 

You are God.

Sunset

 

In every sense of the word, Every experience I have had since birth you gave to me.

 

 

Each person I have met, every experience shared, given or enjoyed, you provided.

Every lesson I have learned or stupidly ignored, you taught me.

Each sensual experience, each dizzying high, every taste of ecstasy, you showed me. C.

Every connection with the vital force of the Universe, you were the conductor.

Each caress of the Ocean, you were the feeling.

Every encounter with marine animals big and small, you were the glint in their eye that stopped my heart.

Each wave I ever surfed, you provided the pulsing swell.

Every cold, clear, starlit night, you were the shooting star that made me gasp.

Each golden Sunset that made me stop in awe, you painted.

Every friend I hold dear, you planted.

Wake up, you are God.

Thank you. Mahalo.

 

Wanderer

 

spear weekend 06.08.2011 012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sterling Hayden, Wanderer.

“To what avail the plough or sail, or love, or life- if freedom fail?

Freedom. Freedom to what? Escape, run, wander turning your back on a cowed society that stutters, staggers and stagnates every man for himself and fuck you Jack I’ve got mine?

To be truly challenging, a voyage like life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea – “cruising” it is called. Voyaging belongs to sea men, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot or will not fit in.

Little has been said or written about the ways a man may blast himself free. Why? I don’t know, unless the answer lies in our diseased values…Men are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of “security,” and in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine – and before we know it our lives are gone.

The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Dedication to the sea is the symbol of migration and movement and wandering. It is the barbaric place and it stands opposed to society and it is a constant symbol in all of literature, too.”

Carpe Diem I guess.

 

At times I’m struck dumb!!

Smacht Diver

Smacht Diver

 

 

Hard to believe of me for anyone that knows me. I’m not usually short of a word or six and once I have a few drinks in I can’t shut up and the volume increases,it goes to eleven. But its happened on more than a few occasions that I am stuck for words. Once you interact with the people I suppose its bound to happen and when it does, it strikes me dumb. Maybe not at the specific time. I may not always show it simply because I am not always aware of the enormity of the situation at that time.

 

 

The thing is fear. Blessed am I who lives near the Ocean and gets to spend my life diving in it, surfing on it or just admiring its wonder and beauty from the shore as the Sun sets on it. I love it with a passion and while I respect it to an almost religious degree, I rarely fear it.

Every so often I have a student come along with the fear of water, or if not water then open water. The vast expanse of the Ocean and the fear of being out of your depth several times over. If you can’t see the bottom it can feel like you are floating over an abyss. An endless pit of nothingness. Sometimes these people are part of a group of students and sometimes they are on a one to one course. Sometimes people come to me admitting they fear water and want help with that but sometimes they don’t announce it until the end of the course or as we are about to leave the shore. You can often tell someones ability in how they move in water during a pool session but not always. A person can be super confident in the pool and super nervous in open water.

These thoughts don’t always come to me at the time but usually I can spot them. I reassure the student and some of my confidence passes over to them and we go on our merry way. We do our dives, our skills and enjoy the liquid element. We may have a brief chat about it afterwards or we may not. Its only later the facts strike me or sometimes they are brought about by something completely unexpected.

I had one student who as part of a business group was down doing a discovery day. He had forgone the pool element for personal reasons and went straight to open water. As we had a large group I had a boat instead of the usual shore dive. At the end of the day he confessed to me that he didn’t think we would ever get him in the boat, then didn’t think we would get him out of it and never mind getting over to the dive line. The picture above is of him returning from a 4m dive. While I was happy with the result that day I really didn’t think more about it.

As a follow on to that course, a year or so later about 150 people were gathered to hear some speakers etc and the audience was asked to contribute events that had made a lasting difference in their lives. After a few had gone I recognised the voice of the student who I had chatted to briefly beforehand. He told the crowd that at his age not that many things were life changing events but the day freediving was. He admitted that he had never been deeper than his knees and that the memory of him conquering this fear of deep water led him to say “If I can do that after all these years of it holding me back then I’m ready for anything”. Needless to say I was stunned but happily surprised that something I was a part of had had such a profound affect on someone.

The lesson here isn’t about freediving but about the human spirit and the ability after so long, to still be able to stand up and say I’m going for it. To kick back the fear that was holding you back, grab it by the scruff of the neck and go for it. It’s not always apparent to me at the time but when I do see it or recall it, it makes me contrite, humbled, inspired and privileged to witness it.