Packed and ready to go over to Sharm el Sheik to Judge Martin Stepaneks’ record attempts for Constant Weight, Constant Weight without fins and Free Immersion.
Bye bye Hurghada…. Hello Sharm el Sheikh!
First day was interesting. Picked up at the airport by Honza and taken straight to the hotel so we made it in time for lunch Result! Honza asked if you are ready to go in the water then Martin is training at 2.30! I met the other judge Miguèl Vannieuwenhoven (www.AndamanApnea.com) and we arranged to go out to the platform to watch. There was the huge barracuda nicknamed Luca, hanging around at 15 metres with rather big teeth! There were some other freedivers training with Andreas on one platform and Martin and his team on the other. Martin’s team had his lovely wife Niki and organizer David doing freedive safety, videographers, photographers, lots of technical divers and lots of smiling faces, really good to see! Martin did some variable dives and looks like he is ready for some records!
First night in a new place is always a bit strange. What made it stranger were the Michal Jackson greatest hits from the Hotels DJ. Thankfully it stopped at 11 so I could get some sleep. Unfortunately my body didn’t want the same thing and at 5.30 decided that I should be wide awake. Good photo’s from the balcony though. We had a meeting after breakfast and were given cool event T-shirts and nice yellow Judge t-shirt, don’t think anyone is going to miss us!
Line measuring is always fun and in the heat we built up a bit of a sweat too! How many men does it take to measure a line? Quite a few, but it is a rather long line!
We did theory and pool work as usual on the first day of a 2* AIDA course but the boys were so excited and they could see the sea… so had to give them some time to explore and see some fish! They were like school kids let out on a break. There first experience of the Red Sea, fish and corals on a small scale from the beach, some soft corals around the marina and flying fish too.
When they came out of the water you can just see the smiles on their faces, this was the beginning of an exciting few days discovering the Red Sea and her many wonders.
They completed the 2* course after just 3 days and were wonderful students who listened and excelled themselves both reaching over 20 metres in depth and looking good in the water! Even the turtle was impressed by their finning at the end of the course! Then it was time to relax before a trip to Cairo today.
Day off on Sunday and then we start with the 3* course on Monday! Still one place left if you would like to join mail me today
The first man ever recorded to dive beyond the 200 meters comes to Makadi Bay
Aquarius Diving Club is very happy to have World Champion Freediver Patrick Musimu running a clinic from our Makadi Bay Centre, Red Sea, Egypt. This clinic ‘Understanding yourself and increasing your depth performance’ will be conducted by Patrick Musimu. Corporate speaker, Sports & Mental coach and Free Diving champion, Patrick Musimu is the first man ever recorded to dive beyond the 200 meters mental barrier on a single breath. Patrick doesn’t teach free diving but rather guide people in their progression to what he calls "The Art of Free Diving". He is well known for his Air Cavity Flooding technique (equalizing his ears and sinuses by flooding them with sea water instead of air), and for developing ‘dry’ Gym training for free diving. Our Freediving Instructor Suzanne Pugh said ‘This is a fantastic oportunity to dive with the deepest man in the world and increase our own depth at the same time’.
Makadi Bay is a perfect training location as within the bay area we can reach 100m depth and be sheltered from the waves of the open sea.
For more information about Patrick Musimu visit his official website www.patrickmusimu.com
After wishing and dreaming about trying freediving, this week Suzanne made Dan’s dream come true in Hurghada on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt. With no previous freediving experience Dan had a natural ability to hold his breath. On the first day of training after been given instruction and undertaking breathing relaxation techniques he was able to hold his breath for more than 3 minutes! He said it felt like about a minute! So he was amazed when I told him it was more than 3! So much so that he thought I was joking!
The wind was blowing in Hurghada during this week so the first day we were due to go out on the boat had to be cancelled and instead we enjoyed diving from the beach and gave Dan the chance to practice Duck Dives and get used to being relaxed under the water.
We then had a day off as there was just too much wind and no chance to go out on the boat. But the next day we were ready for the blue, but things didn’t go to plan. I discovered what sinus squeeze felt like and Dan just couldn’t equalise head down. Feet first was working slowly but headfirst just wouldn’t work! So we decided Dan would have a day off again and he took this chance to have some fun Scuba Diving where he was able to equalise and exercise his ears.
We then had another try! Dan’s ears works and my sinuses were clear too and Dan successfully performed a beautiful constant weight dive to 19 metres! The whole boat cheered when he returned to the surface with a VERY big smile
Big Congratulations! We hope Dan enjoys the rest of his stay and visits to Cairo and Luxor and will be back again to do his 3 * course soon!
Natalia Molchanova of Russia did it again, a NEW World Record in the discipline of Free Immersion! She reached the amazing depth of -90 meters. This was 5 meters deeper than her old record, 85 meters from 2008.
With this Natalia has acheived the title of being the Athlete with most World Records, a total of 26 WR. One record more than the flying fish from Austria, Herbert Nitsch.
This dive took place in Sharm El Sheikh on 27th of September 2009
Natalia Molchanova of Russia, became the first woman in the world to successfully dive to a depth of 100 meters on one breath in the discipline of Constant Weight. Natalia actually surpassed the triple digits with a dive to 101 meters in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Her total dive time was 3 minutes and 50 seconds. The previous CWT record was held by Sara Campbell, from the UK. Sara made a dive to 96 meters at the Vertical Blue competition earlier this year.
This is the 25th World Record for Natalia Molchanova, and everyone from Freedive Egypt wish her big congratulations!
Denise has enjoyed snorkelling all over the world but had never had any instruction on how to freedive and couldn’t understand the pain in her ears when she tried to dive under the water.
When she met me she was thinking of giving Scuba Diving a try but was concerned about being under the water with so much water on top of her! After a late night conversation she decided to give freediving a try.
The next morning although a bit nervous Denise was also excited to find out what freediving was all about. Throughout the theory session she had several light bulb moments finding out all about pressure and how it affects the air spaces and specifically the ears! Now she knew why she felt pain going down, she didn’t know how to equalise.
During the static session in the pool relaxing wasn’t easy as a spinning teacher and all round sporty fanatic the muscles in her shoulders are so used to being tensed they didn’t want to relax. A bit of in water massage always helps and she was happy to achieve a 1 minute 40 second breath hold! Dynamic was more fun and showed she was used to dolphin kick underwater rather than stereo fining, something she had been doing whenever she made it under the water.
A trip into the Red Sea next to get some depth and see some fish! The fish liked to watch as she made her way down the line, swimming over to her to get a better look and then swimming for cover in their coral covered rope. Denise used all that she had learnt in the morning, put into practice in the afternoon and was happy diving down and swimming underwater.
She wanted to see the sunrise in the Desert so we combined this with her certification ceremony while watching the sunrise over the Red Sea with the Red Sea Mountain range in the background. What a wonderful way to learn how to dive.
taken straight to the hotel so we made it in time for lunch Result! Honza asked if you are ready to go in the water then Martin is training at 2.30! I met the other judge Miguèl Vannieuwenhoven (www.AndamanApnea.com) and we arranged to go out to the platform to watch. There was the huge barracuda nicknamed Luca, hanging around at 15 metres with rather big teeth! There were some other freedivers training with Andreas on one platform and Martin and his team on the other. Martin’s team had his lovely wife Niki and organizer David doing freedive safety, videographers, photographers, lots of technical divers and lots of smiling faces, really good to see! Martin did some variable dives and looks like he is ready for some records!
