24.1.2007 Underground Apnea II - The English edition

I started to feel I should write something in brief in English also. I did the same after the Hungarian competition a few months ago and there was some people also reading my story. So why not trying it again.

The main thing is that I was really surprised about how many people abroad, or from some island, wanted to take part in our competition. You really must be into competing when you travel abroad just to hold your breath. I have done, you have done, you know what I'm talking about. It is always easier to compete in your home pool. Or in your home country. I like competing on home ground but also going abroad which is one way to avoid organizing the event.
I have to say there were a few difficulties getting everything go well. Still they were only problems only waiting to be solved. I had to do some work for the competition but arranging it was also a pleasure. I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it. The best award or price the organizer can get are happy organization and happy competitors. So far the feedback has been only positive. Thank you! Now I know it was not a total disaster :)

I knew before hand that if there is something to do during the competition I am the one to take care of it. I had a great team and they were responsible. On Friday and Saturday morning I gave them the main principles about how to manage things and how to do things and what are they responsible for. When competition started I noticed I'm useless. There was nothing to do for so I had a chance to sit down and try to relax. I have to admit my thoughts were on organizing. I would have wanted to see how it went.

Knowing this organizing would take some of my time I decided to go to the competition with out warm-ups. I was kind of prepared for doing my performances quickly if there would have been things to do. So I ended up training with out warm-ups too and I liked it. The problem with the lack of warm-ups is that you loose the routine. When doing warm-ups you have the certain routine which you are familiar with. The body gets into the mood easily when you start doing warm up routine, the one you have done a houndred times in training. It is also easier to get relaxed under water during warm ups.

The training is always different from competing. A week before the competition I made my personal bests with this no warm up method. Now I'm looking forward to test a new routine in warm ups to get to know if my body could do more. At least training with "only one shot" is psychologically easier. You can concentrate taking the contractions only once. I'm getting more and more convinced that this is not the best way to do it. Well Murat might disagree but his theories are mostly built on his own experience and they are personalized for himself. People are different.

My dynamic was short for me. Anyhow it was the best I could do. Actually it was the shortest dynamic ever in my competitions. This may be a bit explaining but I didn't have the will to reach my limits. I have had a golden rule in dynamic: surface when you think whether to continue or not for the first time. Always, if you hesitate, you should come up. That is the way to avoid sambas and black outs. I was unhappy about my static samba and I just decided to make it safe like I should have done it in static also. Actually the static samba was a surprise too so I didn't want to have any more surprises.

This surface protocol is funny thing. You can samba as much as you want if you can maintain your face out of the water and then do the tricks for the judge. Now we are concentrating doing the protocol correct and we forget we should be taking care of ourselves instead. If you concentrate doing the protocol you will be more likely to have a samba. If you would concentrate being okay, avoiding sambas and bo's, the protocol should be easy to complete.

Antti Mäkelä is our martyr. He was totally okay after his dives but he refused to complete the protocol. He just said he won't do it. He was okay but got the red card. The rules are rules and now we have this kind of an objective way to judge. If you do the protocol you get white which is simple and equal to all. The former way, the samba rule, wasn't equal because it was up to the judge how to take it. I have seen some sambas and people have different kinds of them. I really don't have a clear opinion about this. Just wondering.

The best part of the day was still to come. First we went dining to a restaurant where they had a menu with over one houndred pizzas on it. I hope there was enough options. There was some hassle to get us all inside. I had booked a place for 30 people and we where late so I had to make some phone calls to keep the tables reserved. Saturday night is busy night and there was already a queue outside. Finally with some arrangements we all got in. There was at least 40 of us present.

After eating we went drinking. I invited everyone to join us when leaving the pool and I was very glad to see Team Åland bravely taking part. I remember we made great plans for the future but I'm not totally sure what we were planning :)