1. Do you remember how and when did you find out about freediving? What made you to start freediving? What were your 1st steps in this sport?
I started my Freediving journey in 2009 as a spearo in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, where I discovered the beauty of underwater world.
After a couple of years or so I decided that’s is about time to improve my abilities so I signed up to take a Freediving Course.
I remember my surprise, when I realised I didn’t know anything about the sport, I had wasted 2 years hesitating about taking the course.
I then decided to enter into the pure discipline of Freediving, and with each year I started Freediving more than Spear fishing until the point where I was just Freediving and training on a daily basis.
Freediving changed my life, it give me the right input to discover and enjoy my life in a whole new way, experiencing many amazing things and learning new and valuable techniques.
2. What is your favourite discipline in freediving and which one you don’t like? And could you explain why?
I have to say that static is my favourite discipline, despite it being one of the most difficult disciplines to master, especially mentally.
It has its beauty even though most of freedivers hate it, I enjoy the challenge it brings, even after the worst static with massive, unpleasant contractions, when you take your first breath again ,that’s a moment of joy and satisfaction. Then my motivation is renewed.
Nowadays I mainly concentrate on static to discover my true potential and with bit of help and a lot of training I may just achieve my goal.
The discipline I like the least is CNF and that is probably because I never really train for it, living in the UK makes depth training difficult as there are only a few places to train and the distance you have to travel to train makes it challenging.
3. Tell please few words about your freediving trainings approach: How many times a week do you train? And do you have a fixed schedule or you just wake up in the morning, look into mirror and depending on your mood, body condition or weather decide what to do today?
Our training is usually scheduled around work, my 9-5 job is in the construction industry as a supervisor. Being a father of my children Tiger and Jade and running our family business Blue Water Freediving School where we train and teach our students.
Training could be difficult sometimes, at times we have to adapt it to suit the life style we are currently living. If training is forced it can become unpleasant and we are unable to train in that way in the long term, to keep it positive it is crucial to find the right balance to fit your training into your daily life.
The Static discipline is very stressful to the body and it has to be trained with the right approach, to eliminate overtraining I train between 5 to 6 days a week depending on the time of my training cycle.
All my training plans are usually set according to events I plan on competing in. I train in advance to participate.
Being a father I’ve learnt that you can adapt to train in all conditions and that could be during your lunch break at work or between cooking a dinner and relaxing with your family.
4. And how often do you try something new in your freediving trainings?
Every year I like to add something new to my training, to satisfy my curiosity and learn new techniques or just try a new approach to training.
What works for you may not work for others, that’s why it is very important to try different techniques and discover what works for you and your body.
This year I’m trying a couple of new exercises and I hope I will see positive results in the next few months.
5. The next question – what makes you day after day to go to train in a pool/sea? What motivates you to train hard? How do you fight humans’ laziness?
Good question, motivation is sometimes hard to find along with that positive attitude towards your training.
A positive attitude is super important otherwise you come to a point where you hate the sport and it will become a punishment instead of positive experience.
I try to gain my motivation from all the angles. Success is great and brings in good vibes but failure could be an even stronger motivational tool for the mind. The constant quest of discovering your mind and body’s potential is what keeps me going, that and of course with support of my kids ,my partner Shirley and family make it all a complete unit.
6. Do you believe that some food products could influence the ability to equalize? Like gluten or lactose for example create more mucus which is not good for equalizing? Do you personally follow any diet?
In the last few years I have been looking into role of my diet, I became a dietician to gain more knowledge of the subject, I have to say that this is something that has changed my approach in training. In my opinion, it is super important and plays a huge role in performance, from equalisations to contractions and general body functions.
To expect the maximum from the body we need to fill it up with right fuel to gain maximum performance.
On my performance day or training sessions, I would eat specific foods at particular times before training and that could make the difference in when the contractions begin.
Our bodies react differently to the food we eat and yes you could make your dive harder by consuming certain products as dairy or gluten, which will produce more mucus and in turn make a equalisation more difficult and challenging.
But we have to understand that all the good food is only a part of complete circle 🙂
7. Let’s talk about money 🙂 Do you have any support from sports community of your country or may be some trade brand?
Well to simplify it, most Freedivers are self funded, even when competing for your Country. We have no sponsorship or support to help cover the costs of training.
Freediving is still a young sport and in the eyes of public is relatively small that makes it more difficult to find sponsors to fund your daily training or events.
I’m lucky enough to have contacts with the manufacturers of high quality freediving equipment, Molchanoves and Elios who’s equipment I use to train .
8. What about your targets in freediving? What would you like to achieve and how deep would you like to get?
I have my own little goals that I would like to achieve this year, I’d like to dedicate my training purely to static to see my full potential.
Depth that is another challenge. I’m still working on mastering my equalisation and if I have a bit of spare time this year, I’d like to see if I can train further on equalisation.
9. What do you do except freediving? Do you have any hobbies?
Freediving is a big part of our Family life, both me and my partner Shirley train when we can, that’s means a whole family trip with the kids to the lake where we can do a small training session ,or we just train in our home. Some of the things we do from home is our stretching session, body weight training and dry breath-hold training.
Freediving makes our life and our body’s healthier and happier.
As a family we love camping ,fossil hunting ,mushroom picking, or just casual trip to the beach when we can just let it all go and relax.
10. What would you advise to people, who just discovered this sport?
Buckle up as Freediving will give you tons of fun, friends and adventures.
Remember Never Dive Alone ,train hard but be smart ,enjoy the moment ,and most importantly have fun.
The right attitude will take you further and deeper than you think!
Dive Safe;)
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