47 meters underwater...

Hi everyone!!! I was going back and forth on whether to write a report about freediving. But I figured someone might find it interesting, so here goes... After all, this sport is very closely connected with spearfishing - you're also going underwater on a breath-hold. The way I see it, a spearfisher who doesn't get any pleasure from the diving itself and only focuses on landing fish is really shortchanging himself. At a certain stage of training, going underwater gives you such enormous pleasure that the adrenaline from a speared fish is nothing compared to those sensations. And at every meter you feel different. Dissolving in the water, you go deep inside yourself and get to know your body from a different, unexplored side.

While I was searching, a year ago I went to Natalia Molchanova's seminar in Dahab. And there I realized that despite my long experience in spearfishing (over 12 years), I didn't have a clue about the technique of deep diving. But still I managed to go down the line to 37 meters, though feet first because of poor equalization. Pretty funny situation, a spearfisher going down feet first in search of fish! :)

This year I decided to test myself again. After all, the previous year gave me a lot in terms of exercises for developing flexibility of the chest, diaphragm, etc. The seminar is held in Dahab, the most famous town in the diving and freediving world, at a spot called the Blue Hole. In the coral reef there's a hole going down 120 meters deep, which starts practically 15 meters from the shore. At 57 meters there's a tunnel connecting the Blue Hole with the open sea. By the way, the seminar organizers Alexey and Natalia Molchanov are among the five freediving athletes who have swum through the Blue Hole arch freediving. As of today, Alexey holds the world record in constant weight deep diving - 125 meters. So there's plenty to learn from these people... Having passed the fourth-wave standards: 4 minutes static, 77 meters - breaststroke distance swim and 88 meters - with fins, I was invited to the instructor courses in April.

I managed to dive to 47 meters (this time everything as it should be: head first :) ). All in all, we trained and had a super rest!!!! I got one more step closer to my dream - deep spearfishing in the Mediterranean. God willing, someday it'll all come together and hunting at 30-35 meters will be within my reach!

Good hunting to everyone, and most importantly, enjoyable dives!!!!

P.S. In winter I'm starting pool training, anyone who wants to is welcome to join!