Dutch Treat
Posted By Sam Kirby on 8 March 2004
We in the freediving community all need a bit of cheering up in dreary January, and especially this year amidst the fierce debate, discussion, back stabbing and moaning about judging, ranking and the samba rule.
Step forward Aafke Verkade, a Dutch Freediver who freely admits she would rather play with a manatee or dolphin for half an hour than beat every world record in the books.
The year 2003 saw the first ever Recreational Freedive Meet held in Beverwijk, Netherlands and a couple of friends who did not even get in the water came back raving about what fun it was, how much they learned just from watching and what amazing people they had met.
When the opportunity arose to get involved this time around, I jumped at it. Deepest Bear heard that there would be an all-you-can-eat pancake buffet in the evening and insisted on coming along too!
Late last year, Aafke and her fellow organiser, the mermaid-obsessed Arnoud invited the Bear and I to run a workshop at the 2004 meet for beginner freedivers.
At first I was a little concerned. The meet seemed mainly to focus on play and having a laugh. From my perspective freediving, and all my training, has been about how to win competitions. What would I teach them?
Aafke pointed out that of course any breath-hold ability is going to make apnea activities more enjoyable and had no objection to me teaching a little static apnea - as long as we played some games afterwards !
Totally on the ball, having sorted me out with a flight, somewhere to stay, transport and everything I needed to run the workshop, Aafke arrived at the pool early in the morning with a rented van that emptied out into Hamleys Toy Store. We were going to have no trouble keeping our divers amused!
Amanda Williams kindly offered to help with the workshop and around 10 total newbie freedivers had signed up. Aafke also provided a translator in the form of the super- keen Kars. I should have known he would be good when he mailed me a few days before asking for any strange words I might use. The only word he didn't understand was "intercostal muscles", but a little pointing soon sorted that out.
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