A Freediver's Christmas Bleg
Posted By Nicolas Danan on 12 December 2005
The Ipod housing is waterproof to 10 meters which is perfect for warmup dive and getting your brainwaves synched, if you know what I'm saying. It's a great way to relax before a dive. I listen to Telepopmusik “breathe”. The sound coming out of the underwater headphones is brilliant, once you figure out how to customize them well to your hears. Access to your full library underwater is surreal. I know we all go down to find internal silence and piece of mind, but coming up listening to your favorite track is a must-have experience. I've taken it to the pool for dynamic training, too. I have to say I'm not a person who enjoys pool training that much but having music accessible transformed my whole experience. A great thing about this housing is that with both the neoprene swim belt or armband to put the housing in (sold separately) you can take your Ipod in any kind of water environment: surfing, snowboarding, even taking a shower. Ok, ok I am pushing it. The company also makes an underwater housing for the Iriver player that can be taken down to 300 feet/90 meters. Let the music play on. Laissez les bontemps rouler !
The small, sturdy looking Glo-Toob lasts for 30 hours on a camera 12V battery and has 7 different flashing modes. Rated to 300Ft/90 meters (having been tested to more than 11,000 feet/over 3000 meters), the Glo-toob makes for the perfect gizmo to attach to yourself and your safety diver, especially for the West Coast, Canadian and lake water divers. At about 30 bucks apiece retail in the US it makes for the perfect freediver stocking stuffer!
Training: May seem not to belong in the equipment category. But never forget that your best tool while freediving is yourself, your body and mind. You can have all the gizmos and equipment you want but it won’t make you a better freediver: training will. Thanks to the growing numbers of freedivers, many possibilities are now available. In Europe, Deeper Blue has started to teach freediving courses at the “ S.E.T.T Tank” in Gosport, Portsmouth. Umberto and his Apnea Academy is also running seminars around Europe in different languages from Italian to English, Spanish and French. There are rumors that Loic Leferme is running some clinics with Guillaume Nery in Nice but it is all en français, quelle dommage ! In the U.S. Performance Freediving and Freedivers are offering seminars in the “Lower 48” as well as in Hawaii for PFI and in Mexico for Freedivers.
Books: I believe everyone who calls himself a freediver should have a decent library on the subject. The aquatic ape theory from Elaine Morgan (check out Paul Kotik’s interview of Elaine right here) is a good start. Then you can get into technique, physiology and physics with the English version of the Manual of Freediving by Unberto Pelizzari and Stefano Tavglieri. Of course Freedive! from Terry Maas is a must-have.
For readers of French, La Plongee en Apnee:Physiologie et Medecine by Jacques H. Corriol offers good solid knowledge on the matter. In English, look for the paper from H. Rahn and T. Yokoyama, “Physiology of Breath Hold and the Ama of Japan”, a good one. For the mind you’ll find excellent papers on Neurolinguistic Programing a good start: there's one on DB by Sam Kirby. For the Yoga crowd and other pranayama practitioners, Light on Pranayama by B.K.S Iyengar is a reference.
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
