Girls Go Deep
Posted By Francesca Koe on 28 December 2007
Francesca get those arms up!
On Day 3 of our clinic we were literally cheered on at out target depth attempts by a playful school of spinner dolphins, and I really don’t mean to complain but while the rooting and cheering of our marine mammal friends was wondrous it sure wasn’t helping me to keep my head in a good tucked position, which I have enough problems with, let alone when I am wantonly gazing about for rascally dolphins!
Spinners are here!
Needless to say, the next and final ocean session day for the clinic was transformative for me, I felt great! Like a new person, I was comfortable, I knew how to change the set-up of my equipment where it was failing me, I vastly improved my head-position (not constantly looking down at the target plate, just a little bit!), I recognized how and where I need to work on my strong kick cycles, and I recognized where the pressure contractions came into play and how to mentally work through them. I think all seven of the ladies experienced a new personal best, some were extreme target depths on one breath like Julie Rife smashing her husband’s previous record and hitting an astounding 111 ft, Liz making 127 ft look easy, and Kristen adeptly reaching the 100 ft mark, and for others like Braden, Susan and Laura, while new personal best depths were achieved it was more about trusting their new-honed skills to relax and achieve equalization. And when you consider how much progress we all made during such a short mount of time, it becomes clear that remarkable goals can be quite attainable with just a bit of practice, more training and commitment over time. This PFI clinic gave us the critical building blocks for amazing feats to come.
Kristen's picture perfect ascent.
For me, the journey has only just begun, I’m drooling to get down just a tad more to 100 ft on one breath! I’m just now becoming aware of what’s possible for myself and how much more there is to learn, how fun freediving is, and I am super enthralled with continuing my training. It was a treat to start this journey with a great group of women, it was a honor to be at the inaugural ‘girls’ course offered by Mandy and Kirk. IMHO, (in my humble opinion) this ladies-only clinic was a terrific success and I think they should continue to offer them. In any event, you can be sure I will be participating in more PFI courses, to garner new skills, improve my performance and gain even more confidence as I fine tune my technique under the watchful, yet constructive eyes of the world's best. The next available course, open to everyone (guys and gals) is just around the corner in Kona on February 16th. My new year’s resolution is to freedive more.
Who’s in?
Photos courtesy of Braden Haggerty and Scott Williams.
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