Girls Go Deep
Posted By Francesca Koe on 28 December 2007
The PFI rig in silhouette from below
As on any training excursion, we began with a cycle of ventilations, visualizations and facial immersions to get us in the mood; we then commenced our open water training with pull-downs, basically using our hands to pull ourselves down the line to the target plate, (or wherever we were comfortable, for some at shallower depths) for practice and warm-up. After a series of pull-downs, Kirk and Mandy give us instructions for our ‘dives’ down, reminding us to be mindful of our body position and to start with strong kicks. Now while all of this sounds simple and easy, let me regale you with the tale of my spastic spazziness at the first ocean session. I’m not sure if it was a combination of my ego & nerves, coupled with a lack of familiarity with new gear, compounded by using fin blades that were too stiff for my ability, aggravating the already tightness of fin pockets because I had on one extra pair of neoprene socks, exacerbating that I was wearing a mask that was too high-volume, which all underscored that I was not being patient enough with myself or focused enough on my technique but I felt like and surely looked like a complete disaster! And to top it all off, all of my dive-mates were poised, elegant and graceful by comparison. In a word “Ugh.”
Liz exemplifies good form.
But the beauty of this humbling experience, especially as an instructor, is to recognize how it feels when you are doing it wrong so you really know when you are doing it right– god it feels so much better when you are doing it right! And how my scuba students probably feel when they are task loading (doing too much). Moreover, how patient, informative and kind Mandy and Kirk were to all of us in helping us precisely overcome our shortcomings or technical issues. How clear their instruction was and their sage ways of allowing each student to find the necessary steps to make their own positive change in a performance, as a result of their own efforts and clinic experiences. I had no idea that target freediving required such an intense introspective assessment. While it is great to have athleticism and proper equipment at your disposal, mental clarity and near-meditative focus are the keys to success. Seems I have ample room for improvement in all of these categories.
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