This year I've entered into an exciting partnership with Tenerife Top Training (T3 for short), a state of the art training center on the main island of the Canaries (Spanish islands off the west coast of Africa).
T3 has provided all the resources I need to prepare for the AIDA World Teams Championships, to be held in Okinawa from July 1-10, where I will be competing for New Zealand with Kerian Hibbs and Guy Brew.

To list some of the features of this incredible facility:

• Two pools (25m and 50m), so I can train both with and without fins in optimal conditions.  The 2m deep pools are equipped with an incredible filtration system (I have never seen cleaner water), and kept at a constant 27ºC, ideal for apnea training.  

• The world's most advanced flume - a water channel with adjustable current to analyze technique and hydrodynamics (similar to a wind tunnel).

• A cutting edge gymnasium with hydraulic weight machines (press a button to change resistance during a set), ultramodern exercise machines and an armory of Swiss balls.

• Tennis, racquetball, squash courts, and two football fields for cross-training, or an active break from freediving!

weight training at the ultramodern T3 gymnasium

What I like best about the venue is the pervading sense of vitality: both pools are outdoors, so the air you tug into your lungs between grueling repetitions of a training table is supplied by a fresh Atlantic sea breeze, and while I row or shift iron in the gym I can admire a beautiful view out over the Atlantic ocean.

T3 collaborates with the ApartHotel Jardin Caleta, which is a short walk away through a field of wild cherry tomatoes.  The ease of access and healthy, comfortable lifestyle mean that I've been able to train as many as three times a day (static apnea at the hotel pool before breakfast, pool training at T3 before lunch, and back to T3 in the evenings for yoga & resistance training).
Tenerife is proposing itself as venue for the 2011 Individual World Champs, so you may be seeing more of it soon, but for anyone who wants to dedicate a couple of weeks to an intensive training camp before then, this is the ideal location.

Also Vertical Blue will be running a course at T3 from September 9-12.  Contact us for more information.

Two weeks ago Vertical Blue held the 2nd Master Class, organised by William Trubridge and Brittany Vanacore, with Simon Borg Olivier and Robert King as guest instructors.

The course was a huge success, with 10 students from all over the globe thriving on the new techniques, knowledge and expertise of the instructors as well as the perfect training conditions offered by Dean's Blue Hole.  Personal best performances weren't sought out, but occurred almost daily for most students, and by the end of the course everyone had increased their operating depth by between 5 - 25m.  The yoga classes with Simon gave students a new approach to becoming in control of their own body, as well as insights into diet and breathing strategies.

Here is one warm description of the course and the Long Island experience from a close friend and Apnea Academy Instructor, Glenn Venghaus:

click here

From September 21-25, 2009 Vertical Blue will again hold its once-yearly Master Class, a chance for elite-level freedivers to extend their skill base and capacity in the three major areas of the sport:

• in water technique and dive strategy, with practical lessons and theory classes run by world record holder William Trubridge
• sessions of advanced yoga and pranayama with world-renowned Ashstanga instructor and expert in the physiology and diet of yoga, Simon Borg-Olivier.
• guided meditation and formative exercises with Brittany Vanacore

Pictures from the 2008 course

pre-dive stretching exercises on the beach in front of Dean's Blue Hole.

The class hanging out on the Vertical Blue dive platform.

Ascending under the watchful eye of instructor William Trubridge

Master Class instrucors Tim Carroll, Simon Borg-Olivier and William Trubridge

Sessions of pranayama and meditation on a rock promontory overlooking the Atlantic.

For more information visit http://www.verticalblue.net/school.php or write to info@verticalblue.net

Siamo lieti di comunicare che a febbraio 2009 si terrà un corso di apnea nella meravigliosa cornice delle Bahamas.

Si approfondiranno le tecniche di tutte e tre le discipline dell'apnea profonda: assetto costante con la monopinna, immersione libera (a braccia) e assetto costante senza attrezzi (a rana).

Davide Carrera, ex recordman nella disciplina di immersione libera, è stato uno dei protagonisti con la monopinna, in occasione dell’ultimo campionato AIDA a Sharm el Sheikh, con un personale di – 91.

Gli allievi saranno guidati dallo stesso di prima mattina in un percorso alla scoperta dei benefici dello yoga applicato all’apnea, in una location suggestiva davanti all'oceano atlantico.

Seguiranno nozioni di alimentazione e preparazione a secco.

Tutte le lezioni in mare saranno tenute presso il Dean's Blue Hole, che con i suoi 203 mt è il posto più adatto al mondo per svolgere training in apnea ad alto livello.

http://www.verticalblue.net/deansbluehole.php

Il corso durerà 5 giorni; il prezzo per chi viene attraverso il sito Vertical Blue sarà €525.

Per ulteriore informazione, oppure per prenotare, scrivete a info@verticalblue.net

This year, between October 5 - 9 Vertical Blue is proud to host the 'Master Class for Freediving,' a world first in elite freediving instruction.

The course will combine three world experts in the fields of yoga, mental coaching and deep freediving, and will be held over five days in the idyllic location of Dean's Blue Hole (site of the recent Vertical Blue competition, in which five new world records were set).

Principal instructors are:

William Trubridge, BSc, double world record holder (CNF & FIM)

Simon Borg Olivier, MSc BAppSc - founder of Yoga Synergy

Tim Carroll, ACMC, NLP trainer & meta-coach - director of Self Insight

The course fee is US$995 or €655.

For more information write to:

info@verticalblue.net

SIMON BORG-OLIVIER

Simon was introduced to yoga at age six, learning breath retention from his father George Borg-Olivier, who was also a freediver (George was awarded a medal from the queen for freediving into the Mediterranean sea on a cold winter night in 1954 to rescue an unconscious bus driver stuck in a school bus that had driven off a cliff).

Simon was later taught the main bandhas (which he practiced with empty lungs) from Basil Brown, an Olympic athlete.  The result was that Simon could swim a lap of an Olympic pool underwater before he could swim on top of the water.

At age 17, a Tibetan Lama introduced Simon to the philosophy of yoga. In 1980, Simon started the physical practice of hatha yoga, going on to learn from the great masters BKS Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois and TKV Desikachar.

Simon commenced teaching in 1982 and in 1988 he developed the unique Yoga Synergy system. Yoga Synergy style is designed in accordance with applied anatomy and physiology, but it can also be very dynamic and fluid. Simon developed much of his yoga by practicing complicated exercises whilst holding his breath underwater. Hence, the advanced form of Yoga Synergy includes a precise breathing system that uses powerful breath retentions whilst moving and in stillness, making it an ideal practice for freedivers.   In 1998 Simon trained the Australian freediving team sent to the World Championships in Sardinia.

Since 1995 Simon has been teaching courses throughout the world in the Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga, and he is co-author of ‘Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga’, the main text book for a course he developed and lectures at RMIT University in Melbourne.

TIM CARROLL

Tim is a former elite athlete and has represented New Zealand in Barefoot Waterskiing at 4 world championships. He is working today as a Leadership Coach and Trainer and is a mental coach for the Swedish Golf Team.

As an internationally certified Meta-Coach, NLP/Neuro Semantics trainer and speaker, Tim has worked as an expert in the field of cognitive behavioural sciences and self actualising technologies for the last 10 years.

Tim is the co-owner and Director of Self- Insight a rapidly growing cutting edge coaching and training company focused on actualising leaders, teams and organisations.  He has worked with CEO’s, entrepreneurs, leaders and athletes, including some of Scandinavia's most successful companies and elite sporting organisations such as the Malmo Football Club and the PGA of Sweden.

Tim's genuineness, experience, passion for growth and “down under” personality make him a natural and comfortable person to work with who supports athletes in creating outstanding results.

It was with great pleasure that I accepted an invitation to run an introduction to freediving course aboard 'Indigo' a fully outfitted 91 foot (28m) liveaboard operated by Geoffrey Hanan of Dolphin Expeditions (http://www.dolphinexpeditions.com)

Geoffrey has been running these excursions for longer than anyone else in the Caribbean, and he knows where to find the dolphins and how to behave with them.

On Sunday night we left the dock in Bimini in search of the dolphin grounds, and we were rewarded almost straight away on Monday, with two very sociable Atlantic Spotted dolphins. 

You have to forget about the idea that these mammals might behave in a way similar to a domesticated animal, following on your heel.

They are wild animals, free to follow their fancy, and this could just as easily be eating, mating or playing amongst themselves as it could be indulging the awkward and gangly humans who bruise the surface of the water.

Dolphins like it when we fit in with them, so it is best to keep your arms by your sides and fins together.  They particularly like it if you dive straight down, turn and come quickly to the surface, and will meet you with a spiraling escort that opens around you on the surface.   

What surprised me the most was how close the dolphins came to me; we were like dancers who face off and move around each other as close as possible without touching.  The bubbles I let trickle from my mouth tickled up the belly of the nearest dolphin as we spiraled together.

Barracudas will often try and stare you down, or dog you around the reef, sharks and jacks will circle you, and cleaner fish will come and trim dead skin, but this is all the language of food: predator and prey; host and symbiont.  A dolphin approaches you for the same reason that a dog will fetch a stick, with the difference being that wild dogs don't fetch sticks...

How much of it is personification?  If a dolphin's mouth curved down instead of up would we see them as such cheerful creatures?  You can strip away all of that and I would still have the sensation that there was something more to the encounter.  Coming up off the sandy bottom, locked in a slow ascending spiral, the dolphin was studying me, following my movements, waiting for a cue...  What that cue might have been I still don't know, but I can't help thinking that it might be some kind of elaborate game, a game that shares similarities to the tease of a beautiful girl, who will move around you, ever closer, to the point where your bodies or lives are almost touching, but the moment you make an awkward move or initiate contact she will vanish with a flick of her skirts.

I could have easily caressed the dolphin's flank, or even taken hold of its dorsal fin, but in case dolphins have a memory - and I'm sure they do - I didn't want to spoil my chances.

Of course there was the course as well - and it is always exciting and rewarding to see people with no experience in freediving make their first steps and fall in love with the sensations.  At the end it's hard to get them out of the water!

All of the stunning photos shown above are courtesy of Mark Corcoran, and are copywrighted.

For more information on freediving courses run in cooperation with Dolphin Experiences write to info@verticalblue.net.

Last week in Lake Taupo, New Zealand, Vertical Blue held an advanced CNF course in collaboration with the Lazy Seal Freediving Club (www.lazyseal.co.nz). The course took place over 5 days from January 13-17 in Lake Taupo, New Zealand's most suitable location for freediving training. 

Students, photographers and instructors all stayed in a villa in the small lakeside town of Tauranga-Taupo. All 8 students were of an extremely high level (at least 3 had performances to over 80% of the current world record), so it was an exciting challenge to be able to work with such an elite group. In the classroom sessions we were able to bypass all basic concepts and concentrate on some of the more delicate aspects of performance that I have discovered and developed over the last 5 years, such as dive strategies to maximise energy efficiency (MEE), no warm-up training, diet, use of yogic bandhas to 'super-slow' the metabolism & HR, and many more.

Thanks to the generous use of Philip Clayton's fully-equipped RIB we were able to easily train out on the lake each morning, where we were blessed with calm, warm weather for all 5 days of the course. The Lake was a toasty 21ºC on the surface, with at least 12m of visibility, meaning the two expert underwater photographers Igor Liberti and Richard Robinson (www.diverdick.co.nz) were able to take some stunning shots. On Saturday Graham Mackereth brought out an ROV, an underwater robot operated by Clive from a container parked on the lake shore. It buzzed and swiveled to watch the students with two cameras, and flashed its lights when you looked into the lens.

After evening sessions of pranayama, lung stretches and exhale SA's everyone would settle down to a barbecue dinner and maybe a game of pool in the downstairs salon. It was a pleasure and an honour to be able to work with such an advanced group, and I trust we will be seeing some of them on the scene at international competitions in the future... Thanks to Kathryn Mc Phee from Lazy Seal for organising the course, and to Igor and Richard for the stunning underwater images.