THE FISHERMEN

By Aharon Solomons

May

23

The story of this past month has been – a course for under water fishermen , training for 3 ladies
Maria Teresa preparing for the Mediterranean World Cup in Greece and The International competition in Okinawa , Alina Tsivkin’s preparation of 3 Israeli Records in CWT , FIM and DYN, and Estrella Navarro’s preparation of Mexican records in CNF, DNF and FIM. And finally the Spring Cortez Cup challenge.

THE FISHERMEN
This was a particularly nice group and very unlike most spearos . The basic trouble teaching spearos is because they are always vastly over weighted and are used to riding their weights to the bottom they have no idea of technique or even an idea that it might benefit them . They cant do a duck dive, their finning looks a lot like someone trying to ride a bicycle in a very tight miniskirt and believe it or not some have a lot of trouble equalising in a head down position . They all look down at the bottom when descending ,not realising that it is impossible to kick properly in this position – 80% back kick and 20% forward ,that it complicates equalisation and is in fact dangerous- incomplete irrigation of the brain.
Most of them have no idea of safety or of the dangers of their ignorance of this subject . My conclusion is that it is a miracle that any of them are still alive !! The main reason being that the majority are not 100ft men but fish in 6-7 mts. The contrast between them and their brothers in the Mediterranean is stark . In the Med . There are no fish worth taking between 30mts and the surface . The Mediterranean fishermen have long ago learned the benefits of adopting classic freedive techniques and learning a lot more about safety.
Perhaps the hardest thing to deal with is student deafness with this group you can be talking about the fact that there is little point in increasing there breath hold if they do not also improve
their aquacity where they are squandering all their gains in breath hold . All they hear is bla bla bla BREATH HOLD bla bla bla .
This group was exceptional in every respect ,especially in their lack of student deafness and their willingness to learn.

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Giammarco is the owner of the best restaurant in Cabo San Lucas ,the Sunset Monalisa , it is both superbly situated facing the famous arch across the bay and has the informal quiet elegance of Italy.
Salvatore is the commander in chief of the kitchen and Carlos ,a professional photographer, is their fishing buddy .
They came with the expected fishermen’s faults but there the parallel stops , they learned and very fast .Their style improved ,both kicking and duck dive , as did head position and equalisation .
Their static breathold went to 4 mins and their dynamic and breath walk doubled . Breath walks of 1 min static and the 1:50 still holding were performed .
But the spirit of the group was inspiring in spite of some unusual hardships . Once getting chased out of the water by Humbolt squid ( see my former blog )and having to deal on more than one occasion with horrendous currents .All this paid off with DEPTH and more fish and I hope a much better understanding of safety.

My next blog will be following the trials and tribulations of a group of Elite freedivers their challenges and their training.The Mental aspects ,their progression in training , the questions that came up and the solutions we found together.
And then of course our Mini competition where a number of National records of 2 nations were broken .

Freediving with Humpback Whales & Whale Shark

By Aharon Solomons

Apr

11

One of those rare spring mornings with a perfect calm, a sea of burnished silver. Ideal conditions for spotting whale sharks on the surface. We decided to see if we could find one as MT had been complaining that she was the only person left in La Paz who had not filmed or ridden a whale shark.
It was an official rest day, we had just begun depth training and this would have been the 4th consecutive day, something we try not to do. (Nitric oxide depletion and psychological stress). It was the very beginning of training and although the depths were not great 50+mts, multiple descents both CTW and FIM in a session take their toll.
Alina had already done an unofficial Israeli female record in training ,38.5 mts and was on her way to 40+mts.
In shallow water 20 mins after leaving the port we saw in the distance an extraordinary sight. Whales breaching and eye hopping. I quickly identified them as Humpbacks from the acrobatics, but there was something unusual at first it looked like a spout that hung much too long in the air (or like sails ?). There we are, humpbacks had taken up sailing !!

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As we got nearer – the answer became apparent they were swimming on their backs and� what we were seeing was the early sunlight flashing of the white underside of their giant pectoral fins .
They were swimming on their backs and rolling together in a beautiful dance, this looked to our untutored eye like a mating behavior but perhaps they were just enjoying the morning.
We followed them for a while but not wanting to push them, broke off the encounter, and shortly thereafter we spotted a large fin not 20mts from the boat and MT had her whale shark.

Giant squids in Cabo

By Aharon Solomons

Mar

24

This is definitely a first for us! We have been teaching free diving since 1994, and we have never had to cancel a course, the hurricanes have been kind to us and we have never lost more than a day to bad weather and that covers Eilat ,The Turks and Caicos ,Greece and Mexico!

But to be chased out of the water by Giant Squid !!!

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Photo by Carlos Aboyo http://www.caboyo.com/

In the Turks and Caicos we have had sharks following us up and down the line and never missed a beat , but this was a different ball game .

We had had some experience with these predators before in 2005 when we nearly lost Armando Torres, the president and founder of AIDA Mexico to two of them that adhered to him while safety diving for Luis Turrent.

This until now had been a very good course, 3 spear fishermen from Cabo San Lucas. There had been initially some issues with equalisation, the usual syndrome, particularly tenacious in spearos–looking down the line. Other elements had progressed well, the course had been on two weekends with two weeks in between. I had given them one simple but very special breathing exercise and the breath walk. On first attempt they had achieved 4:00 mins static each and 75 mts dynamic in long bi fins. Their original marks had been from 1:50 -2:20 static and 25 mts dynamic .

One had reached 1:52 after a 1 min static in breath walk and the rest not far behind. As was usual their main challenge was finning technique. This is the hardest thing of all to change in spearos. They are used to descending effortlessly with a ton of weights and a very rapid ascent to the surface. Might work for 7-10mts but not safely for 30 mts !!

First you have to convince them, then undo their bad habits, then teach them. There are obstacles at each stage.

But here we were ready to do drops (variable head down) For inurement to pressure and being able to separate the feeling of squeeze from “help I am running out of air “.We were over 80+mts of water in case MT and I got a chance to drop . We were nearly dressed when our skipper pointed out that in a boat 50mts from us there was some strange action . It became immediately apparent that they were hauling in Giants 3 and 4 at a time !!

So we immediately gave up on the idea of diving , we were in an invasion !! On the intercom they had ordered swimmers from the beaches out of the water.

So we began to fish them too ! One was actually gaffed when one of his brothers came and swallowed him up to the head .

We intend to report on our courses week by week and the issues that come up in them and how. we deal with them and also in the training and development of elite athletes training with us . So keep an eye on this blog .

SAFE DIVING TO ALL

Aharon

ENTRENAMIENTO DE PRE-TEMPORADA DE BUCEO LIBRE Y PESCA SUBMARINA CON ARPON

By Maria-Teresa Solomons

Jan

9

ENTRENAMIENTO  DE PRE-TEMPORADA DE BUCEO LIBRE Y PESCA SUBMARINA CON ARPON

Lugar: La Paz Baja California Sur, México

(Salidas adicionales para arponear requieren cita previa)

Mejorar tu Ventilación y Tiempo de retención de aire AHORA!

¡Ya invertiste en todo el equipo especializado, pero si quieres prepararte bien para la temporada de buceo, aprender a permanecer en profundidad sin estrés,  por más tiempo y con seguridad ¡ Este curso es para ti !

“FREEDIVERS” Aharon Solomons y Maria-Teresa (MT), han colaborado con investigaciones hechas por las universidades de Oxford (UK) y Estocolmo, (Suecia); y han entrenado tanto a campeones mundiales y nacionales de buceo libre como a pescadores con arpón, desde el año1992.

Ambos, entrenadores de Alta Rendimiento y calificados a nivel de “Master Instructor” de la Asociación Internacional para el Desarrollo del Apnea, AIDA, actualmente compitiendo a nivel mundial.

A la fecha, Aharon es campeón de buceo libre, “MASTERS USA” en 3 disciplinas y Maria-Teresa va a competir por segunda vez para el equipo femenil británico en el Campeonato Mundial de Buceo Libre,  siendo sus mejores resultados de: Estática de 6:00 minutos y  Peso Constante de 72m.

Los objetivos del curso de 2 días son: Mejorar la absorción, transportación y la utilización del oxigeno y  tolerar niveles más elevados de dióxido de carbono. Mejor dicho,

¡¡ Permanecer abajo del agua por más tiempo y con mayor seguridad !!

¿El Resultado?

Un programa eficiente de entrenamiento en apnea, en seco y en agua, que te asegure una mejor capacidad y seguridad personal como buzo. ¡Regresaras a casa a salvo!

¡Invierte en ti!

¡ Aprovecha el mejor entrenamiento en buceo libre !

Ponte en contacto con: info@freedivers.net

www.freedivers.net