Andy Güldner

Freedive Training at Robinson Club Soma Bay

2011-08-05T16:30:00.004+02:00

I just came from the Robinson Club Soma Bay a few days ago.
We had a great time there. Thanks to Matze and his team.
Congratulations to my students. You all did very well.

Charity Record Attempt Video

2009-09-09T11:27:00.005+02:00

The Clip about the record attempt is ONLINE!!!
Thanks for the support!!!

National Record, Personal Bests and 10 Years of Freediving

2009-08-13T07:36:00.003+02:00

I wasn´t able to write the last days. So many things happend. Where shall I start...

PERSONAL BEST

A few days before the record attempt I tryed for a new personal best in constant weight.Last year I was diving 78m in that disziplin and after a day off rest (I had breakfast with girl in Hilton)I felt strong to try for 80m.The warm up FRC´s felt so good...I went down to 36m on halt full lung very easy.The Bloodshift felt so good.Then we set the robe. On the dive I felt very calm. The falling part was the best. My ears worked as they should and I reached the bottom weight and bend my arm to getas much depth as possible.The way back up felt good...I was clear at the surface.Then suddenly I was very happy to archive a 84m dive in Constant Weight. I´ve never been that deep.

RECORD ATTEMPT

I felt quite nervous the day before the attempt. I tryed for 75m dive and I made it very easy. On the day before the record attempt my girl and me felt of the motorbike and we got some scars. Of course I got mine on my foot. It burned a lot.Now I was even more nervous and not sure if I could reach my goal. All my confidence as gone.On the record day was okay. I coverd the scar with some vaseline so the pain was aceptable.The warm up dive was very good and all the setup was made ready for me try. The judes Linda and Katya, the camera man Leif and saftey Marek and Flavia were in positon.4 Minutes until official TOP.I did my last breathes and made my way down into the blue abyss.It was very nice...no problems with ears, good bloodshift and pure calmness. Thats how a dive should be.On the bottom weight I was searching for the TAG and after a few second I found it on the BOTTOM PLATE :-)The way up was easy. Back on surface I performed a perfect surface protocol and the I had THE RECORD.Exactly one year since the last record.I was very happy that you could kiss my girl again.

I´m very proud that this CHARITY DIVE raised almost 2000 Euro to Foundation witch support mine victimes all over the world.

SLED DIVING IN SHARM

The day after the record attempt we went to sharm to try the sled.10 years ago I was watching the BIG BLUE with eyes wide open and impressed by those pictures.Now 10 Years late I could give the sled diving a first try.On the first dive I went with Linda and she showed me how everything works. We managed a 40m dive.A few dives later Marek and me went together down to 80m. We were in the middle of a tuna swarm. It was very nice.I realised that I still had no contractions. So I was asking for a 90m Dive. The rope was set and I did my breath up.3,2,1 and the sled went into the abyss. It was freediving FORMULA 1. The light went darker with every meter.Then the bottom. I was looking on my watch and saw 88m. The I was climbing down the sled and did some bending.I finaly had 91m on my watch. Then I startet to infalte the ballon. The way up was really fast and nice.Adrenalin was all over my body. Back at the surface I still had no contractions but we stopped diving.The risk of DCS was to big.Afterwards I realised that I was 30 seconds between 88m and 91m.

I never experienced that much in such a few days during my whole freediving carrer.

Crossing the Arch

2009-08-05T13:20:00.003+02:00

Yesterday was a great day.
In the morning I got promoted at my job :-)
And then we went into the water for a special experience.
Mark rented a DIVEx Scotter for crossing the arch.
After a few warmups he did his try and finaliy he did the arch.
Next was Marek...a warmup to 43m and the CROSSING the Arch!!!
In the end I made a try for the Arch as well and I DID IT :-)
The dive was great....It went down to 62m and then I saw it...thousands of small fishes were into the cave and the light was beautiful.
During the whole dive I did´nt even had contractions. The divetime was 2:20 min.
A perfect day!

Step back

2009-08-03T19:40:00.002+02:00

Todays training did´nt went as good as I thought. The currant was strange, so the bouy was always to close to the reef. The line was not going strait down....all that freaked me out a little bit.
In the end I managed to do a 71m dive in a very good divetime of 2:11 min.
Afterwards german Dennis and me did some filming witch was very nice.
Tomorow day off again.

Constant Weight - Feeling

2009-08-01T09:15:00.002+02:00

Since my girl is here everything is fine.
The last two days I manged a 75m Constant Weight dive in 2:30 min. and a 77m Dive in 2:24 min. I felt very good an that dives but today I need to have a day off.
I really feel that the depth is taking my power.

Target Depth

2009-07-27T20:31:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I reached my Target Depth of 72m. The Dive was quite easy but I had to stop at 15m in cause of equalisation problems. This took almost 7 seconds. But then I kept on falling and it felt so good :-)

Today I was out at Lighthouse for some FRC Training. Leif and Nik performend new personal bests of 38m.

In between I did FRCs down to 35m and one "deep static" dive down to 38m in 3:35 min.

As promised here is a picture of my "painted" bike.

The last two days Dahab has to deal with quite lot electricity outtakes. It is sooo anoying!

Tomorow my beloved girlfriend arrives at sharm. So no training tomorow.

Solid FRCs and bad deep dives

2009-07-25T21:10:00.002+02:00

The last days marek had a course so no deepdive training at blue hole for me.

In the meantime I did some very nice FRCs at Lighthouse. Beside this I managed to do a 3:40 min dive down to 37m. It felt very nice.

Today we went to Blue Hole. The currant was strong and during my dive the rope moved.

At 60m I banged into the inner wall of Blue Hole, ripped my suit and scratched my skin.

Back at surface I was fine but unhappy. I felt like doing a 70m constant weight dive.

Tomorow I´m gonna try again. But I will be more aware during the descent.

Now I´m digesting the steaks we made :-)

Day Off...

2009-07-21T15:50:00.002+02:00

The last nights I could´nt find a proper sleep.
Yesterday I spend the whole day painting my motorbike. Its Blue Metalic now...very funky.
The training day today was quite inefficent. Did´nt bring the monofin, so no constant weight training.Tryed free immersion but way to less bottom weight on the line. In the end our training end up doing some underwater bubble rings.

Second Training - Big Step

2009-07-20T11:36:00.002+02:00

The Blue Hole was nice and calm. When we went into the water it was a bit difficult to get the ropes set.After that we needed some time to relax again.
After my warum up dives I went for the proper dive but my ears got stuck.
3 Minutes after that I went for a new try. The dive alarm was set on 60m. After a few kick I was freefalling and it felt very good. Then I the alarm came and I kept falling for another few seconds.
Back at the surface my D3 sayed 68m. Its quite scary how easy my body is adapting to the depth.

First Training Session

2009-07-18T21:02:00.006+02:00

It was very hot night and I woke up a few times to drink. I think I really should get a aircon.
At 9am Marek and me went to Blue Hole for deepdive training.
The sea was calm and very nice.
On my first warm up dive my right ear got stuck and I thought that I could´nt go deep today.
After the second dive it was fine and I prepared myself to the first BIG dive.
I felt quite calm and my body felt very good while falling down.
A few seconds after I stoped kicking I already heard the depth alarm. It was set on 55m... I kept on falling down.
The way back felt easy and when I saw Marek I was surprised that I did´nt even had contractions.
Result of that dive 63m in 2:10 min. Pretty Good for the first dive.
In the afternoon we went into the south of dahab for some fishing. I did´nt caught a fish but it was very relaxing :-) Now my fingers smell like the bait.
Now I´m sitting here in El Salam Restaurant and I wait for my girlfriend calling me on skype.
Tomorow we go to Blue Hole again to for a training session. I hope my ears will take me down to 65m tomorow.

Operation 72

2009-07-17T14:04:00.003+02:00

It's time again.
The call of the BIG BLUE was calling.
Yesterday I arrived in Dahab to train for a new german record in constant weight freediving.
My aim this time: 72m
Since this record attempt is for Charity my Sponsors paying money for each Record Meter to a foundation who supportng explosive and mine victimes.
After my plane arrived in Sharm el Sheikh I saw my friend Mohammed @Faster an the airport...he took me on his taxi to dahab.
One hour later I arrived at my house and got a welcome lunch by the people who use to life in the house. It was very nice.
Today I went to Lighhouse Bay by myself for a few shallow dives. I was back...back into my beloved sea. Even a octopus came by to say hello :-) Later its time for some serious training!
It seems to be a nice hot day in dahab!
PS: Steffi my love - I miss you...hope you will be here very soon!

Human Guinea Pig

2009-03-24T08:16:00.009+01:00

Yesterday I was invited to an hyperbaric test center. As a human guinea pig the docs tested if and how breathing pure oxygen under physical work affects the bloodstream in the brain during a dive. The result of this test will be important for pure oxygen rebreather divers.

Ice Hockey "on the rocks"

2009-03-07T13:52:00.003+01:00

Since I´ve started freediving many years ago I had many nice moments underwater and I thought I saw almost everything....I was wrong!

....
During the BOOT Show 2009 my buddy and me was invited to join the 3rd Underwater Ice Hockey Woldchampionships. The event was organised by Christian Redl.It was quite less time to find sponsors and we had no time to train. On wednesday night we left to play for our country.

After a 14 hours drive across germany and austria we finaly arrived at lake "weissensee".

It is a wonderful lake but when we arrived the conditions were quite bad - foggy, wet and snowing.
Underwater it was pitch black.

It was a very interesting experience to dive under the ice.

After a few adapation dives and a few games we were in the final games against austria.
It was a hard fight against the vice worldchampion from last year and in the end austria won the match with 1 point in advance

...Final Result: Austria 10 - Germany 9...

Well, now germany is the proud vice worldchampion in underwater ice hockey and very motivated to win on the next worldchampionsships.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR

ORION

BOOT 2009

2009-02-06T21:11:00.004+01:00

Just came from the BOOT Show 2009 in Düsseldorf.
It was a great weekend where I met a lot of friends from dahab and people from the diving biz around the world.

At our place we represented the diving units of the german navy.

Honored by the mayor of my home town

2009-02-02T09:53:00.003+01:00

On 11th January the mayor of my hometown honored two young persons for special archivments. I was one of them because of my archievments in freediving.

In the pool of that little town I found my passion....It was the summer of 99...already 9,5 years ago.

Way to less time

2009-01-02T10:07:00.004+01:00

Back in germany I promised my sister (and my mother) that I´m gonna join the deep dives on my sisters AOWD Course. On the day after the night dive we went to Canyon and Bells-Blue Hole for that. It was very nice and I was surprised how well my sister is diving.
Since I was diving on that day I lost a lot of time doing things for my house.
Anyhow I managed to get a nice small table for the living room witch is now not so emty anymore.
Finally a good friend from switzerland Pat arrived and we had some good dives together...even if we had some issues with our health.
On NEW Years EVE we went for dinner to Blue Beach and for new year we went back home to my place....it was very nice and funny.
Well, in the end it I could´nt fix as much as I would, could´nt spend enough time with friends and could´nt dive as much as I would. On my flight back home I had a nice view...A nice view back Home to my precious Dahab.
Anyway...I come back...soon I hope

Dahab Winter Time

2008-12-27T21:41:00.002+01:00

Since two days I am back in Dahab...it is wonderful.
My little sister is living at my house and is doing her PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course.
I did a wonderful 48m freedive back at Blue Hole today. In the evening I went for a night dive with my lil sister. On Scuba :-) well, I have to say it was very nice.

Judge in Berlin

2008-11-20T14:54:00.002+01:00

Last Saterday (15.11.08) I was invited to the 11th Night of Apnea in Berlin. Not as a athlete - I was invited as a judge.
For me it was to first time working as a judge and I was quite nervous in the beginnig.
When I arrived at the pool many memories from the past came to my mind.
The first time I was here was at the 2nd Night of Apnea and I was 13 years old...the youngest competitor of the world. Strange...it´s been already 9 years.

I was judging with Christoph Leschinski and Hans Pütz. At the Static Part of the Competition they took me into the middle to see how I was doing. My first athlete was Wolle Neugebauer and a static attempt.
Everything went very good. I just had to disqualify one person because of a wrong surface protocol. The dynamic competiton was also very good and all athletes at my lane did a great performance. It was a very nice and interesting weekend.

Zugspitze

2008-10-21T17:27:00.003+02:00

Another beautiful day at Lake "Starnberger See"...in front of germanys highest mountain the "Zugspitze". In a few days I probably go for a fun freedive here.

Bavaria Blue

2008-10-20T12:19:00.003+02:00

Yesterday night we arrived at Percha at Lake "Starnberger See" to do some deep dives.

This morning we prepared our platfrom whitch is more like a houseboat with filling station.

It is very nice to be home in bavaria (the south of germany) - The water is clear and the sky is blue. Look like a perfect day!

RTL Report

2008-09-26T20:38:00.001+02:00

RTL Report about the record attempt:

Viva Espania - but no time for freediving

2008-09-18T17:16:00.014+02:00

Just sitting here in Cadiz/Spain in the hotel lobby. Almost the whole week I was on one of our boats here and unfortunadly I could'nt freedive at all. The reason was that all the time we had to work and no time for anchoring somewhere. Also the underwater conditions in the atlantic are not so good as thought. Aleast I saw some dolphins and this was very great. I never saw wild dolphins before.

Anyhow...we had a great time here in Cadiz and we are very happy to spend the last night in a hotel.

Just got a photo of my new sofa from nikki:

Off to Cadiz/Spain

2008-09-11T18:55:00.002+02:00

Just about to finish my packing. Now I´m off to Cadiz/Spain...

5 Minutes

2008-09-09T21:18:00.006+02:00

Todays goal was 5 minutes and I reached it again very easy.
I also got this special feeling back after that static session. Almost forgot that static really can be fun :-)
The rest of the pool session I spend with empty-lung-dives down to 5m which felt quite good.
Just came from the gym...had a very nice workout there :-)
Unfortunadly our flight to spain is delayed by two days. the reason is that our diving boat has to fight with very bad sea conditions. the good thing is that I can have some more static sessions until friday. But still - I already can hear the calling of the sea. My monofin is already on the diving boat ;-)

Special THANKS to ELIOS-SUB for my new 3mm Suit

Pool Training and new goals

2008-09-08T21:03:00.003+02:00

After work I went into our pool for a static session with my new suit.
The todays goal was four minutes witch I reached easy.
Time to make new goals for the winter...During the winter I will try to reach the 7min mark. It´s gonna be a hard way because I did´nt trained static since almost 2 years.

Official Surface Camera

2008-09-07T12:35:00.004+02:00

The official surface camera shots of my record attempt:

Guestbook readded

2008-08-28T21:48:00.003+02:00

Just readded my old guestbook. I´ll find it on the side - beyond the blog archive.
Preparing my trip to spain at the moment. We are leaving on the 10th of september.

First Day back in the base

2008-08-15T19:04:00.009+02:00

Yesterday I had my first day back in the naval base in Eckernförde.
In the morning I had a appointment with a navy press officer.
He wrote down my story about my training and the attempt.

Click here to read the article on marine.de (in german)

Also found this Radio-Interview from Bayern 2 (in german)

Good-Bye-Run

2008-08-14T19:13:00.002+02:00

On my last night in dahab I was invited for Dinner by Kate and Dean.
We had fresh fish for dinner and it was probably the best fish I´ve every tryed.
On that evening I started to say good bye to Lotta and Peter.
In the morning I went to freedive dahab and sayed good bye to Natalie, Kate and Dean.
For breakfast I was invited by Alex from Spain. For Lunch I was invited by Akim :-)
My last stop on my good-bye-run was desert divers. I told Nikki to take good care about my house while she is renting it.
In the minibus I felt quite bad when I saw the sign "Good Bye Dahab" outside of dahab.
Yes, leaving is always hard. But it keeps this place special to me.
Then right into the plane and flying for 4,5 hours to munich. Back in germany I rented a car (Alfa 159) to drive to the navel base in eckernförde. This journey across the country took me almost 10 hours. Back in the base I got congratulations from all my buddys... Now I´m waiting for my next adventure

Calming Down

2008-08-11T10:17:00.003+02:00

The day after my record dive I used for recovering and for my house.
I got Aircon in one of the bedroom. Unfortunadly one of the workers felt off the roof and was a bit injured. After I did first aid his buddys drove him to the hospital. Poor guy :-(
The rest of the day I spend with friends in el salam. I really felt the energy coming back into my body. A nice day :-)

GERMAN RECORD !!!

2008-08-09T17:06:00.005+02:00

Today I woke up with a mixed feeling. I was full of energy but I must admit I was quite nervous.
At 10am we left from Freedive Dahab Office to Blue Hole and the condition on the spot was quite good.
Even my family arrived to watch my attempt.
I went into the water and with every second in the water I lost the feeling of beeing nervous.

I took my time to relax and when I felt right I gave Lotta the signal to start the Countdown (4min)
On Official Top I started my dive down to 71m. Again the fight against the bouyance. I was so used to 4kg weight. Now I doved with only 2kg. I started falling and calmness overcome my whole body. I could feel that dive respond - I could feel the blood shift. After about 30-35m I filled my mouth with air to equaliaze below the point where my lung is compressed to RV.
Down at 71m I took the TAG without a problem. The way back felt very good and when I saw Natalie I knew that the dive was going to be perfect.
Back at the surface....Proper surface protocol....waiting until the white card....THEN CHEERING :-) NEW GERMAN RECORD.........The old german record made by Tom Sietas exaclty 4 Years before (09/08/2004).

After this dive I decided to rest for 1 hour and try for another record in "Free Immersion".
On that dive I doved down to 76m but I gave the surface protocol to the saftey diver instead giving it to the Judge. The rules say that it is not a record because of failing of the protocol.
But it was one of the best dives I´ve ever had. I felt so relaxed. The divetime was 3:24 min and I enjoyed every second of that dive - even when it was no record. After the dive I realised that I injured my foot on the robe...It´s the 2008 scar...I have one from 2006 aswell :-)

In the end I can say that I reached my main goal. 6 Weeks of training...6 Weeks of Up´s and Down´s...6 Weeks of emotions. I was a long journey. Now I feel very tired but on the other hand very released.
Tonight we´re gonna celebrate :-)

Back to Confidence - PART II

2008-08-08T17:05:00.002+02:00

Another great day in Paradise...

At 10am Natalie, Akim and me left to Blue Hole for a Training session.
It was about time to get back to the depth after the two failed attempts.

Back in the water I felt that the felling started to come back. For the warm-up I did two dives to about 30m on FRC. A group of scuba divers stayed close to the robe and watched our training. The sound of the regulators was a bit anoying but they left before our deep attempts.

Today I tryed the weight setup from yesterday. I doved with 50 % less weight (only 2kg).
The dive started...
In the beginning I had to fight against the bouyance. I realised that I didn´t start falling like usually. So I lost a few seconds on my descent. But the feeling down was muss stronger - more confident.
The way back felt so easy. It felt so nice to have that much bouyance on the way back.
In the end I reached 72,6m in a divetime of 2:21 min.
Tomorow is the big chance :-)

Back to Confidence

2008-08-07T18:37:00.003+02:00

Today I had a very nice day. In the morning my father and me fixed my bike and some new lamps in my house.
In the afternoon I rested and try to focus on what to eat and when to eat. The plan was to go for a training in the back at 4pm with akim.
After we set up the rope I started with my first dive. It was quite strange. The contractions came very early and I felt uncomfortable. Afterwards I changed some of my weight setup and tryed some dives. On my 5mm suit I´m neutraly bouyanced at 16m. It felt much safer. In the end I got all my confidence back by doing a 31m dive with took 3:30 min. I was so happy. Akim had a funny LMC on one of his dives. It´s quite bad to make fun out of such a thing but we both laughed because the face he was making on that was way to funny :-)
After the session I tryed to show my nude behind to the people on the other robe but they didn´t looked :-) Usually the white whale is not spoted in the red sea ;-)

Fish Blues

2008-08-07T12:09:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I went for a scuba dive with my family at Lighthouse. We saw a lot of thing and that dive. It was nicer than I thought :-)

The evening before I was freediving at the islands with Akim and he showed me how to attract fishes with noises. He use this for spearfishing. Ofcourse we didn´t used a speargun.
It was very funny.

I really try to get some energy back but it is more difficult than I thought :-) But I feel fine now.

2nd and 3rd Competition Day - Blackouts and Mistakes

2008-08-03T14:26:00.004+02:00

Just came from Blue Hole...
I´m so disapointed since 3 Days I work on that german record in constant weight and the last two days was very worse.
During the last two days I had a small blackout at the surface...
The reason for the blackout yesterday was bad ears and massive pain during the dive...I reached the depth but I was very stressed because of that and at the surface...well...BO.
Today I felt much better in my ears. Bettina from switzerland gave me some medication for the ears. It was quite good. During the dive I felt quite relaxed but at the bottom I had a bit of effort to get the tag...it was quite strong :-). Well, I didn´t thought that on this dive I gonna have problems. But back at the surface...BO again!!! I´m so disapointed and I feel very weak.
After the dive two watches showed almost 2 meters more than I annonced....73m.
Lotta sayed in a few days I will get the possibility to make that attempt again.
....
Time to get some energy back.

First Competition Day - No Record....Yet

2008-08-01T14:44:00.003+02:00

Today was the first competition day.
The morning started very good. I had a nice long sleep and when I woke up I fixed some of my equipment (wetsuit, ankle weight).
Then I went out to Blue Hole with the first group. The Team of Freedive Dahab prepared the Conter Ballast System and in the meantime I started to do some stretching.
I felt very good and strong.
Sara Champbell was coaching and supporting me in the water and during my warm up´s. With every second more in the water I felt more comfortable. I did two FRC´s and they felt very good. One was to 21m the other one was to 32m.
Then my BIG Dive started. During the first meters my ears would not work properly but after 20m everything was fine and easy. The freefalling felt good and at the bottom plate I reached the TAG easy. The way back was easy aswell and I had almost no contractions. Back at the surface I did a big mistake. My hand touched the bouy before my head was out of the water. The regulations of AIDA say that this is a yellow card and NO NATIONAL RECORD. Well, it was a bit stupid of me and tomorow I will do a proper dive without this mistake.
My computer sayed that I went down to 72,3 m in 2:08 min.
For tomorow I annonced 72m in constant weight...another chance for me.

I want to Rest :-)

2008-07-31T14:26:00.002+02:00

The last two days I try to rest from the deep dive training.

But I could not rest so much because I had stuff to do.

Yesterday in the morning my motorbike tyre broke again....but in the middle of nowhere.

Had to do a quite long walk with the bike in the desert until I found a Pickup Truck.

After that I went to the mechanic and told him to fix the bike....AGAIN.

In the evening I went to check how the thing going at my house. Well, again a bit of delay because some workers broke the marble in the kitchen. So now they have to do it again.

This morning started quite good....

I had cornflakes with honey at el salam restaurant, enjoyed the sea view. It was quite relaxing.

Then I remembered that I have to get a medical statment from a doctor to be able to make the competition. So I borrowed a car from a friend and did the medical test.

It was interesting...I have a Vital Capaticity of 8.14 Lites...I think this is quite good.

So at the moment I´m again at el salam to have some protein (scrambled eggs and a hamburger) and then at 5 pm I have to go to the briefing for the competition tomorow.

Solid Dives - Solid House

2008-07-29T21:44:00.003+02:00

Just came from my house :-)
The last two days I was busy as hell!!!
In the morning training and then directly to my house and working there until night.
Yesterday I did a free immersion down to 77m whitch felt very good and easy. And 16kg bottom weight for the first time. It was nice to train on that robe but it was a big hustle to bring it back to surface.
Today the same...
Training after a short sleep (well, more a nap)...bad sinuses... in the end I did a very nice 73m Constant Weight dive. It felt good and solid.
My house it getting ready soon...I can´t wait to move in. That´s for today. Tomorow I might have a day off (maybe two).
A few days till the competition starts...

From Ups and Downs

2008-07-26T15:31:00.004+02:00

Today got back on the ground. This is where I actually belong.

On my deep dive today I had several problems but I was stupid enough to keep on free falling the whole way down.
1. The positions of my arms in the beginning of the dive was very wrong. When I reallised it I already was out of conzentration.
2. On 30 - 35m I bumped with my face into the rope. Again I was out of relaxation.
3. On 50m I was falling sideward and not streamlined at all. It cost a lot energy to correct my position.

To end this bad dive I lost consciousness when I was almost at the surface. Thanks to Daan for the professional saftey of this dive. When I was back my computer said 81m...
...now I´m not going deeper anymore. I train for 75m and this I can do proper and anytime.

Well, it happend so fast that you come from very high to very low.....and sometimes it has to happen something like that.

Deep Static

2008-07-25T17:03:00.003+02:00

Today I trained out in the Masbat Bay with Akim.

After a good breakfast we took our equipment and went to the dive spot.

It was quite windy and the sea was very choppy.

We did some deep static dives. I went down to 33m and made 3:31 min. divetime.

I think this type of training is very good for free immersion.

Now I just came back from my house.

I HAVE A TERRASSE NOW :-) YEAHH.

Dirty Bloody 80m

2008-07-24T18:04:00.005+02:00

Came back from my training session.
The Blue Hole was very calm - almost no current.
It was also low tide...and lots lots lots of people were walking on the reef.
Daan and me got mad at them....one of the egyptians even told us that this is his country and he can walk where he want to walk. Only his friend was clever and told him to step off from the reef.
They simply don´t understand what a reef is built off and that he is acctually killing many animals.
Oh well, finally we were back on training. When I prepared my dive I had still problems with my ears. It is not that they are stuck but it is a major effort to equalize them.
After my warm ups I did my dive and it felt good in the beginning. Down there I was a bit narced. On the way back I felt quite tired in my legs and on the surface I had a small LMC which means I was for a few seconds not 100 % clear.
After I had a look on my computer it told me I was at 80m. I would have been more happy if I would have done a good surface protocol. The dive was a constant weight dive and it took me 2:33 min. 10 seconds longer than my 78m dive.

On the second try

2008-07-24T09:16:00.003+02:00

Yesterday on Blue Hole I still had to fight with my ears...don´t no what it is? Do I have a small cold? Anyways,...
On my first try I was aiming for 76m in Free Immersion but my ears weren´t able to be equalized so I was quite disapointed for that training session.
But after the dive I could feel that I have to do another try...so we dropped to bottom weight again to 76m. By the way...it is not smart to do two deep dives on one training session!
Well, on my second try I reached to 76m in Free Immersion and it felt very easy...the divetime was 2:55min.
In the evening I felt very tired because of the 2 deep dives and because of the dropping and lifting,dropping and lifting of the bottom weight. In the evening I had dinner at Lindas flat together with Akim and Alex...ít was soooo tasty. It was something from Thailand I guess :-)
After a coffee without coffein I drove home and felt into my bed. 5 min later I was asleep.

With funny ears down to 77,7m

2008-07-21T13:06:00.004+02:00

The day started very good.
I woke up with Bob Marley and his song "Three little birds"...but my ears felt a bit funny.
Usually when I take a hot shower my ears are getting free again...so I took a hot shower witch is like hell when you are in egypt and the air is 45 degree.
Well, after that they got a bit better.

Back at Blue Hole I still had to fight with the equalization and my ears made funny sounds during that.
During my warm ups I managed to do a 31m dive with almost emty lung...it took 1:40m
I felt ready for the big AIM.
During my big dive I felt very relaxed and I really enjoyed the free falling part. The turn down there was "okay" but still I should work on that.
Back at the surface I was very clear and happy about my 77,7m I reached. Another happy personal best for me. The dive time was 2:23min.
After that Daan managed to do a personal best in constant weight aswell...he reached 46m!!!

Make it safe

2008-07-20T20:29:00.003+02:00

Today was another good training day.
I did the 76m again and this time it felt quite easy.
The divetime was 2:21min.
The most anoying thing on blue hole is the people who don´t care about the reef.
almost every day I have to shout and scream at people to not step on the reef.
On the way back I drove the jeep back home. it was so much fun - OFFROAD.
In the evening we had a small motorbike accident...nothing big-but we learned our lesson.
Now we are starting to watch LOST...Sesson 4

Constant Weired 76m

2008-07-19T16:48:00.004+02:00

The dive today at Blue Hole was interesting.
I fell down to the end of the line but I lost it.
I tryed to get the bottom line back but I grabbed two times wrong...because I don´t wear a diving mask.
Anyhow, I spend way to long time downthere at 76m for getting the TAG.
But I was all clear at the surface and very happy for a new Personal Best.
The dive took 2:19.
This time I was listen to my buddy. I was breathing oxygen for a couple of minutes to get rid of the DCS risk and for a faster recovering of my body. Thanks to Kristin from DDU for the oxygen.
Now I´m back home at Peters house and enjoying the AirCon.

Day OFF

2008-07-19T06:40:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I woke up in the morning and I know...today I can rest for a bit.
But the sea was calling me. I decided to go down to the bay for a swim. It was wonderful and the temperature was perfect.
After that I took my book "The Swarm" and ordered a orange juice.
Live could be so easy.
I spend the wohle noon at the bay.
Then I went back to Peters house (where I life), put the Aircon on and had a nice nap.
They "forced" me to join them for a small training session in the bay.
So we went down with my motorbike...three people on that thing is a bit tricky.
Back in the water I trained a bit "unassisted" and FRC. Unfortunately my ears started to become a bit funny so I went back on land.
In the evening we had pizza and we watched "LOST".

Back on Free Immersion

2008-07-17T15:12:00.011+02:00

Today we were going to the Blue Hole one hours earlyer and everybody looked a bit tired in the morning.
It was another quite good training session...well...
In the beginning I made a variabel weight dive down to 51m (by holing the bottom weight) and it was very nice to have time to look and enjoy the ARCH.
After a few warm ups I made myself ready for the DEEP ONE.
Today I made a Free Immersion dive down to 75m...witch took me 2:54min.
Well usualy I´m faster and I think I was not falling streamlined...this took a lot of time and energy....Well what should I say... This dive felt not so easy and I was fresher back at the surface on my other dives.

I know where I have to work on...Tomorow I will have a day OFF.

Found something on Youtube....for my navy fellas :-)

Youm Assel , Youm Bassel

2008-07-16T15:02:00.003+02:00

There is a saying in egypt: Youm Assel , Youm Bassel
this means: One day is like Honey and the other day can be like onion.

Well, yesterday I had my "onion day".
I could´nt concentrate, I lost my mouthfill at 60m and I wasn´t relaxed at all.
It ended up in a 70m Constant Weight in 1:55min. I was quite disapointed because my aim was 75m.

TODAY I had by HONEY DAY (Youm Assel):
Everything felt good. I was rested and had some nice warm-ups.
And I finally did my 75m Constant Weight Dive - YEAHHHHA it took me 2:18 down and up.

Tomorow I will train Free Immerison again...I never thought that I got so stuck on the disziplin "Constant Weight".

Glide Fin Reloaded

2008-07-14T09:37:00.003+02:00

Just came from Blue Hole...

Yesterday was a AMAZING Day. I felt really good and I decided to try for a new personal best in Constant Weight.
After some warm-up dive I went down to 74m...NEW PERSONAL BEST and 4m more than the german record.

Yesterday night we did some night dives at Blue Hole aswell. It was funny and a bit scary to.
We doved down to "the Bells" witch is a small tunnel in 26m depth.....so many flashy-blinky stuff down there.
It was beautiful......

Remembering Constant Weight

2008-07-12T18:49:00.004+02:00

Today I had to wait until 15:00 until we could go to Blue Hole.
I had so much time to do things. It was quite nice.

The day startet with a bottle of water and a hot chai (indian tea).
After that I went to the pharmacy to get rehydration powder and sport tape (for the monofin).
Then I went to my house and had a look if somebody is working there today...(of course not)

Then my tire of the motorbike was flat. (AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Finially at 15:30 I was at Blue Hole to set up the training for akim and me.

Akim did a 31.2m dive.
And I did my first serious constant weight training since the world championships December 2006.
For my own surprise I went down the 67m and it was so easy. I spend 8 seconds at the bottom.
The german record in constant is 70m....So I´m just 3m away from that.

I thought I couldn´t go deeper thant 55m in constant since I had no training in constant weight.

Now I´m very tired.

Adapting

2008-07-11T19:37:00.001+02:00

The last two days I worked on my depth adaption at Lighthouse. The Masbat Bay was really nice during the last two days. Almost no wind witch makes the air very hot.

Today I was training with Akim and we had very nice dives.

And we trained safty procedures witch was quite fun.

I reached 34m on a FRC Dive...and I could feel that my body is adaption quite good to the pressure.

In the entry of the Lighthouse there was a BIG stonefish and we had to take him away because there was a lot of chirdren around. Stonefish is a very poision fish.

Reaching 70m

2008-07-10T07:06:00.004+02:00

The training day in Blue Hole yesterday was quite good for me.
Good conditions and a bit of nice wind. This is how the day started.
Finally Ali did a freedive session. He is the owner of the restaurant we use to stay at blue hole.
After a couple of warm up I managed a 70m Dive...it took me 2:37min down and up.
Today we're probably gonna have a day off OR do some FRC's at "Lighthouse"

Broken motorbike but still going deeper

2008-07-08T20:14:00.008+02:00

Yesterday was all about my motorbike. First the innertube of my bike broke. I had to bring it to the mechanic. In the evening I was stoped by the police. But I came out of that situation without anything...Puhh Today we was at Blue Hole again...we had another freediver Akim with us.
He used to train a lot in Thailand and today it was his first day at Blue Hole.

The Training went fine...reached 67.8m in 2:22 min.
I think in a few days I´m trying for the 70m.

So deep, so good

2008-07-05T22:29:00.005+02:00

Another day at the hottest place on earth.
Well, atleast we have a reason to stay in the water.

Today I managed to do a 66m dive witch felt good. The dive was a bit to fast. 2:17min.
Amazing how fast my body is adapting to the depth.

Big Steps!!!

2008-07-04T13:09:00.004+02:00

The Training is going to be AMAZING!!!
Yesterday at Blue Hole I managed to do a 60m Dive and it felt really easy.
I probably could go down to 70m already but I don´t want to force my luck.

Today I was out at Lighthouse to do some FRC´s (FRC = Dives with half filled lungs).
It went very good...I managed to do a 30m FRC.

Arriving and 1st Training Day

2008-07-03T09:35:00.004+02:00

I arrived in Dahab 21:00 in the evening because my plane was late. Also my taxi driver was already waiting for me for so long.

Well, it was anyway to late to go into the water, so I had a talk with Peter Ericson and Johan Dahlström from Sweden.

After a long sleep we started to our Journey to Blue Hole. Rahel is going to be my training partner until 5th of August and Johan had his last training day in blue hole before he was going back to sweden.

The Weather was fantiastic...well hot - but no wind and good underwater visibility.

After my first and second dive my ear was going to be a bit funny.

Then it was Johan´s turn - He managed a 88m Constant Weight Dive witch is a new personal best for him - CONGRATULATIONS.

After a bit of rest I was going down to do another attempt. My ear was fine again and the feeling was very good so I was falling down to 55m with no problems at all. After 2:09 min. I was back at the surface.

I felt very very good...kind of strange for the first day. Usualy it takes longer to adapt to this depth.

This is a very good beginning - I´m very motivated.

Sponsoring

2008-06-30T09:00:00.007+02:00

Since 24.06.2008 I´m proud to be Sponsored by www.tiefenrausch-shop.de !!!

ALL MY THANKS TO DIRK ASSMANN, OWNER OF THE SHOP AND ALSO MINE CLEARANCE DIVER.

Preparation

2008-06-20T20:15:00.003+02:00

This weekend I have to spend my time "on board". Got the weekend guard :-(

Oh well, at least I have now sooo much time to get my SETUP for my training in dahab ready.

I´m working on my lanyard and my new ankle and neck weights.

10 Days to GO - Then I´m back at the "golden nugget" of egypt. DAHAB....

Dahab Rush

2008-05-02T13:08:00.002+02:00

Just came home from Dahab...strange feelings rushing inside my mind.
It was a unforgetable week.
I met old friend witch I didn´t saw since the bombing in dahab exacltly two years ago.
Sam Still from UK was one of these. He only stayed for a few days in dahab but he managed to perform a new personal best. Very impressive!

My main reason for this trip was my house. What can I say?....IT´S ALMOST FINISHED...and it looks GREAT. At my second day I went to the carpenter with my good friend and architect Mr. Peter Ericson. There I made all decisions in questions of furniture for the bedrooms. On the same day I bought Mr. Peters motorbike witch is quite wicked. It is a ?chinese dayun 150cc?. It feels like freedom when you can cruse in dahab city without beeing anoyed by all the taxi drivers :-)
From the 3rd Day on I started training back in Blue Hole with Rahel Zemoi from Eritrea, Dave and Ben from UK and Sara Champbell.
I recogniced that my body was adapting quite fast. On my first trainingday I could managed a 55m Free Immersion dive. The following days I focused on easy freediving...freediving for the mind and the heart. One of these nice dives was a 40m Dive with took 3min back at the divespot “Lighthouse”. The other lovley I´ve done yesterday at Blue Hole....There I saw the arch and I enjoyed doing the safety dives for my friends. It´s nice when people are surfacing with a smile in their face.

In the end it was a way to short but GREAT Trip to dahab.

First Steps in CAD

2008-03-02T10:54:00.002+01:00

This weekend I had soooooo much time while I guarded our boat. I decided to make something creative for my house. In the internet I found a freeware CAD Program.
This is what I did during the last night. On the picture you see my house in Dahab and how it should look like in the future.

I love my spleen

2008-02-13T11:07:00.003+01:00

This is a picture of my spleen and how "she" works under apnea action.
Thanks to Dr. Erika Schagatay who did the tests during the world champion ships in hurghada (Dec 06).

Working at SEA

2008-01-30T18:20:00.000+01:00

Since two days I started my work on the mine clearance boat "Dillingen".
During the next weeks we start our journey to norway to train all skills of mine hunting. In august we are going to a NATO mission called "SNMCMG2". Then we are 5 month in the mediterian sea.
I wonder how I can train freediving with all that work. It´s not a easy job to work as mine clearance diver in the german navy.
Hope everything is going well and I can do some freediving training aswell.

Dahab once again

2007-12-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

I'm here in Dahab since 5 Days and since the last time the weather has changed a lot.
Today its the first warm calm day - the last days was very windy and cold.
I have relatives with me, so I can not train full time for freediving. Somehow this is also nice because I can relax.
Two Days ago I was training with Patrick Snorf, a very good freediver from switzerland. He did not having nice dives because of pain in his head and problemes with a bronchitis. On that day I did a 40m dive to check out the conditions.
Today we are going to Blue Hole again and I hope he is fine again. He should habe some nice dives before he is leaving tomorow.

Mine Clearance Diver Trailer

2007-12-10T15:11:00.000+01:00

Check out the BRAND NEW Mine Clearance Diver Commercial made by the German Navy.
A few shots are made during my own Basic-Military-Diving-Training.

Journey back to Frezzy Germany

2007-11-26T18:36:00.000+01:00

My last day was mostly in the bed in cause of a hangover (I should´nt have gone to Tota Bar last night).
Well on my day of return I woke up at 4:45 in the morning to get my stuff ready for leaving.
Then I left the flat to get my diving gear aswell but at Desert Divers the Staff Equipment room was closed. Nobody was there and my taxi to Sharm el Sheik Airport was already waiting.
I decided to let my gear back at Desert Divers and took the ride to Sharm.
The flight to Cairo was quite fast. The most boring part of the day was at Cairo International Airport because I had to stay there for 7 hours. I was thinking about doing the tourist ride to see the pyramides but I was not sure if I could make it in time because of the terrible traffic in Cairo (20 Million People during the day in that city!!!).
Finaly the plane was going to Frankfurt and then to Hamburg. I got into a train to kiel and it was freaking cold outside. In kiel I took a taxi back into the naval base Eckernförde to escape from the cold. At 3:30 I was in my bed. 3 hours later I had to wake up again.

Back to Blue Hole

2007-11-23T16:33:00.000+01:00

21.11.2007

Early in the morning I got a message from Lotta about going to the Blue Hole. It was long time ago since I was diving there and I really use to like it a lot.We did the drive at 9am and I was surprised how fast we was. The reason for that is the new road to the Blue Hole. In the past the road was very bummpie and bad. Now they did the way plain and easy to drive.

Back into the Blue Hole I had very nice deep dives with my new monofin. The deepest dive was 52m and I was very surprised about that because I have not trained deep diving at all since I left dahab. I had very nice dives with Linda and Lotta.

22.11.2007

In the morning I went freediving with Roland and two of his students. We were diving at Lighthouse at a 25m deep line. Down at this line I did some static freediving witch was very relaxing. The longest dive there took almost 3 minutes. This was a fabolous feeling.

In the afternoon I showed my friend oliver and his wife wilma my house in dahab.

Later I had some tea with Roland.

23.11.2007

This morning I had a meeting with peter, my architect, to decide some stuff. For that we went to certain houses to show me how things could look at my house. Later we went to the ceramic shop to find some nice tiles for my house.

It was not easy to find but in the end we found a perfect combination for floor, kitchen and bath.

In the afternoon I went Lighthouse for some relaxing dives. But I could feel that even here in egypt the winter is coming. In the evening I met Mahmoud, a very good friend and coordinator of the workers. After some small talk he had to go to alexandria. He asked me to come with him to alexandria but I refused...to much hustle for that vacation.

The new Monofin

2007-11-20T18:50:00.000+01:00

This morning I had breakfast with Roland, Oliver and Wilma. It was a pretty windy day and the condtions were not so nice for diving. So the whole morning I spent with reading, drinking tea and discussing about different things with people.
Finally I got a call from lotta that I can pick up my new monofin from her house. I was waiting for that superb monofin almost one year. It is handmade in russia and very good for competition freediving. Before I was going to Lottas Place I met Linda at the Freedive Dahab Office. She told me everything about what has changed in dahab since I was gone.
After that I did a short walk and I got my Monofin. Back on the beach I really had to try the fin. Even when the condition still was very bad I had to go into the water imidiatly.
I really felt in love with this monofin. It was another way of diving and very comfortable because it was made-to-messure for my foot.
After I got out of the water I had dinner with Roland on the "Chicken-Place".

Later I checked my emails and then we went to the El Salam Restaurant. There we met Oliver and Wilma. Than we had tea and a very long discussion about freediving.

Home Sweet Home

2007-11-20T18:36:00.000+01:00

After a very good eight hours sleep I woke up and I was happy about the sunshine and the warm weather. After a coffee I made my way to see peter ericsson. A very good friend and the man who run my whole "house project". It was very nice to see all the nice people again. We we`re talking about my house, what still has to be done there and how I want different things. I`m very happy to have somebody who know everything I did not even think about.

It was about 12.30 and I had to go to sharm el sheik airport to pick some friends up. So was searching for a rent-a-car place and got a nice one. I was pretty late so I was driving the car on the edge. In the end the plane was late aswell and I had to wait for another 45min. Back in dahab town I was going to my house AGAIN but this time it was still sun shining outside. It was even more impressive to see it on light. It was much bigger than I thought. In the evening I met Lotta and we had some tea and dinner at a very good restaurant in dahab called "funny mummie"
Finaly I came back pretty tired from driving the car. 20 min after I started to read a book I felt asleep.

Arabic Gold Reloaded

2007-11-19T17:53:00.000+01:00

It was a nice morning. I took a drive to Hamburg with one of my navy buddys and checked in at the airport. The lady at the counter told me that my whole luggage will be go on all flights until sharm el sheik automaticly. Well, At 13.00 I took the flight to Frankfurt. I arrived at 14.20 there. It was such a boring day cause I had to wait for my next flight almost 8 hours. At 22:30 I got the flight to Cairo.
On the plane I met a egyptian guy working for siemens and we dicussed about Germany, Egypt and about all the things going on in the world. At 4.00 I landed in Cairo and I saw a airport big as a town. I had to drive a few kilometers for the next terminal to get my flight to sharm el sheik. On the terminal I got the information that my whole luggage is not transfered to the other plane. Well, very pissed I did the way return to get it and because of that I missed my flight at. 5.00. Another time for waiting. At 7.00 I got the fligh to sharm and I landed there at 8.00.

Finaly I found a cheap taxi the Dahab and there I was going on the beach walk. There I met Roland a austrian friend. After a coffee we did a few freedives on the lighthouse. It was such a wonderful feeling to be back in the warm, clear red sea. In the evening we did a walk to my house and I saw it the first time in real. It was so nice! Even when it is not finished I could feel the nice atmosphere in there. After that (and 42 hours of beeing awake) I went to sleep.

Back into Freediving

2007-11-07T03:22:00.000+01:00

after almost one whole year I´m planing to make a serious freedive training again.
The last year I did a naval training to become a mine clearance diver witch was the most intese experience I´ve ever had! Now I´m almost finished and have more time and energy to start training. I will see how I can handle my work in the german navy and my passion "freediving".

During this year another of my projects was under construction.
My own house in dahab -a dreamI had since the first time I was in dahab- is almost finished.
The buliding leader I really have to THANK is Peter Ericson and Mahmood. They are very good friends and I´m very happy to have persons with experience and know-how to make my dream come true.This house is gonna be a "FREEDIVE BASE".