Looking to level up your performance in the water? Let’s compare two popular options: the Molchanovs CB2x and the Pro Hyper bifins. Here are the key points to consider:
1️⃣ Foot Pocket: The immediate difference lies in the foot pocket design. The Hyper bifins have the same foot pockets as the Molchanovs Pro monofins, which provide customization options for blade-foot pocket angle and feels more responsive. In contrast, the CB2x features a lighter, more minimalistic foot pocket design.
2️⃣ Weight: Because of the additional rubber around the foot pocket, the Hyper bifins are noticeably heavier than the CB2x. A standard size 38 weighs vs ~1.2kg for the CB2x.
3️⃣ Buoyancy: Another noteworthy distinction is that the CB2x sinks in water, while the Pro Hyper bifins float. You’re less likely to lose the Hyper bifins to the depths of the ocean 🌊
4️⃣ Fit and Comfort: Both fins come with lined foot pockets for enhanced comfort. The CB2x foot pocket fits slightly looser than the Hyper bifins’ foot pocket of the same size.
Ultimately, the decision between the Molchanovs CB2x and Pro Hyperfins depends on your specific needs and preferences. If your focus is pure performance, the Hyper bifins are a fantastic pick. However, if you desire a balance between performance and leisure, the CB2x, with it’s lightweight design is the way to go.
]]>
Big Cat attacks are a thing of the past in Singapore, but remain a very real problem for communities in other countries. On 10 April, wildlife filmmakers Malaika Vaz and Nitye Sood shared with us their experiences documenting the stories of ex-poachers, tribal communities and forest guards in India - the human ecosystem enabling the conservation of Asiatic Lions, Leopards and Tigers. While the tale of Singapore’s tigers ended in tragedy, rural communities in India have the solution to a sustainable coexistence with wildlife.
Nitye sharing their experiences filming Big Cats and the local communities living with them.
Where local ownership and awareness has been built, Big Cat populations thrive. Pride for local biodiversity takes centre stage. With a deep-rooted spiritual reverence for leopards in their culture, one particular community has lived harmoniously with leopards for more than 500 years. Attacks on their cattle (equivalent to having your car stolen) are an accepted consequence of cohabitation with Big Cats.
A photograph of Malaika with the local communities featured in their documentary series - Nat Geo Wild: Living with Predators.
Since finishing this 3-part documentary series, Malaika and Nitye have completed multiple projects for networks like National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Netflix. But their work has not stopped at filmmaking. Where there is opportunity to create social and policy impact, they try their best to create tangible change. For Peng Yu Sai, a documentary on the manta ray trade, they partnered with conservation organisations to initiate a grassroots campaign studying manta rays in 9 coastal states in India. For Al Jazeera Earthrise: Wild Recovery, they hope to change negative public opinion on two bats and pangolins, the endangered mammals which have been investigated for links to COVID-19.
The filming of Peng Yu Sai, an investigative piece on the manta ray trade in India, was how our Zen instructor, Michelle, met the two filmmakers and taught them how to freedive.
Presently, human-wildife conflict may not seem as dire in Singapore as in India. However, reports of otters, wild boars and macaques attacking people have been increasing, due to the development of natural areas. With the frequency at which otters run around wreaking havoc on expensive fish nowadays, it might be hard to believe they had once vanished in Singapore for more than 30 years. We have been incredibly fortunate that some locally extinct species have come back.
In many ways, Singapore’s past is reflected in the present, but in the countries surrounding us. The expansion of cities and agriculture is an ever-increasing threat to wildlife and their habitats. As a small island, we experienced the consequences of this expansion faster and earlier.
In our interconnected world, our beliefs and consumption patterns have the power to drive habitat destruction, locally and in other parts of the world. The way we view conservation and our role in it must radically change to be able to coexist with wildlife. Local ownership of biodiversity is essential for humans everywhere to coexist with biodiversity. To do this, we must educate ourselves and others, and be empowered to take action.
Watch the full talk on the Zen Youtube Channel, and support Untamed Planet Productions! Their works and where the platforms you can watch them on are found at their website.
Wondering how to start making a change? Arrange a beach clean-up with your friends, or keep a look out for Zen Freediving’s next clean up activity. Follow our Instagram and Facebook for more updates.
If you want to learn more about Singapore’s local environmental history, visit the Human X Nature exhibition at the National Library Building.
Tags: documentary, environmental history, marine conservation, neocolonialism, Singapore, wildlife filmmaking
]]>In 2019, we started to regularly conduct underwater and beach clean-ups and have so far collected 470.5kg of trash just at our Southern Islands.
But where does this trash come from? What impact does it have on the ocean and marine life? What can we do to play our part to reduce our waste, especially plastics?
Dr Townsend and a volunteer perform a necropsy on a juvenile hawksbill sea turtle
Last Saturday morning, Michelle organized a virtual talk with Dr. Kathy Townsend, the Australia-based lead academic for internationally renowned Programs “Project Manta” and “Turtles in trouble”. She introduced us to the results of a 10-year investigation to uncover the impacts of marine debris in our ‘Plastic Ocean’.
Over 20 Zenners got insights into how our conveniently used plastic ends up not only on our local shores but in all our oceans. How it travels, and in which form it is consumed by all kinds of marine life. We learned how everyday, single-use plastic impacts the life and behavior of animals in water and on land all around the world from Nepal to the Galapagos, from small animals like krill to larger ones like seabirds, turtles, and even cattle.
This young green sea turtle died by eating just 13 pieces of single use items - shopping bags, balloons and candy wrappers
While it is easy to point fingers, Kathy presented the disturbing results, which contributed to legislative change to debris laws across Australia, in a very unbiased way, leading us to be more aware of our own consumer choices. Her outlook is also optimistic, as more people are becoming aware of the situation and choosing to reduce their use of plastic.
Gaining more knowledge is the basis for a more sustainable future. With events such as this, Zen Freediving hopes to raise awareness on topics that are important not exclusively to freedivers but everyone, whether they share the love for the ocean or not (yet).
Thank you Kathy for sharing your investigations with us, Michelle for bringing us together, and participants for joining!
Here is what some of our Zenners thought of the talk:
GL wrote: Thank you for organising the talk @Michelle Ooi Love the topic and speaker!
ECC wrote: Thank you for the amazing Talk!! Love it ! Really interested to hear more talk !
TM wrote: Yes thanks Michelle for organizing! T’was great.
SB wrote: Very nice talk, thanks for organising and to Kathy!
CSC wrote: It was great, the bit that I joined. Thanks for organising, Michelle!
MS wrote: Thanks Michelle, it was really interesting.
TN wrote: Thank you for organizing! It was very interesting to learn about how plastic pollution can be related to activities wayyy further inland than expected
LKB wrote: Thanks Michelle. It's useful info. Good to renew our knowledge base on plastics. Look forward to the beach clean up in the near future .Thanks.
At Zen Freediving, talks about various topics related to life inside or with the ocean are conducted frequently, and everyone is welcome to join. Keep an lookout on our website or Facebook page for upcoming events!
Photos from https://www.csiro.au
]]>Hope runs scarce as an environmental advocate. The changes I seek within political, economic and social systems happen slowly and imperceptibly, always with great resistance. At the beginning, the belief that my actions would change at least some aspect of the world fuelled my vested enthusiasm. But over time, like waves eroding sediments from the shore, the constant emotional battering took away a little bit of me each time.
As an ecology student, the toll is doubled. The banalities of everyday life include thinking, day after day, of the destruction and degradation that befalls ecosystems all over the world, past present and future. With each fascinating new ecosystem I learn, there is a dreadful problem attached to it. Tropical rainforests – deforestation. Coral reefs – overfishing. Polar regions – melting ice caps. Trying to wrap my head around the complexity and scale of all the damage being done and my role in it is enough to give me a heady sense of vertigo.
Before studying ecology, before activism, I never liked beach clean ups. Their impact seemed so miniscule for the amount of effort put into them. Every year, 8 million tons of plastics join the estimated 150 million tons that circulate within our oceans. Taking out a couple of bags barely make a dent. Better to channel this energy into something more productive, like a career involved in environmental protection. Changing the system is a better, longer term solution; individual actions matter little in the grand scheme of global governance and supply chains.
What I hadn’t realized was that waiting to see the fruits of my labour (fruits which are taking very, very long to ripen) was leaving me adrift in a quiet despair. I needed something more tangible than the promise of potential change, more than the idea that I could eventually work somewhere that might change something.
What I needed was community and measurable impact. After the circuit breaker, I grudgingly agreed to a beach clean-up at East Coast Park with some friends, and from there I was hooked. After that, in the months leading up to the new semester of school, we went almost every week.
On 20 December 2020, I finally went for my first ever freedive clean up with Zen Freediving. It wasn’t just good for the environment. It was good for my mental (and physical) health. I needed to feel the sun on my face and the waves at my feet. I needed to see the corals and fishes that benefitted from the removal of each piece of buried plastic. I needed to meet like-minded people, freedivers who love the ocean and want to cleanse it.
Working together (in socially distanced groups of five), our team removed 86 kilograms of trash from land and sea. Not bad for a morning’s work. Applying my training with each dive – looking inward to calm the heart, relax the muscles – anchored me in the present, making my time underwater and each handful of trash even more precious. And when I was ready, I could look up to the light blue, feel my head break the surface, and take my recovery breaths. A single breath, one after another, slowly builds into results a community can be proud of. Hope returns in much the same way: breath by breath, step by step.
Zen Freediving has a goal to remove one tonne of plastic from the ocean by end 2021. Since the very first cleanup, we’ve removed 257 kilograms of trash from the ocean and beach. Change is needed on every level. With each cleanup, there is impact not only in plastic we remove, but in the message we send to others, individuals, businesses and governments, to recognize our dependence on the natural environment and the dedication required to protect it.
]]>
I have to admit, I never enjoyed DNF.
I like practising statics, fins are to me but another body part, but no fins was always something I had to get through somehow.
That was pre-covid. After the circuit breaker, I couldn't wait to get back in the water and I am very lucky that I have access to a pool. Unfortunately for me, fins are not allowed. Time to adapt, I told myself, and started to practise DNF. It’s more important to improve my breath-hold and the distance will just come. At least, that’s what I thought?
Training the technique on my own never showed much improvement. I fought to get to 30-35m (with safety, at other sessions) and that's all I could do. At some point, I got frustrated and stopped. I wanted to wait until I could get back to train with fins or just do statics, which also needed a lot of attention since the break from training during circuit breaker lowered my CO2tolerance immensely.
A few weeks ago, I started training with Michelle. She took a look at my DNF and the first thing she did was recommend a drill for me to improve my “scissor” kicks. While she was gliding effortlessly underwater, I was on the surface on my back trying to figure out the proper leg technique Michelle showed me – when to flex my ankles and straighten them. When I was done, I practiced the same but facing down.
If you have been doing a certain movement for almost 30 years, it's hard to change it. Especially when the new movement feels awkward, wrong and less efficient. Until I did the first correct kick, and then, a little later another one. I tried DNF with my newly learnt kicks and it already felt a little less strenuous. Whenever I was in the pool, I kept repeating my leg drills as part of my warm-up. Michelle constantly gave me tips and I noticed the difference the little adjustments made.
Still, I wasn’t there yet and that was the point when I got my underwater video session. That was immensely helpful! And guess what, my arm strokes could also use a little makeover! Another week of practice went by and I did my personal best, a 50m DNF, just by correcting my technique. I wasn’t even intending to go that far as my training plan said 25m, but suddenly it was so easy to go further. My statics are still not where they were before the covid-19 circuit breaker, but with my improved technique, it wasn't much of an issue. On hindsight I can’t believe how much energy I wasted, no wonder I was struggling all the time! I will still need some time to get to my 10,000 kicks, but the progress so far is amazing.
If you ever feel stuck in your training or even if you think you're doing pretty ok, I would recommend having an honest look at your technique from time to time, you'll be amazed at what a difference training drills and technique adjustments can make.
]]>
Photo by Karl Solano from Pexels
I started attending the weekly pool trainings with Zen Freediving after a failed attempt to get my open water certification in Nusa Penida. After a decade of scuba diving, I knew I was comfortable in the water so I decided this deserved another shot. As the pool sessions with Zen progressed, I found myself looking forward to the swim drills and was pleased with myself for deciding to stick around.
In each of the pool trainings, there were always tips I picked up to improve just that little bit better. To me, having a good breathe up like we practiced all the time was only half the picture. With the Frenzel equalization workshop, I signed up because I was interested to find out how to conserve my precious air better underwater. All this time, I had been going with the old-fashioned “pinch nose and blow hard” technique. It was also during this equalization workshop that I found out the right term – Valsalva.
What I didn’t expect was the classroom session in the beginning. We were shown diagrams of the air pockets in our heads and the flow of air through each ear canal and sinus. Also a lot of medical human anatomy terms at this point – moving our larynx, closing the glottis, air through the eustachian tubes. I have to admit, I referred to the manual sent over after the session to type this out. I couldn’t remember all of it and I still cant’!
It became clearer when everything fell into practice. The first being to control our larynx – or the rookie term for it – voice box. This involved sticking our tongues out as far as possible, fingers on our throats and making a heaving noise to feel your voice box moving. We were a group of about 10 adults, sitting in a circle at a public swimming pool on a buzzing Saturday sticking our tongues out at one another. I do love everyone’s enthusiasm.
As we progressed through the workshop and the exercises got more complex, I could complete some of them. With others I wasn’t quite sure if the air was going into the right places of my head and exiting through the correct outlets. I looked around the table and I saw some equally perplexed faces, thank goodness there were others doing this for the first time too! The instructors came around to each of us, dishing out breathing tips and asking where we were lost.
The final and I guess you could say the most complex of the breathing exercises was with the apparatus. It consisted of a blowing mouthpiece and a balloon. We started by inflating it with the mouthpiece attached, which took some effort for me. With the balloon inflated, I had to then put the mouthpiece to one nostril, allow the air to funnel through my nose and back into my mouth. If you could complete this, you would be *high five*frenzeling!
Again, looking around the table, we had varying degrees of success. Some had wonderfully inflated balloons and the air breezing through the right head channels on the first try. Others only managed to inflate their balloons and had let too much air escape while trying to pass it through a nostril. And there was me, taking quite a few embarrassing tries to blow up my balloon. After a few tries, I figured I had to use my stomach muscles, just puffing my cheeks wasn’t enough.
Practising in the pool
I can’t say I mastered this combo control exercise but was of course assured when the instructor told us that this was outside our usual breathing and that practicing at home would help. Also the fact that the notes would be emailed to us after the workshop was really helpful.
To put all that breathing exercise into practice, we dropped line down a 4m pool with everyone taking their turn descending. Yes I was hesitant, given that I didn’t ace the balloon activity. But this was obviously the safest environment to try. In my first attempt, I instinctly reverted to the Valsalva move to clear my sinuses. Not ideal, and with my next few shots it took conscious reminding to make sure I tried the Frenzel equalization instead. I didn’t feel the satisfying immediate relase of pressure when you pinch and blow.
The instructors were really encouraging though. Everytime we came up from a dive, they would ask, “Did you feel different?”, “Where do you feel the pressure?”, “Next time try with your body and head upright” I felt guilty telling them each time that I didn’t feel that I was successfully frenzeling. It was only towards the end of the pool session that I managed to feel a very small squeak in my ears at the 4m bottom.
To me, that was an accomplishment and the farthest I got that day. The instructor lit up when I said I finally felt that small release in my ears, good enough validation I guess.
Getting some fun shots in after the workshop
At the next few weekly pool sessions, I attempted the new equalization again. Can’t say this is working instantly but I did realise though that I do need to get myself out of the habit of going back to my old technique and put this new one into more practice. Nudge to remind me the next time I’m at freedive training!
]]>It was just another normal open water training day, or so we thought. Conditions were looking good as we pulled up to our usual spot between Lazarus and St John’s Island on 16 February, 2020. There was no current, and we managed to find 20m depth easily. We put in the buoys, did some stretches, and hopped in to start. Visibility was even better than usual, which was a bonus. Soon enough, the training session was well under way.
About 2 hours later, some divers had were finished with the first session and were on the boat resting. I was providing safety to Chris on a dive, and as we broke the surface, we heard Kohei say “Hey, there dolphins like, right behind you!”. WHAT?! I thought to myself as I spun around, scouring the surface of the water for any sign of them. I had dreamed of seeing dolphins in Singapore waters since I knew they existed. No sign of them, of course. I was disappointed. I had heard that these dolphins, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, were shy and I didn’t think they would stick around for us to get a second look.
Then, “There!” someone exclaimed. Sure enough, a pinkish grey back with a fin was on the surface, and another soon appeared. As we watched, the dolphins disappeared and reappeared, within 20-30m from our boat. They seemed fairly relaxed and not in a hurry to get away from us. Another dolphin showed up, to form a pod of three. We watched them for the rest of our break as they frolicked around, playing, with one even jumping clear out of the water. Seeing these natural freedivers in their element, with the city in the background, felt like a reminder to take time out of our busy schedules to enjoy what freediving has to offer.
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) are also known as pink dolphins, due to their pinkish-grey colouration. They are sighted regularly in Singapore waters, though this is the first time we’ve seen them in the 5 years or so that we’ve been visiting the Southern Islands (granted, we only go once or twice a month). This species is found in much of Asia, but their numbers are declining due to human development causing habitat loss, pollution, and reduced food sources. Sadly, this is a recurring theme in the natural world.
The dolphins hang around for a couple more hours, and I decide that they are not as shy as they are said to be. Seeing them co-exist in the same environment as the leisure boats and transport ferries, in a heavily modified environment (much of the shoreline of the offshore islands of Singapore were reclaimed) along a major shipping route shows us how resilient they are, but I hope that they are not the remaining few of a once-thriving population, and that we see these freedivers around for many years to come.
Videos by Zaw Than and photos by Elliot Drake
Other articles on our dolphin sighting:
https://mothership.sg/2020/02/wild-dolphins-lazarus-singapore
https://www.8world.com/news/singapore/article/indo-pacific-humpback-dolphins-1048261
]]>To help move on, I focused on discovering the potential positives of my new home.
As they say, “When in Rome…do as the Romans do.” or...
“When in Singapore… take advantage of the tropical weather, year-round outdoor pools, and amazing freediving destinations nearby.” or...
“When in Canada… uhhhh…mmmm... play hockey?”
While hockey is the national sport of Canada, the thought of slap shots and hockey fights seemed too much a departure from the peace I discovered freediving. I just didn’t have it in me to transition from gliding, submerged, through 26-degree water to slipping, sliding, and banging around on minus 4-degree ice.
Unfortunately, Ottawa is hours away from the nearest established freediving community and even farther from a trace of visibility in open water.
Then I heard about Underwater Hockey (UWH): freediving’s distant, not-so-zen, yet still sub-aquatic and apnea-laced cousin. I signed up right anyway (every Tuesday evening!) with Gatineau-Ottawa Underwater Hockey Subaquatique. It felt like a compromise, but I needed to get back underwater somehow.
On my first night, the athletes told me the game would be fast-paced and suggested I watch from the pool deck. I insisted I play from the opening face-off. Sink or swim - right?
The pool is partitioned off underwater to form a 25x15 meters rink.
10 minutes in, I asked/gasped through my snorkel (which includes a built-in mouthguard), “how long before a break?”
“No breaks,” barked a player who looked like a lumberjack in a speedo as he dove right back to the weighted puck at the bottom of the pool.
I tried to spend a bit longer chasing players and the puck around the underwater “rink” at the bottom of the 2.5-meter pool. After a fin kick to my ribs, I resurfaced again, completely depleted. I asked the next player who surfaced about the half time.
“No half time,” he spat, then dove back to the bottom.
I soon realized the trend. The underwater part of underwater hockey is non-negotiable and an underwater hockey player on the surface is useless. It’s a suck it up and go-hard-for-an-hour-straight kind of training experience. It’s get some CO2 tolerance or bust. Your teammates are counting on you to be underwater to receive a pass or defend a shot.
The players are serious and tough underwater but super friendly once the match is over.
The closest thing I can think of in freediving is the Sweet 16 set. Go fast. Go hard. Rest after it’s done. During the Sweet 16, the diver attempts to relax through contractions while maintaining a fast, steady kick and streamline position. In UWH, however, a player’s body contorts into a myriad of shapes while maneuvering for the puck. Contractions are a far second in the discomfort category to getting kicked in the side by a lumberjack with stiff fins. Underwater hockey is supposed to be a non-contact game, but as I’ve learned, we wear a glove, headgear, and a mouthguard for a reason.
Specialized equipment keeps UWH players safe and moving through the water at a fast pace.
Halfway through this UWH season, I’m catching on to the pace of the game. I’ve rediscovered how to decrease the turnaround time between dives and can attack the puck at the bottom more instead of watching from the surface. I also conceded to the physicality of the sport and adopted more of a hockey player mentality. Next, I’ll work on stick control to maneuver and protect the puck better. Played well, it is a tough and graceful kind of sport. Players move like giant seals chasing a toy. I’m getting there week by week.
Like freediving, underwater hockey is a fun, challenging, and fast-growing sport. For me, the best part about it is that, according to a freediving instructor who trained both freedivers and UWH players, the transition back to freediving from UWH is smooth. In UWH your body is in constant motion and CO2 production is super high. When you head back to freediving and look for some depth or take a long underwater pool swim, your mind (and body) is much better prepared to face those unavoidable urges to breathe.
If you want to learn more about UWH or are in Ottawa for a visit and want to try it yourself, contact brianandrewarleth@gmail.com.]]>Amed, Bali, has got to be one of our favourite places for a freediving trip. This was our 3rd Zenners trip there, and here’s why:
Being just a half a day of travel away, it's easy enough to get to - perfect for a long weekend. We left Singapore on Saturday 26 October morning and arrived there in the afternoon for the afternoon dive, with time to spare for a nap before it. It felt really good to be diving in crystal clear waters again!The training sites are accessible too - just a short swim from the shore of Jemeluk bay to the 25m spot, and another 100m+ out for the 45m spot. No need to bother with boats here! Over the 5 days that we were there, we had many enjoyable dives and personal bests set.
Amed also has many areas for recreational freediving and snorkelling. Beautiful reefs line most of the bay, abundant with fish. Below the cliff at the end of the bay, there are massive heads of coral with magnificent giant sea fans. And of course, we had to make a trip to the USAT Liberty wreck located in Tulamben. Everyone had a great time exploring the wreck and we saw so much marine life! A turtle, maori wrasse, garden eels, flounder, trumpet fish, trigger fish... However, we also saw a lot of plastic drifting around which spoiled the dive a little.
And the last reason why we love coming back to Amed is the amazing food! There are many options for both local, fusion and Western cuisine here with vegetarian and vegan options. Blue Earth, Warung Pantai and Galanga are among some of our favourites, and we had no issues eating at the same place more than once!
We are planning many more trips next year! On the agenda are Cebu, Philippines, over the Easter long weekend, Lady Elliot Island, Australia in June (to see manta rays!), Nusa Penida, Indonesia over National Day long weekend, and Komodo Island, Indonesia, towards the end of the year. We would love for you to join us, so stay tuned if you are keen!
An hour later, we regrouped to process the rubbish according to Project Aware’s Dive Against Debris recording protocol. For every dive clean up done around the world, trash is sorted and recorded, with the hope that the information will be used to inform local policy change.
Here is the breakdown of what we found in a ~5x15m area of the sea floor:
Plastic-
112 cups
90 straws
67 bags
27 food wrappers
18 food containers
7 beverage bottles
4 ropes
2 buckets
2 pvc pipes
2 fishing lines
1 diaper
1 mesh bag
1 mask (the full face kind)
62 fragments
Other materials-
1 glass bottle
1 battery
1 aluminium can
3 food tins
1 metal lid
6 fishing sinkers/lures/hooks
1 rubber fragment
2 wood fragments
11 cloth bags
1 electronic device (a drone!)
1 SUP/canoe paddle
In total, in just one hour, we removed 22kg of rubbish from the beach, and 24.5kg of rubbish from underwater. It was great to see everyone doing their best to pick up all they could find, but incredibly sad to see the immense amount of rubbish that was there in the first place.
There are two parts to this (simplified) problem: Excessive packaging and improper disposal. Almost everything we buy comes packaged in single use plastic, because it is convenient for producer and consumer. Although the rubbish disposal system in Singapore is quite good, many areas in other countries are lacking, and so rubbish gets dumped either straight into the ocean, or somewhere on land where it gets washed into the sea (from the writing on the packaging we found, most of the items seem to be from Indonesia).
If we want to see our oceans clean again, we all have to do something about it. Here are some suggestions:
On our part, we will organise regular clean ups in different locations. Stay tuned for the next one!
]]>Most freedivers know of the legendary ama divers of Japan. Known as “海女” in Japanese, which directly translates to “sea woman“, these ladies depend on the sea for their livelihoods.
The diving tradition of the ama dates back about two thousand years. Using their breath holding skills, they collected various types of shellfish and seaweed from the sea floor, wearing nothing but a loin cloth on their bodies and a scarf over their hair in the freezing cold waters. Historically, when Japanese pearl farmer Koichi Mikimoto first developed a method for cultivating pearls, he employed the ama to care for the precious pearl oysters.
Historically, women were considered more suitable for the work of an ama because of the higher fat content in their bodies, which helped them tolerate the cold better than men. Girls would begin their training at the age of 12 with an older family member and would then continue to work as an ama well into their 70s or 80s. However, since the introduction of wetsuits, more men now do the same work as the ama.
I’ve always been interested in cultures that have a close relationship with the sea, so since I was heading to Japan to swim with dolphins, I decided to make a trip down to Mie province, where the ama tradition originated, to meet some of these fabled ladies. The only way we found to do this (unless you personally knew an ama) was to join a tour organised by a local company, so we went ahead and booked ourselves on one.
On the morning of our tour, my travel companion and I were picked up at the train station in Kashikojima by our guide, Akiko. As we drove to the harbour where we were going to meet the ama, Akiko fed us with facts on the history of the ama and the region. It turned out that Akiko’s aunt was an ama diver too, so she knew from her stories what an ama divers lifestyle was like. There are currently about 200 ama in Kashikojima, and about 700 in the neighbouring area of Toba. The youngest ama in the area is 15 years old, and the oldest, 82!
At the harbour, we were led to a long, single-storey building with a metal roof. The building was divided into several rooms, and Akiko told us that each room was shared by several ama, who used it to change, cook and rest in between dives. We went through one room, where we placed our belongings, to the back of the building. There, we met several ama, who all seemed to be in their 40s or 50s, and exchanged pleasantries, assisted by Akiko’s translations. Surrounding us were bags of dried white seaweed. In one of the rooms, there was a pot of boiling liquid over an open fire (with no chimney!). Curious, we asked what they were cooking. The ama explained that they were boiling the dried seaweed (which is originally red in colour) until it dissolved. They would then pour the liquid into trays and wait for it to set, to make jelly. The jelly could be sliced and eaten later. I was reminded of agar, which is made from seaweed, that we use to make agar-agar, a multicoloured jelly with different flavours. This could be its original form!
After marvelling at the jelly (though we didn’t get to try any), we were introduced to Mayumi, the ama we were going to dive with. She was 70 years old, and looked sprightly and fit. We changed into our wetsuits, then together with the other people on the tour (2 tourists from France and the UK, and a young Japanese lady (who, interestingly, had been on the tour before, and was back because she wanted to learn to be an ama), hopped into the van that was going to bring us to a jetty nearby where we would head out from.
Sometimes, an ama and her husband would work together as a team. The husband would drive and handle the boat, while the ama did the diving. But not in Mayumi’s case, though she worked with the same boat driver regularly. At the jetty, we clambered into the boat and headed out to a spot nearby which was supposedly good for harvesting shellfish. During the 20 minute drive, Mayumi told us why she became an ama. In her previous job, she had worked in a provincial office for the government. When she had children, she decided to become an ama so she would have flexibility and time to look after them. She learnt the tricks of the trade on her own, by watching other ama.
In the water, Mayumi was a deft swimmer. Her duck dives were smooth, and once underwater she moved quickly from rock to rock, using a hook-like tool to overturn the smaller ones. Her eyes were sharp and she spied the shellfish she was looking for easily. I on the other hand, took a while to differentiate the shellfish from the surface of the rocks they were on (they were well camouflaged!). Those shellfish in particular had a muscular foot, much like a snail’s, and clung on to the rocks like there was no tomorrow. Mayumi used a different tool that had a flat end as a lever to prise the sticky shellfish off. She offered me the tool, and I had a go. It was not as easy as it looked! After watching Mayumi and having a few more tries, it got easier. I got better at recognising the shellfish we were looking for, and figured out the easiest way to get them off. I even found a scallop, and 2 sea urchins! We followed the same steps each time: duck diving, looking on or under rocks, collecting what we found, putting the rocks back in place, swimming to the surface and placing our spoils in a net attached to a buoy, catching our breath, then heading back down. Mayumi had no issues keeping up with us younger folks. I am definitely going to try to be that fit when I am 70!
An hour later, we were back on the boat. Usually, the ama sell their catch to the seafood market after a dive, but since the tours are held on Saturdays when the market is closed, the catch is placed back in the water. Back at the harbour, we had a hot shower, then said goodbye to Mayumi. We were starving after a cold dive and boat ride, so good thing it was time for lunch!
We were driven to another location for lunch, with row of wooden huts resembling the old ama huts beside a larger building. We drove into the carpark and were introduced to Kimiyo, another ama, who was in her 60s. She was dressed in the traditional white clothing that the ama wore when diving. The white colour was said to repel sharks. We entered one of the huts and saw a small barbeque with already hot charcoal in it. Squid, turban shell (a kind of mollusc that we had also picked that morning), scallop and fish were on a dish next to it. In addition to that, there was rice and assorted vegetable dishes. What a feast!
As we ate, we asked about Kimiyo’s story. She came from a family of ama, with her grandmother and mother in the trade before her. At the age of 15, after finishing high school, she became an ama diver as well. Not long after, she flew to the US and spent 2 years there, performing as an ama in the San Diego Marine Park. Smiling, she told us that even though the work can be tiring, she enjoys being in the water and dives as much as she can. She can even catch fish using her bare hands!
We also learnt about the restrictions in place to ensure that the harvesting remains sustainable. Ama are only allowed to dive 1.5 hours in a day, and can’t dive on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These rules had been made about 30 years ago by the local Fisheries Department, when shellfish numbers had started going down. Although such regulations may prevent overharvesting, no rules made by the Fisheries Department can alleviate the effects of climate change. Kimiyo recounted that there have been more storms and bad weather in recent years, reducing the number of days that the ama can go out and dive. Many ama have side jobs (such as bringing people on the tour) to supplement their income.
For all their friendliness to us tourists, the ama are a conservative community with many rules. In order to become an ama, you would have to belong to an ama association, and in some areas obtain a permit. Ama were only allowed to dive in the area they live in, and must dive on at least 90 days of the year.
After lunch, we entered the larger building which was a museum of sorts, containing displays of artefacts like the tools and equipment used by the ama, and information on the tradition. One fact that stood out to me was the beginning of wetsuit use, only about 50 years ago. I have no idea how the ama survived diving in the cold waters before that started!
We came away from the tour with more knowledge of and respect for these tough (and mostly older) women. I do hope that with modernisation and changes to the environment, the ama are able to continue with their way of life, and never lose their connection with the ocean.
While some of Okinawa’s most famous and pristine dive spots were out around the more distant islands such as Yonaguni and Ishigaki island, since this was a regular vacation and not a dive trip, we decided to remain based in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture. The Kerama Islands(慶良間諸島), west of the main island, were just 45 minutes away by boat, and boasted some stunning reefs and wildlife of their own. Our plan was to take two day trips out to the Kerama Islands for diving and/or snorkelling, and return each evening to Naha.
The advantage of this was that we had the best of both worlds, being able to spend our evenings enjoying the lively but quaint bustle of the city, as well as all the culinary and cultural experiences it has to offer. For example, on one evening we had dinner at an izakaya along Kokusaidori, where we were treated to live traditional Okinawan music while we munched on Okinawan soba and, of course, Okinawa’s famous ‘sea grapes’. It’s basically like fish roe for vegetarians. Dope stuff.
The band was really good at engaging the audience and involving us in the performance with call-and-answer segments and even a bit of traditional dance near the end. The dance part pretty much ended up how you would expect it to with a room full of tipsy people—hilarious but weirdly adorable. Not pictured here because it seemed exploitative to take videos of happy drunk people letting their guard down and having fun. Instead, have a picture of the evil masterminds who had us all embarrassing ourselves: Getting back to the diving, we did this across two days, with a different dive shop each day. The first day was with Paradise Club Okinawa, while the second was with Joy Create Okinawa Tea-Da. Paradise Club, despite sounding like some kind of hostess club, was actually the more ‘premium’ of the two, with a significantly higher price point and a smaller group per trip. Their boat had a slightly fancier cabin and a cleaner toilet. It also offered freediving (called skin diving in Japan) as an ‘official’ activity. Tea-Da (I don’t come up with these names) was more affordable, but only offered scuba and snorkelling, and the boat was pretty crowded. Otherwise, in terms of boat size, equipment, and professionalism of the guides/instructors, the two were pretty much comparable. We went for a freediving tour with Paradise Club, and a turtle-focused scuba + snorkelling tour with Tea-Da.
On the first day, the people from Paradise Club picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the pier. The first order of the day was, of course, the long-ish boat ride out to the Kerama Islands. It wasn’t that far compared to many of the other islands that constitute Okinawa, but there was still some pretty respectable open sea-crossing involved, and at one point the waves were pretty big! At times the boat jumped high enough that our butts left the seat for a couple of seconds. Luckily, we didn’t get seasick, and so it was a bit like getting a free thrill ride as part of the dive package.
When we arrived at our first dive spot, the water was very calm, in stark contrast to the rough patch of ocean we had crossed to get there. We were given 5mm full-length wetsuits to wear, as the water was a bit chilly. Around late June, the water temperature around Kerama Islands was supposed to be about 26°C, but because it had been raining quite a lot the past few days, when we were there it dropped to around 22-24°C according to the guides. When I actually got in, it was really chilly at first but manageable once I got over the initial shock. The water was also noticeably less salty than most other places I’ve been too, which made water getting into my snorkel a lot less unpleasant.
Since the first day was dedicated to freediving, the majority of my wildlife footage was taken on this day, as I had a lot more mobility and my hands were totally free to wield a camera. And boy, was the wildlife spectacular. Snorkelling at the surface and looking down, the entire reef was teeming with colour and life, and I often had trouble deciding which fish to go after for a closer shot, because there were just so many and they were all so beautiful.
Among the more memorable fish that I encountered was this peacock hind. At least in my experience, slightly larger fish tend to be the most skittish (compared to the tiny ones who literally do not care if you swim right into them), but it remained still until I was fairly close before taking off, flashing its striking blue fins and white stripes at me.
Another somewhat uncommon fish I spotted was this adorable white-spotted boxfish.
Moon wrasses were all over the place in both the blue and green/yellow varieties, but this one was particularly bold and swam right up to my camera instead of fleeing like most of its kind.
Most of the triggerfish I saw were pink-tailed triggerfish, but at some point I also saw (what I think was) a couple of red-toothed triggerfish. These are really fast and agile, so I couldn’t really get close enough to see the red mouth, but here’s a picture that shows its distinctive blue lyre-shaped tail with the long trailing bits.
And of course, clownfish! The orange one pictured here was a bit more nonchalant about me approaching, compared to a couple of black ones I had seen earlier who glowered belligerently (I swear I could sense the hostility) out at me from between the tendrils of their anemone.
Besides the above, I also saw many other lovely creatures, and thoroughly enjoyed my time swimming among them (okay, more like finning desperately after them trying to get a good shot before my breath hold runs out). The sheer quantity and diversity of life on the reefs around Zamami and Tokashiki Islands really blew me away.
The highlight of the day was no doubt my surprise discovery that lionfish can cling to and hang off rocks! I’d never seen one in the wild before, and had no idea they did anything other than swim around like regular fish.
So the story begins with me following a particularly large pink-tailed triggerfish, which swam under this rocky overhang that formed a sort of mini-cave.
As I dived down and swam under the overhang, the triggerfish slipped into a crevice and eluded me. While I was searching for it, out of the corner of my eye I saw a strange frilly shape sticking out of the rocks above me. It took me a moment to figure out what I was seeing, but it was actually lionfish nestled in a little hollow in the rock, hanging diagonally upside-down! I got super excited, and naturally that cut my breath hold short, so I went up for air and then came back to take a better shot of my discovery. At least lionfish don’t run away like most of the other fish!
After spending our morning and afternoon in two different dive spots, we headed back to Naha and were driven back to our hotel, after which we headed out for dinner (Motobu beef steak!) and to explore the city. The next morning, we headed out to sea once again with the other dive shop, Tea-Da.
None of us had a scuba license (one of my friends and I had only completed one confined water session), so we signed up for a ‘discover scuba’ type thing. At the first dive spot, we received a short theory lesson, after which we did some snorkelling while waiting for the licensed divers to get back from their dives. At least, it was supposed to be snorkelling, but I managed to convince them to let me use weights and do some light freediving (they had a PADI skin diving certified instructor who agreed to be my safety) by flexing my Wave 2 certification. See, taking a course is useful, guys.
At the next dive spot, we switched to scuba mode. The instructor guided us to do some safety drills and equipment handling practice at the surface, made sure that we all could equalize, and then brought us down to look for interesting wildlife.
We were in luck! Insanely lucky, in fact. We got the chance to see a hawksbill turtle up close! This one was clearly used to all the dive tourists coming here, as it wasn’t afraid of us at all, and lingered curiously to stare back at all the humans gawking at it. It even swam close enough to touch some of us with its flippers. There was also a fish that kept hanging around it, almost like a sidekick! Super adorable.
On this trip, I got to do both freediving and a bit of scuba. On the boat ride back to Naha after our final dive, I had some thoughts about these two different types of diving and how I felt about them in the context of fun dives. For me, I think each has a different trade-off. With scuba, I liked being able to stay down much longer and really observe the behaviour of wildlife over an extended period. The more gradual descent and slower movements also mean that fish are less likely to flee. On the other hand, I really enjoy the freedom and mobility that freediving affords, unencumbered by equipment and able to freely twist and flip to look at things from every angle.
Overall, while scuba was definitely more comfortable and conducive for watching wildlife up close, when freediving I felt more like a part of the natural environment rather than an alien visitor, and there was also a greater sense of discovery. There’s something really satisfying about surveying the reef from a bird’s eye view on the surface, spotting something interesting and then making a quick dive down to get a closer look, often discovering something new or surprising as you dive deeper.
For example, there was this isolated rock among plain white sand that looked like just a regular lifeless rock from the surface. However, when I dove down to get close, I found that it was actually an oasis of life amidst the bare sand, with a cloud of tiny fish swarming around it. I even caught a brief glimpse of a colourful spotted fish swimming through its crevices. The fact that my visit is brief, fleeting, and a departure from the comfort zone of the surface somehow makes the moment of discovery even more impactful.
Similarly, there was another instance when I spotted a sea snake pretty far off, and made a quick descent to follow it. I didn’t manage to get very close before my contractions kicked in due to swimming really hard to try to catch up to it, but once again I felt the thrill of leaving my comfort zone behind.
All in all, I really enjoyed all my dives, if sometimes for different reasons. I fell in love with Okinawa’s ocean on this trip, and while the rest of the week was spent mostly on land sightseeing, I’d definitely want to come back again for a dive trip, perhaps to some of the other islands that I haven’t yet seen.
]]>Tokyo is a popular tourist destination, but most people are not aware that just a ferry ride away from the city, there exists a group of 11 charming little islands. In early June, a friend and I went to the island of Mikurajima, about 200 km from Tokyo, to freedive with their population of friendly Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins.
One of the relatively lesser inhabited (by people) islands, there are only about 320 people residing on the island. When we arrive on the island, we see a possible reason for this. The road up to the village is steep and winding, with little flat land in the surroundings to build on. A concrete wall has been built on the steep slopes in front of the port to protect it from landslides. But despite the steep gradients nature has managed to thrive and the rest of the island is covered in lush green forest, a stark contrast to the grey buildings and bright lights of Tokyo.
Our hosts, Tama and Yu, pick us up at the port when we arrive off the overnight ferry, in the early morning. They are two of about 20 natures guides living on the island, hosting visitors at Tama's guest house and taking them on dolphin swims and hikes through the national park. The weather is gloomy and the sea a little rough, but we head out to find some dolphins anyway after a quick breakfast.
Together with 4 others who arrived the day before, we go out on a small boat which our captain skilfully drives through the swell. They tell us that their experience with the dolphins in the previous 2 swims was great and the dolphins were very interactive. It's what we want to hear!
The captain spots several fins break the water's surface a hundred meters away, but they are too close to shore and with the big swell, it isn't safe to bring the boat closer. We head further down the coastline to look for another group, passing Shirataki waterfall, which runs from 80 metres high up the slope into the sea, and manoeuvring between big, jutting out rocks as waves smash into them.
We meet another pod a few minutes later and jump into the water, but they don't seem interested in us and just swim by. The water is 24 degrees celsius and a little dark because of the overcast sky and waves. Perhaps the dolphins' moods are affected by the weather, like how it affects humans. We follow them down the coast for a while more then head back to land.
After a warm shower, we sip hot tea as Tama whips up delicious “omu rice” for us, which we try to savour and not wolf down to fill our stomachs; we are hungry from the morning's dive! The other guests are leaving, so we walk down to the port to see them off. By now, it has stopped raining and the sun is out, and the sea sparkles in the distance around the island. The weather has cleared up nicely, just in time for our hike into the forest.
Tama drives us up into the mountains where a layer of mist clings to the sides of the mountain. We pass the local school, where about 100 kids go from kindergarten to junior high, until they have to head to mainland for high school. On the winding road up to our destination, we stop at a small shrine. Tama explains that people stop her to pray for safe passage up and down the mountain (landslides do happen), and place leaves just in front of the shrine, one for each person, as an indication of how many people have gone up. There are 3 leaves there now, for another guide and 2 of his guests that passed us on the way up. We each pick a leaf from the surrounding vegetation and place it under a pebble, then perform the customary prayer by bowing twice, clapping our hands twice, saying a prayer and bowing once again.
The view as we drive up is breath taking. We pass a small waterfall, and Tama explains that all the water in the village comes from the mountain, clean enough to drink straight from the tap. She points to a small house-like structure further downhill, which she tells us is part of the hydroelectricity power plant. Dense, green forest extends skyward and towards the sea from the sides of the road. Having come from Singapore then Tokyo, it feels like a luxury to be surrounded by so much greenery; a sad realisation.
We stop at the entrance of the trail into the forest and Yu heads off to park the van while we follow Tama inside. 5 minutes into the walk, she stops by a big, slanted tree with low hanging branches. Around the base of the tree, there are many little caves dug into the ground. She tells us that these are the homes of the omizunagidori (Calonectris leucomelas, or streaked shearwater), a type of seabird that we saw while we were out at sea. The birds spend the entire day out at sea in a large flock, hunting fish, and return to their dens at night. The funny thing is that they are not very good at taking off and landing from the ground, so when they return, they simply crash-land into the vegetation, then waddle to their dens. The next morning, they find a big tree to climb and launch themselves from its branches to take to the air, sometimes requiring multiple attempts. We smile to ourselves while imagining the sight. Sadly, the omizunagidori population on Mikurajima is dwindling because of the stray cat population. Cats were introduced to the island to hunt rats, but found the ground-nesting, sleeping birds easier to catch. The birds also rear their chicks on the ground, making them easy pickings for the nocturnal hunters. This story has unfolded in many other places, where introduced cats, either stray or free roaming pets, prey on the local small mammals or birds, endangering their survival. Humans alter the ecosystem in more ways than they realise...
As we walked on, Tama told us how she came to live on the island. Originally from Saitama, she grew up wanting to be a nature guide, but followed societal norms and ended up working for the government. She was relatively satisfied with seeking nature in her spare time and on holidays, until she met a scuba diving instructor who seemed like he was thoroughly enjoying life, and she realised she wanted that too. At that point, 15 years ago, she decided to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a nature guide and moved to Mikurajima. Her decision paid off, and last year she managed to buy the house which she had been renting and operating her business from for the past few years (it is difficult for “outsiders” to buy property on the island). Over winter this year, she has plans to renovate the guest house to welcome more guests in the new year.
After about half an hour of walking and taking in the forest sights and sounds, we arrive at our destination. It is a large tree called “Oojii”, separated from the trail by a wooden fence. This tree is one of more than 500 “giant” trees, with a trunk circumference of 13.8m and said to be more than 100 years old. We looked up at its thick trunk and broad, spreading branches, wondering what life on the island was like a hundred years ago.
Back at the guesthouse, dinner was a delicious affair, with many of the ingredients sourced from the island itself. As we ate, the perfectly clear sky turned a brilliant pink at sunset. We hoped the good weather would last till the next morning for the dolphin swim.
At 7am the next day, we were up anxiously checking the weather. It was a little cloudy, but with hardly any wind. We ate a quick breakfast and made our way down to the boat in anticipation. As we left the marina, we counted 4 other boats that were heading out at the same time. Not far from the marine, the first boat dropped its guests in the water with the first pod sighted. Our captain drove us a little further down in order not to crowd the dolphins, but after a 5 minute of so wait it seemed like the dolphins were not heading our way, so we moved down the coast to find another pod.
A few hundred metres away, another pod broke the surface. We were in luck! Quickly, we put on fins on as our captain manoeuvred the boat to drop us right in front of the dolphins. On the captain's call, we slipped into the water, trying to minimise splash. We saw the dolphins approaching from the distance, then suddenly we were surrounded. Most of them just swam past, some glanced at us curiously, while a few swam around us in a playful circle. A few dolphins swam slowly towards me then changed direction abruptly, as if they were short sighted. There were quite a few baby dolphins swimming in a protective “sandwich” between their mothers and “aunts”, with white stripes prominent on the sides of their bodies. Some dolphins leapt out of the water as they went past, catching a breath while showing off their grace and athleticism. Most of the dolphins had tooth marks and scars on their bodies, some with round puncture wounds. Gradually the pod moved past, and we got back on the boat to move down the coast again. We did this several times during the session; drop in with a pod and swim with them till we could no longer keep up with them in the current, get back on the boat and either drop in on the same pod further down or with another pod. The boat captains were careful not to drop each group of people too close to each other in order not to overwhelm the dolphins and to give us the best experience. After 2 hours and multiple drop ins, we headed back to the marina, happy with the morning's proceedings.
]]>
Over the past month or so, I’ve had the pleasure of diving with the Molchanovs C1 Shorties - a carbon fibre short fin that delivers on all the quality promises we’ve learnt to expect from Molchanovs.
The fins are shorter than the normal C1 and an excellent size for traveling. They fit effortlessly into a Molchanovs monofin bag, as they are about the same length as a monofin from the heel to the tip of the blade.
In terms of foot pockets, the Shorties have a very nice padded foot pocket based on the Molchanovs custom foot pocket which includes an arch support. These are very nice features for a foot pocket that is sold in standard sizes rather than custom manufactured. It took a little while to get used to the arch support, but they are quite comfortable and I’ve worn them for hours at a time. The first few days required some adjustment and I got blisters on my second toes like I did with my Molchanovs monofin. So, I might recommend wearing a sock or investing in a little electrical tape while you acclimatise to your new piece of kit.
In terms of performance, there is a lot of power in the little fins. They are slightly wider than the C1 long fins and stiffer than my Immersion carbon fins. This means that they give you good push for their size. In the pool, their size is a real advantage as you can move freely within the lane without accidentally bumping other people in the adjacent lane. They do take a bit more work than long fins, but this is a good trade-off for training.
As for depth, I took them to 50m and had a good, solid descent and ascent. In fact, because of the stiffness and width, they may help during free-fall. The bend and snap of the carbon is really nice. So, when you are diving, you get an excellent flex in the fin that you won’t find in any other fin of that size that I’ve tried. In my opinion, although they are a little more work than a long fin, the power-size tradeoff is a good one.
I would definitely recommend this fin if you’re looking for a travel size carbon fin or a very high-end training fin. I rate this fins - two thumbs up 👍👍
The SuperHOME Cup is one of the many depth competitions you can find throughout the year if you enjoy competing in freediving. This competition was organised by Freedive SuperHOME which is located on the small tropical island of Panglao, Philippines. It was the second time that I competed in a depth competition - the first one being organised by the Apnea Association of Singapore in Bali in September 2018.
The SuperHOME Cup was the first few competitions of the year which were incorporating the new discipline set by AIDA International: CWTB (Constant Weight Bi-fins). Previously, the discipline of CWT (Constant Weight) incorporated both Bi-Fins and Mono-Fins into the same category. Therefore, we saw numerous NRs (National Records) being set during the competition.
Being one of the few competitors who can barely reach 50m in depth, I was quite intimidated. But I constantly told myself, “the only competition in freediving is with yourself.” Prior to the competition, I trained for a few months after a long hiatus from the water. I also participated in the Singapore Pool Competition 2019, a month before the SuperHOME Cup, as a stepping stone to get back in shape for the dives. The trainings you do in the pool can roughly translate to your performance in depth if equalisation is not a problem for you.
In Panglao, it was just the sun, sand and the deep blue for 2 weeks straight. It took me about 2 days of diving to get back to my previous PB (Personal Best). After I started to push past my previous personal best, it got harder. I was equalising with the Frenzel technique all the way till 40m, where I realised that I had reached my RV (Residual Volume). This meant that I had no more air to equalise with. To overcome this, I had to relearn the Mouthfill technique from other senior freedivers. After a few days of trial and error, I was back in the game and I was able to go deeper than before!
The new CWTB discipline was up on the first day of the competition. It was a little scary, as I was attempting a new PB, but I managed to pull through. I knew my body and capabilities, but my mind was tempting me to turn early because I was afraid. So I had to fight that inner voice. I dived, made the turn at end of the rope and came up clean with a new PB and default NR.
The second day was a breeze, as I love FIM (Free Immersion) and the dive was a relaxing one.
The last day was when I got over my fear of attempting a PB for CNF, knowing that my last deep dive was only at the previous competition 6 months ago. I don't trust myself enough, which affects my performance in CNF. No aid in going down or coming back up other than my human arms and legs? No way! But your body has a way of telling you what it can and wants to do. In the end, I did a clean CNF dive and ended the competition on a high note. I couldn't stop smiling all the way till I reached the shore.
Overall, it was a great experience to dive alongside familiar faces and new found friends. I discovered new limits and encountered familiar voices during my dives. Freediving is an ever-learning journey which will always leave you in an “aha” moment. To many more discoveries!
]]>On Good Friday, Zen organised our 3rd movie screening and potluck dinner! This time, we watched Religion of Sports: Rise, a documentary exploring the world of freediving at Vertical Blue 2018, a premier diving competition. The movie also featured the legendary Alexey Molchanov and his freediving journey, which he uses as a way to connect with his late mother, Natalia Molchanova, whom he lost to the ocean in 2015.
Don't worry if you missed out on this screening, as we will be planning more socials in the future. Do keep an eye out for them and come join in the Zen fun!
]]>
Once again, Zen made their presence known at ADEX Singapore 2019, which was dedicated to ocean plastic free future. Our booth was teeming with people, full of fellow freedivers and those who were interested in taking their first steps into the world of freediving! We even had a community wall, where freedivers described what freediving meant to them in 1 word.
Zen's co-founder, Michelle, was on the panel of speakers for the freediving festival, where she spoke about the challenges of freediving training and competition, teaching and helping other people discover the joys of freediving, as well as her interest in marine conservation.
Lastly, we would like to welcome all new freedivers and a huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped out at the Zen booth at ADEX over the weekend, as well as to those who dropped by to say hi!
]]>
For 6 straight weeks, our Zen Freediving competition squad trained really hard. Immensely hard. We came together as a team each training and pushed each other to go beyond what we imagined we could do, to find out what we could actually do. It was these 6 weeks of gruelling preparation that culminated in our team’s amazing performance in Singapore’s premier freediving competition, the Singapore Freediving Open.
For many of our Zenners (myself included), this was our first ever freediving competition. The experience proved to be a great one, but it was also a whirlpool of emotions from start to finish. My pre-competition anxiety woke me up multiple times the night before my dive and refused to go away even as I warmed up and breathed up before my official top. But when I held my breath for my actual dive and remembered that I was doing exactly what I had repeated countless times during training, the jitters stopped. I felt calm, even relaxed. And when I re-surfaced after my dive and managed to perform my surface protocol without messing it up, relief washed over me. To top off the whole emotional ride, seeing the white card from the judges for my performance gave me the most incredible feeling. I have never been more stoked.
But while my dive had finished, many of our team had yet to complete theirs. Each time a fellow Zenner exceeded their PB and kept going, the same uneasy mix of excitement and anxiety would fill the air, only to erupt in joyful celebration when the PB dives ended in white cards. Admittedly, when the dives were met with red cards instead of white, disappointment took the place of jubilation. We are proud and pleased to say, however, that instances of the former far outnumbered the latter.
While the official competition results are based on individual performance, our stellar performance in this competition was truly a team effort. We could not have done it without the coaches who guided us through the surface protocol when we were hypoxic; our fellow dive buddies who jumped down the first time to place our re-surface distance marker and a second time to retrieve it, all so we don’t get disqualified; and of course, our fellow Zenners who cheered us on to do our very best.
Personally, the most satisfying thing about this competition experience was realizing my own ability to calm down, relax and enjoy my breath-hold even with my heart beating like crazy from nervousness and anxiety. Not to mention the shivering cold temperature 27°C of the competition pool. It is a lesson that that us freedivers can carry through to other aspects of our lives. When everything is going against you, don't fight against it. Rather, accept things as they are, remain calm and get the best out of the situation.
Overall, this competition was an awesome and happy experience for all our Zenners, whether they were competitors, coaches, or fellow free divers supported us in person or even from the FB live video. In the end, we all came out of the competition as better and stronger free divers.
May the competition next year be even more awesome than the already super awesome one this year.
Peace out ✌!!!
Come join our freediving trip to Mactan, Cebu (Philippines) from 26 April to 1 May 2019!
Recreational Dives and Training Spots
|
|
User Experience by Adrian
I recently received my new Molochanovs sport monofin – the S2. Moving from bi-fins to a monofin is a big step as a monofin requires a totally different finning technique and relies on different muscles and movement to generate thrust.
One of the things I found challenging was the fact that it is more difficult to correct your body position and “trim” your swim (especially when swimming slowly) with both feet attached together – this is something we do naturally with bi-fins. Also, playing with the number of cycle across the pool and the cycle pattern has been important – for example whether you kick, kick, kick across the pool, or kick, kick, glide, etc. Then there is also the question of amplitude and how big a kick movement you are making and how much effort you put into the down motion and up motion.
Thinking about all these variables was a bit daunting. So, I took the monofin workshop with Michelle. It was a huge help and I recommend it to any aspiring monofinners, because getting some basics on technique, the proper muscle groups to use, how to dry train and some experience dolphin kicking with short fins is all very helpful for when you try the unwieldy mono.
In the beginning, I felt that I wasn’t really more efficient that with bi-fins, which is strange because we are supposed to be on the order of >20% more efficient with a mono fin. I expected to see that in either speed or number of kick cycles. When counting cycles with bi-fins and comparing it with the number of cycles with a monfin (and doubling it because one is using both feet together) didn’t really seem to be that much more efficient. Over time, I have improved and do see a difference now. I watched videos of Alexi and how many cycles he uses and the pattern he follows, which was reassuring. I also have noticed that my contractions seem to start later with a monofin compared to bi-fins. So, it seems that the monofin does deliver quite a bit in terms of efficiency.
I’m still very much a beginner here and look forward to improving my technique, distance and O2 consumption over time. If you ever want to give it a try, let me know, I’m happy to share.
Technical Review by Cong
The newer model of the Molchanovs sport monofin improved with a soft tip that runs along the flat edge of the blade. This gives the monofin considerably more stability during finning and a more intimate feel of the water, although the amount of force that can be transferred to the water is somewhat reduced. Overall, this is a significant improvement for its use in freediving.
The older and newer models we tested were both of the same stiffness (2/5). With the older model, any uneven kick from the diver makes the monofin react with a little wobble - viewed from behind, you would see that the monofin moves downwards through the water at a tilted angle, instead of being horizontal. This sensation of instability can be distracting, with the diver often resulting to making small movements to correct for the misalignment in the water. However, this wobble was barely detectable with the soft-tip monofin, even when deliberately trying to kick unevenly – the monofin’s soft tip avoids forcing the blade through the water at an awkward angle. Accordingly, kicking with the newer model is considerably more comfortable, giving a better feel for the water, and allowing the mind to better disengage and relax.
Being softer, there is less power that can be generated from every kick. While this effect is noticeable, we do not think that the impact is particularly large; in our experience, it took about one extra kick per fifty meters. Far more important was the sheer comfort and stability afforded, which helped push back the start of contractions by a considerable margin, and made for a more rewarding dive.
CNF seemed to be a purist form of freediving that I never appreciated. I've always had a feeling of apprehension when I dived with no fins. I reloaded too slowly my strokes too slowly, kicked too hard, the contractions came too early, and was always overwhelmed with fear. The strokes felt foreign.
That's what got me to sign up for Dean's workshop.
My sole objective was to learn how to learn how to reload correctly, i.e. the arm pull, but I learnt so much more during the class.
It started off with a comprehensive theory class in the morning, pool session in the afternoon and ended with stretching and meditation.
Dean went through CNF in detail, where to put our hands, when to kick our legs, what water resistance felt like when we pull the water, and how to leverage the glide before reloading. Essentially, why we are doing what are doing.
Allowing the water to be our teacher, we tested out the theories and practiced in the water. I was initially flooded with too many rights and wrongs in my mind, too technical about every move I made. Learning together with the rest of the gang helped. I went from anxious to amused by the mistakes that I was making. After all that laughing in the pool with the rest , I was able to throw the insecurities out of mind and just dive.
Slowly, I was moving naturally, automatically, unconsciously, without any personal intervention or awareness. I finally let go, relaxed and glide.
This month we hosted a screening of 'Chasing Coral' together with BBQ dinner and drinks, and much poolside banter for our Zenners!
Our fish people bonded over grilling mouth-watering steak slabs (with vegan kebab options), learning how to improve their freestyle stroke from our instructor Michelle, updating each other on freediving and non-freediving news - and we even had a mermaid turn up for our event!
The film was an eye-opening but saddening experience as we watched the grim reality of coral bleaching, powerfully captured by a team of young and passionate film makers and coral nerds. It connected with us in a way like no other, because in a way, as freedivers, we are the first line of defence when it comes to marine conservation issues. The reason being that we are in the sea very often, we are connected to it, and we see and feel the effects of global warming, plastic pollution, amongst other issues, very greatly.
'Chasing Coral' was a wake up call to action, to commit towards protecting our beautiful coral reefs and a place we call home. We can do this in many ways, from educating and inspiring students on what a clean energy future looks like, pledging to vote on environmental issues, to donating to coral reef campaigns. You can check out the many ways you can make a change today HERE!
Following the success of our previous 'Fish People' Screening & Pizza Social, Zen Freediving is proud to host a special screening of Netflix's 'Chasing Coral' and social gathering with BBQ dinner and drinks on Saturday 12 January 2019!
This will be a potluck and BYOB event, so please bring some stuff to sizzle on the BBQ too! Don't forget your best swimwear for some poolside fun (no training, just playtime).
Come join us to appreciate the importance of our breathtaking coral reefs and get to know the Zen community better! We will end off with a little discussion about the conservation issues highlighted in the film.
- Doors open 4pm
- BBQ and pool
- Screening 7.30/8pm
Only 30 spaces available, so email in to info@zenfreediving.org to reserve your spot now!
**We will release the exact address to confirmed attendees a week before the event.
On 4 December, the Singapore Molchanovs Community gathered at our home base at CCAB Swimming Complex. The program for the night was an explanation of the base training concept by the man himself, Alexey Molchanov, followed by some breathing gymnastics, then a chance to earn a Molchanovs Benchmark Workout badge.
The workout for the night was 500m DNF 25/25 under-overs (500m of 25m underwater and 25m recovery in as little time as possible). Requiring good DNF technique, decent CO2 tolerance and power, the workout was not an easy one! Everyone made a fantastic effort, and badges of all levels were given out to some our very own Zenners, showcasing the effort that they have put into training over the past few months.
The night ended with an announcement of the upcoming Molo Games in April in Bali (stay tuned for more info!), and a scrumptious dinner at Mr Prata.
Recently we organized a team building session for Panerai, incorporating freediving techniques to help some people to overcome their fear of water; others to discover a new activity that they enjoy; and everyone to have fun, encourage and support each other.
With Guillaume Néry as one of Panerai's brand ambassadors, and Panerai's launch of its new Submersible Chrono dive watch in collaboration with Néry, there's no better choice of sport for its employees!
Freediving is a great team building experience as communication, reliability and trust are essential between a freediver and his/her buddies. Combine that with some underwater chill and a friendly apnea competition - Panerai had a great day out for their team!
One of our Zenners, an underwater photography and film enthusiast, Kohei, captured these special moments on camera which you can check out in his video HERE!
When Michelle asked me to write an article about my recent personal best distances in the DNF and DYN disciplines at Zen training, I felt both proud and uncomfortable about sharing. It was cool to have friends give me that little splash session after surfacing on a new longest swim. At the same time, even though it is my personal best, there will always someone with more depth, more distance, and a better static time than me.
Humanity advances when we push for and expect the best of ourselves – especially when there is struggle and failure involved. But at the end of the day, a free diving PB is a number from a night in a swimming pool or a day in the ocean. The PB is not who you are or what you stand for. Attempting a PB and succeeding (or failing) is not a true indication of what’s inside you.
What is noble in this pursuit for PBs, and why I keep pushing myself, however, is the feeling. Experiencing emotions like discomfort, anger, pride, envy, and happiness is how I try to understand others and myself and how I try to live more graciously.
Pushing myself to dive farther than ever before takes me out of my comfort zone. To be able to do that, I need to first take myself away from all the fears and doubts running through my head. Knowing how to quiet my mind and disengage from my problems during a dive is what ultimately allows me to face them with more courage and honesty once outside the pool.
With so many circumstances surrounding our pursuit of goals (PBs and in other areas of life), I put together a personal list of a few important personal truths. The list was pushing 20 items and had to be whittled down to a few favorites in order to make this newsletter. Hopefully some of them also speak to you about what pushing and learning about yourself is all about.
Adrian (L) and Brian (R). Zen buddies who freedive together and party together.
A Few Things I Know to be True About Personal Bests (in freediving and in life):
Just in time for the festive season, Zen's recent social night was a blast! We had a full house of members coming together to make the best homemade pizza in Singapore. It was wonderful to spend some time outside of the water getting to know each other better and catch up with old friends.
Another highlight of the night was a screening of Patagonia's latest documentary Fish People, which tells the stories of a unique cast of characters, whose lives are transformed by the sea, including spearfisher Kimi Werner, surfer David Rastovich, open-water swimmer Lynn Cox, and many more.
As Zenners, we come from different backgrounds, and experiences with water.
Some of us identify as spearos, some as big wave surfers, others as underwater photographers - but all of us as freedivers.
The film was a great way to celebrate our love for the water and expand beyond the world of freediving and competitions ...
Apart from gorging ourselves with PIZZA!
]]>
Fast, fluid and efficient is how most people would describe freediving with a monofin. This half day, individualised workshop will help you to understand the movement mechanics of the dolphin kick and how to apply that to your stroke in order to get the most distance out of your monofin. There will be a short theory and dry training session followed by a pool session for practise and stroke analysis. The following topics will be covered:
Let Michelle guide you in our special Monofin workshop, complete with individual video analysis, on Saturday 17 November, 2.30 - 5pm.
There will also be try ons for demo monofins!
The cost is $90 per person for a group lesson. Spaces limited.
Please register at www.zenfreediving.org
]]>