My freediving-trainer will not let me freedive!

Today I begged him with my hands in prayer and almost on my knees. I even said “Please”.
The sea was shimmering, and I could hear it calling for me.
My trainer said wisely, and very Forest Gump-like; “The sea is like chocolate, if you have to much of it you will not like it anymore”.
I think he saw the disappointment in my eyes. “But I really like chocolate”.
“You will spend enough time in the sea, don’t worry”, he said.

I don’t worry. I just want to be in the water.
That’s the challenge – I’m on an island, surrounded by sea.
It’s like putting a heroine addict on a diet of carrots with heroin all around him and say “just focus on the carrots”. That said, I really love carrots – because here they come in the shape of training. So I’m really not complaining about not being in the water. I love training just as much as I love being in the sea. So training is what the days are about. Basic, hard and a little bit crazy training.

This is just the beginning. Most days consist of somewhere in between 2 1/2 – 4 hours of training. In a few months time we’ll be training for about 6-8 hours a day. One day a week is rest day. Most training is about apnea (breath-holding) but also basic training (cardio & weight lifting), but I’ll get into that and more about my awesome trainer and friend Akim in another blog.

As much as I love training with Akim (and I really do what he says), a small part of me is defiant. So I went into the water – but just up to my knees. I’m just a little bit defiant. And I dipped my camera just to see what’s underneath the surface and to play around with it. The water was really cold – another reason Akim says we should wait with the water-training…