Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

FreediveWI · 04-14-2003, 08:36 PM,

My freediving buddy, Ted, works at the university as a fish biologist. His boss is the proffessor in charge of the clean up project going on in the lake.

Today Ted and I wnet out to survey the pipe. We started at shore and went out into 45' of water. The hard part was all of the WHITECAPS on the lake today caused by the very strong winds that we had. THis also meant that the vis was pretty poor. Water was cold, but we lasted almost 3 hours in our freedivng wetsuits. We were actually hot at one point from all of the swimming we did- almost 2 miles total.

The best part of the dive was at the very end when we got out by the beach. There were hundreds of brown trout in there that had just been planted by the DNR.

I also tried to use the panoramic funtion of my digital camera for the first time with a little bit of success. I can hardly wait to try it on a good vis day. Smile

FreediveWI · 04-14-2003, 08:38 PM,

THe surface was pretty wild with such big waves for such a little lake. The air was very warm and made a big difference in how long we could stay in.

FreediveWI · 04-14-2003, 08:39 PM,

I got to play around with my monofin and we did cover quite a bit of ground.

FreediveWI · 04-14-2003, 08:39 PM,

In the end, Ted decided it was a worthwhile day.

freediverND · (This post was last modified: 04-15-2003, 03:06 AM by freediverND.)

Jon,
I can't help but play with some of your photos. Check this out, with photoshop, a click to change "mode" from RGB to CMYK, a click to adjust "auto levels", a mode change back to RGB and this is what you get. Besides increased file size Wink

Fred

FreediveWI · 04-15-2003, 09:35 AM,

Pretty cool Fred.

I am hoping for a bit more vis in the future to get some better shots. It would also help to have something more interesting to take pictures of. Wink

The warm winds have really been kicking up the waves pretty hard around here. We got blown off of Lake Michigan on Sunday and we couldn't get a boat out on Lake Mendota yesterday. The waves that I saw on Devil's Lake yesterday were the biggest ones that I have ever seen out there- and I've been diving the lake for almost 25 years.

I have played around with some of the contrast and color dpeth on a few pictures. I am using a pretty basic program right now. My hope is to take a semester long Photoshop class next fall. In the mean time I am just hoping to sell of my doubles to pay for a wide angle lens. I know that I could get closer to things and improve the image quality because it has worked with my film camera for the past 10 years. 8)

I also had a chance to try out the "solider" technique for monofinning that was posted on D.B. yesterday.
It worked suprisingly well. I think that it helps to round your shoulders and concentrate the work on your abs more than your legs. Coming up from depth still seems to go a bit faster with arms extended.

I really need to get back out on Lake Michigan for some real depth to try all of this out in. I am also curious to see how well my new C4's work compared to the monofin. Erci Fattah has said that they will work as well as any lower-end monofin. IF they can do they job I might just stick with them full-time. Bi-fins are more versatile for spearing and wreck diving.

Have you hit open water with your mono yet? I dragged along the mono and some larger, winter, freedivng fins yesterday. I would switch back and forth as my feet got cold and started to cramp. The mono made it much easier to get to depth, but the Sporasub Radical's were much more comfortable for the long haul. We ended up swimming over two miles in 40 degree water and my feet needed a break after a while.

Jon

freediverND · 04-15-2003, 10:43 AM,

Jon,
you've heard of the trouble E.Fattah's having with the tendonitis... not good, sounds like it's really knocked him off his feet. Doing some google searching about monofins yesterday I see he's posted his dilema on some finswimming boards to see if anyone else has had the same trouble. I could see rapid tendonitis coming along with these tight fins, we're going to have to be carefull. Fattah seems to think most of it was cold water related but moving tendons where there is lack of blood flow can't be good. Kinda like running out of oil maybe :'(
Wife and I are going to the lakes early tomorrow morning and I plan to take all the diving gear (oh really : Smile

), the wife has purchased a cabin on Little McDonald and we have to be there for a building inspection. If the ice is gone I know where I'll be... well hey, someone has to check out the lay of the lake. Super clean lake and I'm super excited for the both of us and her family. Our family cabin is only 8 miles away. Just a few things to finalize and then we hope to take possession the middle of May. I don't foresee any reason we won't.
The last weeks in the pool I've parked my pure carbons for a 20 minute or so session with the mono and then a 40 minute session with the Gara 2000HD's. The gara's are my backup fins but I never liked how stiff they were, couldn't handle them until now. I haven't had the pure carbons on for a long time, but I'm sure they'll still be my fin of choice for most diving, the way they recover/snap back and propel is fantastic, the garas still feel like I'm doing all the work but has been good excersize I'm sure. The mono, for a short time, might become the fin of choice, but I'm like you, long times in the water and the mono won't cut it. Have to fasten it to my milk crate and drag it along I suppose.
Those C-4's sound like they'll kick a...
Great days ahead.. the ice is goin' goin'! ;D
Fred

FreediveWI · 04-15-2003, 11:33 AM,

Your own cabin on a CLEAN lake sounds like heaven. 8)

I attached my mono to my speargun float and dragged it along with me. When I got out to a little bit deeper water I tied my bi-fins on and switched to the mono for a while. This seemd to work out fairly well.

We were following this underwater pipe for quite some distance, over a mile, and freediving it the whole way. Ted and I would switch off. First, I would dive down and swim the float weight forward about 30' and then come up. Then, Ted would drop down where I left off and swim it forward 30'. We kept this up for well over an hour. Inbetween the depth and the whitecaps on the surface we decided that 30' segments would work the fastest as we could shorten our breath-ups inbetween dives.

Eric Fattah is a pretty extreme guy in all senses of the word. It doesn't surprise me that he pushed himself to this point of not being able to use fins at all for the next 3 months. It sounds like he's knocking off 130'+ freedives with out any fins at all right now, and doing it with a wetsuit and weight belt!

Anyone who does 7-8 mile swims in the Canadian ocean, in winter, at night, and then pulls off 200'+ freedives is a little over the edge to begin with. Wink

Of course he also blows away any other diver I have ever seen in the water before, except maybe Martin S.

It seems like overtraining can come back to haunt you in any sport. Eric is also known for some pretty wild diets and fasting routines that I don't think either of us will have to worry about.

Jon