The 145 Club

[Judge]

Sydney Freedivers is Sydney's only freediving club. It started last year. Sydney has plenty of spearfishing clubs but none that was concentrated on freediving.

Most of our members are spearfishers concentrating on increasing their down time and depth. We are training a few evenings a week in pools at various locations around Sydney.

We introduced a level of competence to give people something to strive for. It is called the 145 Club. The requirements are:

100m (two lengths of an Olympic pool) Dynamic Apnea
40metres (131ft) Constant Weight
5 minutes Static Apnea

Each of these targets take some concentrated work to achieve.

Ant the president of the club and myself were the only ones with all three done. So we put a prize up for the next person. We had two members who had one requirement left to go and they were struggling. Chi came back from a holiday in Hawaii with only a 5 min static to complete and another member had only a 40m dive. They were taking their time, even missed training...

Pooshkie (aka Chris) had the static and the constant weight to do. We encouraged him to come from the rear and take the prize. Pooshkie trains 3 - 4 nights a week and within a week he did a 5:13 static. That weekend we were off the coast of Sydney and he completed his 131ft dive. It was a fun game and he won the prize.

Here is the video of our morning off the coast when Pooshkie did his 131ft dive Ant did a couple of dives too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZloiinZhE

Judge

[spearguam]

Judge,
Thanks for the motivation. I saw your post about a month back on the 145 club. I have been freediving/spearfishing for about 5 months now and the 145 club as become my current goal. I am at a 4:00 static, 75 meters Dynamic apnea (damn 25 meter pool.... those turns take up a lot of air) and 83 ft. constant weight. I am taking my time with the constant weight because my dive partner and I don't have a good safety system set up yet. We watch each others backs closely, but we haven't set up any lines or known depths. The 83 ft felt very comfortable and no strain.

I come from a swimming background and used to ironman race down in Oz for a while. I am comfortable in the water but I don't have much experience or any set training program for apnea events. Any advise you can add to this thread would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what do you guys wear for pool training? speedo and dive fins?

Once again, thanks for the motivation. These are great goals.

Oh! Congrats Pooshkie. Must be a good feeling.

[oto_gc]

nice club, I've seen a couple of your videos on youtube, there was one kid that did 45 meters and got a nice mask squeeze in the last few meters, kind of funny.

I wish we had something like that around here.

[greekdiver]

wow thats hauling ass. It took a 1:38 for my 42 meter dive.

[Judge]

[QUOTE=spearguam;721388]Judge,
I have been freediving/spearfishing for about 5 months now and the 145 club as become my current goal. I am at a 4:00 static, 75 meters Dynamic apnea (damn 25 meter pool.... those turns take up a lot of air) and 83 ft. constant weight. The 83 ft felt very comfortable and no strain.

Any advise you can add to this thread would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what do you guys wear for pool training? speedo and dive fins?
[QUOTE]

Hey,

You are doing just fine for 5 months spearfishing and freediving and it is good to hear you are taking the safety seriously.

In winter we usually train in a pool 3 nights a week. One night volume, one night technique and one night either a single big swim or a static night. We try and keep it fairly varied because it is pretty boring otherwise. Some nights we work on shortened recoveries (safety has to be alert) Some nights we do a lap, 30 sec to a minute held down one end then finish with a lap or two, all on one breath. This is a good one but build up to it slowly. We do fast laps, slow laps and nights where we do nothing but work on technique. Getting the stoke perfect and turns smooth.

Yes, it is usually speedos and fins or a mono fin.

Here is a clip from a training night. You can get a good idea on doing smooth turns. We work in a 25m pool too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Ert71a7_M

Have fun

Judge

[BreathlessSight]

Judge,

Do you spear with those guys who call themselves the NSYG? Did you guys ever go to egypt for the freediving competition?
The music from Le Grand Bleu? Best vid known to man!
I personaly like the discipline of free imersion or just grabbin some heavy wieght connected to a line and holding on.
Awesome stuff!!!! Thanks for the story.

[HurricaneBK]

silly question but do you guys do dynamic apnea with fins or without? i have a 25m pool in my backyard and swim in it a lot for practice and can do 75m without fins, never have taken my fins it b/c they would probably get all scratched up.

[oto_gc]

silly question but do you guys do dynamic apnea with fins or without? i have a 25m pool in my backyard and swim in it a lot for practice and can do 75m without fins, never have taken my fins it b/c they would probably get all scratched up.

with fins is the way to go, unless you spearfish with no fins ;)

you have a 25 meter pool? that's great. use your cheap plastic fins to train in the pool, I use my cressis 2000.

[Judge]

Judge,

Do you spear with those guys who call themselves the NSYG? Did you guys ever go to egypt for the freediving competition?
The music from Le Grand Bleu? Best vid known to man!
I personaly like the discipline of free imersion or just grabbin some heavy wieght connected to a line and holding on.
Awesome stuff!!!! Thanks for the story.

Yes, I spearfish more with the NSYG guys than anyone. They are an aggressive and fun bunch to dive with. Half of the Freediving club are NSYG. We haven't gotten over to Egypt yet for that competition. Sydney Freedivers has only been in existence for some months and Ant the president is the only one who is at international standard. He is off to Hawaii in a month or two to continue his training. He wants to go to Egypt but with a Coral Sea trip in October he is cutting it fine. :D

On the question of Fins or No fins. Sydney Freedivers is a "freediving" club and dynamic is practiced both with and without fins. Those training for spearfishing train with their fins. Me? I train with a mono fin and am enjoying the speed and fluid motion of this. As it gets closer to Coral Sea time I will start putting in the hard yards with my fins. :D Actually we train usually in a 25 m pool. Means doing plenty of turns but it is a local and indoor pool and we can train there most nights.

Judge

[BreathlessSight]

So who are you plaining on hooking up with in Hawaii? Derek LeVault and Kurt Chambers are tallented freedivers. There are also a few others that I know of.
If Im not mistaken I think there is that freediving course that comes out to the big island.

[Platypus]

Oi Judge!! We wish you were coming as well, but no worries we'll take good care of Ant and Pooshkie. Guess we'll see you at the end of the year. :D

~AB

[ApneaSpearo]

congrats Pooshkie, nice diving! :toast: man, I've never seen someone zoom up the drop line so fast, I always thought it would be better to go slow and keep your heart rate down, but I'm guessing you guys have tried it different ways...

[jimdoe2you]

Judge, I give that a big two thumbs up!!! :thumps:

Seeing pooshkie flying up the line like that and reading Harry's post of 42M in only 1:38 makes me feel like I should pick up the pace a bit on ascent.

:)

[Judge]

Oi Judge!! We wish you were coming as well, but no worries we'll take good care of Ant and Pooshkie. Guess we'll see you at the end of the year. :D

~AB

Ha ha... I know my son Ant, is in great hands when he is visiting you and Rick. We had such a great time last time. I sure as hell are sorry I can't come but am looking forward to the end of the year.

Ant has a program he is working on, and the deep diving section of it is tough to do in Sydney. Right now we have 5 metre... 15ft swells and 25 - 40knt winds. To find a spot deeper than 50m (150ft) we have to go about 5 miles off shore. However in Hawaii we have 80m (240ft) just a short swim from shore. Ant is also looking forward to diving with Deron V, they met years ago at the 2002 Freediving Pacific Cup. Deron is a top freediver and well respected world wide. Some coaching from him would be very valuable.

However... Hawaii conditions will simply BLOW Pooshkie's mind. His 41m dive was in less than 10m vis (30ft) ha ha ha.

Judge