One week in Athens have passed and this week have given me so much more than I could imagine. I came here to do pool and depth training and to compete in a pool competition. I came here more or less without any expectations at all and the last days had so many wonderful moments.

Amazing Greece

The amazing nature of Greece and the city and people of Athens has made me experience sensations of all kind. The smell of the soil is something special here. I had experiences in different waters with an extraordinary variation of weather with rain, hail, thunder, lighting, a warm, bright sun and harsh wind in the greek weather of April. The soft water of the lake and the chilling salty water of the Aegean Sea. This week has not only given me experiences of nature but of people with friendly familiar and new faces and newfound friend ships.

The outdoor pool competition

There are so many things to write about from this week, let’s start with the pool competition! The pool of the competition was an outdoor 50 meter pool which was a new experience for me. This time there were no voices and sound of water bouncing on the walls but there was a blue sky were I could see the seagulls fly while relaxing before my OT. I really enjoyed the greek count down and greek conversation around me, the laughs and the hookbreathing. My OT:s were plannes to be 10:50 AM for DNF and 12:10 PM for DYNBifins. Quite little time between the starts.

PB and national record!

The competition was held in a 50 meter out door pool. My first dive gave me a white card, 135 meter DNF which is a competition PB! Less than 80 minutes later I made a new PB, white card and a new national record of DYNBifins with the distance of 166 meters. The fins I used were sent to Athens especially to me for this competitions. The fins are from Triton and I recieved them two days before the competition. That meant that I had one day to try them in the pool before the competition. So the total distance of training with my bifins were 200 meters before the competition.

My new bifins from Triton

My first pair of real long fins and I am so happy they fit my feet perfectly and follows the rhythm and the intensity of my kicks in a perfect way. Thank you Trition for my new beautiful babies Lighting and Thunder. The fins have souls, therefore they need names. What I am most happy about regarding this competition is that event though I had been diving both in pool and the ocean for one week in a row I had the strength to do PB in both DNF and DYNBifins. This means I have more to give and my promise is that more is to come!

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-04-23
In the air between Athens and Moscow, Europe

An event as the Swedish Championship doesn’t create it iself, there are many hours of organization and individual preperation behind this. Everything is prepared to create the best conditions for the athletes to perform on top as the OT approaches. Thank you all for making this possible.

The organization

First I want to thank the organizers of this years Championship, the freediving club Uppsala Tumlaren. Your effort the last twelve months really had and amazing result as we could see this weekend. For me as an athlete the arrangement went smoth without any problems. You were always there answering questions. Actually most of the time you answered before the questions even emerged. That is worth so much. The website ( https://www.officialtop.org/events/1/info ) was really helpful. Such a great work behind this. I really hope we will use it for all upcoming events. Thank you!

Photo: Per Benkowski

The volunteers

I wish I had time to personally thank all the safety divers, judges, photografers, speaker, medics and all other volunteers but I realised that would take a while. This time I do this through this blog. Without your commitment it wouldn’t be possible to do this. You were always there to help us, guide us, give us the best experience and even save our lives if necessary. Your engagement is big and worth a lot. You are so much appreciated. Thank you every one of you!

Juniordykarna, my apnea club

I also want to thank my apnea club Juniordykarna for all pool time you enable. Thank you for all the encouraging and inviting gestures and challenging words. Also for sharing all the happy faces, friendly smiles and genuine hugs. Your enthusiasm and desire to share the interest and spread the words about freediving is a true inspiration.

Valle

Last in this post but definitively not least I want to thank you Valle. For encouraging me to slow down and guiding me in the right direction when I pretend I can go on with a speed barely suitable for autobahn on this sometimes tricky and unexplored path. Thank you for spending all these hours in the pool with me and in between just longing for an other shot of hypoxia. Thank you for sharing this passion and commitment with me. This insatiable passion for freediving.

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-04-03
Gothenburg, Sweden

What I aimed for also turned out to be the final result of the weekend. I already miss the faces of the athletes and the dense air of feelings. Again I leave a competition that have brought me many new experiences through mine but this time mostly other athletes performances.

DYN day and final results

My intention was to make a white-card-dive. I wanted to do a dive I could be happy with that would give me the golden medal in the last discipline and also in the combination. I was so relaxed before the dive. I really had time to enjoy the athmosphere. The warm and bright sun was shining through the windows, through the surface of the water, landing on the back of the divers, throwing momentary shades on the bottom of the pool. The water was soft and clear. I made a safe dive having some struggle with the shifting pool depth as you can see in the video below but nothing that stopped me from doing what I came here to do. The longest DYN-dive in the ladies class. 170 meters, white card.

The many performances

I’m so happy and amazed by the other athletes performances. The personal bests, the national records, all medals. I’m impressed by the athletes who made their first competition, the athlete who lost the fin during the dive but didn’t give up and the athlete who made a DNF dive with one arm and one leg. Every white card is an achievement and every single yellow. The long dives that were longer than all the others but turned out to be red cards. Even a red card is an achievement. This time I also learned that DNS (Did Not start) might be a bigger achievement than starting without motivation and passion. Everything, all experiences are worth something and important for every single one.

The feelings

It fascinates me how some few minutes dive can make the athletes experience so much and affect them in different ways. Many dives need time for reflection and need to be shared with others. During the weekend I’ve seen relaxed faces and bodies, tense sights and soft smiles. Tears falling on the cheeks from happines, sadness, disappointment and even melancholy. I’ve seen and felt warm and supportive hugs and shared big laughs. At the same time the extraordinary tense and vibrating feeling of concentrated and goal-oriented focus is striking. All feelings in one weekend in Uppsala, Sweden. This is why I just love this. We experience this together and support eachother. The respect between the athletes and all other participants.

Final results top three total points women and men

All final results can be found through this link: https://www.officialtop.org/events/1/results

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-04-01
Somewhere between Uppsala and Gothenburg, Sweden.

It is with a smile I go to bed tonight. It has been an amazing day performing in the disciplines STA and DNF, meeting other athletes and see them perform. I love the smile of the athletes being new to the sport and doing PB:s in their first Championship.

STA – waiting

With a water temperature of 27 degrees Celsius I feel comfortable. I always prefer being more cold than warm while doing STA. The whole performance felt so light, so calm and under control. My plan was to wait out the others. That was exactly what happend. My aim in STA was to do a good dive and still have strength for the upcoming DNF dive wich was later in the afternoon. Tha STA was not a huge dive for me but it was a dive that gave me a white card, 5:48 minutes and a gold medal.

DNF

While doing a DNF dive it is not that easy to know what the other competitors in the same heat are doing and how long their dives are going to be. To be honest, this year, a good position in each dicipline and in the combination is what I want. The national records can wait. This is the one competition a year that gives the opportunity to bring home the title gold medalist in the swedish championship in pool freediving. I’m happy with my performance, the dive went smooth. White card, 128 meters and a gold medal.

New faces, fantastic performances!

This year there are many new faces to me! I’m so happy to see the interest of the sport grow and see the new athletes perfom. I want to mention the fantastic Hilma Karlsson from Linköping who did great PB:s in DNF (74 meters) and in STA (05:05 minutes), which also gave her a bronze medal! Congratulations! In the picture below you see Hilma and Oskar Särnholm preparing for their STA. Rebecca Broberg and me preparing as well. The fantastic Emma Åkerrén from the organization who brought home the silver medal in DNF. Hasse and Valdemar who took gold and silver in DNF and last Dena Parsa relaxing before DNF performance.

One more day

Tomorrow it is the second and last competition day. It is time for DYN. I’ll publish a post when the time is given to me.

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-03-30
Uppsala, Sweden

I’m on my way to Uppsala, Fyrishovsbadet and the Swedish Championship in pool freediving 2019. The sun is shining and I am ready.

In Sweden this is the biggest freediving event of the year. About 40 athletes has signed up of which 17 are women. Many names are familiar and some are new to me. I’m looking farward to meet everybody again. To experience this together in one breath.

Schedule of the weekend

First competiton day is tomorrow. The schedule says STA and DNF on saturday and DYN on sunday. Since the order of the OT’s is based on PB’s I start in the last heats in the ladys class in all disciplines. My official tops are following. Saturday: STA: 11:32, DNF: 16:44. Sunday DYN: 12:20. Through the hyperlink below you can find information about the event such as in list, official tops and final results. https://www.officialtop.org/events/1/info
This year there are some international athletes as well. I whish all athletes good luck, a great performance and only white cards!

Lunchbreak by the lake

The weekend has just started and I already fully enjoy every second. It is a wonderful day being on a road trip to Uppsala and having lunch break by one of the thousand lakes in Sweden.

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-03-29
Somewhere between Gothenburg and Uppsala, Sweden

One week until the Swedish Championships (SC). Training has been splendid. This week I joined a small comeptition in dynamics. Now my schedule says: Play! Play! Play! until my OT in the SC next saturday.

March Challenge 2019

The last months has been quite intense with a lot of training and this week I also joined March Challenge 2019, small competition in DYN, DYN-BIFINS, DNF. I joined just to get a little bit more experience for the upcoming SC. I didn’t want to push my self. Just feel. I’m satisfied with the competition. I did what I wanted to do. With my dive I ended up second best. Congratulations to the winner, Hans Fogelberg who also did PB with the result of 214 meter in DYN! You see him doing the surface protocol in the picture below, to the right.

It was fantastic to see so many new and familiar faces joining the competiton. Some PB:s and only white cards. Beautiful competition! You see all competitors including judges, medic and starter in the picture above, to the left. The picture of the group is taken by Karin Fogelberg.

In the picture to above, to the left you can glimpse Linda Stenman below surface approaching 100 meters preparing for her turn. In the picture to the right, Valdemar Karlsson one minute to Official Top.

Play! Play! Play!

Last sunday I joined the youngster group by playing underwater rugby with them. Some bruces and scratches later I went home with a smile. This kind of preperations are important to me before a competition. To play and have fun!
I have always loved taking pictures of people, other creatures and living things under water. While being in an intense training period there is not always time for that. Now most of my preparations for SC are done, therefor the last traning sessions has ended up me taking pictures of other people training! In the picture above you see Valdemar Karlsson. In the picture below Hans Fogelberg and Rose-Marie Larsson. Valdemar and Hans will compete in the SC as well.

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-03-23
Gothenburg, Sweden

This saturday I joined a STA competition which was held at the biggest diving exhibition in Scandinavia “dykmässan i Göteborg”. I was invited to join as I possess the capacity of breaking the Swedish record (6:49 minutes) in STA. It was a small competition with four of the best freedivers in Sweden.

New golden experiences

It was a new experience having so many people and so much noice around. Usally I can hear the conversations going on above surface very easily and this time there was also a speaker, Peter Boivie, talking about the dives as we performed. Being in an exibition hall, in a round pool with high edges, water temperature around 30 degrees but an air temperature much colder than in a swimming hall, pool depth around 1,2 meters (which is deeper than I’m used) to, the attention from the speaker together with the audience was quite an experience. This time, obviously, the conditions where not perfect for me or any of the other athletes. It was a great show for the audience but no national-record-dives this time.

Pictures from preparation and coaching

Photo: Robin Gunnarsson and Rebecca Broberg

The new book

I was invited to join by Anders Lundberg and Peter Johnsen who had just released the book På ett andetag (“In one breath”) together with Peter Boive. During the exhibition Anders, Peter and Peter held a discource about freediving and the development and the increasing intrest of the sport. This through Svenska Sportdykarförbundet (SSDF). The book is a translation of the book Hold Vejret written by Morten Rosenvold Villadsen. This swedish version is also updated, revised and supplemented.

First prize

I didn’t break the swedish record this time but with me I bring the golden experiences and as I did the best dive in the women class I received the beautiful book. Thank you so much! I’ll come back with a review post after reading it.

Be kind to your self, be kind to others.

Nicole Edensbo, 2019-03-18
Gothenburg, Sweden