New year resolution: What I will change during the next training season. The list is long! 1- Not preparing for a particular event 2- Fixing my equalisation (by fixing my head) 3- Fixing my pre-dive fixations (strictly connected to point n.2) 4- Doing at least 1 “deep” dive per week all throughout the winter 5-…
Which FIM start do you prefer? There are different ways to breathe-up before a dive, which will consequently influence your “starting” technique. The 3 main breathe-ups are: – Through a snorkel (which is not very common for deep diving mainly because it makes packing more difficult to do) – In a vertical position with your…
The importance of building habit. As in the RIGHT HABIT, not any stupid habit (as you will see). During last year world championship in Roatan, I missed a podium for my CNF dive because I missed the line when I surfaced. Here’s the details if you are interested in the technical stuff (and mistakes to…
Competition strategy for dummies Since I got back into competing 2 years ago I have had the same conversation many times over, so I’m making this little post so I can direct freedivers there next time I get asked! Many freedivers who are not so experienced and are quite new in the competition world, don’t…
Not only Covid ruined my World Championship in Roatan last august, it also left me with crippled ears. In fact, I became completely unable to do hands-free for a long time after that. Note that while I was sick, I just had fever and throat ache, but zero congestion and I was never unable to…
It was my intention to write a long comprehensive epilogue of the WC 2023 series, but as always the IG word police cut me short and then I was so busy with work, training, home and attending to the many needs of my dog from hell. Since I got so tired of writing long Instagram…
EPILOGUE The most relevant thing of this whole trip for me was the amount of things I learned. Things that I learned about my own diving, competition mistakes I made and that I will never repeat (well, never say never), but especially things I learned about myself, my motivation and what drives me (and what…
When I went home from my no-fins dive, I had less than 1 hour to announce for the bifins dive. I had previously decided to go with 98m, but after my little incident I didnt know if it was such a good idea. Despite telling myself that I wouldn’t base my announcement on other freedivers…
After realising why I wasn’t happy with my medal dive I put on the big boy pants and announced to my team captain that I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice and that I would announce 98 m on the bifins day. I easily did close to that in training and my bifins depths have…
After completing my 96 FIM dive that won me a nice fat silver medal at the CMAS world championship, I went home and cried for 24 hours straight. I was so upset with myself for not having announced more and losing the highest place on the podium. I wanted to be on the safe side…
This year I turned 50 years old and I thought I know myself like the back of my hand (or like the inside of my pockets as we say in italian), until I come to a mosquitoes infested island in the Caribbean on a medal hunt, only to realize I dont know this person I’m…
It’s amazing how fast and slow the time is passing when you are in a weird bubble as if spacetime collapsed and expanded at the same time. So while I feel that I literally do nothing all day, at the same time days are passing very fast and at the end of each day I…