Was lange währt ...

Wieder aufgetaucht. Und die Dinge sind immer noch gut. Mittlerweile bin ich dabei, mich im Tauchcenter Dive In  zum professionellen Gerätetaucher ausbilden zu lassen. Noch 'ne Qualifikation ist doch immer gut, wenn man am Wasser lebt. :)
Sieht komisch aus, ist aber gut so: Gleichzeitig starten wir, Sarah und ich We freedive. Weil wir nämlich genau das machen - freitauchen.
Wir sind alle sehr gespannt, was dabei denn so rauskommt, jedenfalls kann man uns buchen. Freitauch-Kurse, Coaching, Abenteuer. The sky is the limit. :)

Keep it locked.

Es gibt ein Leben nach der WM

Tach allerseits! :)

Ja, es gibt ein leben nach der WM. Und es kann einen auch ganz schön auf Trab halten, so normale Dinge wie Einkaufen und Wohnung auf Vordermann bringen und Arbeiten. Erstes Projekt war es aber und ist es noch, den verpatzten constant weight Tauchgang zu verdauen. Das wurmt ja schon, eine Tiefe nicht zu machen, die sich sonst eher wie ein Aufwärmtauchgang anfühlt. Darum gibt es fürs Erste kein Tiefentraining mehr, sondern nur noch Spaß und Unterricht.
In Dahab hat sich nichts verändert und alles nimmt so seinen Lauf. Die Hochsaison fängt an, und es gibt genug Arbeit, um diesen Monat die Miete zu zahlen. Das ist doch schon mal was.
Und dann kommt auch noch Besuch aus Konstanz! Julia und Sascha haben sich 'ne Woche frei genommen, um sich mal Ägypten anzuschauen. Nach drei Tagen Cairo haben sie sich dann auch ein Wenig Chillen verdient - ideale Bedingungen also in Dahab. Und dazu haben sie auch noch Landjäger, Bodenseesalami, Schokolade und Lakritze mitgebracht! Keine Frage, die beiden kriegen natürlich 'nen super Preis für ihren Freitauch-Kurs. Und schon hat die Welt zwei neue Tiefschnorchler!
Zur Mitte des Monats hat dann unsere ganze WG (Patrick, Nikki, Sarah, ich) einen Job bekommen. Schnorchellehrer und -Führer für 120 13-Jährige aus einer Amerikanischen Mittelschule in Cairo. Die Siebte Klasse war auf einem Naturschutz-Riffkunde-Kurs in Sharm El Naga, mit zwei Meeresbiologinnen, die ihnen an Land erklärt haben, was sie unter unserer Aufsicht und Anleitung im Wasser sehen konnten. Zusammen mit den Lehrern der Schule konnten wir dann auch alle wieder in Richtung Cairo zurückschicken, und ich glaube wir alle hatten auch Spaß dabei und wir haben alle was dabei gelernt.
Organisiert wurde das ganze vom Dive In Tauchcenter in Dahab, wer also mal seine Kinder in die Wüste schicken mag, kann sich gerne bei mir oder direkt bei denen melden. :)
Sharm El Naga, ca. 45km südlich von Hurghada, ist schon die elf Stunden Fahrt von Dahab wert. Keine Hotelburgen und von den Touristen völlig zerstörte Riffe wie in Hurghada, sondern eine kleine Bucht, auf die richtig aufgepasst wird, lebendige Korallen und haufenweise Leben drumrum.
Bei Vollmond und Windstille ist das Wasser kristallklar und biolumineszentes Plankton wirbelt wie Funkenflug, wenn man sich bewegt.
Ganz sicher einer der schönsten Tauchgänge meiner bisherigen Erfahrung. Nachts, ohne künstliches Licht schwerelos zwischen den Korallen und geisterhaften Fischen zu schweben. Unter uns unsere Schatten auf dem Sand, über uns der Vollmond, der durch die Oberfläche scheint. Und die Funken stieben. Wow.
Alles ziemlich gut hier. Viele Grüße.

Heiß ist es In Sharm

Eieiei, auch wenn man den ganzen Tag im Wasser rumlungert, ist es hier
noch richtig heiß. Die WM ist voll im Gange und alle trainieren und
nehmen alles viel zu Ernst. Naja, außer vielleicht den Engländern, die
haben keine ernste Faser in sich. Dave Jedenfalls nicht, wenn er alle,
die zufällig gerade im Pool sind, zu neuen höchstleistungen im
Synchronschwimmen coacht. :D Mannmannmann

The AIDA Team blog!

Just a quickie, here it goes:

http://apnoe-team-deutschland.blogspot.com/

Eclipse of the moon

Following Dave's idea, I decide to spend a night on the rooftop. And there's a special feature for us, too. :)

Nice.

Training is taking off.

Training is taking off - Not only is it taking off in that way that things are working out nicely and I have a new personal best in constant weight to boast with, it is also taking my mind off almost everything else.
Dave King is here and our work is taking me to new depths. Let's see if he can get me to hold my breath for longer. :)
I think I'm looking forward to the competition, but I'm definitely nervous about it!

All my best to the world out there! I haven't forgotten You!

Back. And on the team.

It's been official for a while now, but here's the news:

I'm on the German national Team for the freediving Team World Championships 2008 in Sharm El Sheikh! Way cool.
So, it's training now for me.

But let's see a couple of keywords on the last month or so.

DeeperBlue.net Course weeks on Kalymnos:
- Greece is wonderful ...
- ... and Europe isn't bad at all, either.
- Met great people that I hope I will spend much more time with
- Being a Freediving Instructor is cool - and even better with DeeperBlue.net
- If You don't have a mum to look after You, there's always Emma. :)

European Freedive-Meeting in Sougia, Crete
- Greece is wonderful ...
- ... and I have friends there! Hey Giorgos and Christina! :D
- My ear was stuffed and I couldn't dive - but not a problem. Had the best vacation in a long time. :)

Going back to Dahab
- Had the blues about going back to Egypt and not to Germany ...
- ... but comng back wasn't so bad after all. It does feel a little bit like home here.
- There's a nice bunch of people here. Happy to live in Dahab.

Ras Abu Galoum

How offline does it get. Great!
Spent two days with Romain from France and our guide Milad at Ras Abu Galoum. A bit more than an hour's Camel ride north of the Blue Hole, this is a wonderful site.
The diving is just a dream, playing between the table coral at the Big Rock dive site is wonderful and almost all of it is wonderfully intact.
When we arrived, we were lucky enough to meet Amy and Jessie from the USA, some of the most open minded US-Americans I have ever met. Very happy to have spent that couple of hours with You girls! :)
After a day of freediving/snorkeling there we got to spend a night out in the desert, sleeping in front of the hut that had provided shelter from the sun during the day.
What an amazing sky presented itself to us. With no artificial light around, except for the remote glow of Dahab's light-polluted beachfront, there were so many stars, that it was overwhelming, trying to take it all in.
And seeing the milky way out there is something that somewhat changes one's perspective on size and importance of our little planet here. A humbling experience - and beautiful.
The glow of the stars above was only accented by the occasional shooting star and the glow of the predatory fish showing off their bioluminescence in the pools with white sandy bottom amidst the coral table right off the beach.
Walking in the water and shuffling one's feet added some more light to the show, with the fish close by flashing their lights out of sheer excitement. :)
What a night! Only to be followed by the next day with two very beautiful SCUBA dives and a relaxing ride home on our friends, the camels of Sheikh Salem.
Ras Abu Galum is said to be like Dahab 30 Years ago. With Dahab growing as it is, I can only hope that electric light and building will yet take some time until they spoil this refuge.

Everyone's leaving

Yes, these three were my last hope for company in the house after the
25th, when Patrick and Ben will be leaving Dahab and I'll have the house
for myself. And now that the cat-family just got a little friendlier
recently, they decided to be the first to leave after all. Ah, well,
there have been sightings of the next cat going through our bin and
maybe that new housemat will be - uh - less transitory.
Rest-of-life has been going on, though and it has been good as well.
Bill Strömberg stopped by in Dahab, so now Patrick and I are AIDA
Judges! Yay! Let's see where this new opportunity will take us. :)
I also got the chance to hover around Linda and Lotta's AIDA instructor
course and find out about some of their extensive experience in teaching
people how to dive. Some nice stories and we've even already had the
same students! :D
Now the preparation begins for being alone at home for ten days and then
leaving Egypt for almost a month. Very cool.
A new life awaits You in the off-world colonies!

Carnage at rush and a trip to Ras Mohamed

Aaah!
What a day. Triple Depth and the mini static competition afterwards (where I ranked first among the men with a new PB of 5:27, btw.) are over and the ceremony and Party at Rush was a blast! :D
My pictures of Triple Depth 08


As a treat and to get back into diving-for-fun mode, today we went on an all-day boat trip to Ras Mohamed with plenty of beautiful coral and fish, plenty of wonderful food and an early start 5:30h. But all good. Three divesessions with a total of 81 dives on the 'puter, a blue spotted stingray, a school of jacks and even an eagle ray!
Now we're back and totally knackered.
Pictures from the trip

A world record

Here is Natalia Molchanova heading for a new world record of 60m CNF - This competition is the first time that I have ever seen her in person and she seems nice enough, as well as her friends that she trains with and that coach her. One wonders why there is so little contact between the Russian freediving crowd and pretty much all the others, as far as I can see...
Congratulations to great dive, Natalia! Fresh as a daisy after a world record dive - what is to come?!?

Triple Depth

Good stuff!
Triple Depth is over and I have three new PBs and three white cards firmly tucked under my belt:
* FIM: 45m
* CWT: 51m
* CNF: 28m
And on this last day today, the lovely judge Linda even showed up like a cowgirl from an italo western. Freediving is an excellent sport.
Overall, these three days were exhausting, fun and a great experience. Three challenges I chose for myself and three times the dive was very good, even though ocasionally the odd thing would go wrong as the odd things are wont to.
Tomorrow the static event and then the great party. Heheh! Insiders expect more blackouts on the party than on three days of competition - we will see.. :friday

Greetings from the bottom of the Red Sea

Training for the competition - that's what it should look like. :)
Sitting on the Sand in the red sea, taking self portraits. What more is there in Life, really?
The last couple of days were really good. Martin and Nadia from England arrived in Dahab, Martin for an AIDA ** course, Nadia to watch her husband hold his breath for no reason at all.
We spent pretty much the whole week together, talking, eating, converting Nadia to freediverdom ;), and generally having lots of fun and enjoying each others' compeny. A lot, on my part.
Obviously, there now are plans of returning to Dahab to get more of this addictive little town, and for me to learn how to swim properly, as Martin's coaching proved very necessary - and very effective, too.
The view on the diving has shifted a little bit. Competition is not what it's about. I' will compete, but I most of all want the diving to be fun, so there can be no pressure as to how deep it gets and no comparison either. And suddenly things have become even better here as well.

Going the other way

Climbing - it's somewhat different from diving it seems. But very similar in other ways. Anyway, it's up instead of down and that is a nice break.
After some freediving training in the morning with Patrick, I went out for some climbing and a dinner in the desert with the freedive dahab people. Very nice, one must say. Haven't been on a piece of rock for Years now, so the climbing was certainly a challenge. But good in the end. Finally went through the soles of the shoes I took along to Egypt - On the first climb, hah! :D
A night in the desert has become one of the (many) things that I want to do here. The evening out there was very nice indeed.
Ah, well.
The thought of going back to Germany has entered my mind for the first time - in a dream. But (still in the dream) I decided against. :D
The problems are the same everywhere, so why not face them in a warm and sunny place? :)
See Ya!

So it's official

Sanso is staying in Egypt. I have just returned from a long trip to El
Tur to renew my visa and I am now allowed to stay longer. Officially,
the renewal would be for one Year, but the numbers these people write
into the passports seems somewhat arbitrary. My visa is valid for eleven
Months and one day - figures, right? The weird and wonderful world that
is Egypt! :D
I keep meeting people who make my life even better and my start into
this thing here easier all the time. Priceless is it to renew one's visa
with Lotta and Peter, who have been living here for so long and know the
tricks of the trade. I even got to know _the_best_ metalworker on the
Sinai!
Living in Dahab feels better every day and even training feels good. Two
PBs thanks to Anna, for coaching me to the new PB in STA and also to Ben
and Sara for buddying up and their hints, tips and tricks.
Off to celebrate now, see Ya!

The new home - at last

I have moved in with Patrick, fellow Freediving Instructor at the Desert
Divers. Jerome was moving out for some time back to france, so now the
two of us live in a nice little place in Asala. Distinguishing features:
pink taps that open the wrong way and a Grill in the front yard, where
we grilled some squid and a red snapper. This is Jerome, by the way. :)
- Safe travels!

Some underwater images

We went for some snorkeling last week, too. Here's an impression of what
there was to see. Notice the bad-ass moray eel it must have been at
least 20cm long!

Back from a holiday with Uli.

The first visitor from Home has come and gone - too soon. But it was a
great week. Sure felt like a holiday. :D

The Apnea Academy Instructor course.

What a week!
The Apnea Academy (http://www.apnea-academy.com) course was a blast! (a little) Blood, (lots of) sweat and (some) tears turned a Sanso with a crappy finning technique and a not-too-good breaststroke into an Apnea Academy Instructor! Meeting so many great people, the participants, the instructors and of course Umberto was an experience second to none. An amazing week of hard work, much learning, gaining a little bit of insight into the years of experience in diving and teaching that Umberto and the AA-family have. Many of You people out there have left a lasting impression on me and I
am looking forward to seeing You again. 

One of the most important things I can hardly believe is the luck I had with my randomly assigned roommate Giorgos. Hardly could there have been a better match for both of us to share a room (and a bed, really :) )
during this week. Giorgos and I really got along extremely well, and I have to say, that his support carried me through the rough patches of the course. I feel that apart from the experience I have also met a friend there in Sharm.

Life is good.

Moving house

Found a new room - not as nice and clean, but half the money and with
free wireless. Here's the thing. Now I even have a ceiling fan!

On popular demand

Here's the Picture of the Room - before I messed it up. :D

Where I live

This is the door to my first room for the stay here in Dahab. Pretty posh at 30 £/day (Egyptian, that is). The bike is the biggest blessing and extremely useful to have around here. Lisas stories of riding through the balkan and south from there make me want to take off for a grand tour already, but for now it's dahab and diving for me. :)
As for diving, the water is great, the new suit is perfect and the color is signature style - no-one has a suit in light olive green with bright-orange seams.
I wonder why.. :)

It is done, I am there.

Here I am. And here is all of my luggage. :)
So many things happen here, that it'll be much to write all of them
down. After taking off to MUC at 2:30 I have had but some short naps on
the plane and now it's 21:04 (Dahab time from now on).
Got the plane, all luggage arrived unharmed, the bike is reassembled and
I am SOOOOO happy I have it here!
Apart from the familiar faces at desert Divers and the different
Restaurants, The first Person I got to know is Lisa. A German, now
living in Schottland, she rode her bike here from the Netherlands. How
cool. Luck even worked better, as she will be leaving tomorrow and still
needed a box for her bike - until I had my bike put together. Just too
well that I won't be needing the box anymore now, so she's provided with
everything she needs to get her ride back home.
The chill has started to reach me, too. Hanging out a El Salaam with the
wind blowing - somewhat cooly, some music playing and free
wireless... :-)
P.S.: In case You're wondering: The first picture shows my intended breakfast at 2:30 - but I only had the coffee :)

Bike packing

Noch 'ne Herausforderung. Das Fahrrad einpacken ist ungefähr so gut wie
schon weg sein. Nach all den Paranoiageschichten, die ich beim Radhändler gehört hab, bin ich
gottfroh, dass es Kabelbinder gibt und noch mehr um das Packmaterial,
das ich da bekommen hab. Innerhalb von zwei Stunden wird aus einem
Fahrrad ein Schaumstoffumhüllter Klumpen - alles ist festgezurrt und
nicht mehr wieder zu erkennen. Wer hätte gedacht, dass das Rad zusammen
mit dem Werkzeug tatsächlich da rein passt.
Die Monoflosse hat sogar auch noch Platz gefunden und ist da jetzt
hoffentlich sicher genug.

Healing

So the flat is gone and the wounds from cleaning it out are healing as

well. Life is getting back into gear and going on.
Looking at that picture I do look kinda used these days. What a ride.
Now let's see what I can do for that bike to get it in shape for the trip.

The end of an era

It is done.
The dive centre Schiffstraße 38 in Konstanz is no more.
Mere hours ago, I dropped the keys into the landlord's mailbox.
That's it. Done and over with.
And what a load that takes off my chest. The information still has to
settle, but it's good.
So I'm cat-herding again, earning my place to stay at the H/Ds'. :D Goodie.

five, four, three, two, ...

Wuaaahh!!!

Why worry!

Why do I ever worry when there are soo many wonderful people around that just know when and how to chip in to save me. With things going wrong on all sides (which is what things do, after all) there's allways Benno, Dani, The Brownies, the H/Ds, Uli, Elvira, Jörg, Elke and Jochen, Oli, Christoph, Christophe, the girls at work and everyone else out there, creating order where there was chaos, lending cars where stuff needs to be dumped, lugging around and putting up with the stuff I don't want to dump, giving a new home to the things that need one, and most of all, being there, coming over to see me off, letting me crash in their place, listening, giving advice, ...

Fabulous friends I have indeed.

Thank You all.

Beat up and cat-herding

So I did go to the hospital to have that head looked after. Everything looking good and the thing has been taken care of.
Now I'm Toni-sitting. There she is, dozing peacefully in the background, right on the tip of my nose :^)
Back home there's still stuff to do, of course. What music to take? Still more stuff that needs to be dumped or given away. - No end.

It's a dangerous business, moving out.

Still in Konstanz, still busy cleaning out the flat and deciding what to keep and what to dump.

Today, two more trunkloads of debris were taken to the Werstoffhof (the dumpster, essentially) and one of them struck back! Check out papuga's Blog to see how a piece of trash-to-be can still get You a nice lump and probably a scar on the head. Maybe I'll have a scar to remember this exodus. :)

Also, I decided to take the bike with me. That's what I built it for after all, so it might just as well come along for the ride. More stuff to think of now: What parts to take? What's still to be repaired, looked after before leaving? Etc. ...

As for diving? Umberto confirmed my spot for the Apnea Academy Instructors couse in May, so here's the first challenge in Egypt. Will I actually make it through the course? Whooaaaa!!

So how does it feel, leaving (almost) everything behind? It's cleansing and scary as well as a challenge. It brings back lots of memories of things that have happened here, people I have met and pieces of me that I will leave here, whatever I do.

Essentially it's good, I guess. Time will tell.

The date is set.

Got the ticket. Ticket, singular, mind You, a one-way ticket to SSH on April 28th.
Cool. Scary. Thing.

As for diving, well, there was the divemeet last weekend. Very nice! Some of my best friends there, a cool Yoga seminar on Saturday, led by Andreas. Then Saturday night with my friends and very nice Sunday morning diving. And now for another week at work. A short one, with Easter coming up. Just have to decide what to do with the long weekend.

Preparation galore!

Well, here it goes. The blog on Sanso's trip out into the world.

Much of the preparation, like health insurance and visa, has proven easier than expected but - as if to make up for that - I found that I'm not as uprooted as I expected. There are a lot of people around here that I'm going to miss quite a bit. And even though there are things like H323, Jabber and all that, it sometimes feels like a very big step to just boil down my belongings into a couple of boxes, a backpack and a divebag, say farewell to everyone and head out there.

At least by now the first leg of the journey is fairly well defined. Some time in the first week(s?) of May, I'll be heading to Dahab, probably for the duration of this year's freediving season there. After that? Currently I'm thinking of travelling, but a lot of things will have happened by then, lots of entropy and glitches in time and space.

Let's see what this turns out to be.