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.