On the first of November, after a "slightly" larger organizational process, we finally flew to Egypt to the FreedivingWorld center in Sharm el Sheikh for a traditional training event called ATC - Apneaman Training Camp. This event is intended for all levels, provided that you have completed at least a basic freediving course. This time we were affected by the current situation, so there were only 14 students and three instructors. When we consider this year's travel complications, it is a miracle that we arrived in Sharm as a relatively big group!

The level of our students was quite diverse, ranging from beginners to very experienced recreational freedivers. Everyone was looking forward to the sea and had a huge appetite and motivation to learn and overcome their own limits. The stage had a very high level overall and many PB’s were constantly being achieved. The course is based on a comprehensive approach and respects the individual pace of each participant. Even though we were by the sea and the water had amazing 28 ° C, we spent quite a lot of time breathing, stretching, doing mental training, statics and dynamics in a 25-meter pool, riding the sled to practice deeper relaxation and equalization… and then of course „group-individual“ analyzes of everything said above. At times, some students thought they were tired and that the program was too busy, but as they say, appearances often deceive! Day after day, they learned new things and gradually increased their performances until the end of the course.

As a nice bonus, we had the opportunity to participate in a mini AIDA competition, which was organized because of an attempt at a world record in CWT (constant weight) by Slovenian multiple world record holder Alenka Artnik. Some students took advantage of this unique opportunity to make a dive in real competition conditions and some just enjoyed watching Alenka, as she elegantly and gracefully dived to amazing -114m! It was a pleasure to watch such a performance! In addition to me and my daughter Jindřiška, five of our students competed for our team. Even though everyone said that it was significantly more difficult to do deeper dive in competition conditions,, all our athletes did really well! Judge for yourself ... competition starter Irča Váňová FIM -44m! (Irča was with us on her first course on open water!), Vít Kubička FIM -42m, Standa Černý -48m, Víťa Veselý CWT -50m and FIM -55m and finally Matti Eronen made a new Finnish national record in CWTB (constant bifins) -62m! Congratulations to all those who took part in the competition and we also welcome you as new members of the Czech freediving association AIDA!

We are always very happy when our students thrive and improve their performance and self-confidence. However, it is not about the performance itself, but mainly about mastering everything essential for performance - mastering the process! This also includes the joy of being and doing. The performance will then come, and with a little training, it is under full control! We call it „conscious freediving“. We teach this to our students, friends and athletes. So how did we do during those few days? I will choose the most valuable performances:

Irča Váňová: STA 5:13, DYNB 108m, CWT -38m, FIM -44m, NLT -46m

Matti Eronen: STA 5:16, CWT -62m, FIM -48m, NLT -61m

Standa Černý: DYNB 80m, CWT -40m, FIM -48m, NLT -66m

Víťa Veselý: STA 6:02, CWT -50m, FIM -55m, NLT -60m

Kaťa Volova: STA 3:54, DYNB 100m, CWT -19m, FIM -23m

Aleksei Barulin: STA 5:43, DYNB 120m, CWT -24m, FIM -30m

Vít Kubička: STA 4:51, DYN 75m, CWT -38m, FIM -42m

Lucka Bastlova: STA 5:09, CWT -28m, FIM -20m, NLT -38m

Patrik Štajer: STA 7:28, NLT -71m

David Netušil also participated in the course and I must express my admiration and appreciation that he completed all this with us, that he went into everything despite his health, resp. movement, handicap. Cudos!

Friends, what to add? It was a great event! We really enjoyed it with you. Once again, many congratulations to the achieved performances, to the well-deserved certifications, and especially to the new experiences and skills in the approach to conscious freediving!

Many thanks to our great instructors Jindřiška and Morf for the perfect work and also to the whole FreedivingWorld team for the support and organization of Blue Week!

We look forward to seeing you at the next Blue Week in Sharm at the end of April 2021!

Have a nice day everyone

Martin