{"id":2519,"date":"2012-12-28T19:31:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-29T02:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2012-12-28T21:55:03","modified_gmt":"2012-12-29T04:55:03","slug":"surprise-apnea-with-hanli-prinsloo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/2012\/12\/surprise-apnea-with-hanli-prinsloo\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise Apnea with Hanli Prinsloo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"diveclass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of November, I spotted this article in Surfing Magazine: http:\/\/www.surfingmagazine.com\/blogs\/surprise-apnea-for-surfers\/#.ULeAVgSxckI.twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

This article got me thinking. I’ve spent the last year struggling with my surfing, mostly struggling with fear. I took a few pretty good beatings last winter. One where my ears ached, where all I could see was dark water. One where I gasped at the surface only to suck in foam. More than one where I felt lucky to be all right. <\/p>\n

I’m not sure if it was the size of the wave, the character of the break, or the fact that I was being drug through the wash by my longboard, but it felt like an eternity under water. <\/p>\n

I don’t have the most confidence in my lungs. I’ve had asthma on and off. I get barking coughs with the slightest colds. Having my lungs tested by brute force was a bit terrifying. Sure, I made it through the hold downs from last winter, but part of me wonders if I could make it through the next. That part of me pulls out of waves I should have made. That part of me sits too far outside for my little board. That part of me is frustrating the heck out of the rest of me.<\/p>\n

This class seemed like exactly what I needed. <\/p>\n

There are much better articles about what you’ll learn from Hanli’s<\/a> class, including this one by Cynthia.<\/a> I’ll spare you the lecture (it’s better first hand anyway) and summarize what I learned instead.<\/p>\n

Hanli teaches you an amazing amount about what your body does to survive under water. She focuses on yoga, relaxation, the mechanics of the dive reflect, and some swimming intervals. I highly recommend reading up on it and catching her class if you can. <\/p>\n

From this class I learned I have a much greater capacity to hold my breath under water than I thought. I managed to go two minutes before I started having diaphragm contractions (the first hurdle one much get over in holding their breath.) <\/p>\n

My first attempt was cut short by my typical roadblock: the mind game. I went through the breathing exercises. I waited fro Hanli’s go ahead, then took a big breath, belly, chest, and shoulders. I flipped over and waited. Maybe a minute or less, I started feeling like I had to swallow. Crap. There’s no good way to swallow in a dive mask. Now I’m thinking about swallowing. I’m thinking about how I’m laying face down in a pool. I’m wondering how long it’s been. I’m distracted and I’ve already started to fret. I gave up. I didn’t even get the time from Hanli. Shoot. <\/p>\n

My second attempt I worked much harder on the mental aspect of it. I watched the seabirds fly overhead while doing my breathing exercises and tried to keep that image in mind while floating face down. This attempt went much better. Again, I didn’t get a time, Hanli said later it was about 2 and a half. Wile it may have been closer to 2:20 and certainly the shortest out of the whole class, it’s sill much longer than I’ve been able to hold my breath (while counting, who knows how long I was down on some of those waves.)<\/p>\n

The interval training kicked my butt, I should probably start lap swimming, but overall I left the course with greater confidence. I now know that if I can stay calm I can last about two minutes. Hopefully I won’t have to. <\/p>\n

Even with the class, I’m still struggling with fear. Even telling myself it’s going to be okay, I’m still feeling like there’s a big bubble of air in my gut and I can’t breathe. I’ll take some work. Hanli sent us homework to do to keep in breath-holding shape and I’m hoping to keep practicing the yoga exercises. <\/p>\n

The greatest challenge will be the head game. Still, it’s nice to know I’ve got a little lung power on my side. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of November, I spotted this article in Surfing Magazine: http:\/\/www.surfingmagazine.com\/blogs\/surprise-apnea-for-surfers\/#.ULeAVgSxckI.twitter This article got me thinking. I’ve spent the last year struggling with my surfing, mostly struggling with fear. I took a few pretty good beatings last winter. One where my ears ached, where all I could see was dark water. One where … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Surprise Apnea with Hanli Prinsloo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[28],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YKrJ-ED","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2523,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions\/2523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}