My 2020 training season has started already! And I think it would be difficult to feel more energy and enthusiasm to get stuck in like how I feel at the moment. 2019 was kind of a transitional year in many ways, from a freediving and training perspective I felt a little uprooted. Since the end of 2015 most of my diving, and certainly all of my training was done in Long Island, in “the” Blue hole.
At around August 2018 I was forced to make the decision to leave my favourite playground and find another base, the main reason? Money.
As anyone who has visited the Bahamas knows, it is no budget location, those of us who have competed or been involved in Vertical Blue certainly know the cost. I was however, fortunate to be semi permanently based there, and so I was teaching and earning, but unfortunately outside of the main Island events, Long Island doesn’t see a huge influx of tourism, yet. So even while living and earning on the Island I still couldn’t make it work, and after deliberating for a while I finally decided to leave my most loved location to dive and train.
Diving in near perfect conditions for the majority of the time, with a 25m training pool and zero distractions was always going to be a tough act to follow, but I set out to think of where I could go to get the same level of high quality training. I thought about Europe first, maybe Tenerife, maybe Malta, maybe I could live in the UK and fly out to Egypt for depth stints. Tenerife came the closest, it’s the only European location which can allow all year round diving, along with access to so many amazing pools due it being a primary triathlete destination, and the Island is stunning!
It has so many other things to do, with world class climbing crags (Climbing picture) all over the Island along with surfing in the south, and of course amazing food with all the convenience of a well run European country.
I would say Tenerife is not off the list by any means, and I may head there this year for a training stint on the way to the Caribbean. But at the end of 2018 I had a call off my friend Adam Stern to assist in his first Philippines Deep Week, and so I decided to check that side of the world before making a decision.
Deep Week was being run in Coron, which was quickly crossed off the list. Barracuda lake is an epic place to dive, but it’s just not deep enough, and the surrounding Ocean has the same issue. The Lake has about 40-50m of depth, and is the first place I have ever dived that is actually too hot to train in, with a surface temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and a thermocline increasing to 40 degrees at 40m, it’s not the best for our best friend the dive reflex to work effectively. But after finishing Deep Week we set off to Panglao, this was already at the end of November and so I had already decided I would spend Christmas and New years there.
When I first arrived in Panglao I didn’t think immediately that it was my new training base, if I’m honest it was pretty busy for my liking, but I had to be realistic, I had just moved from a deserted tropical Island in the Caribbean, so literally everywhere was going to be busy compared to Long Island, so I persevered. One of the pluses I quickly noticed was the abundance of training pools available, on the Island of Panglao alone there are about 4 or 5 25m pools. Then in Tagbilaran, which is on the main Island of Bohol, only 25 mins drive away from Panglao, there’s a really nice 50m pool. So pools were available, one box ticked. Then there was the cheap fresh fruit and veg available, the pineapples and mangoes are insane and abundant, but the one fruit that is a game changer is durian, which only a hand full of countries in the world actually grow and harvest.
Along with the abundant fruit and veg, in Tagbilaran there are about 3 big super markets where you can buy almost everything you need, this was a refreshing change compared to the scant grocery options on Long Island, so this was a big big plus, no more Miami supply runs.
The main question that still needed answering was the diving. Around December/ January I wasn’t really deep diving anyway, so I just set about to begin my base training in the pool. But I did begin depth training slowly, beginning with some shore dives on fixed moorings. Now I wouldn’t say it was bad by any means, and I would have continued with shore dives while limiting my depths to sub maximals. But while I was still shore diving I was still unsure about making it my next base, until I started diving with Freedive Panglao that is.
FP run drift dive sessions, this basically means that when diving off a buoy we drift at roughly the same speed as the current, and so the current isn’t really noticeable most of the time compared to diving of fixed moorings, in fact I began my freediving with drift dives with Freedive Gili, so there was a sense of familiarity and nostalgia. So as soon as I started diving with Freedive Panglao I quickly fell into a groove, I was diving most of the time with Alenka Artnik, who is an absolutely wonderful dive partner,the same goes for Stefan Randig, and the Freedive Panglao team are an awesome bunch.
Once we started diving on the calmer side of the Island in May, I knew then that Panglao was my base. With about 9 out of 10 dive days that are deep divable, and so many days of amazing surface conditions. Along with being based right in Asia, with easy access to neighbouring countries, it really does tick most of the boxes when it comes to choosing a deep dive location. It’s kind of obvious actually, with the highest concentration of freediving schools in the world, over 10 the last time I counted, it is fast becoming the primary hub of freediving in Asia. And with a brand new international airport finished last year it is only going to get busier. Personally I would be happy with it being a little less busy, but we can’t have everything. So for now, this is where I train.
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