We are happy to announce that our ambassador, Mateusz Malina has set another world record, during the 2019 CMAS Freediving Indoor European Championship that was held in Istanbul, Turkey. In the competition dynamics in the fins (DYN), the Pole reached a distance of 316 meters.

Mateusz Malina is one of the most decorated DYN divers in the world. After three days of the tournament, he won three medals in all colors. On the first day in the competition without fins - DNF, he won silver. He expected it to be a winning distance, but during the last competition, Frenchman Guillaume Bourdil set a new world record and won the gold medal with a fantastic performance. On the second day of the championships, he won a bronze medal in statics (STA). On the last day of the tournament, it was time for the DYN category, which gave Matt a gold medal and a new world record.

As he says about his record in DYN:

“I couldn’t dream about this result many years ago but hard work, dedication, countless sacrifices, constantly digging into and questioning current methods of training, lots and lots of patience, infinite curiousness of discovering human body limits made this dream become a reality. This is not the end of the road. This is just the beginning of new era in pool freediving. Dive safe and enjoy the blue. Now the depth season starts for me!”

And if you've ever wondered what a diver thinks during a dive, you can find out by watching the video below:

 

 

Last modified on Sunday, 14 July 2019

Matt Malina surprises us with each and every tournament he takes part in. At the end of June the Individual AIDA Pool World Championships took place in Belgrade, Serbia.

Matt defended his DNF World Champion title and won a medal in each discipline he took part in – as the only competitor!

In his best discipline, the DNF (no-fin dynamics) he placed 1st and defended his World Title, diving 226m on June 28th, 2018 which is unofficial World Record in an Olympic pool (50 m long). It’s worth mentioning that this was his 3rd time in a row winning this discipline!

In DYN (dynamics with a monofin) Matt says he “got lucky” and won a bronze medal diving 203m. The last start of the tournament was the STA (static holding breath underwater) discipline, where Matt also won the bronze medal AND a National Record of 8 minutes 46 seconds!

The tournament lasted 6 days day-after-day, without a break, which really took a toll on the participant’s bodies. Matt says:

It was a tiresome time, but now that it’s over I can say I’m very proud of myself. In the general classification (all points) I lost after a tough fight with Goran Colak by 0,8 point (which is 4 seconds). It’s not the goal, but the road to it that counts. These kind of tournaments have their own dynamics, their ups and downs and I got to experience the full spectrum! :)
During those 6 days I had one hard day, when the tiredness caught up with me as well as the pressure, which resulted in me giving up on my dive too early – during the DYN finals after turning at 200m I was feeling like 250m during training – I couldn’t fight it, my body wouldn’t listen.

What’s important, every tournament start is a lesson for future dives, there are no failures. After all, you can’t win everything.

As usual a huge support was Matt’s wife Aleksandra, who he claims to be responsible for half of his successes! :)

This time, the tournament was joined by Matt’s training partners Karol Karcz and Michał Dąbrowski, and the support of the “Limitless Team” was visible throughout the whole tournament.

Matt would like to thank everyone who supported him during his preparations as well as during the tournament and is proud to be able to represent his home country Poland on the international level with many great athletes!

Last modified on Thursday, 05 July 2018

The Individual AIDA Pool World Championships took place at the end of June 2018 and Magdalena Solich-Talanda was killing it! The strongest current female freediver proved herself again!

Magda defended her DNF (no fins dynamics) World Title with a dive of 178m on June 28th, 2018 and won gold in DYN (dynamics with monofin) with a 243m dive, while establishing a new World Record on June 29th, 2018. The previous record was set by the late Natalia Molchanova, the best freediver of the current times, which really sets in perspective Magda’s achievement!

Magda is true to the saying that dreams are MADE true and she says:

Some of my dreams I have already made true, some are still a work-in-progress. But behind every success are people and companies, without whom all of this wouldn’t be possible.”

She then proceeded to thank her sponsors, trainers, training partners and the fans.

Stay tuned for the future!

 

Last modified on Thursday, 05 July 2018

The Story

I am a teacher of physical education by profession and passion, specializing in the correction of postural defects in children. I am a swimming trainer and I’m teaching children how to swim and improve their swimming techniques.
Since childhood, I was active in sports and my older brothers instilled in me the love for volleyball. In high school swimming classes gave me so much joy that soon I became a lifeguard. I knew it was too late for me to start a swimming career, but why not become a pro freediver?

How it all began

In all honesty, I met freediving much later in life then high school. During my last year of studies I worked at one of the swimming pools in Katowice, where I met a girl doing freediving. She was training for the Polish Championships and I told her, "If you become the Polish Champion, then I must also start training." It happened and I kept my promise!

First steps

One year later (2015) I competed in the Pool World Championships in Belgrade and placed 3^rd in DNF (146m). Next season I worked hard with two of my coaches: Ryszard Szwajcer from the Edensport Diving Center and Mateusz Talada (privately my  husband) and the results exceeded all expectations! TWO World Champion titles, five national records, including one new world record.

What’s next?

Someone might ask what is more to wish for? My answers are: becoming better each day, learning perseverance, overcoming your own weaknesses, proving to people and, above all, to myself that there are no limits.

A passion in sports creates beautiful memories, lots of endorphins, but at the same time also teaches you how to stay humble, how to deal with losses and how to get up afterwards.

I'm going to the top and I'm not surprised that the road is going uphill.

Season 2018

I have been preparing for the last two years for the highest-ranking swimming freediving competition: the Individual AIDA World Championships. This year they will take place at the end of June in Belgrade, Serbia.

During the last few months I participated in two local competitions in Poland as a test run. During one of the starts I dived 200 meters without fins (DNF) and this is better than the current world record by 9m!

In Belgrade I will participate in two competitions: Dynamic apnea with fins (DYN) and Dynamic apnea without fins (DNF).

20 more days to go! Keep your fingers crossed!

Last modified on Thursday, 24 May 2018

The freediving season is slowly starting and the best freedivers in the world are warming up for the upcoming world championship competition.

Matt Malina, Grena® sponsored athlete started out strong with breaking yet another of his records!

Fazza Championships 2018 in Dubai

An early spring competition is the Fazza Championships, which is being held annually in Dubai, UAE to commemorate the country’s ancestors. This year it took place on 23 – 24 March, 2018.

2015 was Matt’s first attempt at the competition  and fromt here he slowly started to adjust his training to suit the rules of the to the competition – very different than the AIDA. To put it simply, it’s a competition in static breath-hold, holding on to a rope without any equipment.

When asked, what motivates him in his journey as a freediver and athlete, Matt always says it’s to surpass his own limits. During this competition, he proved himself right and surpassed his limits with a dive of 10 min and 4 seconds and taking 2nd place in the competition.

First place took the amazing Goran Colak, with incredible 11 minutes 6 seconds and 3rd to Veljano Zanki with 9 min 21 seconds. There was also a 4th person in a party, Branko Petrovic with ~10 minutes 10 seconds but was disqualified due to blackout.

Preparing for Fazza involved a lot of fasting and caloric restriction. Matt started at the Fazza competition weighting 72 kg, which is 14kg (!) less then when he was in his top dynamics shape while setting world records in world championships in 2016. That is a huge change in the body and how it works under water.

About the dive, Matt says:

“The attempt was enjoyable and kind of easy compared to my last year performance. I was pretty surprised. I did my maximum for that day, so I can’t complain about the end result. However I’ve made some mistakes during training phase. I’m already looking forward for next year training.”

All of this wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of Matt’s wife – Ola, who supported him during the preparations, often sacrificing a lot of time to help Matt train. Not without an importance was the help of Matt’s training partners Karol Karcz and Michal Dabrowski!

Matt also adds:

“I would like to thank my official sponsor Grena LTD for their continuous support!”

We are happy to support you, Matt! And wish you great success in the coming season!

Next stop:

Matt’s next competition will be on home turf in Jaworzno, Poland on May 12th and in the Czech Republic the following week. The next Championship competition will be in less than 3 months at the AIDA Individual Pool World Championships. The event will be held from June 23 to July 1, 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Bonus: Matt talks at an TEDx event

Matt will talk at a local TEDxWSB event in Wroclaw, Poland on Tuesday, pril 24th at 10:20 AM about Freediving and how to manage your emotions. The talk will be in Polish, but let’s hope for some English subtitles coming soon!
You can watch the stream here: https://www.facebook.com/WSBwroclaw/

Last modified on Monday, 23 April 2018