Everything has started last year after Belgrade. Everything happens for a reason! My motivation and will is unbreakable. As many times as I fail as many times I will stand up and face the challenge! On Sunday I’ve finally reached my goal. I can’t express how happy I am. I know that nothing lasts forever and someday someone will break that record...However it’s very important to me mentally, because for me it confirms that my methods of training, approach, knowledge, are all heading into the right direction.

After reaching middle point of 213m in June I decided to give it another go by the end of the year. On July 22nd, I’ve emailed Roman Ondruj saying “Let’s do it”. I can’t express how thankful I am to him for taking care of the organization and believing in me. Same goes to my general sponsor Grena LTD, because without their support it would be much, much harder or even impossible for me to afford all the training and trips. Training facility provided to me by 35 Wojskowy Oddział Gospodarczy also played a big role here.

Now back to the dive,

On Saturday morning, it was my first attempt and I’ve given up at 175m. The dive felt really good and I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t find motivation to push (I think it was just too easy up to 175), I was focusing on distance/goal too much (instead of just trying to do my best), it overwhelmed me and I gave up. On Sunday it was a similar dive, same thoughts and doubts but at 175m I thought that all the hard work will go to nothing, I will regret it like in Belgrade last year. Dealing with those thoughts got me to 200m, I’ve turned and then I knew that I will just swim to the next wall and turn.

When I look at it, there is so many things I can improve (technique, buoyancy, turns), but my problem was mental, not physical thus I was not worrying about it too much, there will be the time when it will be efficient to deal with it.

Most important part is, that this point used to be the wall, but not anymore, limits got moved once again in my head and I really look forward to improve in future!

P.S. on the video You can see me happy two times. Before receiving white card and after it…The part before judge decision is more internal. I was being happy from overcoming my own barriers and challenges (it didn’t matter what will be the verdict cause I was feeling already like a winner inside)… and being happy after receiving white card was being happy from breaking the World Record…So it’s like 2 separate records for me :)

Dive safe and enjoy the blue!

The Dive on youtube!

 

 

 

 

Last modified on Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Flash NEWS!

During Brno Freediving Competition I have just reached 226m in DNF which is a new WORLD RECORD!! 

Thanks Grena LTD and all other people for the support!

Roman Ondruj for organising this event!

More news and info once I get back home :)

Last modified on Wednesday, 25 February 2015

As the World Cup qualifications are only days away, I concentrate fully on my training and hope my hard work through summer will pay off!

I'll give you a short report on what it's like to train for the World Cup qualifications!

In September I reduced my bike-training hours to trainings in the gym and on ice. I went with the Polish team to Spała (Poland) - where we did a lot of strenght training and were working ourselves into THE best shape for the coming winter season.

We spent the rest of the month in Berlin and Inzell, Germany, where the training was fully concentrated on the ice-skating practice.

I also had an opportunity to take part in the efficiency research examination done by the Sports Institute in Warsaw. The results are not in yet, but I'm really curious about them!

Luckily, I also got to spend a few days at home beetween training, so I could relax in the mountains and play with my dog - he's really young yet, so he likes to do puppy-things like biting everything into pieces - but either way, I miss him when I'm not home.

In the next days I'm going to have my first test-starts for the World Cup qualifications...

The real deal starts now!! Wish me luck!

Last modified on Thursday, 13 November 2014

Last week I was invited to speak at the Polish Diving Conference in Zakrzówek, Cracow on September 27th, 2014.

I really appreciated the invitation and prepared a half-hour long presentation about the training of body and mind in freediving.

As an introduction I arranged a screening of the documentary movie " On the other side of the mirror" by Michał Braum and the ImagePro studio. This documentary features my adventure with freediving and if you haven't seen it yet, here's a link to see it. 

As a side note, the movie was chosen for the Seattle Polish Film Festival, that is being held in October 10 - 19th, 2014 in Seattle, USA. The movie will be shown on October 15th, 2014.

It warms my heart to hear such news and to see that our hard work - mine at training, and Michał's at filmmaking - is recognized globally. I hope people will learn more about freediving and won't be as scared or prejudiced against this sport as it often happens now.

Coming back to the Congress. It was great to meet my friends and fellow Polish divers to share experiences and plans for the future. The event at the Zakrzówek Diving Base was also a great feast for all diving fans with stalls of diving equipment sellers. They provided everything for adults as well as kids!

If you were present at my speech, I hope you've learned something new or at least confirmed your already existing knowledge.

That's all for today, thanks for reading and don't be shy to visit my Facebook profile and to comment! You'll be hearing from me soon!

Last modified on Tuesday, 14 October 2014

On the 31st of August 2014 I participated in the 19. Race around the Tatras, which is a demanding track around the highest Polish mountains and goes also through the Slovak territory.

Near 100 participants of various skill level had gathered at the starting line in Nowy Targ, Poland - so as the race started it was visible that various groups are being formed. 

I started out determined with the first group of around 15 riders. We rode together until the 120 km, when 4 riders (me included) started going faster uphill in Strbske Pleso, Slovakia. We were going like this to around the 200km, but on a small hill in Białka Tatrzańska I decided to go a bit faster and arrived alone on the finish line with the time 05:45:00.

At the finish line I was told that I set a new record for this track: 202 km in 05:45:00 which is 13 minutes faster than the former record. I was really surprised! :)

It was not an easy track, but the satisfaction of finishing 202km in under 6 hours was soothing the fatigue ;)

After the race everyone got a warm meal and we could exchange our opinions on the race. 

It was a great adventure for me and I'm grateful to my general sponsor Grena Ltd. because without the bike they made available for me, I couldn't have made such a progress during the past months!

This was my first start in this Race and I'm sure you will see me there again! :)

Last modified on Monday, 08 September 2014