In September 2016, at the Brno MiniComp in Czech, Matt Malina attempted to break the current record in Bi-Fin dynamics. 

First of all, some background info. Matt usually competes in competitions defined by AIDA rules - one of the biggest freediving organizations. 

The bi-fin dynamics discipline is not officially recognized by AIDA, but it is by CMAS and Pure Apnea (other organizations and other conditions). The competition (Brno Minicomp 2016) was organized on AIDA/Pure Apnea standards, thus this record is official by Pure Apnea standards and unofficial (not recognized) by CMAS. 

There are 3 different techniques for swimming with bi-find, and Matt went with the one which proved to be the most effective for him, the "hands above the head and dolphin kick".

With having 4 (yes, four!) training sessions with bi-fins behind him, Matt attempted to break the current World Record, which was at 226,5 m, done by Andrea Vitturini (ITA) during CMAS 9th Indoor World Championships. 

As Matt says about the results:

"I came up crystal clean at 231 meters and got 2 meters off my performance because of turning below the step. I knew it will happen but decided to not care about it during the dive. Relaxation is the key and I was focusing on that. I think with flat pool, fully optimized and pushing to my maximum, 250 + should be very well possible, but lets keep something for the future."

We will definitely look forward to this kind of future!

 

You can read Matt's full relation here.

Last modified on Monday, 12 December 2016

Matt participated in the AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 and surprised everyone with breaking record after record!

The competition took place on 25th June - 3rd July 2016 in Turku, Finland.

Matt broke three world records during this competition - one during the eliminations and two in the finals.

The current official record stands as follows:

DYN 300m WR 3rd of July 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 - current World Record

DNF 244m WR 2nd of July 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 - current World Record

DNF 232m WR 28th of June 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016

Below you can read Matt's thoughts in an emotional post made right after the competition on July 4th, 2016:

My dream came true, I've become double World Champion (DNF&DYN) with World Records set in the same swims :)

You may not believe but literally after yesterday’s 300 [m] I was in constant movement and only now after getting back home I have a couple of minutes to write few words about World Championships in Turku. There is a lot to write about which I will do at some point. I'm full of emotions but this picture of Daan Verhoeven describes it all.

I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY.

I have broken 3 World Records in 2 disciplines, 232m in DNF qualifications, improving it in finals by another 12m up to 244m. To me it is a history, it’s a record that lasted 6 years and no-one thought it will be beaten any time soon, at least not until last month :) It means to me so much more than that 300m but it’s less admirable by people because it’s not a round number :) I still can’t believe that I have improved it by 12m and there was much more in tank.

I’ve calculated a few months ago that I should be capable of doing 252m on a perfect day, based on my speed, stroke count etc. but even that number is wrong. Numbers are wrong, it’s all wrong because it’s Limitless. Numbers are in our heads and on this championship I’ve focused on making good dives with good feelings, keeping thinking about numbers just for last part of dives as a motivational tool. I must say it worked wonders for me! I came to Turku to defend my DNF title, DYN was the 2nd priority because I knew there will be no rest after DNF finals and there are athletes strictly focusing on DNF or DYN only during this championships. On the other hand, I knew that if I can do around 250 DNF, 300m DYN shouldn’t be a problem even without rest so let’s try to swim and see how it goes. I did it, I have swum 300m and became World Champion in DYN, splitting the record with Georgios Panagiotakis but I got the gold because my announcement was higher (it was closer to actually reached distance by 1m). 

 

You can read an in-depth interview with the World Champ here: https://www.deeperblue.com/interview-mateusz-matt-malina/

[The record-breaking 300m dive on YouTube]

Matt also started writing his blog in Polish, so if you're a Polish-speaking fan, we encourage you to read his blog here: http://mattmalina.com/

You can find some English posts there, too.

Stay tuned for more info from the Champ!

Photo courtesy of: Daan Verhoeven

 

Last modified on Thursday, 10 November 2016

Today I have finally some time to write-up about the events that took place over the last weekend!

[VIDEO OF A WORLD RECORD SWIM IS BELOW]

Polish pool championships was a triple win for me. I have improved the AIDA World Record in dynamic with fins by 4m up to 285m, I have become the Polish Champion and I have achieved the highest ever combined score of 327,5 points with world record dynamic, 8:00 static and 178 no fins dive in less than 24h.

Organizing the dive and finding a certified AIDA judge

Four weeks ago when I’ve swam 258m dynamics with fin in a short pool, I’ve decided that it’s possible to achieve world record even before Worlds in Turku. I thought it would be a shame if I do it and there is no judge to ratify it. I’ve contacted very friendly organizer, Lucyna Kicińska (she is an angel of Polish freediving organization!) and she said they will try their best to bring one, few days later I got confirmation that Petar Bojovic is coming. That’s the moment when things got serious because there was no way back :) Soon I realized that I actually haven’t swam dynamic in a 50m pool since Belgrade 2015. 

Looking for a 50m pool to train before the dive

Over the next two weekends after my decision to try for a record, I’ve travelled to Jaworzno which has a 50 m pool. Being used to train and perform in the morning, I found out that in the afternoon I have a harder time to perform good. The pool had uncomfortable steps at the bottom, it was very hot (32-34 air temperature) and high humidity. I was sweating just by sitting in a wetsuit and my heartbeat was high. Actually it was much harder to achieve same results as in the 25m pool I usually train at.

Test dives in the championships pool in Lublin

So my morale wasn’t high and I was giving myself 25-30% chances to succeed. I was afraid of the pool in Lublin because it has a step in the middle where the bottom starts to gradually fall from 2,5m to 3,9m. However, when I first tried to swim in there on Wednesday evening, all the fear went away. I was feeling such freedom underwater like I have never felt during dynamic with fins swim.

The pool is huge, air temperature inside is just perfect and there is not too much humidity. It’s just perfect to set records in there. Now when I think about the other 50m pool I realize that I was just feeling claustrophobic in there with hitting the bottom constantly with my knees every time I’ve encountered a step at the bottom.

The DYN World Record Dive

Below You can all watch video of my World Record performance. From 225m my legs start failing, but it didn’t stop me from swimming another 60m with hybrid DYN/DNF technique. After all I’m a no fins guy who tries to find his place in the monofin division :) It’s weird though because normally I don’t get to a point of total leg-muscle failure.

Remember to always make an emotional connection with Your goal and let nothing stop You! Well at least if You perform pool disciplines, because that philosophy doesn’t work at all in depth ones!

Thank you for your support!

Last but not least I would like to thank everyone for their support! Especially to my beloved Ola, she is always there for me, supporting me, coaching me, none of this success would be possible without her, we are a true dream team :) Thanks to my official sponsor, Grena LTD who supported me in a hard moment of my career two years ago, thanks to the organizers of the Polish Pool Championships, especially Lucyna Kicińska, to Samo Jeranko, who helped me with choosing the right fin #zolotov #goldfin, to Karol Karcz, Michał Dąbrowski and Marcin Pałkus for training with me, my parents who always support me and many, many others!

 

285m Dynamic with Fins World Record Mateusz Malina

 

The Polish Pool Championships took place from May 27-29th, 2016 in Lublin, Poland at the Olympic-sized 50m Aqua Lublin pool.

You can view the overall standings here: MEN and WOMEN (courtesy of: Stowarzyszenie Freediving Polska Facebook page) 

We chose some of the most interesting pictures for our website gallery, please visit it here.

You can also view more than 300 pictures by Patrycja Radiowska-Polak from the whole event on Facebook here. 

 

Last modified on Tuesday, 31 May 2016

The speed skating 2015/16 season is already over and even though I was not writing much on my blog, I was training hard and from my point of view the season ended on a good note.

You can read about my changing teams in my last blog post: The road to new opportunities

2015/16 World Cup races

I was able to train with the best athletes in the Czech National Team and got to better my avarage time compared to last year by 15 seconds!

At the end of January 2016 I was put to competition in Norway in the World Cup in two races: 1500m and 5000m.

I'm especially proud of my achievement on the second competition day when I was competing in the 5000m race and finished with my season's best time 6:31:48 and placed 6th in the B group, which was 19th in the World Cup qualifications.

I also had a chance to start against my former teammates and I'm glad to see my improvement as I finished ahead of 4 of them. It means for me that I made the right choice to pursue my athletic career in a different team! In Norway I had to start twice alone in the first pair, because this was my first start of the season and I couldn't be paired up with anyone. I think this had a bit of an impact on my time result, because the starting position always influences how fast you race.

Overall this was a good experience for me, I proved my abilities to my new team and trainer and have gathered enough points to compete in next season's World Cup! 

I'm eagerly looking forward to it, maybe I'll even make the Olympic Team in 2018?

Training preparations

My training does not consist of only training at the ice-rink and ice-skating. :)

As a speed skater you need to work hard to keep in shape off-season and it demands a bit of flexibility in how to use the available facilities. Everyone involved in winter-specific sports is aware of the hardships of training off-season and preparing for the winter season without really being able to train their own winter disciplines.

This year during some snowy days I went out into the mountains to do some ski mountaineering, which I tried out last year and have enjoyed ever since! 

Another great activity to shape your skills off-season is to ride a bike. I usually travel to the southern European countries, where the winter is not as cold as in Poland.

In my 114 active days in 2015 I rode a total of 248 hours and 7,112 km! It wouldn't be possible without my sponsor Grena providing me with a top-notch bike to do all these kilometers! I enjoy the bike training a lot, so that's where my main focus will be in preparation for the next season in 2016!

Just a few days I participated in the official Polish cycling season opening - the "Ślęzański Mnich" race. You can read more about the race here. I won my starting category of amateurs and finished the 54 km race with a time of 01:19:43!

Last modified on Tuesday, 05 April 2016

On the beginning of March I flew down to Dubai, UAE to take part in the Fazza Championships.

This was my second time competing in these Championships.

The rules are a bit different than the usual AIDA rules, so last year I tried taking part to test myself in this new environment. You can read about my last years’ attempt here.

The competition took place on March 3 - 5th, 2016 in Dubai, UAE. The Fazza Freediving Championships are meant to remember the ancestors of the Persian Gulf inhabitants, who were diving to collect pearls.

This year around 200 freedivers arrived and the athletes competed in a deep pool, where you should go underwater and hold your breath. This kind of static is totally different than the one usually performed in AIDA competitions, because you still need to surface from a few meters after you hold your breath for the maximum amount of time.

This year I knew what expect, so I was definitely better prepared than last year, which was visible in my result: I set a new personal best record and finished the dive with an official result of 08:29 minutes.

A real success for me is knowing that I did what I was prepared for. It's nice to get a medal, but in my athletic development it's most important to surpass my own limits. The result I got in March proves that I'm on the right path to have some more victories over myself.

Last modified on Tuesday, 22 March 2016