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

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

Hello everybody!

Last weekend I've taken part in the Polish Freediving Pool Championships held in Morawica near Kielce. 

They were organised by the Freediving Club Kielecki Klub Freedivingu „DNF” at the Koral swimming pool.

I have won first place overall with achieving the following results: 203m DNF, 6:59 STA and last but not least 186m DYN. This way I have defended the title of Polish champion in all of the pool disciplines. 

It was my last competition before the Freediving Pool World Championships that are taking place in Belgrade next month. Based on my results it's easy to see that I was primarly focused on DNF this part of year. I'm a bit dissapointed about my static, because I've already achieved 8+ min in training a few days earlier but let's see if I can pull that off next time in competition!

Right now I have less than a month left before Belgrade. I feel my DNF is in a good place and I just need some fine tunning. After that I will try to focus a bit more on my monofin swims. We are heading to the World Championships with a strong Polish team and I hope everyone will do their personal bests. I'm especially looking forward to the performance of the guys from Cracow which I used to train with for a long time, Karol Karcz and Michał Dąbrowski.

Enjoy the blue and dive safe!

Matt

Last modified on Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Hello fellow Freedivers and supporters,

Recently I have decided to take part in the Fazza 3 Championships which will take place from 5 - 7 March 2015 in Dubai, UAE.

I was preparing one month for this competition, which is a very short time frame considering that the discipline over there is completely different from what we are used to.

The basic rules for the competition are simple:

No equipment whatsoever is allowed and an athlete has to stay as long as he can underwater while holding the rope. Time is counted as soon as the last part of the body immerses and stops as soon as any part of the body emerges. It’s prohibited to tie yourself to the rope anyhow and competitor has to hold it voluntary. Obviously the athlete has no idea about the time during the hold.

I’m looking forward to this competition as it will obviously be a good lesson for me. I have a lot of experience to gain in this new field and I hope that after this year I will keep coming back to Dubai every year.

I’m heading to Dubai on Saturday for two weeks. During the first week I will take part in Fazza 3 Championships and  during the second week for the first time in my life I will conduct the Freedivng Clinic together with Static Champion Branko Petrovic, who won the Fazza 3 Championships two times in a row!

Thank you Grena Ltd. for providing me with accomodation in Dubai and all-round support!

Last modified on Thursday, 26 February 2015

Last week, AIDA International published a list of "Wild Card" bids for the World Championships in 2015 - separated into depth and pool disciplines. The ten best athletes of every discipline in the world were granted a place on this list.

My name was also among the athletes granted a "wild card" in two of the pool disciplines: the DNF (dynamic apnea without fins) , DYN (dynamic apnea with fins) and one depth discipline, th FIM (free immersion). This means I don't have to go through qualifications for the World Championship events, which leaves more time for training. The funny part is, I got a worse result in DYN with the monofin than without it! I need to work on it! :) You can download the whole list from the AIDA International Facebook group as a .pdf file. 

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A short while ago, I was interviewed by Camilla from freedivinguae.com and we spoke about the attitude towards training, setting goals, persistence and the freediving lifestyle. The audio quality is not the best, but there is also a short text included about the main topics of the interview. You can listen to the interview on the freedivinguae.com website.

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The picture you see at the top of this post was taken by Daan Verhoeven, a great photographer and my dear friend. During my stay in Bahamas at the Vertical Blue championships we dived together and he took these amazing underwater pictures. I encourage you to make a short break, sit back and take a look at his creations - you can find the pictures in the exclusive Gallery here. 

Last modified on Wednesday, 25 February 2015

It was a great time for me, because I could meet my Polish freeediving friends, with whom I didn't compete for a long time.

What was specifically interesting in this International Silesia Freediving Cup was that every team that wanted to compete for the Grand Prize had to include at least one female competitor! A brilliant idea to encourage women to join the contest and encourage them to try freediving.

I was going there to mainly spend a nice time with friends and not to actually compete. This way, I managed to do same easy dives with DNF: 175m, STA: 6:59, DYN: 150m.

Actually, I put on my monofin for the first time in a really long time, so it was certainly funny to watch my dive! I was moving like a drunk person! 

At the winners decoration I was surprised by the Polish AIDA representatives, who awarded me with a honourable reward for being the first Polish World Record holder in DNF! This was an extremely pleasant moment for me.

After the Cup in Rybnik, I have now some time to relax and decompress before starting my new training plan in January.

I was invited to do some interviews in the Polish radio and television and will share the recordings with you soon!

During my stay in the Bahamas I also sat down with Chris from FreediveEarth and we had a very nice chat. It was a fabulous opportunity to be interviewed in-depth by someone who can relate to the hardships of the freediving journey. You can read the interview on the FreediveEarth website.

Last modified on Wednesday, 16 December 2015

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

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

Diving since November 2008

Official personal best results

Pool disciplines:

DYN: 285 m (Dynamic apnea with fins) - 27 May 2016, Polish Pool Championships, Lublin, Poland (New World Record!)

DNF: 226m (Dynamic apnea without fins) - 9 November 2014, DNF miniComp, Brno, Czech Republic (New World Record!)

STA: 8:29 (Static apnea) - 4 March 2016, Fazza 3 Freediving Championships, Dubai, UAE

Depth disciplines:

CNF: 83 m (Constant weight apnea without fins) - 28 November 2013, Little Blue Hole Competition, Blue Hole

FIM: 106 m (Free immersion apnea) - 24 September 2011, 6th AIDA Individual Depth World Championship 2011, Kalamata

CWT: 100 m (Constant weight apnea) - 28 September 2010, Triple Depth 2010, Sharm el Sheik

 

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Previous results:

DYN: 251m - 22 June 2015, Individual AIDA Pool World Championships, Belgrad, Serbia

DYN: 250 m - 28 June 2013, Individual AIDA Pool World Championships, Belgrad, Serbia

 

DNF: 213 m (Dynamic apnea without fins) - 7 June 2014, Czech National Championships 2014, Brno

 

STA: 8:00 (June 23rd, 2015) - Belgrad, Serbia

Last modified on Monday, 30 May 2016