Probably one of my favorite competitions that's held in Jakarta, organized by Nikita Fima, Indonesia's female depth record holder, and her school, Freediving Society. This year there weren't a lot of foreign athletes; out of 25 athletes, 21 of them are from Indonesia, while the others are from Ukraine, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Malaysia.
The order of this year's disciplines was a bit different. Last year, it was the same 3-days competition: the first discipline is always STA, and for the others, the athletes could choose which DYN attempts they wanted to perform. This year, if you were aiming to be in the overall top 3, you had to follow their schedule: STA and DNF on the first day, followed by DYNB on the next day, and DYN on the last day.
To be honest, as someone who's only targeting in DNF, I was at a huge disadvantage. Of course, I was quite upset, but rather than seeing it as a downer, this would make an interesting challenge: to see if I have enough self-control or not to restrain myself on the STA in the morning and perform with enough energy for DNF.
Even though I only had one month to practice, coming back from depth training with zero pool training, I was surprised by the changes in my body while holding the contractions. They became milder and more controllable, and they made the long dives far easier than last year. I still remember I couldn't tilt my head down due to the contractions in the last leg of DNF before I resurfaced. It was really that bad. Some people say depth training makes your body more relaxed, or the uddiyana bandha also helps with your flexibility. Let me know if you have other opinions; I'd love to hear them.
It was shocking even for me to text Brian Lee, a friend of mine who's also Indonesia's national record holder in STA, to tell him that I'd love to go for 5:00 STA this year. STA has been my least favorite discipline since the start of my journey in freediving. It's hard for me to stay still in one place, let alone hold my breath. Plus, holding your breath for 5:00 is just beyond my imagination. I always ask people, "How on earth can you hold your breath for that long? What were you thinking?"
After a few practices with him, I realized: it is POSSIBLE for me to do a 5:00 STA after I found the distractions I needed to endure the last few minutes. I made this cheat sheet for my STA coach, and I tried to simplify this so anyone, literally anyone, can coach me. Special thanks to Brian for all the tips and came up with this method. It kinda goes like this:
Starting position: Pull me back from the edge so my arms naturally fall into a relaxed position. This really helps me to get into a relaxed mindset and just start to sleep.
0:00 - 2:00: Nothing to do here, just let me sleep and hold my body so I won't float away.
2:00 - 4:00: Let me know the time every 30 seconds, and I'll give you my signal. Usually, this is where my contractions started, and it's still bearable.
4:00 - : This is the most excruciating part for me. Give me the time every 10 seconds and nudge my hand for the signal in between. As I'm trying my best to accept the contractions, my brain can't really focus on your voice. I barely hear the numbers, that's why I rely on the nudges to give the signal, like a distraction.
With this strategy, I asked Doppo to be my coach, and I capped my STA attempt in the competition at 4:30. That should leave me with enough energy and willpower to continue the DNF attempt in the afternoon. Funnily enough, I used to be much more nervous in my previous competitions, but this time I didn't feel that nervous, and I managed to come up exactly at 4:30. Once done with STA, I immediately ate after fasting for more than 16 hours and hit the yoga mat in the athlete area to sleep.
It was almost time for my OT, and I was getting ready on the side of the pool, watching others make their attempts. I'm not gonna lie, but seeing Safir, a friend of mine and a fellow national record holder in the rest of the disciplines, try to attempt a 115m DNF and mess up her surface protocol, kind of shook me for both reasons. It was sad to see her get a red card, but seeing somebody else attempt the national record did rile me up a bit.
It wasn't an easy sight to forget, but thanks to Emily's words and encouragement, my mind wandered back to where it was supposed to be. During my dive, I welcomed my contractions earlier than expected after the 50m turn, and that leg is always the hardest, but it's always easier after the 75m turn. I managed a clean surface protocol with Emily's help. It was a white card and a new national record of 113m!
At this point, I was beyond grateful. Should I skip the rest of the disciplines? I did a 111m DYNB, and everyone was kind of weirded out since it was 2m shorter than my DNF. I lied and told everyone it was to match my AP of 11m. For DYN, I did a 117m with a monofin, just because. Haha.
Few important things I'd like to mention:
SUSAN GOSAL, OUR BESTIE GOT WHITE CARDS IN ALL DISCIPLINE!
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU! I felt more anxious every time you're doing the attempts and actually cried a bit with Em seeing you got the white card. Congratulations for your overall win! I'm so happy I won't change your name to Susan BOsal!
The organizer did a good job managing this comp
Shout out to Freediving Society, the organizers, who worked nights and days tirelessly to ensure the comp went well.
Thank you for all the judges, medics, medias, sponsors and safeties This comp won't happen without these amazing people.
I think that's it for this comp. I really recommend Freediving Societies comp for all my freediving friends abroad to join us and have fun :) Psst... The after party was LIT!
Sea you next year!
A little extra picture to celebrate Susan's white card :)
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