Hello from Poland

[mxdanish]

Cheers Everyone.

Thanks for accepting my membership.
My name is Mariusz and I am beginner diver. There is not much to tell about me diving wise - my wife registered me to diving course as a 40y one-year-late-birthday-gift Now I am a fresh SSI OWD certified rookie diver and to be fair I really love this game.
In my past I was 6th in Olympic Games in Athens 2004 in rowing and basically spent half of my life with rowing boats. Sport is not new for me but diving is

Now, I hope I will find a lot of information here, which will help me to develope my poor technical skills and get some answers to equipment questions.

Mariusz

If I made any errors in the above post, sorry for that, I do not use English very often.

 

[lowwall]

Welcome, brother of the erg. I've never actually rowed a shell, but have over 20 million meters on Concept2 rowing machines. Also many connections to Poland as my wife is from there and her family still lives there.

What can we do for you?

BTW, I think you mean 2004 if you are the Mariusz originally from Ełk

 

[mxdanish]

BTW, I think you mean 2004 if you are the Mariusz originally from Ełk

OMG that is a bad sign... It seems like it all happened so long time ago but I was not aware that I will forget the date
So... you have googled me Yes, I am originally from Ełk, and I really really miss that place, the lakes, fishing... everything

What can we do for you?

At first let me try to dig on my own, if I will have doubts I will of course ask for help.
Everything is new for me so it will take some time to go through some threads.

BTW I hated Concept2 workout. I knew that is was absolutely necessary but hated it

 

[lowwall]

Seems most rowers hate ergs, but they are much better when using them as a fitness device instead of a training aid. It's a whole different experience if you are cruising along watching video.

Yes, I looked you up because I was wondering about the Olympic discrepancy, it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd forget .

I've never been to northern Poland, my wife's family is all in Krakow and the area around Bielsko-Biala.

Back to diving. As a photographer, you are going to find a while new world to learn and explore underwater. But do yourself (and your dive buddies) a favor and hold off on that aspect until your diving technique is second nature.

 

[mxdanish]

To be honest I did not even think about underwater photography yet.
I need to learn buoyancy first, then some experience, hours of diving and then the fun parts

As for the thing that one should not forget... maybe you are right... but when you take part of hundreds of important races, you are starting to get used to that fact.
Now, one of my children is disabled and since we are facing this huge difficulty, all the past things are getting more and more blurry.

 

[lowwall]

To be honest I did not even think about underwater photography yet.
I need to learn buoyancy first, then some experience, hours of diving and then the fun parts

Dialing it all in IS fun. Or at least it should be. There's satisfaction in improving skills and there should be cool stuff to look. Plus it's exciting just being part of this alien environment.

One thing to keep in mind is that diving can be a little counterintuitive to an athlete. Even though it is a physical activity, the only physical goal commonly pursued in diving is a low gas consumption rate. This comes from minimizing output rather than maximizing it. Your base metabolic rate is the start of it and one place where athletes have a nice advantage. Next is comfort in the water, how close you can get to that base rate under the environmental stresses of being submerged. All the rest is technique and planning.

Given the density of water, most of the technique is about minimizing movement either directly or minimizing drag which in turn means less kicking is required. The pertinent part when planning is about setting up dives that do not require excessive effort.