Sebastian - freediver

SEBASTIAN NASLUND - SWEDEN sebastian@arrandir.se

Merits
- I have set national records with
FIM 65, 73 and 83 meter.
CNF 40, 44, 51, 56 and 65 meters (5th and 10th World Championships) and 109 DNF.
I have have held my breath for 7 minutes, and done a No Limit dive to 101 meters.
- Scubacertificate, CPR, boatlicence, has worked as airport fireman and teacher. Level D Aida judge (judged 60 competitions and record attempts).
- I have done the Apnea Academy instructor course and Aida instructor course with F.Gautier. I am also a swedish CMAS apneainstructor (SSDF).
I have myself taken part in five clinics in freediving (among others; Performance Freediving team and Sebastien Murat, and William Trubridge).
- I have participated in doussins of competitions (three world championships) and several swedish record attempts. I have organized several competitions including one world championship.
- I have taken hundreds of freedivers on excursions and have coached over 100 freedivers to new depths and lengths.
- As underwater filmer I have met some of the best freedivers in the world.
- I have written an instruction manual on freediving
(for the Swedish market), and a condensed manual for expert freediving.
See also some of my under water videos.

Read about how I trained
for the last world championship

Motivation
I freedive to know myself. The challenges of freediving teaches me body control and awareness. Exploring new depths is a good mental challenge. I have been brought up by the coast and feel attracted to the pressure, the silence and weightlessness I find below the surface. I like the fact that I carry a skill that can be used without any complicated equipment.

Science participation
A lot of my knowledge in freediving has been aquired by meeting some of the best freedivers in the world. I have explored my limitations in an offensive way and learnt the risks of freediving. Much of what I learnt comes from being a participant in several advanced apnea studies by scientists - pressure and hypoxia. Read more here.

Philosophy behind my clinics:
Its all about identifying the factors that will make you reach your limit in one deep or long dive. I am not an athletic person, I have not a history of putting time into either muscular or cardiovascular training. I have spent more time finding the small details of technique, diet and warm-up proceedures. Someone with better physics than me should be able to use my techniques and go deeper than me.
I also stress that there is not one way to improve - there are several ways. Sometimes it is a question of personal taste. I will deliver a lot of options to choose from. You yourself will have to make yourself a better freediver.

I ask only one question: what stops you from going deeper/further?

You may ask for Apnea Academy certification, but more often I dont work with any certification system or fixed trainingprograme. Therefore I can focus on evaluating individual needs and let students develop in their own pace (not limited by maximum depth in a course plan). Freediving is so much more complicated than scuba diving and there are still parts of a freediving perfomance based on intuition.

Two tools
I have exceeded all my expectations on my body thanks to two significant factors: yoga and using the dive respone. The basic mechanisms of a real dive response I have found out by working with Sebastian Murat during a clinic. In order to prove the signifance of the dive respons to myself I did a 100 meter no fins pool dive during the world championships. With no warm-up and no ventilation and no suit I spent the first 30 seconds of the dive breatholding without moving in order to let the dive response kick in.
Yoga gives us a holistic view on our bodies. You have to dive with all parts of your body. Yoga teaches us lung stretching, muscle warm-up, calming and oxygenating breathing techniques, but most of all - training in focus and awareness. If you are happy and healthy - you will also be a better freediver. THE OTHER TRAINERS