A: In many ways it's a bit of a surprise to me that 2010 was such a good year for my freediving results. I was unable to train and compete as much as in previous years, so when I had opportunities to get in the water, I really let myself have fun.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: I love the water. It's my great escape and I'm very relaxed there. That coupled with a slightly obsessive nature, the understanding that it is 'good' to reward yourself (preferably with cake), and finding new adventures to go on with my friends is plenty of motivation to get in the water. The results are not the main motivation for me, but it helps spur me on to see an improvement, especially in the winter when you'd rather go home and warm up after work than go to the pool.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: Why not? I learned a lot in 2010 and I'd still like to see if there is an Octopus' Garden at the bottom of the sea!

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: One of the things that is so attractive, and also the most frustrating things about freediving for me, is that you never know how much more you have in you. Some of our success as athletes comes down to talent, but a great big chunk is also about opportunity to get in the water, along with a love and determination for what we are doing. I'm sure there is heaps more in me in all the disciplines. I train them all because I enjoy the pressure of varying the challenges I embark on. For me Static and DNFs are the easiest to train as I live in London. I really enjoy no fins and static is less technical and you can train it anywhere.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: I live in South London, and I run a small Landscaping & property maintenance business here. I teach a bit of freediving and I do a bit of Sports Massage Therapy to make my living. I spend most of my time with a small and close group of friends and I'm lucky enough to work, freedive and do my other things like mountain biking with many of them. I have to watch out as London has great bars and music venues but not so many swimming pools! My family live close by and my Mum is probably busy telling all her dog-walking friends about this award right now!

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: My strongest memories for last year were both of non competitive events. One was snorkeling in Greece, and the other was a week of training aboard a sailing boat in France. I had great friends with me and we were all incredibly happy in the water. You can store those feelings in the blue up and take them with you on other dives, or pretty much anywhere else.

She writes: Last year PFI invited me to Grand Cayman where they were hosting a training/competition for 2 weeks and that was the perfect enviroment for someone like me, I found a lot of support and I learned a lot from everybody and I was able to reach the goals that at some point seemed imposible".

She learned to swim when she was 20 years old and she found out that she could hold her breath for a long time.

She believes her success is due to the fact that she puts a lot of passion "doing the things I like".

A: In part it's my love for water and the bliss I feel after special dives. But I also think the freediving community itself is what keeps me inspired and motivated; All these good humoured, fun and cheering friends around you, from so many back grounds and with such different lives. We meet at competitions which turns into perfect forums not only for performing at our best but also socializing. When you love freediving you need to be with your "freediving-tribe" at times...

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: Getting ranked as third in the world looking at all six disciplines is quite a good pointer for how I approach freediving. I don't just do one discipline and try to do it the best, I like the whole spectra. Statics prepares me for long dives, dynamics prepares me for deepdiving in the sea aso. I can see the point in getting familiar with all angles, and that reflects how my curiosity leads me through the rest of my life too. Plus, I'm not a quitter.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: Well, looking back at the year I haven't been forcing much training, I've simply done the dives I enjoyed! Living in Moldova during spring didn't really prepare me for being in water.

So, if in 2011 I can spend more time freediving I'm sure I'll get a higher total score!

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: Oh, that's a tricky one... probably DYN/DNF, if I can get my head around it (chlorine water not being as enthusiasm-building). Since I like the sea more than the pool, I'd say I'll go for the deep disciplines =)

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: Since I finished high school I've been travelling. A lot. So I have a huge carbon footprint by now and need to do something about it!

I finished my engineering studies during 2010, thought about what to do in life, and decided to start up my own business in Permaculture and natural house building. Like so many others I do not believe in a society that keeps on consuming at an unimpeded rate, nor do I see the economical system of today as something that will bring the humanity forward. The lack of food and fresh water around the globe is a problem that I want to be part of solving.

If any of you other freedivers have an ethical problem with keeping on flying to Dahab, please let me know. I have an idea of starting up a freediver-sponsored garden in Dahab, applying the permaculture principles, so that at least while being there we don't have to use up so many resources.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: I love the fact that I beat all the Swedish men at the Swedish Mastership!

A: I train almost every day, because I like movement, I like water, running, cross country skiing, cycling, swimming etc. My training is very various. Somebody can say, she train very hard, and ask where she keep her motivation. But I don´t feel it like that. In serious life I´m a physioterapist, and if I see every day people fighting with some real problems, like spine injury or other hard situation, I don´t feel my training is hard training. So I don´t need to look for motivation, I just do it becouse I like it and because I can do it.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: I´m not sure, if is it secret. I think, my success is in many factors. One of it is my very good relationship to water, I love water, I grew up in water. Second I think is, I was swimmer and then finswimmer. So in this many years I have many kilometers in my legs and arms and now my technique is always little bit better than others. And I´m lucky, this is important in every sports, to be lucky.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: I would like to be better than in 2010. I don´t compete with other athletes, I compete with myself. My goal is allways to be better than before. It means now my PB in CWT is 84m, so if my PB 2011 will be 85m, I will be satisfied.

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: Till now it was all disciplines except static apnea. Static I don´t like. Next year I think it will be easier in depth, in dynamics I´m close to my maximum i think.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: I live in Zlin in Czech Republic, quite small town on the east. I work like a physiotherapiest in ambulance not full time and I work with young football players (I have two jobs). In May 2010 brought home small dog from Egypt, which is now big dog and he takes a long time, but he is very good partner for running . If i don´t work or train, I like books, films, to be with friends.but I like my job and training too.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: I have many strong memories, but interesting memory is my competition dive in WCh Japan. It was not good dive, my carabine went wrong on rope, it broke on me and the dive was 20 seconds longer than in training. But the feeling after this dive was good, because it mean, I can go much deeper.

Q: How do you keep motivated.

A: I'm competing because this motivates me in my training, because this is a way in getting in contact with the international freediving comunity which I like, because it gives me a excuse for traveling around the world.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: My results are a result of a lot of training the year before, 2 years of diving experience and a lot of support from other freedivers like you (Sebastian) and my club mates and because I like freediving and believe in the amphibious nature of Homo sapiens and because once I read a little poem that went something like this: " what that others people do, why with patience could not you, only keep this point in view, try, try again."

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: I don't know, but what I know for sure is that I'm not going to give up freediving.

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: The disciplines where I'm using the fins feels easiest. Me and my monofin are getting in an almost symbiotic relationship. But I like the chanllenge of the other disciplines especially DNF and CNF, that many consider the purest way of freediving.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: I work for living so I sponsor my freediving myself. I'm a rheumatologist (= mainly doctor for joints diseases). I'm married, didn't get any kids so I don't have a real family of mine. My nearest family (mother, sister and brother) are living in France and Bucharest, where I'm born.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: The highligts of 2010: I've got my own house (but it's temporary) and my own little car ( I hope is temporary and that soon it will be possible to get electric cars with more silent and clean engines). I traveled a lot to new countries and three time in Egypt. My best to dives: the 3x50m dyn in Marienhamn, Åland and the first FIM to 42m in Kalamata, Greece - smooth and easy like a daydream.

A: I love the sport, the mental and physical challenge, the unique sensations of immersion and the lifestyle. With all these factors there is very little difficulty to find motivation to keep training, which I would describe more as a process of exploration.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: Really the key to any sport is discipline and perseverance. Natural talent or genetic ability will only take you to the gate at the start of the road - and it is still a long way from there to any kind of success.
Having said that, I was blessed to have been raised living on a sail boat in the Caribbean and Pacific, where the water became a very natural and comfortable place for me to be.
There are some technical tricks and training techniques which have developed naturally in my practice over the years, such as no warm-up maximum attempts and use of tongue bandhas to increase dive reflex intensity.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: I think that will depend a lot on whether I have the opportunity to compete in all the disciplines. This year I recorded performances in 5 of the 6, and I think with the individual world championships scheduled for 2011 I should have an opportunity to compete in most of them.

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: I don't have as much of an opportunity to train the pool disciplines, so I have most room for improvement there, especially DNF, which I haven't really trained since 2009.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: For work, as well as freedive and teach courses I also translate texts (mostly those that are related to the sea and diving) from Italian to English. I like to write creatively also, and play mind games like chess, poker, scrabble.. When it doesn't clash with training I enjoy all sorts of other sports and outdoor activities like hiking and sailing.

I am happily married to Brittany, who teaches yoga in the Vertical Blue courses, and our long-term goal is to build a house and set up a multi-disciplinary school and training center on Long Island in the Bahamas. My father is a leading designer who travels the world with my mother who is an art and yoga teacher, and my brother is a prominent theatre director/designer who travels to Europe often also, so we all see each other on a regular basis, which is great.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: It has been a great year,(...) with 6 world records, countless national records and not a single blackout), and of course Project Hector. There are many strong memories: the surprise (especially to myself) of a 237 meter dynamic in Okinawa.

However my strongest memory might be the first time I reached 100 meters CNF in training. (...) "very clean surfacing, looked first at the sky to the north as I breathed in twice, then high fives with Arthur (Trousdell)

Q: How do you keep motivated.

A: I think that the easiest way to keep the motivation is to mix between different kinds of training: running, spinning, yoga, freediving ex. Also mixing between all the different disciplines is important for me. I find it less stimulating doing only what I am good at.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: The secret to a success in freediving is to believe in yourself and relaxation. I have been practicing a sport that I really love without making it into a way of living and that keeps me going on.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: 2010 have been a very good year for me and I can only hope to do even better in 2011. So far my deepest dive has felt safe and strong. That is the way I want to dive and train. I try to dive within my limits and visualization helps me move the limit to even deeper goals.

I haven´t been practicing DNF very much and I hope to improve a little bit more in that discipline.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: The strongest experience I had in 2010 was to be a part of the winning team at the world champion in Okinawa, Japan. 9 maximum (dives) from 3 different people have to go just as planed to succeed. The excitement and the team spirit grow to a very high level as we saw that we actually had a chance of winning.

Q: Tell us, how and why did you start freediving?

A: From early childhood I was always in love with water. Ive learned swimming when I was 5 and felt total freedom in water. But Freediving came later, it all started when I was 15. I was having fun with my friends on a swimming pool, and when we were bored doing stupid things. As grown-ups we start checking who could swim the longest distance underwater. My friend was the best, he started looking for informations about breath-holding. Got some training programs, long fins, he was really into it. I wanted to challenge him, after few sessions I realized I could swim really far. But the most important factor was that I felt total silence while being underwater. I loved these feeling from the first time. But I couldnt afford to buy any equipment, didnt have any swimming pool around, the closest one was 15km away in other city. I knew when I get older I will start freediving, but in this circumstances, it wasnt possible. It was a closed door, waiting for me to come back and open. When I finished school I left my country to earn some money for studying and do sport. In 2008 I decided to start studying in Cracow, it was not a coincident, although there is great University of Technology, there is also amazing, flooded calcium quarry. 30m deep, some freedivers, I knew it would a be perfect time to start. Meanwhile, all this years I was reading about everything connected to freediving, maybe not going into details, but I knew all the basic things. As a result, my first ever Freedive in that quarry ended up at 27m, not because of equalization, but because of fear of diving below "the black point". I dont enjoy diving in dark waters.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: A lot of people is asking me same question. I think its being open-minded. The biggest mistake is if someone starting Freediving, more experience buddy tell him how to do it right, he tries a few times, it doesnt work, and as a result that person end up doing his own thing without any progress.

All the time I treat myself as a beginner. I read a lot and I try to listen clues from more experience people. When I read how some champions are training, I think about it, get some ideas cause I know they know better than me, and try to make things happen. If it doesnt work I try to convince myself that this is the only right way and it has to work. Usually I pick up things very quick and they work for me.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: Im very positive about 2011. I will go for World Championships and depth disciplines are my primary goal. I enjoy them much more than a swimming pool, although most of the year I have to train indoor. I think I will beat my results from 2010, cause consistently from the beginning I have improved, and the most important thing is that I have this feeling while doing PB - there is more to give. All I have to do is set things right and train harder.

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: CNF - constant weight without fins is my favourite discipline, at the moment I focus all my power on it. I think its the discipline I have to gain in most, because last year I gave it up and was playing with my monofin. If I look into my official performances, I think the easiest to improve would be DNF, CNF, DYN, cause Ive already done much more on training.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: Im student of Cracow University of Technology and Im very focused on it. Its one of the most important things to me at the moment. Whenever I have leisure, I do sport. I enjoy snowboarding very much, especially freeride, hiking, climbing up the mountains, paragliding, volleyball. I just love activity, cant sit down and do nothing.

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: I have few strong memories. One of them is when Ive swam through famous Arch in Dahab-Blue Hole. Another one is when Ive reached the bottom of Blue Hole, physically grab some stones and brought them up to the surface. I felt so good that day, especially when I first read about Blue Hole and thought its impossible to reach the bottom there. Ive also enjoyed my first 100m in Free Immersion discipline. I remember this beautiful feeling and wish all my dives to feel the same. Ive had very easy equalization, could 100% relax during frefall, propably I got narked and I felt that Im falling forever, somewhere out of space

Q: How do you keep motivated.
A: My secret is to train freediving with many different sports to prevent boredom. In the first part of each season, I do several outdoor sports like climbing, hiking, cross country skiing, surfing, etc... I can change my mind and take a break from freediving but all this differents sports help me for the depth later in the season.

Q: How do you keep motivated.

The other reason why I am still motivated is I do things with pleasure and passion. As soon as I feel I get bored, I train an other disipline in order to train with the same will to discover the limits. In 2009, I trained CNF because I was bored of CWT. I worked as I got a bronze medal at the WC and a very pleasant dive at 109m with the smile in CWT. So in 2010, I was full of good energy to train and I did 115m, my PB.

Q: Why are you so successful in this sport?

A: Patience... In Nice I have been taught to increase the depth very slowly. No matters if someone break a record by 10m. I will take the time to redefine my own limits to reach that depth, but it will be first a personal challenge, not a challenge for the record itself.

That's why I did 4 WR and not 10, 20 or 30... breaking records itself is not my only motivation.

Q: Will you improve under 2011?

A: In 2011, I will focus on the depth discipline with the individual WC as the main goal. I am tired of swimming pool discipline, and I am not sure I will compete in one of these. Not sure if I will be in this list next year!

Q: What discipline do you feel you have most to gain in?

A: If I really focus on swimming pool disciplines, I think I can improve my performance a lot... but it's a matter of motivation. In the depth discipline, I know I can dive deeper in CWT if I can manage the narcosis. In CNF, I have been training only one year. There is some room there too.

Q: Tell us something about your life outside freediving.

A: I am very lucky as I can make a living out of freediving. I mean not only freediving by itself, but a lot of stuff around freediving: sponsors, but also seminars for company, teaching courses, stunt for music video or movies, communication (interviews - PR..) and I am selling also my photos and videos. So I am more working as the boss of my own company, BLUENERY.

It takes me a lot of time and it's sometimes very difficult to associate training and working.

My other passions are: Cinema, Books, Photography, Filming, Astronomy, travelling

Q: What is your strongest memory of 2010 freediving?

A: 2010 was a very important year for me with freediving, but not for the competitions or records. We directed with my girlfriend (Julie Gautier) a short film FREE FALL, which was an unexpected success world wide. This short film was a part of me since 5 years and I really wanted to make it one day. It confirm me that freediving is much more than just a record-competition activity, but it's also an art. I really want to use in the future freediving as an art to create new projects. I think that the more we understand the reason for living is not to be the best, but to be as much as possible in harmony with ourself and with our planet. I want to use freediving as an art to show that.