Freediving At Tahoe 

A friend of ours, James Flenner, teaches a free diving class. I took the class in June 2009 and Lorraine did in September 2009. One of the great things about James' class is that he lets the graduates join in with future classes. Lorraine and I decided to take James up on his invitation for his July 2010 class. There is a classroom portion (which we skipped), a pool session and then diving at the lake. We joined the pool session and even provided James a little help as he was short handed. I set a personal best for static apnea (breath holding) at 4 minutes 12 seconds. Lorraine didn't get try for hers as she was helping out with that portion of the class. At the lake James has a wonderful setup that consists of two diving stations complete with adjustable depth line and bottom plate. He reserves the second station for graduates and Lorraine and I had it all to ourselves. We were both  able to exceed our previous best depth records. Lorraine went from 50' to 62' and I went from 65' to 77'.  James' wife Janet took the photos below to document the class (Thanks Janet).

 

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Mike  from 50' ascending in his class - 2009

Lorraine coming up from 62 foot dive with Mike as rescue diver

Saydie on her way up.

Divers descend

Mike coming up from warm up dive

Mark practicing rescue skills

Greg descends

Mike coming up from 20 meters with Lorraine as safety diver

Saydie practicing unconscious diver skills

Jeff hanging at the plate

Mike and Lorraine posing at 10 meters

Michelle on the way up

 

Mark coming up with a big smile on his face