When passion leaves you breathless – about freediving by Polish champion, Michał Bochenek
On 1 – 3 December, the VIII Barborkowy Silesian Cup in Freediving was held in Rybnik. Our enthusiast, Michał Bochenek, an engineer in Dynamics365 Competency Center from Sii Kraków, finished the contest in 2nd place in the general classification. The very same guy will represent our country in the World Championship in Freediving in 2018. Let us introduce Michał – one of the best freedivers in Poland, who’ll tell us all about his great passion.
Katarzyna Domańska, CSR Manager at Sii: Is this safe?
Michał Bochenek, Senior Software Engineer at Sii: Freediving has got itself a bad name over recent years as the ‘most dangerous’ extreme sport. On 2 August, 2015, on the Ibiza coast, the multiple medalist and world record holder, Natalia Molchanova, was drowned. She had been diving with a group of friends, but on that particular day, she decided to go diving on her own and she wasn’t attached to a harness. Her body has never been found. On 9 April, 2017, Martin Valenta was found unconscious at the bottom of the pool – unfortunately, despite the actions of the emergency services, it wasn’t possible to save him. Martin was the Czech champion and record holder, who, in 2016, won both the Polish championship and the Silesian Cup. He had been training on his own on the day of his death. This sport does not forgive recklessness and showing off. That’s why the rule from the start is: never dive alone.
K.D.: Not a bad start….
M.B.: I think that any sport that is practiced competitively becomes extreme. And any sport in general carries the risk of injury, which in extreme situations can lead to death. Freediving is no different from other sports in this regard. But in general, it’s a very peaceful sport 🙂 Imagine lying face down in the water, minute after minute, and fighting with yourself not to raise your head and take in the air, which is a few centimeters higher. This is what one of the competitions looks like – static apnea (STA). And this is also, by the way, probably the best description of what freediving is all about: full control over your body and mind.
K.D.: Well, that’s it – what exactly is freediving?
M.B.: Freediving is various forms of diving in pools and open waters without using diving equipment that allows you to breathe underwater. To perform a dive in freediving, you use only the air you have in your own lungs, plus the supply of oxygen currently in your blood. In a nutshell, when diving to the depths, this reserve must be enough to dive to the indicated depth, equalize the pressure in your ears and return to the surface.
K.D.: Why do you need to overcome yourself like this? For the record, or is it still useful for something else?
M.B.: Freediving is different forms of diving, in the pool and in open water, without the use of diving equipment that allows you to breathe underwater. In order to freedive, you are only allowed to use the air in your lungs and the oxygen supply in your blood.
Nothing makes a noise, you don’t hear the sound of bubbles from automatic breathing. I dive whenever I want to, and stay underwater for as long as my body allows me to. I can dive a number of times and observe the underwater world just like other aquatic life-forms, and hear only natural, ambient sounds.
K.D.: Like a fish to water. How did it start?
M.B.: It is said great passion begins in childhood. Even my former interests show that it has never been possible to drag me away from water. Practically every school vacation was spent in the Zakopane area – hours in the frozen Czarny Dunajec stream had left me with an inflamed kidney. At high school, I would sit for a time at the bottom of the swimming pool, three meters underwater, picking up smaller and smaller objects, or else I would swim the length of the pool underwater just for fun. Now, I know, this is called freediving.
After studies, I began work in Kraków. Because I live with my family in Jaworzno, I would have to commute between these two places every day. I did carpooling and travel with another Michał, who was a technical and cave diver. During our commute, we would talk about diving for hours: me about the theory, and Michał about the experience. Then, one day, during our conversation we came to the subject of freediving – and that’s how we began training together.
That was in 2012. After meeting regularly for two years, mainly in swimming pools, together with a group of friends, we enrolled on a freediving course run by Agata Bogusz (a Polish freediver, pupil of the 17 times world champion, Umberto Pelizzariego, Polish record holder in three of the disciplines acknowledged in AIDA freediving competitions – according to Wikipedia). This course changed my understanding of freediving.
K.D.: What has changed?
M.B.: I learned about the physiological and psychological aspects of freediving, and changed my approach to training. I began to focus more on the sensations than on the physical aspect. I planned my workouts and the time before them carefully: what I do, what I eat, when I go to bed. If I find a particular workout unsuccessful, I analyze why. When I find the reason, then I try to eliminate it in the future. Now I know that the most important things are relaxation and relaxation. When you get into the water, you have to stop thinking about everything else. There is only you and the water.
Another year of exercise – despite the progress and improvement in technique, did not give me satisfaction. The reason was the uneven development in our group: I was moving forward, and the rest were not as motivated to work on themselves. I lacked a real exercise partner. Unexpectedly, at the end of summer vacation 2015, Agata contacted me. She said she was doing the last course of the season and that she had one student for AIDA 3. She asked if I wanted to join. That’s how I met Jack at the course, then Justina, and things took off. A week after completing the course, we started training together. Already a few brought even for us unexpected results. There was a burst of form, we improved performance and technique, but most importantly, we became a team for better or worse.
K.D.: Why your partner and a team are so important?
M.B.: In freediving, the most important thing is to trust your partner, your buddha. He’s the one who will save you and pull you out of the water when something unexpected happens, he’s the one who will resist you… (sorry, but that’s the most appropriate word) when you want to do some stupid thing. He will help you when you need support. Three initially strangers, united by a common passion, became a team working towards a common goal – to practice supposedly one of the most dangerous sports in the world in the safest way possible. And so safety and health became the driving force behind all our successes: you’re in shape – swim for the record, you’re having a worse day – do your own thing, you’ll succeed more next time. Health is the most important thing.
K.D.: And that you are quite in shape, you are doing well in competitions….
M.B.: Our first joint start – then under the name JJM FT: Justyna, Jacek, Michal Freediving Team, after less than three months of training together, gave us 4th place in the 2015 team Barbora Silesia Freediving Cup. I was the only rookie to make it into the top ten. My achievements from the competition can be seen on YouTube.
Then everything was going swimmingly: joint swimming pool training, open water training in Zakrzówek in Kraków and Koparki in Jaworzno, or else in some warm sea abroad … In 2016, in the second competition I’d ever taken part in, I took 3rd place and the title of 2nd vice-champion in the Polish Pool Championships in Lublin. The end of the year, also brought us another 4th place in the team competition in the Silesian Cup, and I personally achieved 3rd place in the rankings. In the meantime, our team had changed its name to No Tea No Free.
K.D.: Where did the name come from?
M.B.: In freediving it is important to be calm, so you either swim or rest in stillness in the water. If you don’t move, it gets cold very quickly despite the foams. Therefore, a thermos with warm fruit tea has become an indispensable part of training. We even have it in our logo: if you look closely, you will notice two thermoses on our fin instead of the so-called foot pocket (the place where you normally put your feet).
K.D.: There is also another very interesting thing next to your logo.
M.B.: Yes – the Sii logo. When I joined the AX team at Sii (now Dynamics 365), I started discussions about having this logo on our flippers as part of the Passion Drives Power People project. The talks continued, and in parallel the preparations and launches went on with their natural rhythm. In the meantime, more starts gave me 2nd place at the Czech Pool Championships in Pardubice and 2nd place at the Polish Pool Championships in Opole.
Finally, I managed to compete for the first time under the Sii logo in the Jaworzno MiniComp where Jacek came 2nd and I came 3rd. And finally, we all took part together as a team in the VIII Barborka Silesian Cup at the first weekend of December and we took the 3rd place as a team. I was the 2nd in the general classification.
K.D.: Really well done! You’ll represent Poland in next year’s World Championships in Freediving.
M.B.: Thank you .
K.D.: How much training do you have to do to become a leading freediver in Poland?
M.B.: At the moment, I train six times a week – that’s a good enough amount of exercise to make solid progress. It’s enough to secure excellent results – I’m a Polish Vice-Champion and in the world top 20. But to become better still and beat the world record will require an even greater sacrifice from myself and my family.
K.D.: How do you, in general, combine work in IT, family and passion?
M.B.: I have been developing ERP applications since the beginning of my career. I am currently working as part of the Dynamics 365 team as a Senior Developer. I work with several Sii clients in the role of consultant and programmer. In order to reconcile work and training, I have had to arrange my overall time accordingly, of course: six trainings a week have to be packed between work and family life. Sometimes my strength is lacking, in which case I let off a little steam and take a recovery break – I don’t exercise over the weekend . Thanks to the early hours, my workouts are not very inconvenient for the family and do not interfere with work, but unfortunately they very much limit social life.
K.D.: What predispositions do you need to have to dive this way?
M.B.: You don’t need any special predisposition to start – you only need to want to do it. Physical strength doesn’t play that important role. Your lung capacity is of little importance, as it’s far more important to learn breathing techniques, have a flexible chest and be able to stretch your muscles – everything else comes through practice.
K.D.: If one of our people wanted to take it up, what then?
M.B.: You don’t need to have completed any formal course to take up freediving, but training will provide you with some very necessary information, on how to take up this sport and not do yourself any harm. It’s best to start with someone experienced, so search for freediving groups via Facebook: write to Stowarzyszenie Freediving Poland (the Poland Freediving Association) or to Freediving Polska. The Association are very willing to respond and help. Joining a group is the way to build the foundations. Friends (male and female) will advise, show and explain what’s necessary, and, more importantly, look after you. If you want to go on a course or enter a competition, then you require a medical certificate. You must be examined at least once a year. You can get such a paper from a doctor specialising in diving or any other doctor, but for your own safety, you should take some additional tests: blood, throat, a chest X-ray and a heart examination. If this isn’t done properly, then you might be in danger of damaging your health or even your life. But the most important thing to remember is the principle: “Never Freedive alone!”
K.D.: Thank you for the conversation! Once again well done – we’re going to pay very close attention to how you’re getting on! Best wishes.
M.B.: See you underwater!
Follow Michał’s progress and adventures on his FB and blog.
Article written by: Katarzyna Domańska
