Unlocking water

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Something important unlocked this weekend;

I got my ocean back!

When Emma and I sat out on our journey of creating Gemeko, I was simultaneously leaving another world behind. The world of competitive freediving. Since I first started diving on one breath back in 2003 I’ve been getting better and better, meter by meter and second by second. In average I added another 10 meters in depth every year, and in 2009 I reached my deepest most magic 73m – one of the loveliest dives I’ve ever had!

But after that dive which was during the World Championships of 2009, located at Dean’s Blue Hole in Bahamas, something shifted in me. I started pushing towards being the best, I started competing against others instead of competing against myself. And so, my ability to dive in a relaxed state of mind started to crumble…

However, during 2010 I gave myself some space, knowing I hadn’t trained very much in the water it felt OK to not add meters in the depth disciplines nor in the pool disciplines. And in the end, not pushing it to hard led to a very good total ranking of all six disciplines that year: 3rd best in the world!

Now, if you want to stay in the top league of whatever sport or profession you’re in, you’d better perform! If not – your out in the cold again. Or at least those were the facts my mind started accepting, and as my subconscious took it in I was struggling with wanting to only do nice dives for my own enjoyment compared to doing more forced dives to reach a high score.

In September 2011 I took the train from Gothenburg to Calamata, Greece, having decided that I was fit for another WC in the depth.

I was not.

I couldn’t get my head around why I was there freediving? I thought I did it because I loved the ocean, loved the pressure hugging me in the depth, loved soaring through the smooth water, loved being with my freediving tribe, loved pushing my body and mind… I wanted to dive for all those reasons but the truth was, I was competing to prove myself  to others.

Very – bad – idea!

That attitude will take you nowhere near the bliss of a perfect dive! I finished of the WC with a 50 m dive and went home. The process of straightening out the equation of [Klara + freediving + competition = Fun] started at once, and it’s still ongoing.

This weekend I have been judging the Swedish Mastership in Pool-Freediving, and guess what: It was FUN!

I did not feel a sting of angst for not competing myself, I was just happy for all the 40 athletes who did. It felt very, very good… I got my ocean back!

What has this got to do with Gemeko? Why am I writing about this topic here? Because Gemeko is a company which has a holistic vision of the future – and in that vision, one of the most important things is that the employees should feel great, be happy and live a fulfilling life. And for my part, freediving is an essential part of who I am and thus needs to have an uncontested space or place in my life.

Welcome back, water!