Blog Original - John Eye

John Eye wearing aqua sphere kayenne swim goggles

Swim Goggles: Aqua Sphere Kayenne Goggle Review

apnea, aqua sphere, dynamic, east coast divers, freedive, john eye, kayenne, pool, static, swim goggles

For some reason I have a really hard time finding swim goggles that don’t leak. I’m not sure if it is the size or shape of my eye sockets, or the bridge of my nose, but for whatever reason most goggles don’t work for me. The majority of goggles will either leak as soon as I put my face in the water, or when I do a flip turn in the pool. Either way, if they leak they are completely useless to me for distance training. If I have to stop every couple of lengths in the pool to clear my goggles, I am not getting a good workout.

When it comes to distance cardio I prefer swimming over running, so a reliable pair of swim goggles are important to me. I also like using goggles rather than a full mask during static and dynamic freedive training as that helps expose more of the trigeminal nerve to the water helping to trigger my MDR (mammalian dive reflex).

A number of swim goggles I tested which all leaked on my face.

In the past when I found a good pair of goggles I would buy several pair of them. That way when the first pair wore out, or got lost I would still have another pair that fit. I finally lost the last of a series of goggles I had been using for around 15 years, and suddenly I was faced with having to find a replacement for a goggle that was no longer made.

I’ve gone through around 10 pair of goggles in the last six months, and have been really disappointed. Every pair I tried leaked. The shortage of sports shops that actually stock choices of different styles of swim goggles to try on just make this process all the more difficult.

How to Fit Swim Goggles:

In a random stroke of luck East Coast Divers ordered in a few new pars of goggles for the summer, and one of the styles was the Aqua Sphere Kayenne Goggle. Trying on swim goggles in the shop is always best because you can get a preliminary feel for if they fit your face or not.

Similar to fitting a dive mask, I try to seat the goggles to my eye sockets without using the head strap to see if they will form a seal and create enough suction to stay on my face. For the first time in a while of trying on many different goggles, the Aqua Sphere Kayenne stuck right to my face! I kept repositioning them to see how easily I could pull them away from my eyes, but they kept a good seal allowing them to suction to my face.

For the first time in a while I actually had hope that I might have found a pair that wouldn’t leak. Another feature that I would like to point out about these swim goggles is that the strap adjustment on them is very similar to the way Mares or Aqualung dive masks control the adjustment, and is a bit more sturdy than some of the other swim goggles I have used. They have a one-touch, quick-fit buckle on either side of the frame for simple adjustments. This keeps them from getting loose during a swim, or even changing size while you store them between uses.

Time for the Water

The next test was to take them to the water. I headed out for a swim across Quincy bay for my test. The way these swim goggles fit when dry gave me hope that they would perform well in the water, but I have been disappointed before, so I was a bit apprehensive. Had I just spent another twenty something dollars on a pair of goggles that were of no use to me? Luckily not! I did a couple of miles in the ocean with no leaks. This made for a great swim, and a very happy marine mammal. A couple days later I took them to the pool to see if they would flood during a flip turn, and they performed perfectly during that as well.

Finally I have found a new pair of swim goggles that work for me. Now I just have to hope that they keep making the Aqua Sphere Kayenne goggles for at least a few years. Perhaps I will buy a few pair to stockpile just in case.

So if you have a difficult time finding swim goggles to fit your face, I would suggest that the Aqua Sphere Kayenne goggles would be worth a try as they worked well for me. Obviously everyones face shape is unique, so your milage may vary.

You can buy them online through SwimOutlet.com or drop by East Coast Divers to try them on in person.

If you try these, let me know how they worked for you, or if you have experience with other brands of swim goggles that you recommend leave a comment. Happy swimming.

Affordable Wetsuit for Pool Teaching

by John Eye

Freediving

affordable, freediving, pool, teaching, tyr, wetsuit

As a freediving instructor you need an affordable wetsuit for pool teaching sessions. I often spend long classes in the pool with new students, observing them while they practice new skills. If you are an instructor you will know students are quite active, but a lot of your time is spent observing and guiding the students with helpful hints on how to improve and become more efficient freedivers. This means less activity for the instructor, and the tendency to get cold. I don’t know about you, but I hate being cold, and as a freediver cold has a significant negative impact on my breath hold.

The obvious solution is to wear a wetsuit, but do you want to destroy your expensive ocean freediving suit in the chlorinated pool? If I average around four days a week in the pool, my pool suits tend to last me around eight months to a year. At around $300.00 to $400.00 a pop for an ocean suit, that is a little more money than I would want to spend for a suit that I know I am going to destroy quickly in chlorine.

My Affordable Wetsuit Solution:

The best solution I have found so far is the TYR Hurricane Cat 1 full sleeve wetsuit. It is a triathlon suit so it has all the flexibility in the arms that we freedivers are looking for and best of all it only costs $160.00. That is just around half of what it would cost for another freediving suit, and an amount I am comfortable with spending on something that will only last around a year.

It comes in both men’s and women’s styles, is very flexible, and easy to get in and out of because of the interior nylon lining… NO LUBE!!! That means I can get suited up and be ready before my students get all their gear sorted and in the water. The actual neoprene is Yamamoto Ultra Durable Coated neoprene with thickness varying between 1.5mm in the arms to 5mm in the torso. I have spent many 3.5 hour sessions in the pool with this suit and I have yet to get cold, even when supervising statics. I also take it out for the occasional ocean surface swim, and I love the arm flexibility.

This suit version has served me well over a few years, and I wanted to share it with other people looking for an affordable wetsuit for pool teaching. I use the full sleeve version when teaching, and the sleeveless when I am training.

If you are a freediver in the Boston area join the Facebook group East Coast Freedivers and come to our weekly pool training sessions where we do group CO2 and O2 trainings. All levels of freedivers are welcome to join.

Leave a comment if you have found another affordable wetsuit that you really like.

Boston East Coast Freedivers training in the pool

Freedive Pool Training Workout – “Six by CO2 Grind”

by John Eye

Freediving, Pool Training

apnea, co2, divers, east coast freedivers, freediving, grind, group, john eye, pool, training, workout

I came up with a new CO2 workout for group freedive pool training. I call it the “Six by CO2 Grind“, primarily because it is not really a stepped CO2 table, but just the hardest part, or “top” of the table isolated and extended.

Ran it tonight with the East Coast Divers freedive group that trains in Boston MA. USA. We did it with six divers, but this would work for groups of any size so long as you can set up buddy teams for the direct supervision exercises in the warm up section.

This is a medium-hard workout for freedivers with some training and experience. If you want to make this training more difficult, you could increase the six single breath lengths to eight, do the sprint section on FRC, or reduce breathe up times between exercises.

Six by CO2 Grind

Run Time: 1 Hour

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Click on the training table to see a larger version.

Remember never train alone, always dive with a buddy!

If you are in the Boston area and are looking for freedivers to train with, East Coast Divers runs weekly group freedive pool trainings. Call the shop, message me, or join the Facebook group East Coast Freedivers to find out the schedule and info on trainings.

If you have any cool apnea pool workout ideas, leave them in the comments.

Packing a Monofin for Safe Airline Travel

by John Eye

Freediving

apnea, carbon, fiber, freediving, john eye, johneye, molchanovs, monofin, travel bag

Lately I have been training more and more with a monofin, and have been dying to get it out into open water. Since East Coast Divers runs a freedive training camp in the Cayman Islands this seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on some depth training with the fin. Unfortunately your standard competition carbon fiber monofin is way too big to bring on an airplane as carry on baggage.

I searched online to see what other freedivers were doing to protect their monofins, but to my surprise there is little information to be found. The only other examples I have seen other freedivers post about is lots of layered cardboard and duct tape. I have to admit, I worry about the ability of that type of packaging standing up to the abuse that baggage handlers will subject it to at the airport.

So here is the relatively simple three part solution I came up with for traveling with my monofin as checked baggage at the airlines:

1. Molchanovs monofin travel bag

2. Monofin blade polycarbonate protection plate

(I know I could have made this item myself, but I was feeling a little lazy and just ordering this with the bag was easier)

3. Foam pool noodle cut for corner protection

My carbon fiber freediving monofin

carbon fiber monofin in composite blade protector

Inserting the monofin into the blade protection plate

Monofin blade protection plate

Monofin with fin protector and foam corner packing protection

Foam corner protection added on top of the blade protection plate

Travel bag closed and ready to go

Monofin in molchanovs travel bag with fin protector and foam corner packing protection

Monofin with protection placed in travel bag

My only real complaint about this solution is that the Molchanovs bag is really not big enough to hold the monofin without squashing the heel straps, but otherwise this works really well.

I also plan to pack a yoga mat in the case to add some extra padding between the fin and the large flat sides of the case.

Let me know how you protect your monofin when you travel by leaving a comment. Keep on swimming!

John Eye in the pool during an FRC O2 workout. Photo by Zach Whalen

Apnea FRC O2 Team Pool Workout

by John Eye

Freediving, Pool Training

apnea, east coast freedivers, ecd, frc, freediving, john eye, johneye, josesanchez, o2, pool, team, workout

Had a good pool workout tonight with East Coast Freedivers group training at the Walter Brown Arena in Boston. Went into the night not expecting much since I have felt a little off my game for the last month because of various stress factors.

The night started off with FRC (functional residual capacity) dives down to a brick in the deep end of the pool. Diving after a passive exhale (FRC) is a good warm up before deep ocean dives, and is excellent training for freedivers restricted to a pool during the winter, as it simulates greater depth in terms of lung volume.

Since this is an O2 workout and not as active as other workouts it is easy to get cold. Once you get cold your breath-hold time is significantly reduced, so a wetsuit in the pool is recommended.

Divers were paired up in teams of two for direct supervision on all the dives as this workout can push limits, and we want a safety diver right there in case of LMC or blackout.

After fifteen minutes of the diver teams switching off on FRC dives, we moved on to active full lung dives from the shallow end, 25 yards. down to the brick, and then back to the shallow end for a half hour. All of these active dives were done with direct supervision. A safety diver on the surface with a kickboard watches the submerged diver at all times during the dynamic dive, and proper recovery breathing was executed after every dive.

I actually surprised myself with a nice 2:00 FRC dive on the brick, and a really nice comfortable 2:30 active dive. Close to my best FRC dive and one of the best active dives I have done in the past year. It’s nice to see the workouts paying off, and my skills slowly returning. I only feel this way sometimes when working out in my gym and see effect when taking my supplements (those are no secret, those who are thinking about taking supplements should click over here now).

Thanks to my training partner Jose Sanchez (in the red trimmed wetsuit) for watching over me while I pushed my times.

Apnea FRC O2 Team Pool Workout

Run Time: 1 Hour

Difficulty: Medium

Click on the training table to see a larger version.

Remember this workout requires direct supervision.

If you are local to Boston and are looking for freedivers to train with, East Coast Divers runs weekly group freedive pool trainings. Call the shop, message me, or join the Facebook group East Coast Freedivers to find out the schedule and info on trainings.

If you try the workout with your group let me know how it went, and if you have a variation that you tried, leave a comment. Dive safe.

Best Student film award for the movie Escapement from the New Hope Film Festival

Escapement Wins Award at New Hope Film Festival

by John Eye

Audio Mixing

audio post production, award, film festival, john eye, mixing, new hope film

The Film Escapement directed by Jae Williams, and sound mixed by John Eye at Beach House Studios just won an award at the 2016 New Hope Film Festival Award.

It is an honor to be involved in a project of this caliber. Thank you Jae and Nerissa (producer) for entrusting the audio post production to Beach House Studios and John Eye.