johneye Archives - John Eye

Packing a Monofin for Safe Airline Travel

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.

Apnea FRC O2 team pool workout idea

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.