Crete, the 4th largest island in the Mediterranean, is a freediving Mecca, and a destination location for a lot of travelers while still being a loyal home to many proud Greeks. It’s also the name of my Grandma, Crete, who was a wonderful person when she was alive.
Arriving late night at the Village Heights Golf Resort, we grabbed dinner to go and checked into our condo to get some sleep. We awoke to discover the amazing huge balcony and view of the Mediterranean Sea. Buffet breakfasts, lounging pools and areas, games, entertainment staff, we were ready to just stay in one place for a while.
We had fun exploring the resort the 1st day and getting massages at the spa. During Candace’s massage, Nova and I roamed around the playscape area looking to get into trouble. We soon found it as we encountered a ping pong table occupied by 3 English gentlemen, college students at Oxford University. We had to step in and complete, as the 4.5th person, the circle and make it a “proper” game. The Englishmen obliged and soon we were in an all-out match, Nova hanging out against my chest in the baby carrier as we both swayed back and forth and knocked the ping-pong ball all around. Limited with mobility, some shots were harder than usual, but our team persevered as we took down the opposition. By no means fair: we had an extra player participating!! No, but Nova liked the game, watching the ping pong ball get smacked around and, though the Englishmen were surprised that I could even hit the ball with a baby on my front, it wasn’t all that bad to play: except the serve. I by no means could get a killer-non-returnable-serve going. But we just toned that back and all and ended up with a fun match.
Parting ways with the 3 guys who were heading to the volleyball court for a game, Nova and I went around to the gift shop, bounced some inflatable balls around, and then trekked out to the volleyball area. For this game I decided just to chill in the grass with Nova. I figured we could make volleyball work if we really wanted to, even while Nova was strapped on, however, I would only be able to use the fist method, which is pretty inaccurate, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to snag shots on the fly or requiring quick sprints. So we enjoyed relaxing and watching the game instead from the grassy area on the side, Nova’s head going back and forth as the ball soared from side to side. Meeting back up with Candace, we all found a good spot at the Lobby World Cup Party, which the resort hosts for each game, and rooted for the team we picked to win!
Over the next couple of days we just kind of relaxed, checked out different pools, found an amazing salad bar, got to watching a few more World Cup games, caught up on some blog posts, and lined up some freediving for myself. This time the real deal: it was time to push my limits. Meet Orestis, a AIDA Master free dive instructor. AIDA is the organization that hosts the free dive world championships, organizes and verifies world record attempts, and is the gold standard for training, certifications, and development. Through our email correspondence, I convinced Orestis to let me skip the AIDA level 1 course and jump into the AIDA level 2 course. He agreed. The AIDA 2 course is normally a 3-day course, however I convinced him to give me a chance to complete it and take the test in two days. And so we began, with a crazy morning:
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| World Cup! Woohoo |
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| Nova, hitting on a much older boy! haha |
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| View from the Balcony |
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| Go Russia!! says Nova |
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| Nova is walking-assisted |
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| New Friends from Russia |
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| Learning to cook! |
Slated to meet Orestis at the dive site at 9:45am, 30 minutes away, I called Hertz, my rental car company, the day before and asked if they could come earlier than 9am, like 8:45am. They said no. The front desk told me all I needed was my passport, so the next morning I waited patiently in the lobby until the Hertz Lady showed up at 9am. There were 3 of us renting a car that day. Immediately she asked for drivers licenses -DUH, I thought: of course I need that - so I was off on a 5 minute run back to the condo, grabbing it, and a 5 minute run back. When I returned she was just starting on the second guy. Twiddling my thumbs, I waited as the clock turned 9:20 and we finally started the paperwork. Seeing that I just had got an email from my assistant about Jerusalem tours and booking, I tried to multi-task to view her research, make a decision, and message her back before I left WIFI and was gone for the day so that she could book the tours in time. While I was doing that and the paperwork, it dawned on me that this car is probably stick-shift. I asked. It was. And I had only driven stick once before, and that was Croatia using the 2015 world trip. I had completely forgotten, and it had been years so I immediately googled stick-shift instructions, loading it on my phone screen, so I would have it once I left the hotel WIFI zone. I made some quick decisions on the Jerusalem tours before asking the lady to walk with me to the car as we finished up the paperwork. Walking to the rental, my WIFI disconnecting, we got to the car, which was blocked from exiting by a food-delivery truck, and I came to find out that the GPS didn’t work! Coming up on 9:35am, listening to the lady explain stick, which her broken English didn’t do much of, I ran back to the lobby for WIFI and loaded up directions TO the dive site on my phone (which would only work one-way, and not be able to adjust once on the road), shot an email to Orestis saying I was just leaving, and then ran back, and flipped the car on. Pushing the clutch to the floor, I released the e-break, and stalled. Forcing myself to remember the muscle memory, vying with the universe to get to my dive lesson, I eased the clutch back, as I gave it about 2500 rpms, and took off down the road, gear one, to two, to three and beyond!
I thought all this was a great learning experience for me, as I pulled in around 10:10 to the dive shop, realizing that I didn’t have to be late that morning. That none of these things mattered. That excuses are irrelevant and that we create success.
I thought how, if at the beginning when the lady arrived, I had said to her - “hey I know there are a couple of other people here, but I called ahead yesterday and have an important appointment: if its ok for me to go first, I would greatly appreciate it. Could you start the paperwork while I run to grab my license? =) =)”, it would have shaved an easy 20 minutes off, and I could have done it. I’m always looking back at situations, regardless of how crazy they seem, without accepting that I couldn’t have done anything. I look at what I could have done. How I can do better. Then I learn, and then let it go. Because of this attitude, I feel that I continue to get better at managing situations and achieving my original intentions regardless of circumstance. Take responsibility. Whenever someone doesn’t do what they say they are going to do and I’m listening to their “excuse”, I sometimes find myself disconnecting and wondering if they truly believe what they are saying deep down. That they really don’t have control. I think that to the degree that they believe they don’t have control, is to the degree of effort that they put into resolving each of their difficult circumstances, thereby fulfilling that personal prophecy in each instance.
My initial interpretation of Orestis as I met him was a bit of prejudgement about how young he was, if his English was good enough, etc. However, as I sat down with him and we went into a 3-hour theory session, it became obvious his intelligence and, more importantly, his passion for freediving was epic. An architect, with a masters degree in architecture, it was intriguing to see him choosing to free dive for a living. We discussed oxygen transporting through the blood with hemoglobin; the buildup of carbon dioxide, and the body’s push of it into the lungs, locations in the body to equalize, the Respiratory and Circulatory system in greater detail, breathing, equalization, technique, safety, equipment, and the six types of freediving. Eventually we found ourselves driving my rental car to the free dive spot at Mononaftis Beach and suiting up with full body & hood suits. After squeezing into the type of performance wetsuit competitive free divers wear, throwing on some fins and a weight belt, I was soon swimming out into the Sea with Orestis as the bottom fell deeper and deeper away.
Orestis setup the rope, weights for it, and the buoy; threw my way some final reminders and it was time for me to show him what I could do. I did some yogic breathing, relaxing and preparing for 2 minutes, silently lowering my heart rate as I bobbed in the Sea waves. When I was ready, I sucked in air using my diaphragm; then chest, shoulders and neck, one big breath, and did my tuck & dive, exiting the surface world and entering the water world. Down I plunged, staying relaxed to conserve oxygen as I sank past one depth notch on the rope after another. As negative buoyancy occurred, the air in my lungs becoming compressed enough to allow the gravity underwater to pull me down, I tucked my arms in, cut out the finning and conserved energy as I motionlessly dove into the water, like a skydiver dives through the air. Touching the weights hovering at the bottom of the rope, I turned around and headed up, forcing calmness into my being as the urge to breath became greater. As I had reached the bottom, Orestis had begun his dive downward, thereby meeting in the middle with me and joining my ascent, observing carefully my dive style in order to become familiar, and also to step in, should any help be required.
Reaching the top, Orestis was surprised as I calmly gave him the OK and smiled. I had passed the requirements for depth on a level 3 AIDA course, and we needed a longer rope…. Orestis, nevertheless gave me a few pointers, taught me a cool technique I had never heard of that allowed me to REGAIN temporarily misplaced and fresh oxygen on the ascent, and soon I was off diving again. A short while later, we made our way back to shore, diving down to check out a couple uniquely colored Moray Eels along the way.
A World Cup game back at the resort and some dinner soon found us a bedtime, which leads us to rising up early for another free dive session the next day. With the level 2 exam at the end of the day, it was time to finish strong and learn as much as I could from Orestis, beyond the scope of the course. We started the day with a Static Apnea: a stationary dive. The purpose of this “immobile free dive” was many. First, as a requirement for this course, I had to hold my breath for 2 minutes and 30 seconds in order to pass. Second, though it seemed like it was unimportant at first, I soon discovered that holding my breath underwater while immobile, eyes closed, allowed me to actually pay attention to my body’s reaction to the breath hold, rather than all of the other things going on during a normal dive where I’m moving and watching and thinking of all sorts of other things. By being immobile, passing 2 minutes of breath holding, I could notice my first contraction take place, and started to count them as they continued to build and change. The urge to breath continued to advance, into 2 minutes and 30 seconds and I forced myself to relax as the clock ticked to 3 minutes. Orestis asked for the OK symbol and I flashed a thumbs up as he continued to count: 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I flashed the OK symbol again and the clock continued to click off towards the 4 minute mark and Orestis chimed “4 minutes”. I surfaced, coming up with no signs of Hypoxia. I had completed beyond the level 4 AIDA course requirements for a breath hold. We did a few more of these and I reached 4 minutes and 47 seconds, before we headed out to Sea to do some diving.
The goal today was a huge Sea Anchor thats famous in the area to Freedivers. Not visible to the eye at the surface, despite 80 foot visibility/clarity in the water, the Anchor lies in about 40 meters of water (around 130 feet). Orestis admitted that he doesn’t normally bring this type of length rope out for a level 2 course, but because of my comfortability with the deeper water, we were giving it a shot. I was feeling pretty hypoxic because of my almost 5-minute breath hold and a bit nauseous, but I relaxed and knew what signs to look for in case of trouble and decided to take it easy. Down I went. Orestis carefully critiqued my technique and upon surfacing, we worked on a few things; like keeping my head tucked for aerodynamic reasons, facing the line during the descent, keeping my arms close to the body in to reduce drag, proper finning and entry into the water. Up and down I went practicing this all. Thinking this course would be more of a formality than anything else, and despite my breath holds, and comfort with the depths, I realized that I had quite a bit to learn. We finished the day, making a shot for the anchor. I exceeded 100 feet, was able to see the anchor, but mid-dive ended with a cramp in the leg and inability to equalize, which I figured out how to fix. Even still, I took that as a sign, both happening on one dive, and as our time was already over for the class for the day, we headed back.
I drilled Orestis when back in the car with questions about types of free dive equipment: Fins, wetsuits, masks, weights, buoy’s, everything. I wanted good brands, and I wanted to buy the stuff I was missing. Passing the exam in 30 minutes, with a 91%, I was a certified AIDA2 diver!
Once back at the apartment I hopped in the shower, got ready, and we headed out to downtown. Driving in downtown was crazy: it’s just how the Greeks drive. Fun for me at least though: there are so few rules and you can kinda just do whatever you want, if you are paying attention. We finally found parking and made it over to our restaurant - Peskesi - a place Orestis recommended. From ambiance, to service, it was great! The food - almost all locally derived - was excellent and very unique, like nothing you’ve had before. Great veggie and meat options, with an artistic flair to add to the experience. I recommend reservations, as we were lucky to get a seat. Walking through downtown after dinner was icing on the cake. Passing live music while walking through the park, we headed to a place, just a few minute walk, that I had saved in my Maps, in case we were ever downtown - The Venetian Loggia. Such a cool architecturally created building, we walked around it and ended up letting Nova wander around the huge marble courtyard with a bunch of other kids, all running around too. After washing Nova in the sink of a local restaurant, she was ready for a stroller-ride past some more live music, almost a choir really, and around an ancient fountain - The Morosini Lions Fountain. Heading back to the car, and shazamming a couple of cool songs from local spots we passed, we were ready to call it a night and get ready for an Epic Day.
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| One of the best local beers |
Not that yesterday wasn’t great, it’s just when we plan an Epic day it is kind of crazy sometimes. Besides dinner last night, Candace had been at the resort the whole week. So on the last day, I was planning something special and knew that she would be ready to get out of the house for some adventure:
Original Epic day note plan -
Leave 8 to 8:30am after breakfast
Resort - Agia Pelagia - 50 minutes drive
swim, free dive, explore - 1 hour.
10:30 travel from Agia Pelagia to Lake Kournas - 1 hr 20 mins
12:00pm - noon - in Lake Kournas - Swim, have lunch, explore, 1.5 hours.
1:30pm travel from Lake Kournas to Ag Pavlos beach - 1 hr 30 minutes
Swim Ag Pavlos beach, explore - 1 hour.
4:30pm travel from Ag Pavlos to Kaloi limenes - 1 hr 34 mins
Have dinner, free dive, explore 2 hours
8pm Head back to resort - Kaloi limenes to resort - 2 hrs
Home 10pm/11pm
We ended up starting the day heading direct to the biggest freshwater lake on the Mediterranean (on any island), Lake Kournas. The ancients said that the lake depth was never-ending, going on forever. I dove down, searching for the famous fish that nibble at your flesh (you’ll find them in wellness centers where people put their feet in the water, etc), and dove down to some weeds, seeing a gigantic goldfish-like-carp. The lake is, in fact, about 30 meters deep at the most. Nova got in with her cool inflatable toy, and we all swam out into the lake as a family. We then had lunch at an epic restaurant high up on the hill, overlooking the entire lake and mountain behind - Ambrosia Restaurant.
The next stop was Agios Pavlos, a free dive spot on the south coast of Crete. In order to get there we had to travel through the center of Crete, north to south. I was surprised how many mountains there were as we curved around them in our little rental car, enjoying the views of expansive valleys, mountains, and eventually the sea. We headed through small roads in tiny villages, and twisted along routes that were missing large parts of the concrete as we approached the coast. Basically twisting down to a beach, we wound back up, the car barely making it up certain parts and finally making it to Ag Pavlos beach. A beautiful location with unique rock formations in a bay jutting up all over, it looked like a really cool place to explore the underwater world. I headed to the beach and Candace to the one restaurant there, to place an order for us. After hopping in the water, I swam out along the left side, I checking out all the fish as I moved past and beyond all the other swimmers towards the lip of the bay. Reaching the corner I swam out and around into an incredible drop-off where visibility of the bottom was lost. I found a big school of medium-sized fish and swam down to them, enticing them to come over by me and swim in a circle around me. Heading back up for air I repeated this cool interaction a few times before I caught sight of a cave. Scoping the entrance, and then swimming around to see the other exit hole and scoping that out, I felt great about it. Swimming down to the cave, entering, through it and and then back out, I turned around during my ascent and saw a hole half-way through that could be passed through. I re-entered, got to the whole, and then just let my positive buoyancy pull me up and through the hole, motionless arms at my side to squeeze through. I soon found myself back out with the interesting school of fish and then back into the bay to play around a bit before catching up with Candace for a must needed lunch.
While Candace was distracted, I grabbed a cool one-of-a-kind foot jewelry piece, encompassing the majority of the top of the foot, and wrapping around the ankle on the back. These things always come in handy for thoughtful birthday, anniversary, Christmas gifts and so on. Hopping back into the car, Nova Candace and I continued our drive to get to the next spot! Time was of the essence here because if was around 5:30 and the next location entry-point was over an hour and a half away. It would be a crunch to get there before the sun set. Our drive took us up and up, back into the mountains. As we ascended, Nova began to cry up a bit in the back. No place to stop, we had to continue, as she spouted off her unhappiness in the back. I asked Candace to sing to her, and she started a song - “100 bottles of Milk on the wall, 100 bottles of milk, take one down, pass it around, 99 bottles of milk on the wall”. Nova quieted down and listened. “99 bottles of milk on the wall…” and so on. It took 46 bottles of milk to put Nova to sleep, and that is a LOT of milk ;), but it DID work. Haha.
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| You know its (road) about to get crazy when you see this |
Our third location was tough to get to. Racing against the setting sun, we got to the point where the road turned into a dirt road. The sign said: “NO RENTAL CARS, If you enter you void your contract and are subject to fine.” Now, Orestis had said to me when telling me about this place “to persevere and overcome the challenges to get there, it is worth it”. He also told me about a dive where you swim down 15 meters deep - enter a cave, swim 20 meters horizontally, then ascend 25 meters into the mountain, where you come up and out into a cave-pool Inside the mountain, where the huge hollow cave-shaft reaches to the sky; a hole in the mountain. He also said not to try it, especially solo. I just wanted to find the entrance to see what it looked like. As we entered the dirt road to get down to the water, it reminded me of the Boise Cascade Road up in Maine. Rocks here and there, swerving around things, and watching carefully. After about 10 minutes, we needed to make the turn Orestis mentioned to get to the exact beach, and the road soon went from bad to crazy. Feeling like I needed a 4-wheel drive truck, I carefully maneuvered along this road, too small for 2 cars to fit, with large rocks all over the dirt road. We thought of turning back, fear of a flat tire being eminent and having had flats before on much better roads than this one, in much better vehicles, it might have been a good idea. Yet we had come so far that we decided to push through, taking it slowly and getting by one rock at a time. Finally reaching the “lot” to leave the car and head out on foot the rest of the way, we moved quickly as sunlight was now only coming through as residuals. We tackled the 20 minute hike though a beautiful valley, reminding me of the hike to Havasupi Falls, over rock-beds, past a deserted church (crazy how Greeks have churches in the most impossible places), and a well.
We arrived to an amazing beach with beautiful rocks; surrounded on 2 sides by cliffs which extended out on either side of the water, creating an interesting bay. A couple of people were setting up tents to spend the night as I set down my gear, threw on my mask, and headed out. I had been diving for the day with no snorkel and no fins and I continued the theme as I swam out along the left side of the bay. Reaching the point, the drop-off went to oblivion. I dove down a few times as twilight was starting to set, careful to not push it too deep, because of lack of light at the surface. Amazed at my lack of fear of the deep, the unknown, and being out in such a huge body of water all alone, I was growing more confident with the water. Though thoughts of sea-monsters did pop into my mind ;). It was good how safe I was playing it: I wasn’t even staying down much more than a minute. Even still, the AIDA 2 free dive course had deepened my abilities to where I was a new type of diver, connecting with the Ocean in a deeper, happier way.
By the time I got out of the Sea, there was barely any light left to speak of. We took a few minutes to soak it all in, grab some photos and sort through the cool rocks before getting organized to head out, soon in total darkness. Using both our phone flashlights, we trekked along the valley, listening to the unique noises in the night. Nova was REALLY wanting to be with Mommy, and letting us know about it but mom is pregnant and its easier to hike with Daddy carrying Nova. That didn’t last long though, and I was soon handing her back to Candace. Hearing some noise behind us, I checked my pocket knife, turned, and saw a gentleman with a huge walking stick and dirt-stained clothing approaching. A quick conversation determined him to be harmless and his offer to escort us out (he heard Nova crying and came to help) was accepted. I kept an eye on him while he sung a lullaby to Nova in French, soothing and comforting her to silence. Making it back to the car, we waved goodby to our shoeless French friend, grabbed a backup water from the back seat, and then pulled out to maneuver the crazy road. From the crazy road, to the less crazy road we made our way carefully and finally to the normal road where the asphalt could finally sooth our poor tires and the bumps cease to barrage us. We sighed in relief, MADE IT!! A smooth, 2-hour ride home put us back at the condo at 11pm or so.
In the morning, our flight to Tel Aviv, Israel will take us into a different world and we will be in Jerusalem, learning what happened between BC and AD, walking the same steps as one of the most well known humans ever: Jesus. Experiencing and exploring a totally different culture and history, it’s time for us to explore Israel! And its NOVA’s Birthday!!
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| Crazy Roads to get back and down to beach |
