Competitions

I love competitions! I regularly search though all the portals I know to find out whether there are new and interesting ones I would like to take part in. Because I take part in so many of them, I sometimes win really cool prizes. Last year, for example, I won a return flight from Vienna to any European city of my choice. Together with my brother and his girlfriend we flew to Paris for New Year’s Eve – it was awesome. For another competition I had to write a poem about sweets and then won a big box full of chocolate!!

                           My brother and me in front of the Eifel Tower

                                                                            

My last prize took place about two weeks ago. On Facebook I read that a travel agency raffled a diving course with the Austrian world champion in freediving, Christian Redl. I was fascinated. I knew that I had to take part because I love scuba diving and snorkeling and all other sorts of water sports. I filled out the application form and waited…and waited…and waited, but nothing happened. On Facebook the travel agency congratulated the winners but unfortunately I was not one of them. 
A few days later I received an email where they informed me that one participant cannot take part and asked me if I had time and would like to come. Of course I had time! Two days later I met the other winners (about 10 people) at the “Therme Wien” in Vienna. When Mr. Redl arrived some of the participants were really excited and nervous and took pictures with him. He turned out to be a really nice guy, talked to all of us and told us the agenda for the next four hours. Then we started. At first, we had to hold our breath as long as we could and he timed us. I managed 1 minute and 5 seconds. 

Afterwards he showed us how to relax and concentrate on our body and breath. Moreover, Mr. Redl taught us how to breath correctly. I now know that it is important to have positive thoughts because they need less oxygen then negative ones and that it is essential to relax your body and to slow down your heart rate. Finally, we did the same exercise from the beginning. Everyone had to hold his or her breath and our teacher timed us. I nearly doubled my time with 2 minutes and 5 seconds! This was a great experience and I learned some very useful techniques. 

The Austrian world champion in Freediving - Christian Redl