Cayman 2004 -
Freediving World Record Event
Day 11 - A round of PB's on the house!
Today, for the first time we leave out of West Bay dock. Although the swell is good enough to allow us to load here, the wind today is out of the east north east and gusting well past 20. This means some good chop on the surface, but fortunately very little swell.
We get out a little late, set up the counterbalance system, prep Derek and the camera and brief about the filming. Today Derek and Tony will fix on me with cameras rolling as I give the four minute countdown. From here they'll keep rolling which will allow us to edit a complete dive, surface to bottom to surface.
Martin starts warming up on his second free immersion stops around 3-5m and comes back up. Right ear again, so he clears his sinuses and starts a second attempt. Just when we think we have the ear licked, it acts up again. This is not only a problem for Martin but also Mandy as she's following Martin on a specific warm-up routine.
We're trying very hard to synchronize our warm-ups to avoid Derek having to spend ungodly amounts of time in decompression. Although he's using a rebreather to help accelerate this process, the times between Martin and Mandy reaching him at the bottom have been as long as 15 minutes. This means an unruly amount of deco time for Derek and a long time for us to entertain Derek as he goes through 45 minutes of decompression.
Martin starts his target dive and all seems to be working. He isn't having to go to his nose and soon he's kicked beyond my view. Minutes later I'm at depth, watching Martin ascend to my position at 25m. He looks strong today and his kick is relaxed. Soon we're ascending together. I drop my arms at the customary 10m mark as a reference to him, he drops his and we break the surface in unison. Martin is quite pleased with his dive until he looks at his gauge. His expression changes to 'pissed off' as his supposed 92m target dive is showing as 90m on the gauge. I remind him that the 90m is actually 2.7m below the surface and he follows up that he did touch the plate quite quickly. Suunto Stingers only sample every two seconds and this is an easy answer to the discrepancy. 92m in 2:58 (1:20 down & 1:38 up).
Next up is Mandy and I'm soon helping her fill the fluid goggles, getting her situated on the line and starting the seven minute countdown. Meanwhile Tony and I work to bring the plate up to her target of 66m (60m mark is at 5.8-6.1m in the waves). I've programmed the alarm on her Suunto D3 for 58m and today we also put a 10m mark on the line above the plate for reference. Zero plus something and she's off disappearing out of sight. Her kick and style are rapidly improving and I soon meet Mandy at 25m. She's looking very comfortable, drops her arms with me at 10m, hits the surface and all looks good. "I hit the plate again, my alarms didn't go off", she quickly explains. Not only this, but the D3 is still in time mode, it didn't switch over to freedive mode. Mandy's continuing equipment problems are an annoyance that needs to get worked out. This and the fact that she also needs to know when to turn, also missing the 10m mark above the plate is a problem. In the end she achieves 66m in 1:52 which is still a little fast, but she's looking great at the surface.
Mandy and Martin both train pressure adaptation quite significantly. This coupled with the fact that they don't frenzel equalize and simply manipulate their eustachian tubes means that they are fairly pressure immune. This is good and bad. Good because pressure or equalizing issues due to depth aren't a big determining factor in overall depth. Bad because they don't have the normal gauges that most of us have which tell them where they are at depth. Some of us feel the increased flexing of the chest, the extreme effort to move the air from lungs to mouth, and we can count equalizations, etc.
Doc is next. Today we're going to try a little psychological trick with him. You see we've been joking with Doc. Earlier on the dock I was explaining the Aquatic Ape theory. But for him there's a hitch, we believe the more apt term is 'Aquatic Rhino' based on his build. Some physiologies are good for freediving and some are good for power lifting and boxing. Doc is definitely the latter and he jokes about his Aquatic Rhino Reflex kicking in in the water :>) We help him through the warm-up process and he's definitely getting the timing of it. Not only this, but he's breathing-up on his back comfortably now and can feel the waves coming, adjusting his breathing to avoid choking on the water. As we talk Doc through his last warm-up Martin checks the plate depth. 28m / 92' where we told Doc we'd have it. Quickly Martin, Mandy and I are talking in sign and move it to 34m / 112': two meters deeper than his personal best.
All yesterday, the most conversation we heard out of Doc was throaty croaks and whale sounds like he was trying to call in a mate. It actually had some ladies turning their heads at the Hyatt pool side as if they were wondering 'What the hell is he doing?'. Doc's been practicing bringing air up from his lungs to his mouth, as this is his biggest equalizing shortfall so far. On his last dive to 32m / 105' he had run out of air and was wondering how we planned on getting him any deeper. We told him to practice the 'whale vocalizing technique' as his homework for the next two days. And for the next two days Doc dutifully attempted to call in all the North Atlantic whales he could muster.
It works! Doc starts his dive and I swim directly in front of him coaching him the whole way. We reinforce the whale sound technique, also keeping the pulls slow and relaxed. He's doing both of these. I can clearly see him manipulating the air from lungs to throat, throat to ears, throat to mask, lungs to throat, throat to ears ... Soon the 10m mark from the plate slides through his hands and now instead of him 'looking' towards the bottom to see where he's at, his eyes roll up looking towards the plate. Goal number three was DON'T LOOK TOWARDS THE BOTTOM :>) A couple more meters and I'm pumping my fists in encouragement -- the PFD cheerleader without pom-poms!
Touch down! Crowd goes wild! Soon Doc's on his way to the surface. Mandy, Martin and I swarm him with huge smiles and most of us are laughing. I'm sure he's confused as to why we're so excited about him doing 28m / 92' again and we can hardly contain ourselves. He hits the surface with a perfect recovery, and a slightly puzzled look on his face. Then we tell him that he's just made a new PB at 34m / 112' and that we'd tricked him. Doc's elated and pumping his fist in the air like he just knocked out his biggest rival at a prize fight. Smiles, handshakes and hugs all around. We're one big happy team with our newly joined Team PFD member.
The depth doesn't matter, only the strength of the commitment. And Doc is truly following our philosophy. We all have to set our sights on worthy and attainable goals, even if they seem too hard to achieve at times. Training, practice, perseverance and proper outlook are the keys. Doc exemplifies all of these, not only in but out of the water, as his success with ICU Medical Inc. shows. Doc is not only our newest Team PFD member, but the CEO of a highly successful medical company specializing in needleless IV units. The biggest challenge of taking a type A personality corporate leader is channelling those target-oriented qualities into the state of relaxation and near-mindlessness that is required by freediving.
Clearly he's getting the hang of this and by the look on his face after seeing his new PB, we're more than excited to see what he wants to challenge himself with next.
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