NEWS

Cayman 2005 - Freediving World Record Event

Day 14 - March 27 - Not just another training day

It's not just any other training day: Doc hits a new depth milestone, and Mandy makes her prerequisite for free immersion.

From Mandy:
The line-up for today is me, then Doc, Doc, Doc. He likes to do three dives a day. Martin is taking the day off to rest up after yesterday's VB dive and his slight squeeze. Due to my chest squeeze yesterday, I decide to take it easy. So I'm getting my weighting figured out for constant no-fins and maybe I'll try another free immersion.

The first dive feels a bit tough on the way down, due to the fact that I'm only wearing three pounds of lead. It's what I wore in Vancouver when I did the 41m world record in 2003. The water here is, of course, much different and I find myself a bit too light. So I just call the dive at 20m.

For Doc's first dive of the day he sticks to familiar territory with an easy 45m dive. While he's recovering and resting up for another go at it, I decide to sneak in and try another constant ballast no-fins dive. This time I wear a 3lb neck weight and 2lb of lead on my waist. This is much better and I pull off a very easy 36m dive.

Doc's next dive is set at 50m. He gets on the sled, begins his breathe-up and is off. Unfortunately, he bails off the sled early. Later he tells us that he was just so relaxed that he totally forgot about having to equalize. So, after a short oxygen break and a long surface interval, Doc is ready for his last attempt of the day. Once again the sled is set for 50m. This time he remains relaxed and remembers to equalize. Watching from the surface we know that he makes it all the way to depth. We wait to see him and Kirk break the surface in celebration. Sure enough, after Doc does textbook recovery breathing, he screams and splashes with exhilaration. He's hit the 50m mark for the very first time.

All in all, it's a good day.

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