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Cayman 2005 - Freediving World Record Event

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Day 6 - March 19 - 36 dives between 20 - 45m for safety and sled recovery

Things are starting to flow nice and efficiently now. With Spencer getting to depth to help make the recovery lifts of the sled, it's taken a little pressure off me.

Spencer Lofthaug
Spencer Lofthaug, safety scuba diver 		Kirk preparing for a recovery dive
Kirk preparing for a recovery dive

Today Doc and Martin each make three runs on the sled. Actually, Martin makes two runs, as his first training dive is a constant ballast no-fins to 50m / 165ft, then the two sled runs to 65m / 213ft and 80m / 262ft. Strangely enough, Martin is laughing at the difference in the equalizing technique he's now using. Being a specialist in heads down equalizing to 103m / 338ft (constant ballast world record), he's finding the sensations and some of the techniques different.

Doc ready to descend
Doc ready to descend
Doc's progressing nicely and we're taking progressive steps to go deeper. Today he's going for two runs to 30m / 99ft and then a 35m / 115ft. The first run to 30m / 99ft isn't so smooth as he's working on the relaxation and equalizing part of the dive. His second dive is much easier and he has some time to look around when he hits the bottom. His third dive is even easier and he's starting to feel a groove happening.

While we're on the boat Mandy phones to inform us that Alaskan Airlines overbooked her flight from Seattle to Miami by over forty people! Needless to stay she spent the night in Seattle and we should see her Sunday afternoon. All that prep and rush to fly what's a two hour drive from Vancouver?!

Kirk recovering the sled
Kirk recovering the sled
Turns out my typical day in the water consists of approximately 36 dives between 20 - 45m for safety and sled recovery. As more crew members arrive on island and join us on the boat, I'll be able to move away from sled prep and recovery to simply coaching. Our big help will be when Bill Coltart of Pacific ProDive our scuba team supervisor, and Tom Lightfoot, webmaster and PFI Instructor join the growing list of crew members.

Jokes invariably turn to decompression illness issues. We now employ a five minute break on 100% oxygen at 6m / 20ft to washout any excess nitrogen. We're also counting on the O2 debit reload to help in multiple days of training as well. So, after each run the athletes watch the next from the oxygen bar we've set up.

In the evening we have to tear Goh away from his computer and the video editing he's doing. He's turning into a real professional, his shots are improving exponentially each day. We can't wait to see the job he does with the Cayman 2005 DVD after the awesome Cayman 2004 DVD.

Tomorrow is a day off. We'll be picking Mandy up at the airport at 1:45 p.m. If she's feeling up to it we'll go for an acclimatization dive from shore. On Monday it'll be back on the yellow beast for some more fun.

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