Cayman
2006 - April 4 & 7, 2006
April 4
Q: When is a day off not a day off ?
A: When you're anyone but one of the athletes at Sink Faze 2006.
There's always more stuff to do than hours to do it in. True, the athletes can use a day like today for R&R ( recovery and rehabilitation) but the rest of the crew is busy organizing, reviewing, planning, cleaning, fixing, laundering, grocery shopping, stacking, unstacking, rinsing, phoning, emailing, wiring - making a list and checking it twice. As the event goes on the amount of gear and personal overhead naturally goes up, just on account of ordinary wear and tear.
And even when everything is put in order, this team never stops trying to make it even better.
Bill Coltart's rebreathin' safety divers are human dynamos. Day On - they dive. Day Off - they dive some more. They get from here to there in the island's most chic vehicle, which appears to be a (best guess !) Cuban army surplus poultry transport, suitably camouflaged for jungle stealth. Not much in the way of jungles on Grand Cayman , so it turns heads wherever it goes.
Stopped, waiting to pull out onto the main drag on 7 Mile Beach.
Tourist: "Hey, cool truck ! What year is it ?"
Anonymous Team Member, Looking at His Watch: " It's now 2006, sir !"
From Mandy-Rae: Today was suppose to be a day off for everyone but I realy wanted to give 84m another try. Thankfully Kirk, Tom, Dave, John, Peter, Erin and Connor all steped up to help me do it. And it worked. I did a great 85m dive in 2:38. I know I had been to 84m there last week but after that things started to go backwards for me. It is nice to be able to report that I am now back into it and will make my attempts on Thursday and Friday this week.
After my training dive we treated the whole crew to an afternoon at Stingray City. It was really funny watching the safety divers getting into the 10ft deep site with their rebreathers. I am pretty sure that we could have had them Freediving it with almost no coaching but hey, each to their own right. The Stingrays must had eaten too much in the morning because I had a hard time finding any that wanted the squid I brought them.
OPS brought out two of the scooters that Kirk, Martin and I will use on a special 80m scooter dive on Sat. These scooters are amazing. There is only one hand grip on them and it works like a motorcycle. Set the pitch to 9 and you are zipping through the water at mock 9! This is going to be a very fun dive!
April 5
Martin's just plain incredible. He's making life very tough for journalists, but causing minor business booms in the trophy and engraving industries. He's done it again: a new, new Constant Ballast World Record of 108 meters, dive time 3'50". He seemed uncharacteristically perturbed after surfacing - not at all shaky or weak, just annoyed. Well, it turns out this dive was even more remarkable than the depth and time let on. Martin's mask partially flooded during the final seconds of his descent, enough to keep his nostrils immersed in water almost all the way to the surface. As the air in his mask expands during ascent, Martin usually pumps it back into his lungs - it's nice fresh air, the equivalent of 1.5 liters at surface pressure. Sort of like a 1/3 lungful of air for a normal adult male, a big help coming up from depth. But not this time. Martin said he didn't know he could make it without recovering this air reserve, and even considered bailing on this dive. He didn't - and now he knows ( as do we all) that his limits are beyond what he and the rest of us had thought up to now. Yipes.
Doc Lopez's toes led the way again, for a feet-first Free Immersion descent to 53 meters, surpassing his own US National record set Monday. Looks like the Doc has his prescription pad out and is prescribing more records for himself. Long dive, slow, relaxed. Must be something to this head-up thing. Doc 's going to have to spill the beans on all his technique secrets. He likes to tell us that technique is what makes it possible for an 'average guy' like him to do these dives, so even though Doc is anything but an average guy, the rest of us need to know.
Mandy's going to do her record attempt tomorrow, an unscheduled competition day. It will be a redesign of the event configuration : essential crew only, and minus the gear for live video broadcast from depth. Zen freediving. Mandy only. Doc and Martin home resting.
April 6
Some days you get the bear. Other days - the bear gets you.
Mandy's Sink Faze ended today without the Constant Ballast World Record in her grasp. Another heartbreaker of a dive - so near, yet so far. Untethered by the video transmission cable I was able to follow here down farther than the 12 or so meters I'm held to when the camera is wired for live broadcast, and she looked so perfect. Mandy-Rae's movement in the water is one of the great visions in this life. I popped back to the surface and kept my eyes and the camera riveted to the line. When she reappeared from the deeper blue, she looked fine, with Kirk and Tom hovering about her like guardian angels. It came apart in the last few seconds, so close, so close. Never mind - there will be many more opportunities, and Mandy-Rae Cruickshank is a true champion.
More disappointment later, in the evening, with the outcome of Doc's 53 meter dive the day before called into question. The video reviewed, the verdict was rendered: disqualified. Doc's hand touched the aluminum crossbar of the dive rig before his airway cleared the water. Doc saw the tape, and is whole with the decision - it's clear as can be.
So, he'll just do it again is all.
April 7
Two divers up for record attempts: Martin gunning for the 110 meter speed bump on the Constant Ballast road, and Doc repeating his 53 meter Free Immersion dive to make good on his technical violation.
No go. Martin's mask flooded again ("That mask is fired !" he said later.) but this time completely, forcing him to turn back up at 104 meters depth. Doc gave it his all, but the weeks of training and competing seemed to have taken their toll and he signaled for assistance at about the 15 meter mark on his ascent.
I was pretty bummed out by the triple whammy of Mandy's, Martin's and Doc's setbacks, but then I remembered that whoa ! Holy Moly ! This team is going home with two huge world records and two national records as well. Not too shabby at all. I guess that's one of the differences between thoroughbread champs and the rest of us. I'll be moping for weeks about the bad news, but Martin, Doc and Mandy were all totally upbeat by evening and ready to kick the next set of record butts that comes along.
Team Performance Freediving - I salute you.
And later tonight, we'll all salute you with the proper and traditional flick of the grog cup at the wrap party.
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