David Blaine - Drowned Alive
David Blaine and Performance Freediving International How We Saw It
It all began early december when the call from DB Productions came with a query as to the training aspects of freediving and specifically the discipline of static apnea. "David will want to talk to you" came the voice on the other end, an office worker of David Blaines, the magician I had seen in 'Street Magic' and also knew, like many others, as the guy who could 'levitate'. A couple days later came the call, "Mr. Krack, please hold for David Blaine" and the next 45min the discussions of static apnea ensued with a lot of knowledge on David's side through internet study and our redirection as to some of that knowledge gained from its source. "How soon can we train" asked David and by December 10th I was walking into the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Vancouver to meet for the first time David and his long-time friend and now business manager Lou Garbayo.
For the next four days we trained in static apnea at the Four Seasons hotel pool and the University of British Columbia Aquatic Centre. Training would end for the holidays and would pick up again December 28th after leaving David with some 'training' in which to practice during our brief intermission for the holiday season. By December 28th and through January 3rd we not only trained and developed his static apnea, but Mandy-Rae also started to train both David and Lou in class and pool sessions as Open Water Divers. This would be finished by myself in our newly devised plan of heading to Cozumel and by mid-January David was was a PADI Open Water Diver and was kicking hell out of the six-minute range in statics. A whole life introduction into the underwater world had begun and soon we would find the coalesed vision of duration living in a sphere followed by a breath-hold attempt coming to fruition. Also a plan was hatching that would see David and his production company coming to the Cayman Islands during our record training in March to meet up with renowned underwater filmmaker Bob Talbot of 'OceanMen' fame.
Early February I crashed into New York for my first real-time in the Big Apple and was immersed into the world of magic at DB Productions. Static practice and developing a more formalized and structured training program would take up the next ten days, while working with the many people involved in production including the highly motivated and exceptionally vibrant personality of Executive Producer, Shelly Ross. Here our time not training was spent providing contacts and ideas as to how a immersed duration in a sphere would run and the life support equipment, people, training and safety would bond together. After this time the vision of the show had hardend and now the life of it rested in the details and the magic that David would be busily shooting over the next many months. The end of my time here also saw an amazing seven-plus minute static apnea which was really exciting to see after such a very short time training. The show in May would approach fast, but David was well on his way to doing for the world of scubadiving and freediving what no other show in recent memory had ever done before.
The second week of March saw us now in full training mode with Mandy-Rae, Martin and Doc for their world and national record attempts the beginning of April and along with this, our afternoon free times and days off would see us with David, Bob and the growing assortment of diving and magic enthusiasts to produce what would become some of the most amazing underwater visuals for commercial TV spots and make up a main stay of what was now being called "David Blaine; Drowned Alive" airing the first week of May. Our time with David and Bob in Cayman would see us introducing him to world famous Stingray City, puting him at 25m/80ft down in a semi-closed cave with nothing but pants and a smile in what is called Trinity Caves, breath-holds easily reaching the seven plus minute mark and open water freedives to 45m/150ft. David was truly becoming adapted to an underwater existence, but greater things would soon present themselves to us during the show.
Mid-April ended with Team PFI adding another 3-world records from Martin Stepanek and two-national records from Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Dr. George 'Doc' Lopez. Mandy would head back to Canada for a diveshow, Martin would head to Florida to teach a PFI Intermediate Freediver program and I would head directly to New York to start the initial work from our end on 'Drowned Alive'. Soon Mandy-Rae and Martin would arriving to join me and with the PFI Team fully assembled we began to get down to business. This included more consultation, static training and an initial first view of the sphere filled for a 24-hour test and a rehersal of safety protocols and standards for the worst case scenario should it happen. Here we were also meeting Trent Schultz from Kirby Morgan who was supplying most of the u/w life support and the Eric's from the commercial diving company would were supply the aircompressors and emergency bottles for a week long duration in the sphere.
Game day came and with everyone assembled at the heart of culture in New York, Lincoln Center was transformed into the epicenter of diving activity show business. An initial press conference to a throng of media would kick it off and minutes later David would splash down into the sphere and our 24/7 safety and supervision would commence. Each Team PFI member would rotate themselves from primary safety for 8hrs, standby safety (resting in a nearby trailer within radio contact) for 8hrs and then a final 8hr break (but cellphone contact) away from Lincoln Center for some proper rest.
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