Game Day - Record Day 1, Sat 8/12/07

Saturday morning met me with nervous stomachs and thoughts of bad things. Being the superstitious man I am about changing routine I was a bit pissed at breakfast when I noticed that they didn't have any green peppers for my omelette, but I could live with that. Then as I went to grab a banana, they didn't have any there either! Now i'm not saying i'm a sport diva or anything but I could feel the hissy fit "i'm not doing a national record without banana" rage coming on. Luckily one of the guys ran off and got me 2 bananas from the kitchen and the crisis was averted.

After we went through some ground rules and came up with a game plan for the day we stretched, got changed and made our way out to the platform. We were kind of locked into a time slot in order for the scuba team to know when we were going (for both safety and filming), but I was trying to wrangle every extra minute I could, just to make sure I had digested enough and to let the nerves settle down a bit. Eventually we headed out, with Mark to attempt a 71m Free Immersion dive, followed by my 50m Free Immersion, then Mark's Variable Weight to eith 80m or 85m (can't recall the exact number), then my Variable to 72m.

I did my warm ups on the separate line, each warm up was a little shorter than the previous day, probably due to me eating a little more banana at breakfast (a sweet victory). Then I moved over and clung onto the the outer metal frame of the pyramid and waited for Mark to do his dive. I shut my eyes and tried to forget about Mark's dive, but eventually I could hear voices saying he'd been down too long, and when I opened my eyes I eventially saw him making his way back up, very slowly. At one point about 5m down he drifted away from the line and couldn't reach it, he leaned forward and managed to grab it again for that last pull to the surface. After this my view was obstructed by the pyramid but I knew Mark was having either a loss of motor control or a blackout, either way the dive was not successful - I looked under the rig and I could see one of the ladies' legs wrapped around Mark's in support. I tried to put that thought out of my head as I headed over for my dive.

After a couple of minutes of slow breathing I gave Linda the signal that I would go in 2 minutes. There was quite a bit of chop on the surface and I was getting the occasional facefull of water during my breathup. Finally I did my last 5 purge breaths, packed and started down the line. I tried to take it slowly with long arm strokes, at 25m my first alarm went off and I started to mouthfill, shut my eyes and started my glide. After a few seconds I didn't think I was gliding too well so had another small pull on the line at about 35m. After this I concentrated on my mouthfill. I haven't quite figured out the mouthfill yet, I tend to lose it and fill it up again by humming, equalise and lose my mouthfill again etc. After a while I run out of hum and that's when it starts getting difficult. I was starting to get a bit concerned when I heard my second alarm (which is in my hood next to my ear where I can hear it well) go off at 45m. I opened my eyes and kept gliding to the bottom plate, grabbed my tag and started back up the line. The way back up went fairly well, I think I went a bit quicker than normal and I was met somewhere around 20m by Sofus the Danish safety man. The last 15m were a leisurely cruise back to the surface where I took a couple of big breaths and did my surface protocol to Judge Lotta who was in the water. After 30 seconds I got the ok and made big girly cry, started splashing around all was merry. One in the bag, 2 more to go.

Forty five minutes later I was back in the water on the sled, readying myself for Variable Weight. The rope was set to 72m which I thought was obtainable given that i'd only been past it once. Same story again, training had proven that equalising was my big issue on the sled. I've never felt really hypoxic on the swim back up, in fact it's felt absolutely brilliant not wearing a any weight and letting the wetsuit bouyancy start lifting you from about 30m. Anyway, did my breath up, packed and released the brake on the sled and took off. I had an extra complication to this dive - I had to leave the sled down the bottom. In training we would dive and, at the bottom, inflate the balloon and send the sled back up, then swim up ourselves. We had to do this otherwise we'd be pulling up 60kg of sled 3 times a day. You wouldn't think this would be an issue but when you're narked like crazy and are on autopilot you'd be surprised how the mind wanders and how much you forget. I got past 30m and with the scuba crew well behind me started the real descent, concentrating on equalising my ears as well as my mask. At 55m I started mouthfilling (hugely easier with the head up) and stared at the wonder that is the Arch, the big hole in the side of... err, the hole, that starts at around 55m. Getting down where it's a bit darker past 60m always feels surreal because, well i've hardly done it before. As the air started running out to equalise with I started running through my head what I had to do: get off sled, leave it there, start swimming up....get off sled, leave it there, start swimming up.... pretty easy really. As the ears started to tighten up a bit the sled slammed into the bottom plate. I wiggled and wiggled my knees until my monofin was free of the handlebars then started the long swim up, not that I was particularly worried as I was pretty narked. Mostly staring at the Arch on the way back, eventually it left me and the scuba guys and the counterweight rope came into view so I knew I was close. Once again Sofus met me at around 20m and I stopped kicking and glided back to the surface to the end of what was a very pleasant dive. Thirty seconds later another girly cry and another Aussie record under the belt. I had 10 minutes on Oxygen after this which was very hard, because after a successful dive all you want to do is yabber a bit to whoever is closest, which is hard to do when you've got a regulator in your mouth and underwater.

Afterwards we headed back in to the restaurant for some post mortem analysis and started thinking about the next day. Mark was understandably upset at not making a dive he had done previously, after some hard thinking he came to the conclusion that he was very dehydrated that morning and hadn't been able to rehydrate much. This changed things a bit as having a tangible reason for something bad happening means you can deal with it and move on. We got Mark onto the rehydration formulas and he spent the rest of the day sucking down the gallons.

At the hotel that afternoon we were seriously knackered so it was a pretty lazy one. The ongoing fatigue we were both feeling had to be factored into to our decision of what depths to go for the next day - should I try to extend the Free Immersion record? The risk to this was that I would muck it up and not be able to do the No-Limits attempt later on. I couldn't do No-Limits first as logistically it was too hard lugging the rope up and down with so much weight on it. Decisions decisions....

Training Day 4, Friday 7/12/07

Wasn't feeling the best this morning, starting to feel a bit fatigued from each day's training. Normally i'd do 2 days training and take 1 day off, but since we're only here for a short time we don't really have that luxury. Everyone else is starting to feel the same way too, sickness aside we're all a bit knackered. We got to the Blue Hole today to find it unseasonably cold and very very windy with larger waves being chopped up than we've had so far. I had my goal of 50m FIM and 70m Variable in mind, though was thinking of adjusting these given the conditions. My cold had also resurfaced during the night thanks to the cool breeze that's been hounding us. When we jumped in the water it was much warmer than the air, and a few metres down all the chop subsided and it was lovely and clear. I did my warm ups which were a bit better than the previous day, then put Mark's lanyard on and started my final breath up. I duckdived and started my descent, feeling not that bad but not superb either, I tried to concentrate on long slow arm strokes. In the sink phase I kept reminding myself to mouthfill and equalise and something must have been working because it was a bit easier than the previous day. My gauge went off at 45m and I managed another small equalisation and glided until I was pretty sure I was at 50m or a bit over it. I opened my eyes and I saw a massive cavern right in front of me... the Arch! The Arch is a big hole in the side of the Blue Hole that is about a bit over 50m deep. In all my Variable Weight dives i'd been looking for it but have never seen it thus far, so I was pretty excited, well as excited as I could get for someone trying to stay calm. I turned and started heading for the surface, felt a bit of fatigue in my arms but generally it felt easier than the previous day. Linda met me around 20m and we glided to the surface together and I did my surface protocol no problems. A quick check of the gauge told me i'd done a 52m dive so I was very happy with that. After disconnecting the lanyard I headed over to the Oxygen cylinder for a couple of minutes of decompression. Later on we got the sled ready and approached our Variable dives. Mark went first and did a great PB, which we later found out was a bit of an accident as he had taken his hand off the brake and then couldn't relocate it. Oh well, whatever gets you down there ;-) I was up next and told Linda my attempted depth (65-70m), expected time, did my breath up, packed and took off. The sensations of a sled dive are still a bit weird and I was struggling not to release too much air to equalise my mask on the way down. After 30m the sled sped up and we rattled all the way down to 60m when my alarm started beeping. Linda had given me some advice before my dive so I was thinking of this as I did my last equalisation and rode it down a bit further. When I could not equalise again I hit the brakes straight away. At this point I realised I was pretty narked as I remember being confused and lifting the airbag up so it would fill, turning the gas tap on, then realising that I hadn't climbed off the rig yet and my knees were locked in by my monofin! Shite! (you see the sled has "handlebars" that you sit behind your knees. With a monofin you have to kind of lock your knees in place then release them one by one at the bottom). I quickly turned the gas tap off and got my knees free of the sled and turned the air back on. Eventually the bag filled and I turned the tap off and it took off to the surface. I gave a pull on the rope and started monofinning back up, thoroughly dazed and confused. When it started getting lighter I looked up the line and Linda was waiting for me. Once again we glided up together and I got to the surface, did my surface protocol, looked at my gauge and once again gave a sheepish grin which was part narcosis and part guilt as I said "oops" and showed her my gauge... 76m! We all had a bit of a cheer and then she shooed me off to the oxygen tank for 10 minutes of decompression. At lunch there were smiles all round, both Mark and I hadn't thought we'd do anything like we'd done today, Sam Kirby had a great day just mucking around and seemed to find the love again, Anne-Marie had some earlier mental issues but managed to find the love again at the end, and Sofus our Danish mate just had a good time helping us and got a decent Constant Weight dive in again. Smiles all round! As we rode back into town in the Jeep we all had a bit of a collapse and everyone now is really knackered. A quiet evening tonight and records day tomorrow....

Training Day 3, Thursday 6/12/07

Had a good day today. Had my usual half an omelete with a piece of brown toast and banana, at this stage i'm too superstitious to go for anything else. After brekky was feeling a bit too full which I don't like before diving. Did my usual sinus rinse with usual gag but this time no follow through, like Tuesday. Today was actually cloudy which is pretty rare for these parts, but luckily this also meant that the winds we've been having had died down. When we got to the Blue Hole conditions were absolutely brilliant, good vis, warm water and no swell at all. As we waited to jump off the pontoon there were a school class of New Zealand kids snorkelling. It was funny hearing all the kiwi accents and almost reminiscent of a scene at Bondi Beach. Anne-Marie ended up taking some time to show one poor lad how to put his mask and snorkel on which was pretty funny. In the water I did my usual prep dives, a little shorter than normal because it was only 3 hours since brekky and I could still feel myself digesting. My sinuses were feeling a lot better, not far off 100% now. Mark did his big dive - a free immersion one and had a great result. After he jumped off I moved over to the pyramid and started my final breath up. During this we had all manner of wanker tourist snorkellers (not the kiwi kids, they were fine) coming over and grabbing our setup to have a discussion with each other and yell and laugh and generally get in the way. After they were shooed off I finished my breath up, packed and took off. The first 20m felt pretty good and I stopped pulling at about 25m and let myself drift down. I'd taped a 0.5kg weight to my neckweight and this was helping me fall straight, unlike yesterday when my legs were trying to overtake my head. In the 30m area I kept filling my mouth with air and losing it, this continued right into the 40's until my alarm went off at 45m and I kept drifting down until I felt a little pressure. Turned and headed back up starting to feel the urge to breath reasonably early. Lotta met me at 20m and I had a glide to the surface as I became bouyant again. Couple of breaths and did my surface protocol and checked my gauge. I ended up doing 49m which was close enough to my target of 48m so I was pretty happy another PB was in the bag. We then readied the sled for some variable weight. After yesterday's 60m dive I was a bit hesitant to put too much depth on today as the risk of lung barotrauma is very real when big jumps are made at these depths. I set my alarm for 55m and would see how I go. I've found that my limiting factor in sled diving is equalising, it's never too much a stretch swimmng back from the depths i'm attempting. After a small breath up I check my arms are in the right spot, someone is holding my monofin up to stop it from creating too much drag and put my hand on the brake release. Take my last breath, pack and take off. The sled feels like a rocket for the first 20m as I struggle to keep equalising in time. After 20m I settle back and try and relax into the dive with my eyes shut. It's pointless trying to read my gauge as we're going fast and it gets darker fairly quickly. I start mouthfilling to try and stay on top of equalising and eventually I hear my gauge beeping at me to tell me i'm at 55m. By the time I realise that it's beeping i'm well past 55m but can still equalise. Eventually no more air comes up when I try and mouthfill so I hit the brake. I don't feel as narked this time so I know straight away to get my legs out of the sled handles, lift the air bag up, twist the handle on the air tank and fill the bag with air until it starts moving, then quickly shut off the air and let go as the whole sled shoots off. I start my ascent with some strong kicks then settle into a slower pattern 2 kicks and a glide. Lotta met me somewhere around 20m and I stopped kickng and glided the rest of the way. It's so much easier ascending not wearing 4kg of lead! I surface trying not to slam into the returned sled, breath and do a surface protocol. As I surfaced Mark was barking at me telling me to not to get so close, I was about to tell him where to go when I turned and saw a few Italian tourists that decided to use the pyramid as a gossip lounge. I laughed and checked my gauge and found it to say i'd been to 65m. Bloody hell! A bit better than i'd hoped and apart from the equalising a really easy dive. Chest and lungs felt good too, no coughing blood and squeeze. After a couple more dives from the others we headed back in for our regular lunch and post mortem. PB's for everyone, a bloody good day! Off for the nightly cocktail now and dinner in town. Dahab is growing on me day by day, it's a great little town.

Training Day 2, Wednesday 04/12/07

After 3 days of intensive snot therapy with multiple drugs, nasal rinses and oils the sinuses are feeling a little better. The 6 of us head out to the Blue Hole again with Linda only this time and get kitted up and head out. This place is amazing, we are about 10m from the edge and in 92m water. There are scuba groups and snorkellers everywhere. Some scuba guys use our sled rope for a rest or a decompression stop, they are in for a nasty surprise if 50kg of sled comes down on them. Scubies as a general rules are pretty stupid i'm finding out, though I can't say this as the 2 other freedivers i'm with are also scubies. After swimming out to the platform and jumping on the warm up rope i'm feeling a bit better. My sinuses still squeak but they're not too bad. 3 warm ups over and I head to the main line to do a free immersion dive. Mark had just done a PB dive so spirits were good. I breath up, take my last breath, pack (packing is sucking air into your mouth and pushing it into your lungs after you've already taken a big breath - you get about 30% more air in that way) and pull myself down the line. Yesterday I was way too bouyant in the salty water so I added 1kg to my belt. When I got to about 20m I stopped pulling and started falling down the rope. After a while I noticed that I was too heavy around my waist and tipping to the side, so I corrected this by arching my back and kept falling. Equalising was hard going but I got down to my target and headed back up. Deep Free Immersion is a bit new to me so I get a bit panicky when i'm pulling myself up and still have ages to go. Eventually I got back to the surface and was clean, dive was about 47m and a bit under 2 minutes which is probably because I was a bit nervous at the bottom.

We then jumped on the sled for some fun stuff. After Mark had done his dive I was ready for mine. I did 33m yesterday getting used to the sled so today I wanted to put some proper depth in and get to about 50m. I took my last breath, packed and let got of the brake. I found equalising wasn't too bad, I got past 30m and picked up some speed and then shut my eyes concentrating on equalising and waiting for my depth alarm, set at 45m. When this started ringing I opened my eyes and had a look around. It was darker and had a serene feel to it. In the distance one thing caught my eye - a scuba diver was completely upside down and not moving. He was a perfect black sillouhette against the blue of the water and I was transfixed with this image, thinking how bizarre it was. I snapped out of it and realised that pretty soon I wouldn't be able to equalise. I hit the brake and stopped with a thud (no slowing down with this thing - it's either full throttle or nothing at all). I got my knees out of the sled seat and started looking at the sled confused and wondering what I needed to do. I lifted the airbag and started turning the valve on the scuba tank to let the airbag fill up. This was happening very slowly so I stopped and looked at it for a bit to see if it was full yet. Nope, so turned the valve back on and waited until it started moving and then yanked it shut quickly. The sled shot up and then I thought "shit.... I better go too" and started kicking up. I remember feeling quite confused about the whole thing for a while then I saw Linda safety diving me and looked up and just avoided hitting my head on the sled which had returned to the surface. I did my surface protocol smiling and Linda asked what I had done. Before the dive I had told her I wanted to do 50m, I looked at my gauge and put a sheepish smile on my face and said "oops.... might have done 60m.... hope you're not mad!" Luckily she laughed and I didn't get a bollocking. That's the deepest i'd ever been, and also the first time i'd ever had any narcosis. It was a bit weird, I was hoping for more of a happy drunk feeling because I can work under those sorts of conditions!

That evening we headed into town for dinner at the Funny Mummy. Cool name, brilliant food. We were joined by Lotta and her family over from Sweden and Sofus who had come out from Sweden to do some diving that week. We had a fantastic meal, got stared at by cats the whole time and rolled out of the place very happy and satisfied.

Training Day 1, Tuesday 3/12/07

We arrived with pretty much no problems on Monday, got settled into the hotel and slept like zombies. Tuesday we were meeting up with Lotta Ericson and Linda Paganelli from Freedive Dahab, we were hiring the sled and their services for the week. My flatmates and I had gone to York for the weekend and it was freezing cold and wet up there, as a result i've got a nasty head cold which is not good for diving.

View from the hotel

After we met Linda and Lotta we headed to the Blue Hole, which is a spectacular hole in the ocean 92m deep and world renown amongst divers. When we got there all we saw were camels, garbage and goats. But once you arrive the ambience of the place takes over as we went into one of the restaurants, looking at the ocean you can make out a darker patch a couple of metres out which is the hole itself. After suiting up we headed out to the sled. We had a warm up line to 30m close by, the idea was to do some Free Immersion dives on this line then move to the sled line for some education on sled diving. On my first warm up I started to realise how bad my cold was when I felt the searing pain between my eyes. I could equalise my ears but my sinuses were inflamed and full of gunk. I had been taking some medication but it hadn't been too effective, so as a last resort I went back to old school nose clearing - snorting salt water. For those that haven't tried this the feeling is...weird. But, it gets a lot of the gunk out and saved me my diving day. I managed to get down to 20m but it was pretty hard going. When we moved on to the sled Lotta showed us how it worked and we all had a go. It was very weird at first - you release the brake and you fly down, apply the brake lightly and you stop dead. I was nervous that I couldn't equalise, but since I was sitting upright on the sled it was a hell of a lot easier. My first dive I went to about 10m then had a fiddle with the air tank to make sure I knew what I was doing, released the air into the balloon that shot me back up to the surface and came up with a grin from ear to ear. Sled diving rocks! I made it to 30m in my last session then we called it a day, heading back to the restaurant to chill out and eat. Back to the hotel in the afternoon exhausted and into town for dinner that night. We walked past the places where the bombs went off back in 2006, which was a bit surreal as the place is so laid back and casual.

Project Triple Dip

I've always been a bit curious about sled diving, seeing as it was the first form of freediving i'd seen, via the movie The Big Blue. But in Australia there wasn't really anywhere with a sled setup for use. I'd also had a fondness for Free Immersion (FIM) since doing a lot of it in late 2005 at the SETT Tank in Portsmouth. I had planned on attempting FIM in competition sometime but hadn't had the opportunity. It's not contested often and when it was I was not able to go to the comp. So about 9 months ago Mark Harris mentioned to me that he was thinking about doing some sled I jumped at the chance and told him i'd be in on it. Soon after we got talking about available records and I decided to go for 3 records, Free Immersion, Variable Weight and No Limits. We were both on track until April and the tragic passing of Loic Leferme in a No Limits training accident. After a bit of soul searching and discussion with friends and loved ones Mark decided to concentrate on Variable and Free Immersion and I decided to continue with the original plan. Mark got in touch with Lotta Ericson from Freedive Dahab about using their facilities. After a while we got dates locked in for the first week of December, after all the big competitions had finished.

We've had a few issues here and there, our first flight was cancelled and the travel company tried to worm out of giving us a refund, we had hitches with the equipment and the Egyptian government but come hell or high water we were heading to Dahab....