Game Day - Record Day 2, Sun 9/12/07

I woke up at 7am again and stumbled around getting dressed, determined to be eating by 7:20am. The day before I could still feel brekky settling while I warmed up, not a particularly pleasant feeling even though it was nearly 4 hours after breakfast. At the breakfast buffet the Gods had decided to really piss me off today, no peppers for my omelete and not a banana in Africa. I ended up having half an omelete caked in salt on half a brown piece of toast and a couple of mouthfuls of tinned fruit. Mmm, breakfast of champions....

Most of the previous evening I spent wondering what I should have gone for the following day. Now the following day was here, I still hadn't really made up my mind. The dilemma was as follows: I wanted 3 records. I had 2 already (Free Immersion and Variable Weight) and had the option of extending Free Immersion today, before the No-Limits dive. I had to go for Free Immersion first because of logistical reasons - we would have killed our helpers trying to lug the rope up and down all day. But if I buggered Free Immersion up I could not go for the second dive. So should I go for Free Immersion again? The week was taking it's toll and I was starting to get pretty tired from diving everyday, normally i'd have a rest day for every 2 days of diving. But I was pretty sure I could get to at least 53m, as traditionally my equalisation gets better the more I dive, other things being equal. However No Limits was the main reason I was out there, I could have done Free Immersion back in England if I wanted to. So after brekky I decided that the day would be for No Limits only. I could feel the relief already, even though I still hadn't decided a No Limits depth...

Mark on the other hand had a busy day. He had decided to to the Variable Weight dive first as it was relatively easy for him. The idea was to build the confidence up with the first dive then go in strong for the for the second Free Immersion dive. The previous day's dehydration issues were clearly gone given Mark's constant trips to the loo so I had a feeling it would be a good day.

Sitting in the restaurant I was mulling many thoughts around in my head - I was definitely only doing No Limits, but how deep? I had been as deep as 76m in training, and I needed 78m to go deeper than any other Australian had ever officially gone. Mark was doing 80m for his Variable Weight dive, so then my accountant's logic mixed with my testosterone (a scary mix...) said that if I went first and had a go at 80m, I would bring the sled back for the next dive and there would be no need for hauling the sled + rope up 80m. Plus I probably had an ok chance of doing 80m so bugger it, lets give it a go. Makes sense doesn't it?

We headed out for the last time, did our warm ups for the last time and prepared ourselves. I had a couple of niggling thoughts - this was the first time I had done a deep sled dive without a deep Free Immersion dive first. I didn't know whether that was a good thing or not but it made me wonder. Second thing was that this was the first time I had done a proper No Limits dive. Every other sled dive had been Variable, with the exception of a 30m dive the first day. Things might be a little different and hopefully it wouldn't phase me too much.

After the warm ups I positioned myself on the sled and did some slow breathing. The wind was worse today and there was a reasonable chop on the surface. I gave Linda the 2 minute signal and did my final breathing. I waited for a lull in the waves then inhaled, packed and packed and packed, let go of the brakes and I was away. The first thing I noticed was that I was going faster in the first 20m, due to me not wearing the monofin which caused a lot of water resistance. For the first 30m I concentrated on lots of equalising and making sure my mask was well equalised. Past 30m my equalising slowed down and I enjoyed the scenery as gradually the Arch opened itself to me again. As I got past 50m I started mouthfilling for equalisation and sank even quicker into the darkness. After 60m I concentrated on equalising earlier if I had any chance of making it to 80m. I started getting a bit warm and fuzzy as the narcosis started and when my alarm went off at around 70m I managed to get a mouthful of air and equalise again. Not knowing how deep I was at the time I equalised again and promptly came to a halt with a big bang on the bottom plate. This caught me off guard partly because of the narcosis and partly because I still had a mouthful of air, something I had never had at the bottom of any of my sled dives before. I slowly reached down and started turning the knob on the tank to take me back up. Things seemed really slow, and my skin was tingling all over and I remember being so chilled out that I really didn't want to go back up, but I knew I had to. Eventually the bag started filling and the sled started moving up. I was holding the handlebars, looking up and thinking I was Superman I was that narked.

On the way back up I wanted to jump off the sled half way and make my way slowly back up, to help avoid any decompression issues, plus I didn't want to go all the way on the sled and then get thrown around on the surface with the airbag and sled bouncing around everywhere. So after some time I unclipped my lanyard, and waited until I thought I was about half way. But seeing as how narked I was I mistimed it completely and ended up jumping off at around 20m because I saw my safety diver the second I ditched the sled. I grabbed the line to slow my ascent, looked up to see the sled bubbling like mad and gradually made my way up the last 15m. I surfaced on the wrong side of the airbag and had to lean over it to get to the rope to steady myself. Clearly I was still narked because when I took my mask off I was smiling away to myself as I did my protocol. I waited until the 30 seconds was up and got the ok from the judges and did my girliest gleeful squeal to date. Successful 80m dive!

After we did the business of checking gauges and other bits and pieces I went on the 02 and it was Mark's turn on the sled (contrary to the video which has his Free Immersion dive first... bit of dramatic license there!). He was also doing 80m but doing it Variable Weight. Fortunately
he had an absolutely flawless dive and came up fresh as a daisy. A while after that he was ready for his Free Immersion dive. After he took off it was apparent something was wrong not far into the dive but we weren't sure what and he kept going. A couple of minutes later he surfaced and did his surface protocol and got his record. The problem that had occurred earlier on was that at about 5m down he had knocked his noseclip off, meaning water was flooding into his nose and sinuses. Instead of aborting the dive, he grabbed his nose with one hand and pulled himself down single handedly, something i've never heard anyone doing and one of the ballsiest things i've ever witnessed. Both of us couldn't wipe the grins off our face as we headed back to shore.

As a celebration, Linda and Lotta had arranged for picnic dinner in an oasis in the desert under the stars for us all. We trekked out in 4x4's to the location, a stunning canyon. We went to a spot and watched the sunset, when we returned Linda had lit dozens of candles on the side of a cliff, it looked stunning. We also had a few drinks - when we were at the liquor store we noticed a bottle of champagne-looking stuff that was called AIDA.... we had to have a couple of bottles of that! (for the non freedivers, AIDA is the International Freediving governing body). We ate some brilliant bedouin food including some Camel kofta, we all sang our national anthems (Aussie, British, Danish, Swedish, Italian and Ukranian). We headed back to the hotel later on a bit tipsy, with full bellies and absolutely exhausted.

So that was that! A lazy start to the day and a big big breakfast then we started the long trek back to London.

Little bit more to come....