Game, set match. Thank you ref, thank you ballboys...

We came, we saw, we conquered. We snorted saltwater, coughed blood, ate camel, got rope burn, got colds, got better, strained muscles, got flu's, made numerous dashes to the toilet, saw dead dogs, cats, camels and corals, saw live ones too, saw what Harrods chocolates can do to two ladies stuck in the desert, we inhaled, we exhaled, we inhaled more and more and more, got chaffed lips, threw up, rinsed sinues, and threw up again. But not all at the same time.

We dived, dived and dived. And somewhere in the middle we got our National records. Mark got the British National Records for Free Immersion (64m) and Variable Weight (80m), whilst I got the Aussie National Records for Free Immersion (50m), Variable Weight (72m) and No-Limits (80m). It was gut wrenching to watch Anne-Marie get sicker and sicker until she couldn't dive any more, particularly as we were going in the oppposite direction and getting over our illnesses as we went along.


Going from the initial discussion of record setting through to the finished event there were a whole legion of butler monkeys doing our bidding. Without them we would have been stuffed, plain and simple. Hopefully i'll remember them all here, and if not then i'm sure the Edit button still works for when I am reminded what a twat I am a bit later. So anyway, in no particular order here is a bunch of thankyou's...


Anne Marie Kitchen-Wheeler was a great team mate and provided us with support and encouragement, hopefully next time the gods will smile a bit more on her.

Sofus Kreutzmann was in Dahab to do a little training but ended up spendin 95% of his time safetying for us, a huge endeavour given it was his holiday time. He also busied himself with everything else like setting up the training lines to pulling the ridulously heavy sled up from depth. With Sofus's help it allowed us to relax a bit and concentrate on the job at hand. Plus he's a great guy to hang around anyway so i'm glad we were blessed with his company.

Katerina Smirnova, the Ukranian who was on an extended holiday in Egypt graciously took on the job of chief AIDA cameraperson, sitting in the cold wind filming our dives - thanks a lot Kat!

All the local guys that helped out - There were a couple of Mohammed's around that helped us to no end - Mohammed the driver who took us out to the Blue Hole everyday and back, Mohammed in the restaurant that stored our equipment and waited on us hand and foot as well as the other guys in the restaurant that treated us like royalty. Nicer guys are impossible to find!

Sam Kirby - luckily Sam was out in Dahab the same time as we were and made herself more than available to help safety, take photos, pull ropes and pitch in all over the place. And somewhere in the middle she got a bit of depth and started feeling the love again. After seeing Sam teach non-stop for a year and not do any diving herself it was nice to see her with the monofin back on.






Our safety scuba team.... where do you start? Wilfry and Dean - cool guys. Dean in particular was cool because he is a Canadian extreme sport sort of dude that wears a bandanna, does extreme-type activities and says things like "gnarly" all the time. Everytime he opened his mouth it was to stoke our egos so he was a pleasure to hang out with. The guys did some long dives without (much) complaint so a big thanks to the lads.



Matt Kitchen - safety scuba and videographer. A HUGE amount of cred for this guy. As a freediver, AIDA judge, BFA committee member and coach/hubby he knows the sport back to front and gave us tons of advice. As a scuba safety guy he also did some long dives and made sure we stayed safe. As a Videographer he put in a herculian effort to film all our record dives as well as some of our training one. Matt is a stunning video man but it was only afterwards that we saw the rest of his video talent when he presented us with the finished video - high quality footage matched with rockin beats and edited perfectly (i'll post up a link shortly). I can't imagine how much time went into it and all of it off the cuff - we never asked for any of it! Thanks Matt.


Laura Storm - shining star and rock goddess! Laura was instrumental in all of our preparations
- from offering advice on safety setups and various diving configurations to decompression advice, putting the scuba team together, diving tirelessly, keeping our spirits up when we were starting to snap, keeping us hydrated, motivating us to do our best and keeping us in check when we all went a bit silly. And on top of that taking some stunning photos as well, most of the photos i've used on the blog are from her talented hand. Simply brilliant, that chick.


Lotta Ericson and Linda Paganelli - owners of Freedive Dahab and all the equipment we used as well as our judges. I can't imagine how shitty that week would have been without these guys. Not to far away from our target dates we had a few worries with equipment maintenance and prices and for a little bit we were unsure if it was even going to go ahead. However the guys put a lot of work in to make sure everything was ok for our arrival. When we first saw the rig we realised how much work it would have taken to lug it all out there and moor it in place. They were incredibly friendly, supportive, flexible and gave us a safe environment to train in each day. No-one lost their cool and they made everything stress free for us, which was great seeing as we would find just about anything stressful each day! Thanks so much guys.

Mark Harris - my teammate, training buddy, mentor, lifestyle co-ordinator and fashion consultant. Whenever i'm frazzled by anything Mark seems to be able to put the logic back in and things make sense again. Training and competing with Mark has given me a wealth of knowledge and experience and he is one of the most selfless people around. He pretty much single-handedly organised our whole excursion and made sure everything ran to plan. Great Britain is a much better freediving nation because of him! Thanks for everything mate.





Finally, the love of my life, the cheese and kisses, my wife Pen. Being a freedive widow is a pretty hard thing but she manages to do it with style. She also keeps me sane and puts perspective in my life. Love you babe!






Oh and how can I forget my fans...




Right, I think that's about it for now. The task at hand now is to get back into normal life after such a brilliant holiday. Wish me luck....