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Text by:
Anna Boetticher
Last day at Med freedive meeting
The 10 meter rule
The final day of the competition had the record number of 20 freedivers - some more Greek competitors have arrived to try their luck, which meant that I was not the second person to start anymore and did not have to get up at the crack of dawn. Michelle was back in place with the weather-info board, which supplied us with slightly more accurate readings this time: "there is current". Make of it what you like! I woke up feeling pretty lazy about this whole deep-diving business, and was considering making use of the "-10m" rule the organizers had put into place due to the difficult conditions. This meant that freedivers were allowed to reduce their announcements ten minutes before official top by up to ten meters, without penalties. A sensible rule, making everyone safer and some more white cards possible. (Editors note: Invented and first used in Nordic Deep :-)
Violant judges ripping lanyards
Talking about safety: I shot myself in the foot, as the saying goes, when I complained after the first competiton day that the judge on the boat was checking our lanyards. Since I had announced FIM, and was wearing my lanyard on my ankle, it wasn't the most relaxing thing to be asked at three minutes to official top to lift my leg up to the judge, while clinging to the side of the boat in the waves and weather. I thought it might be helpful to point this out at the meeting in the evening, and suggest that the judge in the water check the lanyards - an idea that the organizers decided to improve upon by having our favorite yellow rib-taxi driver, Alexis, check competitors lanyards on the way out to the competition zone. Now Alex is also a judge, and has clearly been to the Bill Stromberg school of lanyard testing - any freediver who ever handed Bill his piece of wire knows what I mean! To my dismay, I was wearing my friend Martin's wristband which included a D-ring, which I have to report, is no more. A monster tug from Alex split it instantly. I fixed this situation by connecting the wristband to the lanyard with a more indistructable piece, at which point Alex decided to test it again and destroy it the second time - he ripped the stiching...I say no more. Although I whined and protested about such harsh treatment, I am of course aware that this is done with my and fellow freediver's best interest at heart. After all, who would like to see their D-ring sail away as the counterballast engages! So here is my advice to all competitors out there: since Bill Stromberg is training most of the judges around here, best assume that all parts of your lanyard will be destroyed, and have a) a back-up lanyard, and b) one that does not involve D-rings that can be pulled open, or key rings, or snap shackles that tend to suffer a similar fate. Don't ask me how to do that. Think of something, if you are planning to use a counterbalance system as safety or hand your lanyard to Bill and his followers...
Rivers of currents dealt with by russians
Out in the bay of Sougia the surface still resembled a river, so I decided to reduce my announcement to a very manageable (some might say lazy - oh well) depth of 40m. This meant that I bumped my head into the plate, but at least I swam off with one white card in this competition. I felt rather silly when Natalia Molchanova as usual asked me "how deep?" as she was heading out to do her second world record: 85m FIM...watching her, she did not seem fazed by the current at all, and came up very clean and happy again. This time coach Bill was much more nervous about her son, Alexej, who had announced an impressive 101m, making him one of only seven divers below the 100m mark, and only the fifth in competition. He is 21 years old. We found out the secret to this staggering success earlier, when he told us about a race he swam in as a kid, which in itself is not a surprise - when it transpired that this had been a race over 1500m, though, and that he was no more than five years old at the time, the waitress in the Lotus bar was entertained by the sight of freedivers falling off their chairs. The great dive to 101m (a new Russian national record) we witnessed that morning is clearly only a sign of things yet to come!
Carlos preparing for WR attempts
Carlos Coste had a much better day, too - he announced 92m and focused on improving his speed, much to the relief of the safety crew. Looking a lot better and more focused in his movements, I was glad to hear his customary whoop at the surface, followed by a clean protocol. He is now well on his way for his record attempt in September, which will take place in a national park in Venezuela - we are keeping our fingers crossed for him! Guillaume Nery calculated how many points he needed to win the much coveted overall price, and reduced his announcement accordingly, so he had an easy dive.
More french people
Christian Maldame did very well with 88m, but told me he had suffered badly from narcosis, which meant he was "seeing heads" on the way up - don't ask - and got really worried when he saw the head of William Winram, who was unfortunately prevented from setting a new world record in no fins by the conditions. As I mentioned earlier, Wiliam announced for France - it appears that he has decided to join the EU and has been given a french passport. I don't think it is at all fair to ask what they were thinking, the French are naturally delighted to have this new citizen!
"I might fuck sheep"
As soon as competitors got out of the water, rounds of Pina Colada and beer were seen arriving at the tables, setting the mood for the party, hosted in our favorite hangout. A wonderful buffet was prepared for us, as we once again rearranged the entire restaurant by putting all the tables together in such a way that they blocked all the entrances. Medals were handed out by organizer Stavros and the mayor of Sougia, followed by dinner with Cretan music played live for us. Now a word on the safety divers: as soon as they were out of the water, they turned into a rather dangerous species, wielding bottles of Raki, which they tried to tell me was nothing but "juice", or "Greek water", and did not really contain any alcohol at all. Since the stuff burns your throat all the way down to your stomach, even I am not blond enough to believe this! It was quite hard to escape them, though, so I ended up mixing some of it with my three gin&tonics (anyone who knows me will be impressed that I am capable of operating a computer keybord today), which may have something to do with how I felt this morning. Other victims of theirs included Berangere and Christian, who were what one might call "wasted" by about 11:00. Herbert was heard refusing a shot, a frightened look in his eye, with the words: "you don't understand - when I get drunk with this, I might fuck sheep!". Promises that there were no sheep in Sougia did nothing to reasssure him, as he had spotted some attractive goats earlier on.
The party came to a close at around 3am, since the first freedivers were leaving with an airport shuttle an hour later. I can report that the legendary stamina of the french team is not a myth, aparently Bernagere and Christian were out shopping in Athens by lunchtime! No idea what their secret is. Me, I am still feeling the pain, and am signing off, with many thanks to organizer Stavros, his safety team, the judges, and the people of Sougia, who have put up with us!
The 10 meter rule
The final day of the competition had the record number of 20 freedivers - some more Greek competitors have arrived to try their luck, which meant that I was not the second person to start anymore and did not have to get up at the crack of dawn. Michelle was back in place with the weather-info board, which supplied us with slightly more accurate readings this time: "there is current". Make of it what you like! I woke up feeling pretty lazy about this whole deep-diving business, and was considering making use of the "-10m" rule the organizers had put into place due to the difficult conditions. This meant that freedivers were allowed to reduce their announcements ten minutes before official top by up to ten meters, without penalties. A sensible rule, making everyone safer and some more white cards possible. (Editors note: Invented and first used in Nordic Deep :-)
Violant judges ripping lanyards
Talking about safety: I shot myself in the foot, as the saying goes, when I complained after the first competiton day that the judge on the boat was checking our lanyards. Since I had announced FIM, and was wearing my lanyard on my ankle, it wasn't the most relaxing thing to be asked at three minutes to official top to lift my leg up to the judge, while clinging to the side of the boat in the waves and weather. I thought it might be helpful to point this out at the meeting in the evening, and suggest that the judge in the water check the lanyards - an idea that the organizers decided to improve upon by having our favorite yellow rib-taxi driver, Alexis, check competitors lanyards on the way out to the competition zone. Now Alex is also a judge, and has clearly been to the Bill Stromberg school of lanyard testing - any freediver who ever handed Bill his piece of wire knows what I mean! To my dismay, I was wearing my friend Martin's wristband which included a D-ring, which I have to report, is no more. A monster tug from Alex split it instantly. I fixed this situation by connecting the wristband to the lanyard with a more indistructable piece, at which point Alex decided to test it again and destroy it the second time - he ripped the stiching...I say no more. Although I whined and protested about such harsh treatment, I am of course aware that this is done with my and fellow freediver's best interest at heart. After all, who would like to see their D-ring sail away as the counterballast engages! So here is my advice to all competitors out there: since Bill Stromberg is training most of the judges around here, best assume that all parts of your lanyard will be destroyed, and have a) a back-up lanyard, and b) one that does not involve D-rings that can be pulled open, or key rings, or snap shackles that tend to suffer a similar fate. Don't ask me how to do that. Think of something, if you are planning to use a counterbalance system as safety or hand your lanyard to Bill and his followers...
Rivers of currents dealt with by russians
Out in the bay of Sougia the surface still resembled a river, so I decided to reduce my announcement to a very manageable (some might say lazy - oh well) depth of 40m. This meant that I bumped my head into the plate, but at least I swam off with one white card in this competition. I felt rather silly when Natalia Molchanova as usual asked me "how deep?" as she was heading out to do her second world record: 85m FIM...watching her, she did not seem fazed by the current at all, and came up very clean and happy again. This time coach Bill was much more nervous about her son, Alexej, who had announced an impressive 101m, making him one of only seven divers below the 100m mark, and only the fifth in competition. He is 21 years old. We found out the secret to this staggering success earlier, when he told us about a race he swam in as a kid, which in itself is not a surprise - when it transpired that this had been a race over 1500m, though, and that he was no more than five years old at the time, the waitress in the Lotus bar was entertained by the sight of freedivers falling off their chairs. The great dive to 101m (a new Russian national record) we witnessed that morning is clearly only a sign of things yet to come!
Carlos preparing for WR attempts
Carlos Coste had a much better day, too - he announced 92m and focused on improving his speed, much to the relief of the safety crew. Looking a lot better and more focused in his movements, I was glad to hear his customary whoop at the surface, followed by a clean protocol. He is now well on his way for his record attempt in September, which will take place in a national park in Venezuela - we are keeping our fingers crossed for him! Guillaume Nery calculated how many points he needed to win the much coveted overall price, and reduced his announcement accordingly, so he had an easy dive.
More french people
Christian Maldame did very well with 88m, but told me he had suffered badly from narcosis, which meant he was "seeing heads" on the way up - don't ask - and got really worried when he saw the head of William Winram, who was unfortunately prevented from setting a new world record in no fins by the conditions. As I mentioned earlier, Wiliam announced for France - it appears that he has decided to join the EU and has been given a french passport. I don't think it is at all fair to ask what they were thinking, the French are naturally delighted to have this new citizen!
"I might fuck sheep"
As soon as competitors got out of the water, rounds of Pina Colada and beer were seen arriving at the tables, setting the mood for the party, hosted in our favorite hangout. A wonderful buffet was prepared for us, as we once again rearranged the entire restaurant by putting all the tables together in such a way that they blocked all the entrances. Medals were handed out by organizer Stavros and the mayor of Sougia, followed by dinner with Cretan music played live for us. Now a word on the safety divers: as soon as they were out of the water, they turned into a rather dangerous species, wielding bottles of Raki, which they tried to tell me was nothing but "juice", or "Greek water", and did not really contain any alcohol at all. Since the stuff burns your throat all the way down to your stomach, even I am not blond enough to believe this! It was quite hard to escape them, though, so I ended up mixing some of it with my three gin&tonics (anyone who knows me will be impressed that I am capable of operating a computer keybord today), which may have something to do with how I felt this morning. Other victims of theirs included Berangere and Christian, who were what one might call "wasted" by about 11:00. Herbert was heard refusing a shot, a frightened look in his eye, with the words: "you don't understand - when I get drunk with this, I might fuck sheep!". Promises that there were no sheep in Sougia did nothing to reasssure him, as he had spotted some attractive goats earlier on.
The party came to a close at around 3am, since the first freedivers were leaving with an airport shuttle an hour later. I can report that the legendary stamina of the french team is not a myth, aparently Bernagere and Christian were out shopping in Athens by lunchtime! No idea what their secret is. Me, I am still feeling the pain, and am signing off, with many thanks to organizer Stavros, his safety team, the judges, and the people of Sougia, who have put up with us!