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World record attempt in Sougia
July 2008
Stavros getting busy
Over the last few days the small village of Sougia has been getting busier and busier with freedivers arriving to train, making the tireless organizer Stavros Kastrinakis run around like one of the energizer bunnies from morning till night. In between setting up sled and constant weight training for everyone, teaching his safety team a four star course, personally safety diving all dives deeper than 35m, judging record attempts, spearfishing for our dinner and organizing airport pick-ups for last minute arrivals he has found a moment to quickly drop down to 126m himself and set a Greek national record in no limits. We are amazed at such a level of stamina, and are all re-evaluating our freediving diets since he has accomplished all of this on a strict regime of milkshakes and burgers!
Redefining my limits
Meanwhile, Herbert, Rob King, Will Winram and myself have been having a lot of fun diving with the sled. After I had a painful but easy variable weight dive to 60m, taking a cramp down with me from the surface and all the way back up again, I felt there was no time to lose anymore and announced a 70m record attempt. For some unexplained reason I woke up feeling so nervous, I was close to throwing up all through the morning, right up to the moment in which I released the brake. I was told later by the safety divers that I clung to the sled like there was no way I was going to stop - this worked well, I went faster than ever! Since I equalized at the bottom, Carlos and Will convinced me to go for 80m the next day - after getting stuck at 60m with more cramps I tried a second time and whizzed all the way to the plate. I am pleased to report that there is indeed a nasty thermacline at around 70m, which I was very happy to encounter on the way down, since it had to mean that I was nearly there! Meanwhile, back on the boat, Carlos Coste and the safety crew where laughing at my pathetic attempts at packing, amounting to a likely increase of maybe 0.0001L of extra air in my lungs. Well, you laugh guys, but that was the last tiny equalization I squeezed out at the end!
Herbert style
Herbert has continued to be frustrated by his equalization. In the end his friend and designer of the space-age sled, Alex from Trygons, has quickly knocked together a mini-sled for Herbert to train on: it consists - honestly, I saw it with my own eyes - of a dry branch he found on the beach, a bit of ducktape, a piece of string and a couple of carabiners. This device seems to have fixed some of the equalization problems, but Herbert, from now on know as the reverse-houdini, arrived back from training with yet another story of entaglement to tell - somehow he got his leg wrapped in the rope. Don't ask....
Winrams leap of faith
Will Winram did a Canadian no limts recrod attempt, but failed to equalize all the way to the plate. The next day, he was spotted in the water sporting a wild wetsuit combo of electric blue pants and black and red top (everyone has been tearing their suits...) and announcing he would like the line between 90 and 100m for a no fins dive. Expecting to see the next world record there and then before our eyes, all girls gathered to hail the new champion. He came back up rather quickly, shouting in his unique way "no fins sucks!". Aparently he had the urge to breathe at 10m, then at 20, then 30...at 48m he had enough and turned. The idea had been to just freefall as long as he could equalize, but the plan was changed on the way down. He claims he is done with no fins and will just dive with the sled from now on - we don't quite believe it yet, having seen his impressive technique we still think there is more to come!
Carlos doing looong dives
Carlos Coste was ready to get in the water yesterday, when he ripped the biggest hole seen so far into his wetsuit top. Having to go back to shore in the heat to borrow a top from someone did not help preparation for a deep FIM dive, and he turned at 90m, taking his time in leisurely fashion with a divetime of over 4min. He is looking strong though and seems happy with his training so far - at nights he has been running off to catch the moon rising with his camera, we hope to see some of the pictures later on!
Nery has arrived
Freedivers who went out to the training lines this morning were greeted by a tiny amberjack fish, who has taken to hiding behind people's monofins and sticking with his chosen one throughout a session. The spearfishing safety crew have threatened guns, but we won't be eating this little friend for dinner! Talking about dinner, Guillaume Nery has arrived after filming a commercial in Dahab, and brought the usual souvenir: a nasty case of yalla yalla. So the poor man, starving but in agony with stomach cramps has been sitting at dinner, eating plain boiled rice, while his (tiny!) grilfriend Julie has been happily putting away the enormous plates of pasta we have been served at the Lotos cafe - they have had most of the men moaning about how full they are in front of a half eaten dinner! Maybe that is the reason she can spearfish easily in thirty metres, stalking groupers for a couple of minutes down there?
(Rumor has it Nery is up for another commercial down in South africa, editors note).
Not so easy without the cokebottle
Today finally saw the long expected record attempt of flying fish Herbert Nitsch, going for 141m variable weight. He arrived at the warm-up lines at 12:00, with a team from the German Playboy in tow, as well as his dad, who has been busy checking with organizer Stavros that all safety issues have been thought through properly. Four hours and a few problems with the bottom camera later, Herbert was still in the water, while most of the spectators had retreated to the beach. Finally Bill Stromberg arrived in the restaurant in his wetsuit, devouring the leftovers of Alexej Molchanov's pasta (see?) before coming out with the news that Herbert had stopped 10m short of the plate, at 131m, again due to equalization. It seems that he was very fresh on the surface though, so it is likely he will make the record in the next couple of days.
July 2008
Stavros getting busy
Over the last few days the small village of Sougia has been getting busier and busier with freedivers arriving to train, making the tireless organizer Stavros Kastrinakis run around like one of the energizer bunnies from morning till night. In between setting up sled and constant weight training for everyone, teaching his safety team a four star course, personally safety diving all dives deeper than 35m, judging record attempts, spearfishing for our dinner and organizing airport pick-ups for last minute arrivals he has found a moment to quickly drop down to 126m himself and set a Greek national record in no limits. We are amazed at such a level of stamina, and are all re-evaluating our freediving diets since he has accomplished all of this on a strict regime of milkshakes and burgers!
Redefining my limits
Meanwhile, Herbert, Rob King, Will Winram and myself have been having a lot of fun diving with the sled. After I had a painful but easy variable weight dive to 60m, taking a cramp down with me from the surface and all the way back up again, I felt there was no time to lose anymore and announced a 70m record attempt. For some unexplained reason I woke up feeling so nervous, I was close to throwing up all through the morning, right up to the moment in which I released the brake. I was told later by the safety divers that I clung to the sled like there was no way I was going to stop - this worked well, I went faster than ever! Since I equalized at the bottom, Carlos and Will convinced me to go for 80m the next day - after getting stuck at 60m with more cramps I tried a second time and whizzed all the way to the plate. I am pleased to report that there is indeed a nasty thermacline at around 70m, which I was very happy to encounter on the way down, since it had to mean that I was nearly there! Meanwhile, back on the boat, Carlos Coste and the safety crew where laughing at my pathetic attempts at packing, amounting to a likely increase of maybe 0.0001L of extra air in my lungs. Well, you laugh guys, but that was the last tiny equalization I squeezed out at the end!
Herbert style
Herbert has continued to be frustrated by his equalization. In the end his friend and designer of the space-age sled, Alex from Trygons, has quickly knocked together a mini-sled for Herbert to train on: it consists - honestly, I saw it with my own eyes - of a dry branch he found on the beach, a bit of ducktape, a piece of string and a couple of carabiners. This device seems to have fixed some of the equalization problems, but Herbert, from now on know as the reverse-houdini, arrived back from training with yet another story of entaglement to tell - somehow he got his leg wrapped in the rope. Don't ask....
Winrams leap of faith
Will Winram did a Canadian no limts recrod attempt, but failed to equalize all the way to the plate. The next day, he was spotted in the water sporting a wild wetsuit combo of electric blue pants and black and red top (everyone has been tearing their suits...) and announcing he would like the line between 90 and 100m for a no fins dive. Expecting to see the next world record there and then before our eyes, all girls gathered to hail the new champion. He came back up rather quickly, shouting in his unique way "no fins sucks!". Aparently he had the urge to breathe at 10m, then at 20, then 30...at 48m he had enough and turned. The idea had been to just freefall as long as he could equalize, but the plan was changed on the way down. He claims he is done with no fins and will just dive with the sled from now on - we don't quite believe it yet, having seen his impressive technique we still think there is more to come!
Carlos doing looong dives
Carlos Coste was ready to get in the water yesterday, when he ripped the biggest hole seen so far into his wetsuit top. Having to go back to shore in the heat to borrow a top from someone did not help preparation for a deep FIM dive, and he turned at 90m, taking his time in leisurely fashion with a divetime of over 4min. He is looking strong though and seems happy with his training so far - at nights he has been running off to catch the moon rising with his camera, we hope to see some of the pictures later on!
Nery has arrived
Freedivers who went out to the training lines this morning were greeted by a tiny amberjack fish, who has taken to hiding behind people's monofins and sticking with his chosen one throughout a session. The spearfishing safety crew have threatened guns, but we won't be eating this little friend for dinner! Talking about dinner, Guillaume Nery has arrived after filming a commercial in Dahab, and brought the usual souvenir: a nasty case of yalla yalla. So the poor man, starving but in agony with stomach cramps has been sitting at dinner, eating plain boiled rice, while his (tiny!) grilfriend Julie has been happily putting away the enormous plates of pasta we have been served at the Lotos cafe - they have had most of the men moaning about how full they are in front of a half eaten dinner! Maybe that is the reason she can spearfish easily in thirty metres, stalking groupers for a couple of minutes down there?
(Rumor has it Nery is up for another commercial down in South africa, editors note).
Not so easy without the cokebottle
Today finally saw the long expected record attempt of flying fish Herbert Nitsch, going for 141m variable weight. He arrived at the warm-up lines at 12:00, with a team from the German Playboy in tow, as well as his dad, who has been busy checking with organizer Stavros that all safety issues have been thought through properly. Four hours and a few problems with the bottom camera later, Herbert was still in the water, while most of the spectators had retreated to the beach. Finally Bill Stromberg arrived in the restaurant in his wetsuit, devouring the leftovers of Alexej Molchanov's pasta (see?) before coming out with the news that Herbert had stopped 10m short of the plate, at 131m, again due to equalization. It seems that he was very fresh on the surface though, so it is likely he will make the record in the next couple of days.