Shark Freediving

The final leg of the 2009 Individual World Championships in Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas was an interesting mix of daring and conservatism. In both the men’s and particularly women’s categories, there were clear and easy contenders for gold and silver, but extremely stiff competition for bronze and the next ranking positions, with some National Record announcements meaning that divers could well now be pushing their limits and taking big risks for the chance of a medal and glory.

The big surprise of the day, for me at least, was Natalia’s announcement. I had been expecting at least 102m from her, but I guess, either having learned from her last WC when she and I went head to head and I came out on top because she blacked out, or due to a lack of opportunity for deep diving since September, or maybe she never intended to take her extend her depths beyond her current 101m, she made a surprisingly shallow announcement of 97m. I wish I knew what lay behind that choice of depth – was it coincidence that it was just 1m deeper than my World Record? or is that her comfort depth?

Anyway, the journey to my decision to do 92m was a pretty tough one. We all know that in order to dive well, we must dive our dive, irrespective of what our contenders may or may not announce. So knowing that the next deepest diver was in the mid-70s, I knew I had a very generous bandwidth within which to announce and that even an 80m dive would give me Silver. However, it being the Worlds, I felt that I should be diving deeper than my Gold last time (88m) and that for respectability’s sake should do something 90+. But 90-what? That was the question. Having discussed it with Herbert over dinner one evening, he suggested 90 on the nose. But Christian, my flatmate said I should do what I’d already done twice, and fairly easily in training – 92m. There was also an option to announce 97m for a National Record, 100m for the personal satisfaction of finally doing it clean in competition, or even 102m to attempt a World Record. Ultimately I listened… not to the people around me but to my gut instinct. Anyway beyond 92m made me feel uncomfortable – what I most certainly didn’t want to do was come away with nothing – no medal, no ranking, just a big fat red card and zero points would not be good. I had felt very calm after talking about 90m with Herbert but on the day of announcement decided that 92m was my number – after all it’s the depth of ‘my’ Blue Hole in Dahab!

With a line-up of just six women, again all six women were shallower than even the shallowest man! This really needs to change. Olga Suryakova (I love her name – Surya in Sanskrit means ‘sun’) was first up and unfortunately made her first ‘off’ dive of the comp – an early turn five metres short of her announced depth. Klara Hansson also lost six points for turning equally early on her 74m dive, taking her out of the running for medals should any of the last three have messed up, but no less smiles from her nonetheless (maybe something to do with having got to judge – and afterwards hug in congratulations – Christian Ernest on his 50m Unashamed World Record a few days earlier – click here to see the full dive!!!).

Misuzu Hiria was the first of two National Records in the women’s comp that morning with what looked like a very comfortable 72m dive, which she was extremely happy about. Things are looking promising for the Japanese women for the Team Worlds on home turf next year! Jarmila Slovencikova brought in the second National Record of the day with her 76m dive for the Czech Republic. And then from 76m to 92m for my dive which went like a dream. I don’t know if having the title ‘World Championships’ in a competition does something to me mentally or physically, but both times I have dived to within metres of my personal best, and both times I have smashed not just a few, but up to 30 seconds off my dive time over the same depth. And not only that, but both times I have had a clear feeling on the surface of it having been one of the easiest dives of my life. Hmmm, not sure what to make of that, but it certainly feels extremely good. Although I don’t think I’d be human if I didn’t have a tiny nagging voice in the back of my head wondering what I could have done with a bolder announcement or an open line…. Natalia was up last and no surprises that she made it too – although the results are slightly incorrect in that she surfaced without a tag, ie 96 points, having tried to grab the light at the bottom and claiming on the surface that there were no tags. On pulling up the bottom plate before the men’s comp the judges found no less than seven tags down there. Narked?? Perhaps just a wee bit!!! Well done Natalia – a very well deserved Gold medal (and silver goes better with my earrings anyway

So to the men. Again, with Martin Stepanek not even competing, Herbert was out there in comfortably contending for Gold, with 114m. Alexey was pushing for Silver with 111m and then, jostling for Bronze we had two divers announcing 110m; Will Trubridge and Carlos Coste. And on their heels hoping to pick up bronze in the case of penalties or black-out was Guillaume Nery with 109. Johan Dahlstrom was the surprise – and slightly reluctant – entrant for the men’s final, announcing 101m for a National Record which, if successful would make him the 12th man to 100m and would take Per Westin’s National Record set only days earlier.

So, Johan – did he have it in him? With some fairly big failures at the 100m earlier in the year, and a lost tag on this 100m dive in the heats, 101m was a big ask for him. I felt so tense for him praying that he’d make it, but to be honest, not sure he would. He made a fast dive, over 10 seconds ahead of his given time and, with some pretty powerful hook breathing on the surface – and a tag in his hand – he made a clean surface protocol and received huge applause and congratulations on his white card – nice dive, mate!

Guillaume made 109, look easy, a few metres within his PB and former World Record of 113m. Carlos was next with 110m and relatively slow dive of four minutes five seconds for a white card and National Record for Venezuela. Will Trubridge also pulled off a National Record for New Zealand doing the same depth over half a minute faster in 3:32. Should all other men make their dives, these two were sharing Bronze.

The last two divers were Alexey who had scared everyone with his blackouts in training, and Herbert who prefers to blackout before rather than after his dives!!! Alexey did it – 111m for a Russian National Record, lots more shouts of ‘deshie, deshie’ (not ‘reshie, reshie’, as I incorrectly wrote in my earlier blog!) and potentially Silver and Herbert made his massive 114m dive look easy for Gold.

However, directly after Alexey’s dive there was kerfuffle on the surface and the beach. Despite his white card, it was rumoured that he had in fact messed up the surface protocol by signing his OK sign AFTER saying that he was OK. This was further confused by a very clearn OK sign made after his verbal ‘I’m OK’. There was conferring on the beach; Guillaume, despite the prospect of this putting him in third place for Bronze, did not want to protest. However, Kerian on behalf of Will T, and Carlos both decided that it was clearly a breach of the protocol and decided to protest. On the strength of Will and Carlos’ opinions, Guillaume joined the protest and so the judges, rather than having just ten pots of pee to look forward to that afternoon, had as tense a protest you can image ahead of them. The contention lay in Alexey’s OK sign; had he done a fairly unclear one with his left hand, which only Marcelo had seen as he took off his mask, or had he just been taking off his mask and then said I’m OK, followed by a second, very clear OK sign to the other judges, ie incorrect sequence of SP? Jana, as coach and girlfriend, said that he ‘throws away’ his OK sign, doing it in the same movement as taking off his mask, thereby leaving him open to doubt – a lesson to every freediver really. The judges studied the video and conferred with each other and each of the divers involved in the protest. Just minutes before the decision was made, Carlos, Will and Guillaume approached Alexey to apologise for putting him in this position and reassuring him that the protest was in no way personal – simply a matter of competition and diving within and according to the rules. It was a great gesture but highlighted something work thinking about; when you look at it that way, every diver has the obligation to protest another when there is suspicion of the rules not being adhered to – we each have the responsibility for upholding the quality and integrity of this sport for each other and for its future growth.

In the end, the protest was awarded to Alexey, securing Silver for him and joint Bronze for Carlos and Will. Guillaume was the only one to not gain anything from the protest, but he was pretty relaxed about it, not having wanted to protest in the first place.

So, on to the party and celebrations and gossip. As for gossip, there was none – honest! Either that or I’ve been sworn to secrecy. Either way, I ain’t telling

Sebastian was finally able to relax, and relax he did. Now in Sebastian’s world, that doesn’t mean getting drunk, it just means switching off the brain, which, as he readily confessed, he did the moment the final white card was shown. This meant that we had a medals ceremony – without medals! He’d left them in the apartment, bless him! Thank goodness for the locals and their very touching gifts, which we were able to use in place of medals – particularly the shell necklaces which we all very proudly accepted and wore for the course of the evening. Showing his unstinting commitment to the event though, Seb made a 90 minute round trip back to the apartments to get the medals and after dinner once more took to the stage for the medal ceremony – only to leave a few seconds later again as he realised he’d left them in the car! This man REALLY needs and deserves a break!!! DeeDee took to the stage with one of her hilarious stand-up routines which kept us entertained in the interim and then we finally got on with the serious business of decking out the top six (well five given that Natalia got two Golds) athletes with their finery! Flags and photos, smiles and speeches – it was a lot of fun. What a pity I’d lost my camera and am unable to download my memories for you to see!

And how can anyone expect a closing ceremony at a freediving Worlds not to end in the water, if water is available. The Island Breezes restaurant, which was hosting the party, has a pool and it was just far too tempting for people not to either jump, or allow themselves to be thrown in. I don’t think there was a single dry person by the end of the evening. And I think the next morning some nasty bruises on toes and shins to show for it too! Will Trubridge was the other person in most need of a break after his year-long quest to make the event happen and to dive so well himself. His way of relaxing – to snog his wife almost non-stop throughout the evening! They make a gorgeous – and on that evening rather drunk – couple!!!! Thanks to both of you for making everything not only happen, but happen so damn well!

The judges handed out a few customary ‘ special’ prizes! I was again given my Princess medal – this time a jigsaw – with 100 pieces, one for every metre on my next comp dive!!! I can’t remember what everyone else got, but some amusing gifts that showed buckets of humour and thought. I think we have Grant in particular to thank for these! Cheers, Granty!

For some the competition finished early with planes home even before the party. Igor Liberti, official photographer (who with HUGE misfortune flooded his camera half way though but enjoyed the generosity of some of the other professional or proficient amateur photographers there, by sharing their cameras – until Aurora, from the French media team, flooded hers too. What bad luck) was one of the first, along with Bronze medalist, Jarmila (your medal’s in the post, honey!). Others didn’t want to stop partying though and I gather the festivities continued well into the early hours, if not the next day down in Turtle Cove!

My final day was spent on my first spearfishing experience, but I think due to a combination of a big dive the day before, not much sleep and a few too many Rum Punches and some crappy bi-fins which are three sizes too big (why, oh WHY does no bi-fin company make anything smaller than a 38????) I opted for a combination of snorkelling, sunbathing and driving the boat instead. I did see my first free-swimming sharks in the wild – a small grey reef shark and a nurse shark. Stunning, stunning creatures of which I felt absolutely no fear. Now that could have had something to do with the five spear-wielding men surrounding me, but I think it was more to do with the sharks’ calmness and majesty in the water. They were simply cruising the bottom and not the least bit interested in me. So misunderstood and I look forward to meeting them again.

Then it was time to pack, say final goodbyes (in particular to Galleria, the dog belonging to our landlords, who had adopted me over the final days and had followed me, literally, everywhere) and get on a tiny plane that even I had to bend over to walk around inside – I felt like we’d all eaten Alice in Wonderland cookies and had grown too big for the plane! On the way home I spent two wonderful days with my friends and yoga teachers, Mahan Rishi and his wife Nirbhe Kaur in New Jersey. There had been snow a few days earlier and some was still laying on the ground. It was a 100 percent contrast to the soft white sand, blue waters and balmy temperatures of Lond Island.

Last time I had felt lost and claustrophobic on Long Island. This time I didn’t want to leave. But at least this time, as I got on to my tiny Through the Looking-Glass plane, I know I’ll be back