Last day

I wrote a bit before I left but couldn't get on line to post it, but here they are:

I've just said goodbye to Dean's Blue Hole. It's a bit like breaking up with a great love. I feel so at home here. The water is so beautiful: calm and warm, and a gorgeous blue. I regret that I can not stay longer to really discover what I am really capable of. The last three weeks have gone so fast. I have only just started relaxing at depth, trusting myself and learning to think through the stages of each dive to be more controlled.

Yesterday evening I took a risk and nominated 65m constant weight for today. I did a couple of practise entries yesterday until my togs split and I had to get out of the water with my bum exposed. It was the first time I'd worn a fin while I've been here. It felt so easy. I took a little lead out of my neck weight and decided to just go for it to test out my equalisation and see how it felt to be that deep.

Today I had a few nerves, as you'd expect having not trained for the event and trying to push out my personal best by 9m! I did quite a lot of visualisation prior to diving to ensure that I knew what would happen at each stage and to try to keep my head together. About 12 minutes to top I put Kerian's Leaderfin Hyper on at the beach and swam out to the platform in my togs as I am trying to keep my wetsuit dry for when I pack it this afternoon. It was quite pleasant to be in the water. I sat on the back of the platform as Leo blacked out from his dive just under the surface. I tried to block him out and not let it bother me or affect my dive. I was reminded of my depth by the judges as they let the base plate down to my nominated 65m. I tried to ignore the pain of yesterday's sunburn on my shoulders as I sat in the sun. Suddenly there was just 4 minutes to go. I put my nose clip on and prepared my lanyard. At 2 minutes I started preparing to enter the water so I would be in by 1:30 to top. I slid in and Kerian clipped my lanyard to the line. There was a little current and despite the weight of the fin my feet were trying to float as usual. I held on to the rope with my arms as I wouldn't require their strength for this dive. The time goes fast when you only get in with 1:30s to top. I heard the 30s call and started preparing for my last breath. It takes about 40s for me to inhale fully including about 35-40 packs. My entry went well and I was freefalling within 6 kicks. I did a couple more to get up some good speed then pulled through with my arms to relax in my freefall. I reminded myself to relax and focus through the contractions that started very soon in the freefall phase. Equalisation worked really well. I had one little difficult stage at bout 60m when I had to revverse pack to get my mouthful back and then equalised on it with very little effort. At depth I did not yet feel any pressure on my chest and felt that I had plenty of air left for equalising. There was a very tiny thermocline at about 55m and it was fairly dark at depth, but I could still make out the striped part of the rope with relative ease. I grabbed the line, then the tag from the bottom plate. I pulled hard on the line to commence my ascent and held the tag in my hand as I started kicking upwards. Kerian's fin felt beautiful. I felt like I was getting so much momentum from every easy kick. It also allowed my to keep my technique together, which is something I've always struggled with using my carbon fibre special fins monofin. I told myself all the way up to relax and focus. I saw Fran who was doing my deep safety and knew that the surface was near. My legs were just starting to feel a little tired with a little lactic build up and having done pretty deep dives the two days previously, but I pushed it out of my mind. As I neared the surface I glided and started thinking about surfacing. My head popped up and I grabbed the rope, breathed beautiful fresh air and gave my surface protocol before showing the tag, still firmly grasped in my right hand. The dive was much easier than expected and I feel there's plenty more to come in this discipline. Again I just need more time...

Tomorrow I start the long journey home.