Vertical Blue 09, Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas

The competition is now well under way. We concluded the first three day round and are currently having a rest day. I sat out the first day opting instead to train the day prior to get another (3rd) training session in before competing.

On day two I nominated 47m constant weight without fins. I didn't sleep well the night before and was in a bit of a poor psychological and physical state on waking which I did not manage to overcome. I overheated prior to my dive and did not allow myself enough time on the platform to relax. Negative thoughts plagued me up to and during the dive and I turned early at 40m. My main focus here in the Bahamas is to try to remain relaxed at depth and I was anything but, so I decided to turn back. I think it was a good decision rather than pushing myself and potentially experiencing a further set back.

On day three I nominated 46m as in some crazy psychological way I felt much more comfortable with this. I put my wetsuit on early as I had run into troubles the day before due to the fact that I was hot and sticky and the wetsuit took a lot longer than usual to get myself into. I arrived at the platform about 20 mins prior to my dive to ensure I had plenty of time to find a good head space and relax. The competition no longer got to me and the dive was pretty good and relaxed however safety diver Simon said I still carried the old panicky expression on my face. There is still plenty to work on and I feel a bit slow but apart from pushing the streamlining I really do not want to speed up any further. The dive was a little under 2 minutes. There were no difficulties on the return swim and I feel quite nicely weighted being neutral around 15m. The duck dives have been worrying me as I seem to use up so much energy trying to leave the surface, but I have decided to just relax and go with whatever happens now as hopefully this will help to decrease the stress during my dive and allow me to push out dive times and depths further.


Here are some photos care of Judge Grant:





Dean's Blue Hole is now fairly pristine. There was plenty of light at depth (for me) and the weed has mostly cleared away. The wind and tide (and possibly the numerous divers hanging around the hole) still stir up a little sand and seem to reduce the visibility as the competition progresses each day. I have been for some very pleasant afternoon cool off swims at the hole and I feel this is when the hole is at it's most beautiful.

For more information on the Vertical Blue Invitational 09 competition, please go to http://www.verticalblue.net/ and look in the news section. There are some great photos of divers by Fred Buyle on there, some that give you a real sense of the deep space.