Day 7 of competition

This is my second day of rest in a row. I seem to have been expending more energy on my rest days than on my dive days, so decided it would be good to have another day off. I tried very hard to not get in the water today but it was so inviting, so I just had a lazy float around and enjoyed just getting wet. I finally climbed up the cliff today to take some photos of the magnificent view extending from the Blue Hole (now very blue) across the bay and out to sea. The waves on the other side of the wall that protects the hole from the wrath of the ocean were crashing in with enormous power and spraying high above the cliff, meanwhile the the blue hole was calm and unaffected. Sand sculptures seemed to be the theme of the day. While I didn't partake there was a dolphin swimming with a mermaid and a freediver (or course).

The diving today was fairly uneventful apart formt he Japanese, perhaps since they skipped the barbeque last night. Ryuzo and Tomoko both achieved their announced performances of 101m and 54m respectively in constant weight. A few of us scratched and the kiwi boys Will and Dave had trouble equalising both turning early, but still reaching pretty amazing depths. Karol gave up on her last dive before flying out, forcing Frank who was her deep safety to drag her up from 17m.

Yesterday I was the safety diver on the warm up line – it's pretty cold just hanging around the line for a couple of hours. I spent quite a lot of time mucking around taking photos, but unfortunately only got a few good shots. I played around at the edge of the hole after the diving was done and got to know the locals a little. Only managed to get a couple of nice fish photos though.

Fish around the side of the Blue Hole

Kerian in his descent.

Me doing warm up safety.

After diving we all went up to Chris's house for a barbeque. Chis owns a dive shop on the island. His property is right on the waterfront and has it's own gorgeous little private beach complete with soft golden sand, boat ramp, coconut palms and a big cave.

We sat around drinking, eating and laughing. My mocktails were lacking a little something (rum perhaps), but I got a nice wee sugar high. Charlie brought lots of fish to eat and there were lots of salads so we ate pretty well. After dinner the boys played beach volleyball. I had a quick dip in the water, as one must when they're presented with such a beautiful location and warm, clear, calm seas. Will's friends Mike and Nick took to running around zapping people with a little device that gave people electric shocks. A few people played horseshoes. It was a good evening. On the way up to the car Fran decided it would be a good idea to pee under a tree in the garden. Joy was a bit on the jolly side and decided to steady herself whilst waiting for Fran by grabbing hold of a random pole, which just happened to be a tall thin cactus. She got quite a few thorns stuck in her hand, which are still embedded. The advice from the pharmacy today is to urinate on her hand, then drop hot wax on it and pull the spikes out with the wax once it has cooled! I think she has yet to carry this out...

The allusive 50m

I took a risk today and had a go at the 50m no fins dive. It was a pretty nice dive and I was in a good head space through most of the dive. I'm starting to relax bit more underwater, however still have moments of tension. The descent has now become easier than the ascent, which is slightly concerning as I'll have to dive with a base plate to stop me from now on! The dive went great but I came up, grabbed the rope, started my surface protocol then had a wee black out for a few seconds. It's funny how the memory loss and loss of motor control are slightly mis-aligned. I don't really remember the surfacing but I have a clear recollection of the moment my head fell backwards and someone removed my neckweight. I think I was out for about 3s, so not a major. I'll have a day off then try for something slightly less before attempting it again!

Kiwis breaking records

Today was a great day. The sun came out and while the wind is still blowing is was not as gusty as it has been. The black hole is starting to turn blue and the rubbish drifting around on the surface is disapating. I witnessed William Trubridge break the constant weight without fins world record, where he dove to 84m on a single breath. I felt shivers as the judges raised their white cards and awarded him the record! I nominated 44m in the same event. Today I decided to dive without a wetsuit. It was a very pleasurable dive, comfortable and easy the whole way. I swam to the platform in my wetsuit and then stripped off. I lowered myself into the water at about 1:30s to top to avoid feeling the cold. The sun hid behind a cloud while I was on the platform, but I did not feel cold. It's still so much warmer than at home. It was a pretty easy national record. I'm working on relaxing at depth as this is the main way in which I can see that I can easily gain some good depth at the moment. Tomorrow I'm going to try for 50m with the same set up.

Competition day 3

The weather is finally clearing up. I'm sure this place is windier than home though! Today the black hole was starting to turn blue and the visibility was better, however still just a mere 15m or so. At least there was minimal surface current, which has been one of the things concerning me when I do no fins as it seems to mess up the entry and then the dive just goes poorly. Today I nominated 41m without fins. I thought I'd start off with something fairly easy in the attempt to boost my confidence a little. It was a pretty easy dive, but I still need to work on relaxing under water. It's getting better but can be the difference between a sucessful outcome and not! Anyway I furthered my national record by another 5m, with plenty more left to go further.

Yesterday I tried to have a rest day. I coached Kerian through his 60m constant weight dive, then we went exploring. We went to Galloway's landing, which is a beach near Clarence Town. It was on the lea side of the island, so we were hoping for calmer seas. The beach was stunning and the waves weren't too bad. We hopped in and swam towards a dark patch that we expected to be a reef. The water was beautiful but there was minimal life. We found one tiny little reef and then went looking for a bigger one. We just kept on swimming over the top of beautiful golden sand, but no reefs came. We turned back when the electrical storm hit. The colour out there were amazing. The water was a stunning light blue which was really set off against the backdrop of purple-grey sky as the storm came through. We expected an easier swim home due to the fact that we felt we had swum against the current all the way out, but there was no such luck! It was quite an exhausting “dive” for my rest day!

After the big swim we went in search of some good food and found a bar and grille on the opposite side of the island in Clarence Town (remembering that the island is incredibly narrow). I branched out and ordered the snapper. The plate arrived with two whole snapper on it and lots of veges. It was pretty good. Later most of the divers here were going out for dinner at Chez Pierre's, however the boat hadn't arrived with the fresh produce, so he couldn't feed us and we were forced to look for a different retaurant. We ended up going back to the same place. I managed to eat a couple of quite large pork chops, so definitely had a good level of protein for today's dive. To be honest I felt more shattered after my rest day than I normally would after a big dive. Oh well, might just have to continue to take it easy over the next few days...

Bahamas updates

Just a reminder that all the results and updates are being posted at: http://verticalblue.net/news/

For updates re Kerian and I you can go to:
http://deansbluehole.blogspot.com/

First day!

Today was the first day of competition. The weather has been rather poor. There was another storm last night and the hole was affected again by current, poor visibility and a fair amount of weed and rubbish floating around. I decided to have a go at my final NZ depth record as I haven't had a lot of luck with the no fins going particularly well in the current. It seems to slow me down considerably on both descent and ascent, and increases my stroke count a great deal. I nominated a 56m free immersion dive to equal the depth that I made in Taupo three weeks ago in constant weight. I felt this would be an easy dive as a few days ago I achieved and easy 57m on my first attempt at a deep free immersion dive. Free Immersion involves the diver pulling themselves down the line and back up, without the use of fins.

We have one car to share for the whole apartment which looks like it may prove challenging as we have one judge, the medic, and two divers staying here. After a lot of mucking around in the morning trying to make the transport work for everyone who had to be there at different times I managed to scoff down some breakfast a mere hour and three quarters prior to my top time. I had just enough time to complete my body and lung stretches and then head off to the blue hole to check in 45 mins prior to my official top time. There was a lot of wind down at the beach and no shade whatsoever. I mucked around for a few minutes taking photos and trying to watch the competition, but then had to go and find a quiet shady spot. I put the boot of the car up and managed to sit in a tiny bit of shade behind the car in the time I had prior to getting suited up. The time passed rapidly and I soon had to start preparing my gear. It rained for the few minutes while I was putting on my wetsuit and then cleared up immediately after. Once I was sure I had everything on I wandered down to the water and swam the 15m or so over to the platform, and sat at the back. Three women before me had nominated 57m free immersion dives but only Natalie had completed hers sucessfully. I closed my eyes and visualised each part of my dive carefully. I moved up to the front of the platform where I sat a little longer. I fixed my nose clip in position and attached my ankle lanyard to the line. The last two training sessions I had spent too much time in the water prior to diving and was concerned about over breathing while lying on my back waiting for my top time, especially since yesterday I had a wee surface black out after diving to 50m without fins. I slipped into the water with 2:30s left to top. I was much more relaxed than usual for a competition dive, and more relaxed than I expected since it was only my second attempt ever at a deep free immersion dive. The warmth of the water really helps. I managed to keep my breathing about as close to normal as can be expected. At 30s to top I commenced my final breath only to take in quite a lot of water as a small wave washed over my face. I spat it out and started again. Sometimes this happens when I start to take my last breath as I'm sitting quite low in the water after a fairly good exhale. I had a fairly good entry and pulled down the rope until I felt freefall kicking in, then gave one more big pull. The freefall felt great. I started my mouthful quite soon after I stopped pulling on the line. I have been doing this a bit lately as it seems to be a lot more comfortable and if my nose clip is leaking air it is less likely to continue once I switch to the mouthful.I had no issues at all with equalisation and found myself at the bottom plat in no time. It was very dark and I could only just make out the stripes on the rope marking the last 1.5m to the bottom plate. I grabbed the line and reached out to grab a tag. I felt around on the base plate for some time unable to find a tag. After a few seconds I aborted the search, turned and started pulling myself back up the line to the surface. I pulled hard on the line trying to keep a consistent rhythm. I felt the lack of air with about 10m to go and reminded myself to stay focussed and stick with it. I have a bit of a blank in the memory of the end of my dive, but from the accounts around me I surfaced, grabbed the line, had a wee samba, pulled myself together and completed the surface protocol in the 15s allowed. On checking the watches I had dived to 57.8m since the judges forgot to pull the line up 1m after the other three girls had finished. My dive time was about right at 2:15s. I was awarded a yellow card for not retrieving a tag, however this was reversed when the judges pulled up the line to check that there were in fact no tags. So, my new New Zealand record of 57m exceeds the depth I have achieved with fins!

Bahamas

The other night we all went down to the beach for a BBQ. It's really beautiful here. We stood in the warm shallow water with toes in the soft golden sand as the sun slowly retired over the hills surrounding the calm bay. Waves crashed over by the rocks in the distance and fish jumped out of the water in the evening light. There is still quite a lot of weed and rubbish littering the beaches after the storm, but it is still stunning. There are a surprising number of left shoes scattered along the top of the beach. Will got the fire going and we all brought some food along to share. It was a beautiful night and there was a multitude of stars visible - so many more than at home. I lay on the sand for a while and contemplated my place in the universe. I felt amazingly relaxed after and now finally feel like I have switched into holiday mode.

the black hole

Hi guys, I wrote this yesterday, didn't have such a deep dive today but it felt nice and relaxed.

I've almost been here a week now and still feel like I'm just getting used to it. It's a shame that I only have another two weeks to go. The Blue Hole is pretty amazing and I'd love to stay longer to really be able to relax and get used to deep diving. The jet lag has finally worn off and my body is feeling a lot less stiff than it was when I arrived. It's only the rooster just outside that crows from about 3am and an over active mind that is keeping me awake at night now. I really need to sleep more. I don't feel too tired, but my pulse rate is still quite high after the trip (usually settles down after a week or so of getting a descent amount of sleep). The wind was quite strong yesterday and it created quite a lot of current in the Blue Hole which I think affected my diving quite a lot. I did a CNF dive to 48m. It was about 20s slower than expected and all of that was on my desent. I also had to work quite hard on the ascent, but perhaps was stroking too fast and losing efficiency. I had to do extra strokes from the surface due to the current and my poor entry. The whole dive was a bit panicky and not great.

Today I wanted to experience greater depth and decided to go Free Immersion in an attempt to relax a bit more at depth due to the fact that it wouldn't be such an effort to get off the surface or back up. We set the base plate to 57m. It was a fantastic dive and I still had plenty left when I reached the bottom plate and much more than expected at my return to the surface. I still had a little anxiety at about 45-50m, but managed to relax again and had no issues with equalisation. So, I'm proud to say that I've been deeper without fins than I have with now!

We still only have about 10m vis and it's really dark by about 50m, just getting blacker and blacker as you go down evidently. Hoping for some grat conditions soon! This always happens when I go places to dive!!!

Dean's Blue Hole

I've had a couple of days training in Dean's Blue Hole now. I'm still feeling a bit stiff and tired from the trip so just had a couple of easy sessions checking my buoyacy is all OK (it's almost right now). The hole is a bit dirty due to the combination of a storm in the Atlantic, the wind blowing abnormally from the sou-east, and the full moon making the tides quite high. As you can see there is quite a lot of rubbish that's been blown up on the beach and more in the water. Otherwise the water is amazing: warm and clear, and the sand is golden and soft. Yesterday the filth in the water was circling us while we were training, however today was much better. Apart from being much more buoyant in the salt water, I also noticed that today at about 25m I'd tensed up a little in preparation for the thermocline which I've been assured will never come - something I didn't realise I did. Still plenty of stuff to work on including getting more sleep which is slightly proving difficult due to the rooster located just outside my apartment! I suppose it's not too different to living in an apartment building where the residents make noise and wake you up at all hours on the weekend! Here are a couple of photos. The hole is smaller than I expected - you can see it just behind the sun umbrella, where the water goes to a dark blue colour.

Orlando

Here are some pics from Orlando where I stayed with Rachel. Rachel is digging into her ribs with grat gusto.

Mikey, Rachel and Jeremy's son at brunch.

This is the Blue Springs were the Manatees reside, they obviously were hiding from us or are improving their breath hold times to more than 20 mins. I think they get a bit sedentary during the heat of the day.