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!