Well, the comp is only days away and its such a busy place now.
Blu-Orga Brand Wetsuits. Shame they need to copy Blueseventy with the Patented Reverse Zipper!
I tell you, I miss the days of just William and I having the place to ourselves, where we could sit on the platform discussing how much more superior Blueseventy wetsuits and gear are over the brand he seems to be fixated on, I think its beluga-whale branding or something like that.
I came home the other night to find a whale brand sticker on the front door of my apartment. Pretty funny. Gee that William T is a real comedian. I managed to do something similar to his front door with a Blueseventy swimcap and some tape. Maybe not an original idea, but still…. cant let that carryon slide.
Had a wicked afternoon yesterday, blasting about Salt pond with Charlie and Joe, in Charlie’s “Super Whaler”. Such a prefect boat for this place. We checked out a blue hole in the bay, shot a few fish, got some spider crabs, dived some caves and had a great time. A perfect way to blow off some steam.
Overlooking the Saltpond bay.
On the way back was an amazing sunset, so I shot some quick pictures which you can see.
Carla then proceeded to cook up one of the fish and the crab claws. Had another epic meal and all was good in the world.
DeeDee and Ben arrived yesterday too. DeeDee delivered my Monofins!!! YAY! She has been a real help to me which I am so grateful. Basically, after the monos went missing in transit, I was trying not to think about it, so she picked that ball up and ran with it. Helping to arrange new ones to be made at short notice and shipped ASAP, so I could forget about it all and get on with diving. Well, get this, BOTH packaged arrived at her place on the same day, so ended up with a double up in the order. Turns out that Klara (Sweden) is in the market for a new Monofin too, so she is trying out the second one to see if she likes it.
Salt Pond bay from another location.
After safety and coaching Carla today, the Spaniards introduced themselves to me. Was nice to meet them after corresponding with them via e-mail prior to leaving NZ. I also got to meet Martin Stepanek and a few other freedivers today.
The best experience by far today was a dive I did on one of the practice lines, where I dropped down to around 20m and as I turned, I noticed that there was a rather large Tarpon out cruising towards me, so I moved away from the line, flipped on my side and started a laze swim not more than an arm length away from me. He was just cruising and did not seem worried about me being there, so I just kept going in the same direction. One of the Canadian safety team was watching as I was swimming along with the fish.
And yes, the sun eventually meets the horizon.
We cruised over to the ledge where they hang out and as he dropped under the ledge, two more nosed out to check me out. By that stage I had been down more than 2 mins and needed to head up, so I turned and headed to the surface. I tell you, those fish are even more amazing up close like that. So primitive and streamlined. I wish there was someone there to have taken a picture.
Very shortly, this afternoon, kicks off with a mini-comp for national records only. Its a nice idea where people that maybe top in their country can all try and set national records without having to upset their strategy for the world champs. I was going to enter and see if I could get both CWT and CNF, but then in a shocking moment of reality, I remembered that I cant go past 100m CWT yet and damned if the NZ record in CNF is a world record. ohhh well…. maybe next time huh? 
So far with this comp there have been very few incidents here, but today one of the top athletes had a deep blackout on what could be described as an “easy” dive depth for that person. Deep being 25m from the surface. Poor Chris M (NZL) pulled him up from that depth (NICE WORK) and handed off to the safety team. Chris told me he was a little shaken from that incident. Its always reassuring that your team members are awesome safety tho.
So, as for me, I am feeling tired, but am going to have one more training dive, then a couple of days resting up good, then its time for the games to begin. I feel so honored to be part of this world champs with so many top level freedivers, which most of them have become friends. I love this sport.
Best Sponsor EVER !!! Dont forget it!!!
Hey K! Good job mate and a real nice read. You should try writing crappy, short and useless posts, then nobody would want more and you could rest and continue with the diving..
On a serious note, to you, and others there having fun: for every one of you there are 10 (hey, it’s still a niche sport) out here in web-world who love freediving just as much as you: SO KEEP US INFORMED.
The future of freediving is reading this stuff too, and due to the good old web, it will be around for a while. Its an inspiration. I can see my boys extolling the virtues of “that old hero, pb-a-day-man Kerian” in 10 years time.
I’ve gone all sentimental, best get back to fixing servers (YAWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN)
take care out there
Simon
For those of you who don’t know; Kerian and I are sharing an apt. in Petty’s for the comp. Our neighbors are William and Brittany to the left and Will Winram, Rob King, Herbert Nitsch,& Johan Dahlstrom to the right.
Kerian and I have an agreement. He helps me dive ( safety and William,too and coaching) and in exchange-I cook. I also forage the markets for decent food and Kerian hunts for tasty sea fare. We are doing quite well and the arrangement seems to be an equitable one.
blurgh 70 don’t even have stickers? nuff said…
Great reading dude, Keep it up and your dives ROCK !!!!
I read about your experience with Charlie and that triggered lots of memories of a crazy speedboat tripp i had with him and Will’s family in september. With the boat going at top speed (around 85 km/hr !!!) he (or the alcohol in him) decided it was time to jump overboard for fun. After our hearts started beating again and we had resqued him, we where looking for bodyparts and his sunglasses for about an hour
He is probably still feeling it a bit.
So keep this in mind when you have another trip with him and there is also some caribian rum on board !
Please say hi to him from me. Is was a great time…
Good luck in the coming exciting days. I am glued to the internet.