Thats right and I will say it again.. Holly Crap!
I was there, thats right … total ring side seat (William T’s coach). Hot Damn! Top 6 in the mens heats … all 100m or more. Johan D, finally got his 100! Guillaume came up from 102m and made it look like he had just done a 50m dive. Herbert spending AGES to get out of sight, (If you have ever seen him dive you know exactly what I am talking about) then seemingly taking twice as long to cover the last 20m, completing a 105m dive. Ryuzo missing his EQ and having to turn early. William Trubridge, getting the lanyard wrapped around his neck at the bottom plate and swimming to the surface like that! Alexey finishing strong and seeming easy and lastly Carlos Coste doing a horrible job off the surface (I think I counted 2 kicks maybe 3 before the fin was in the water) but still getting the tag regardless. Top 6 = one hell of a final.
There were also some other exceptional performances today, Jure Diac setting another Slovenian national record, Jacob going to 92 for a new Danish record, Rob King going to 84 for a US record (but getting squeezed) and Alfredo from Spain setting a new CWT record @ 70m.
I entered today with a conservative dive of 75m mainly to ensure I did not over do it for my CNF attempt tomorrow. I tried the Herbert approach, by overweighting myself so I could sink like a stone. Made the pale @ 53 seconds, so the stone theory was working well (Thanks Isaac Newton – got to love that gravity thing you figured out there (love your work)). I turned spending 2 seconds in that process (what the hell was I doing, nothing to see there) and eventually set off for the return journey. Having this brand new fin on my feet, I figured I would see what it was capable of, so I got into my best stream line form, concentrated on my dive through my abdominals (to prevent burning out my legs) and set off to see if I could set a world land underwater speed record for the dive. Actual figures from my watch and graph show a total dive time of 1 min 43 seconds. meaning that I returned to the surface in 48 seconds. I was a little concerned that the friction of the water across my fin would cause boiling water, thereby causing compressible air bubbles in the water, which would mean I would slow down, but no. I think the volume of water in the blue hole allowed the water to remain cool enough for my return. The other concern I had was the amount of eddy current off the bottom once the water from my fin had bounced and returned to the surface. Maybe the competitor following me might have to fight up current? luckily he made his dive, so the turbulence obviously was not too much.
So tomorrow is an exciting day. I get another shot at that 72m CNF. I am very confident that I will be able to make this one stick. It will be a good day. The weather is looking pretty good to, so I will more than likely be in the speedsuit and not a wetsuit. I prefer that so much more.
So now, its bed, sleep and rest.
Dive Graph Below from todays CWT.
can you say CRAZY?????
What brand is you new mono?
Shot bro! all the best for 2moro.
Crikey….imagine how much faster that woulda been in your speedsuit!!!! Maybe ’speed apnea’ should be a new discipline!
Wow what a speed, with all the added weight it’s more like skandalopetra
Good stuff.
Good luck tomorrow on your CNF dive.
Thx for the great story, keeps us from over depressing and drying out back home. Good luck for your CNF, enjoy