Reto en el Abismo 2004
Posted By Perry Gladstone on 8 November 2004
After ten days in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, the final tally for Reto en el Abismo 2004 is: five freediving world record attempts, four new International Judges and one pending world record.
Starting on October 20, fellow International Judge Grant Graves (USA) and I began preparations to oversee and officiate the two world record attempts that had been announced by Carlos Coste (VEN) and Stig Severinsen (DEN). As officials it would be our job to make sure all A.I.D.A. International rules, regulations and safety protocols are followed and that each of the performances are properly documented, so as to ensure that current and future records are honoured.
To mitigate the numerous risks associated with the attempts we began with an overall safety and organizational meeting in which I reviewed primary and secondary rescue procedures and redundancies and established each of the roles required for the organization staff.
Accompanying Stig Severinsen was a Danish television crew shooting a four-part series on him for national broadcaster DR1. As active participants in the event it was essential that they, too, be included in the protocols and procedures. This continued throughout the week with briefings the night before each attempt. In addition to this, a number of other tasks had to be completed including stretching and marking the official lines, calibrating the depth gauges and establishing the individual roles for Grant and myself as primary judges on game day.
The first attempts took place Saturday Oct. 23rd.
First to go was Carlos Coste, who rode a weighted sled down the official line to 135m / (442 ft.). According to regulations a minimum of three official cameras must capture the entire performance. One, mounted to the sled, captured the incredible ride as Carlos flew past safety scuba divers at 35, 70 and 100 meters, at speeds averaging 2 meters per second. A second camera secured to the bottom plate captured his arrival at depth. Meanwhile two surface cameras, the Danish camera crew and a host of safeties, organizers and spectators anxiously awaited his return to the surface. For the Variable Weight category the diver is required to ascend under his own power, which Carlos did in a final time of 4:08. The dive was clean,and Carlos maintained control as he coughed up some of the remaining fluids that had accumulated due to the thoracic filling that takes place at extreme depths.
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