The Quiet Man
Posted By Emma Farrell on 14 April 2005
Alun has a very methodical and analytical approach to his diving and thinks really carefully about what he's doing. He analyses his deep dives in detail and has a record of every one, even scoring them within an hour so he can remember exactly what happened.
The frequency of Alun's diving has enabled him to notch up 50 dives over 50 metres in 2003. He is intensely private about his achievements and, unusually for someone of his standard, refuses to compete. When I asked him why he wouldn't, he said he just didn't see the need to do it. He wouldn't get anymore out of freediving. For him, the best moment is doing a personal best amongst friends, and he rang me up recently to say how he had managed to film a friend reaching 50 metres for the first time and how much this meant to both of them.
But Dorothea isn't always the most peaceful of places. Alun told me what happened when he was going for a PB last year:
"It was when I was going for a PB during the summer. On that day about 50+ 'hippies' had invaded the car park at Dorothea and were having a 'rave', which was still going on by lunchtime on Sunday. The place was littered with rubbish and ravers who were off their heads on booze and drugs. All this time I was trying to get my head together for my goal dive of the year... I was having to listen to deafening techno music (proper concert loudness- good music though) as I breathed in the water. It all seemed quite bizarre really! All fell silent as I went under and then I heard it again as I surfaced". God knows what they made of Alun!
Alun is one of the quietest, shyest people I know and although he refuses to compete, he is open to the possibility of setting National records. When I asked him why he said that he would want to give British Freediving a boost. "At the moment Canada is streets ahead of us but have very similar diving conditions". He sees the most important thing being that it is done in British waters, "...you don't have to jet off abroad to dive to a high standard."
So will the quiet man of British freediving finally put himself on the map? We wait with bated breath!
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