Sink Faze: Dress Rehearsal
Posted By Paul Kotik on 30 March 2006
In Association with PFI
West Bay, Grand Cayman Island, BWI -Today’s oceaneering was a full-scale dress rehearsal for the event. Athletes, in-water support, on-board support, media, medical and assorted unclassifiable components assembled on the WestBay dock for an 8 AM departure. It was very likely the biggest Performance Freediving logistical operation ever : two cars, a van, and two trucks were required to transport personnel and gear to boatside. Fortunately, Kirk’s calculations worked out, and the dreaded Two-Trip scenario between base camp and dock wasn’t necessary.
A big media development can now be confirmed and disclosed : NBC, one of the three major American broadcast TV networks, has a 4-person crew on location and will be ( at the very least) shooting footage for one of the network’s prime news shows. The NBC crew joined the rest of us on Captain Leslie Ebank’s 42-foot boat for the ride out to the dive site. The possibility of live coverage, using HD feed from HD Odyssey’s underwater cams is under study. The NBC producer seemed very impressed by all he saw. In a conversation with Kirk after today’s training session, he opined that Performance Freediving is doing for freediving what Jake Burton did in his day for snowboarding: turning it from a quirky niche interest to a serious spectator sport. Those are words many of us have been waiting many years to hear.
Television is a very, very competitive business in the United States. I’ve not seen crews from any other networks as yet, but I’d be astonished if word of NBC’s presence here hasn’t spread up and down the Avenue of the Americas in New York City, and set off a wave of interest in the other companies’ headquarters.
The winds and seas had settled a bit since yesterday, but it was still a little bit rougher than optimal. Your faithful Freediving Editor was drafted as a support freediver, and so I had as up-front a seat for the athletes’ training dives as can be had.
A small misadventure occurred in the initial stages of setup, out at the dive site.
The tiny, transparent plastic dinghy (on which the generator and a network engineer are stationed to support the transmission of live HD video from underwater) broke loose from its tether and began to drift away downwind at an alarming speed. I’m not sure how far downwind the next dry land is, but I would reckon many hundreds of miles.
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