David Blaine: Drowned Alive? Part VII "Curtain Down"
Posted By Paul Kotik on 9 May 2006
That's All Folks!
So it ends, not exactly with a bang, nor quite with a whimper.
Performance Artist, Illusionist, Magician and newbie diver David Blaine has ended his 177-hour stay in a water-filled acrylic sphere, failing in his attempt to free himself from chains and shackles while holding his breath beyond the 9-minute mark.
Copyright 2006 Paul Kotik/DeeperBlue.net
Blaine’s apnea climax was ended on orders from internationally renowned freediving instructor Kirk Krack, who responded to the performer’s evident distress by ordering Performance Freediving athletes Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Martin Stepanek into the sphere where they executed a classic freediving rescue enhanced by Martin’s frantic efforts to unlock the shackles holding Blaine’s feet to the sphere bottom. The official clock read 7:02 when David Blaine’s airway broke the surface.
Copyright 2006 Paul Kotik/DeeperBlue.net
David Blaine appeared very emotional as greeted the huge crowd assembled at Lincoln Center for the 2-hour ABC TV live special capping the week-long Drowned Alive! event.
Copyright 2006 Paul Kotik/DeeperBlue.net
The plan for Blaine's Houdini-like climax was changed following a final rehearsal earlier in the day. The script had called for the performer to be removed from the 2,000-gallon sphere, shackled, annd then lowered back into the fluid sans regulator for his apnea escape. Blaine's deteriorating physiological data forced the rewrite - his plasma volume had dropped to about 70% of normal, and his doctors were concerned that Blaine might lose consciousness if subjected to the sudden loss of vascular support provided by the small ( about .10 ATM) but significant hydrostatic pressure of the liquid. The outside temperature, too, had dropped during this final day of the event and had fallen below 50 Farenheit as evening approached.
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