SONY Free Like No Other: Game Week
Posted By Paul Kotik on 5 August 2007
**MARTIN SETS CONSTANT WEIGHT NO-FINS WORLD RECORD**
VIDEO OF 83 METER CNF WORLD RECORD DIVE
The following dispatch has come in from the FIT crew in Dahab: "Today has Martin set new world record in Constant Weight without Fins with flawless dive to -83m. Previous record of -82m was held by William Truebridge from New Zealand."
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida - We could have news of one or more new freediving World Records at any time now. The SONY Free Like No Other event is officially in Game Day One, or, rather, is nearing the end of the event's first day in Dahab, Egypt. I'm not there - well, Galileo wasn't in outer space but nevertheless gave us a pretty good account of the solar system, didn't he? For this one, I'm the Matt Drudge of freediving journalism. I've traded in my wetsuit and board shorts for pyjamas, coffee and deodorant. Thank you, internet!
DOWNTOWN DAHAB circa 1970
I haven't personally set foot in the Sinai in over 30 years, and most likely never will again. Places like Dahab and Sharm el Shiekh are, in my recollection, dusty nowheres in a hellish killing field. The inter-war years ( 1967-1973 ) saw some tiny beginnings of tourism to Nueiba and Dahab - if one could call it tourism. I spent some time along that strip of coast back then. It was mostly young Israelis with a smattering of Euros. One went there to get naked, stay naked and smoke lots of hashish. The days, weeks and months oozed by in a purple haze.
There was, of course, the sea. I had my giant Voit mask, with the metal band clamping the glass faceplate in the skirt. It was big enough to use as a shaving basin, which I did. I had a snorkel. No fins. I don't recall ever seeing anybody else freediving there in those days, but an old friend insists that the kibbutz at Nueiba ( Neviot) had basic diving gear available for rent. I was in the water a lot. It was cold, I remember that, but the land was cruelly, unbearably hot. There were very, very few human beings in the area - a handful of visitors, and the Beduin, of course.
THE BEST FREEDIVER IN DAHAB circa 1970
It's very strange to me to imagine a Dahab with hotels, swimming pools, telephones, dive shops, and a colony of young foriegners, freedivers in residence in what would have, in 1970, been unthinkable luxury. For some reason, the Dahab Euros like to think of Sinai as being part of the African continent rather than the Asian - continental drift! Plate tectonics! It's all true!
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