Deep Diving Stories
Posted By Eric Fattah on 18 September 2000
Disclaimer: Do not try any of these techniques!
This is a story of a -67m personal best I set on September 17, 2000. However, to fully understand the story requires knowledge of the previous week's dive, a -57m Canadian record. So I'll start with that.
September 10, 2000: A -57m Canadian record
It was the last CAFA Western Canadian Regional freediving/apnea competition before the World Cup in Nice. I was still getting over a flu which had 'grounded' me since my -62m personal best three weeks before (August 20th). In fact, I had tried diving on September 3rd, but my sinuses would barely equalize, and the water had cooled dramatically (58F surface, 45F at depth), so I froze my butt off in my 3mm suit and my cold got worse. I knew from that weekend that I would no longer be able to use my 3mm wetsuit this season. I was really disappointed, because I knew that as soon as I put on thicker neoprene, my depths would suffer. But I had no choice. The thought of even trying to beat my -62m depth with a 5mm suit was terrifying. I had resigned myself to a sub-60m depth for the competition. I had announced 57m when I registered. I was a bit worried about the competition in general since I hadn't been to the gym for 20 days because of my flu.
Saturday, September 9th, we completed the pool part of the competition at the UBC outdoor pool. I was happy with a 5'41 static and a 100m dynamic. I was worried that being in the pool for so long would make my cold worse, so I went straight home after the pool while the others went out for a drink.
During the past three weeks, not being well enough for any physical training, I decided to analyze and improve my psychology and diet. I made a long list of positive diving affirmations, which I recorded on a tape, over and over. I had been playing this tape to myself quite frequently, trying to program my mind for confidence and success. Also, I had been experimenting with drinking water mixed with sea salt. My raw food diet provides no salt, and I constantly suffered from low blood pressure due to my body's inability to retain water. My theory was that if I simply drank water mixed with salt, I would then become thirsty for a couple of hours, as my body craved water to store. And, as I would drink, my blood pressure would rise, which is critical to avoid a black out. This weekend would be the proving ground for both of these techniques.
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