The Florida Event Diary
Posted By Eric Fattah on 5 July 2001
Four freedivers of Team-PFD attempt four world records:
Martin Stepanek -- Static Apnea Men
Karoline Dal Toe -- Static Apnea Women
Mandy Cruickshank -- Free Immersion Women
Eric Fattah -- Constant Weight Men
Three world records were achieved -- two in men's static apnea and one in women's static apnea. Below is the story of my constant ballast record attempt.
Background:
All my training was in Vancouver, BC, Canada. No pool, only gym and ocean. I knew that to break the existing 81m record, I needed to make 57m with no contractions. I finally made the 57m with no contractions in late May, so I decided to announce a record attempt. I had also done 67m many times quite easily in Vancouver, with dive times between 2:02 -- 2:10.
I arrived in Florida June 22, 2001. The record was scheduled for June 29-30. I needed to make the 79m prerequisite before being allowed to try for 82m.
Day 1
Today I went out with Kirk and the student divers for my first dive in the Florida waters. There was a high wind, very rough water, a thunder and lightning storm, torrential rain, and a high current. Also, the sea lice abound, so to avoid being bitten and laced with neurotoxin we covered every square millimeter of our bodies in some high SPF lotion which claims added protection against the sea lice.
I geared up in my 3mm picasso...strange wearing a speedo and gearing up, still being so hot that there's no rush, despite the open ocean wind...Put on my fluid goggles and nose clip, chinese blade monofin, reduced neck weight (2.5lb), and depth gauges. I jumped into the water only to be shocked that the water was warmer than the air. It felt like jumping into a hot tub. The stinger showed 29C/84F. I was boiling hot the whole time. Later I found an abrupt thermocline at 40m, where the water temp seemed to drop to about 68-75F (hard to tell through the suit). Blood pressure was a bit low, not having eaten much during the 11-hour long trip out here. I did a hang at 16m on a full lung, followed by two negative dives, good and long, as I would expect from low BP. Vis was mediocre for florida, about 60 feet, the four descent lines going down at an angle and crossing around 100 feet. As I mentioned it was cloudy with thunder, lightning, torrential rain, high winds and rough water. But I'm used to bad conditions. After the two negatives I did two pack stretches. Then, breathing up while being thrown around like a rag doll, I made my warm up dive to 46.6m, with no contractions, lasting an unusual 1:40, because there were no markers on the line, so I was looking at my gauge again and again. After that dive, I did my usual surface static, a 3:30 (2:55), amazing 2:55 with no contractions with the usual short breathe up, again, to be expected with lower blood pressure. Then I started breathing up for my big dive, still bumping into the descent assembly and bumping into the many students in the water. After about 4 minutes I was soon ready, and the rain became more torrential, and then the boat operator screamed for everyone to get back in the boat. He claimed that the rain made vis so bad that another boat nearly hit us. So we all scrambled back on the boat while Kirk struggled to get the descent lines back up. We went back to shore, and that was that for the day!
The bottom line for me is that tomorrow I'm not using a wetsuit at all. I'll use the speedo fastskin with a swim cap. If that's too cold, then Monday I'll use just the 3mm picasso top, or even use the fastskin with something warmer outside during my warm up...
Got home, went grocery shopping, lovely to find all these unusual fruits so cheap....Another report tomorrow...
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