Triple Depth 2009

Each year Freedive Dahab holds a competition covering the 3 main deep freediving competitive disciplines; Constant Weight, Free Immersion and Constant No Fins. This year was no different and I was lucky enough to be involved.

Whilst I finished my last couple of days at Dive Urge in the office, Leif was official camera for the Static competition (i) (stationary breath hold in water) that also took place in the run up to the main comp.

One of my fellow instructor candidates, Josie, had her first coaching experience here too. Shall we just say that she now knows the signs of a static Loss of Motor Control (LMC which can indicate an impending Blackout B/O) much better – never mind John, no brain cells damaged!

The only floating pyramid in Dahab took it's journey from next door to our house to the Blue Hole – Dahab's infamous dive site; a 90m plus hole in the reef table with an arch way at 57m in the reef wall that leads to the open sea (check out Will Trubridge on you-tube for a spectacular freedive through it without fins!)

With the platform in place we had 3 wonderful days of competition. Dean, Katia, Leif and myself took turns safety diving (ii) for the competitors and on the platform taking official video or adjusting the depths.

In between times we enjoyed many a “Disco Break” with the Israeli competitors – see the film Don't Mess With the Zohan and you'll understand. These were mainly led by the saintly and satanic duo, Lotta and Linda, who's official job along with running the show....

(who am I kidding, it was really run by Mr Peter, long suffering husband of Lotta, who kept everyone in line, shepherded all the competitors and made sure it all ran like clockwork!)

…. was Judging (along with Katia) and deep water safety for those lunatics who insisted on diving between -60m and -90m. They also managed to include a acrobatic display (iii), much to the confusion of the scubies passing by!

We had many national records smashed and only a handful of B/O's – 2 of which were divers that Leif and I did safety for. My first ever B/O recovery left me shaken; I had hesitated before grabbing her and knew I shouldn't have, but she was fine and very thankful to us for the assistance to the surface.

The days were long and hot, but totally worth the sun burnt neck and the crispy salt filled hair.

What really topped it all off was the after comp party where the satanic one eventually got married to one of the competitors! We think John may have been a bit oxygen deprived during the static incident from before, but seemed quite up for the whole thing.

Despite all the energy expended during the comp there was no rest for the wicked, Josie and I had the impending instructor course to prepare for........