A new personal best...50m Dynamic.

The Breath-up

The Dive and attempt

The Coach

The breath, after completing my first 50m dynamic!

The Assistant Coach

The Master "William Trubridge"

Taken from the AIDA website: On the morning of Friday December 16 at Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas; William Trubridge successfully dove to 101 meters without assistance of fins or weights in a time of 4 minutes, 8 seconds. Three days before, William achieved a new world record depth of 100 meters, couple days before this record, but he was not satisfied with it. These record dives was witnessed by Aida judges; Ute Geßmann (GER) and Ben Weiss (USA).

The constant weight no-fins (CWT) record will be submitted to the record books pending the results of a mandatory drug test.

“It took me just over 2 minutes to sink to 100 meters below the sea, but the idea that I have achieved this unique depth in unassisted freediving is taking a lot longer than that to sink in. What started out as an impossibility when I first was drawn to freediving, and then started to dimly take shape as a conceivable goal, has now become a reality. I can’t express how much of an honor it is to be able to take part in freediving history, and I hope to continue to test the boundaries of how much we as unfettered human beings are able to merge with the aquatic world.”  - William Trubridge

It only takes one breath and determination. Well done William!

Mares, Omer, Cressi fins and more...time to check out some gear.

I have been fortunate that up until now I haven't had to spend any money on gear, simply because I was able to use all my scuba gear for my freediving. There are some restrictions in using scuba gear of which one is the wetsuits being allot stiffer than specialised freediving wetsuits. One piece of equipment if felt I needed to get was  freediving fins, as on my last open water dive I really struggled to get to the depths I wanted to and it seemed as if I was wasting unnecessary energy on finning. So my research began on what Bi-Fins would suit me best.

 Scuba vs freediving fins.

Although I did make inquiries into going straight for a mono fin, the practicality and limitations from a training and overall field of use perspective made me decide to start with a pair on Bi-fins.

After allot of research and reading, I ended up going for the Mares Razer Medium stifness (which is the grey blade, the stiffer blade is the black blade). You can do alot of research online, but I just could bring myself to order online. When buying something that needs to fit properly like a fin, it is invaluable to go in store to fit them. Even after I had been in store I did more research until I was satisfied that this was the fin for me.

What caught my eye in the " Mares Razor" was the following:

Clip to remove blade.

• The foot-pocket was a perfect fit, meaning I didn't have to where a sock of any kind. (the less gear the better)
• The blade is removable, meaning if you want to change to a carbon fibre blade or simply replace a blade you can easily remove from the foot-pocket. (Just remove the two screws and two clips and the blade can be removed)
• Because the blade is removable, you have the option to keep the foot pocket and try various blade stiffnesses as you go.

The Cressi Gara and Omer Millenium fins also impressed me. The Omer fins also have removable blades where the Cressi Gara fins have fixed blades. Meaning what you have is what you keep. Cressi does not sell blades individually, so if you break a blade you have to buy a full set.

Foot-pocket showing screws to remove blade.

During my research I was in touch with Pierre Liebenberg from Spierre to get info on the Pure Carbon blades, but once again being based in Durban made it difficult to fit the foot-pockets. I will most definitely opt for carbon blades later on, but that will be when I hit the deeper dives. Also I didn't want to pool train with carbon blades.

Foot-pocket

I can definitely say that finding a set of fins is purely about the fit. Do your research online, but be sure to visit a store near you to see them first. What works for one person may not for the next.

It's all about the journey...

One of the main reasons I started free diving was simply to enjoy the journey. What you may ask do I mean by that? Well its simple, like most things in life the reality of something we have always wanted or a place we have always wanted to go to almost never meets the picture we have painted for ourselves with our minds eye.

It is more often than not the road taking us to this goal or destination that keeps us talking for many years after we have returned from this destination or goal that we have achieved.

Well, that is simply the ride that has totally captured me, and of course the fact that I can be in the water.

The 31 December 2010 was just one such day...Naturally there has been quite a bit of free diving talk around the house and my 3yr 10 month old son has picked up on the action. So on this day, he arrives back at home from a trip with my wife and tells me he is going free diving now, in the pool and I must get ready to join him.

Mask (or goggles as referred to by my little Mayol) and snorkel and off he goes. Now I need to add at this point that he has never actually had a mask on near a body of water, let alone a snorkel in his mouth, but he is marching to the pool in a similar fashion to the little Enzo Maiorca in the flick " The Big Blue" to dive out the coin which the kids have spotted in the water on the seas edge. 

Determined he puts my mask on and snorkel in, and pops his head in the water. It wasn't until he came up and I looked into his big blue eyes that I realised quite how blown away he was that he could see the bottom of the pool. That was a fantastic moment for me! Absolutely amazing...Even more amazing is how he just keeps on chatting away with his head under the water through the snorkel to me.

Make the journey happen for yourself, no one else is going to make it happen for you!