Dahab, Egypt. Windy, dusty town on edge of the the Sinai. Full of divers, travellers and one or two lost souls. A place for dreamers too, perhaps.Talking of dreams, a few of mine have been laid bare in the messages of this blog. ( Which incidentally, is now nearing its first birthday ). In fact the whole purpose was to keep a diary of my training / research for two dreams – being able to take underwater photographs with a digital camera, and setting a UK freediving record. It all seemed quite straightforward at the outset – keep notes of everything, and then once it’s all been achieved, the work would be there for future reference.
The problem with achievements is that they have to be achieved. You can’t even get them on eBay, which is a nuisance. Of course, you can buy an underwater housing and stick a digital camera in it, but how do you get the same quality of image that you’ve spent 7 years perfecting with your familiar 35mm setup?
Then there’s the setbacks. Flooded strobes, incompatible lenses, poor technical documentation. The freediving was even worse. Hood squeezes leading to ear rupture leading to ear infection. Blackout in competition. Seeing the record I was aiming for being reset far beyond my capabilities.
All you can do is reassess – go back to the drawing board and start again.
If the blog postings were the question, then Dahab was the answer. A few months ago, I had no idea that the alignment would happen there. The Elf and I were just escaping for a fortnight, for the usual mix of Scuba and relaxation. But somehow I managed to get my camera rig set up and working. Then Lotta Ericson told me about her Triple Depth Freediving Challenge, which was running in Dahab during our stay there. The Elf managed to arrange to do a Trimix course to co-incide with my changed plans to compete. So now we were all set up for something with a lot more potential.
The Elf came through her Trimix course with flying colours, despite a few moments of self-doubt. No mean feat, and not something that everyone succeeds at. My camera rig produced the odd shot or two that I can be proud of. And last but not least, I will have an entry on this page for at least a short while, with a 60m mark next to it.
5 comments:
Congratulations! I saw the photos on flickr yesterday, looks like you both had a good time. When will your UK record be ratified?
Thanks Lars. I was a bit premature with the photos, and uploaded them before making adjustments, so I do have improved versions.
The record has been ratified, I'm just waiting for an update to the BFA website. See http://www.apneamania.com/scripts/dahab%20results.xls
That is awesome Mark, big congrats for the UK record, you deserve it. Tel us more about this event and about your record. Did you use the same technique as in Chepstow? no gliding? did it feel easier than the 61m constant weight dive?
Thanks Rémi. Yes, I used pretty much the same technique as in Chepstow - headdown descent, with long slow pulls all the way. Other people used a wide variety of techniques - feet first, or head first followed by a turn to feet first for gliding.
Yes it was a lot easier than the CW dive. I had to stop for a few rest breaks on that one :-)
fantastic Mark - huge congratulations to you for the record and elf features for the DEEP stuff
fabulous fishy photo too!!
very jealous - off to Dahab in one month for hopefully some records of my own : )
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