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Reto en el Abismo 2004

After ten days in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela the final tally for Reto en el Abismo 2004 is; five freediving world record attempts, four new international judges and one pending world record.

Starting on the 20th of October fellow international judge Grant Graves (USA) and I began preparations to oversee and officiate the two world record attempts that had been announced by Carlos Coste (VEN) and Stig Severinsen (DEN). As the officials it would be our job to make sure all A.I.D.A. International rules, regulations and safety protocols are followed and that each of the performances are properly documented to ensure current and future records are honoured.

To mitigate the numerous risks associated with the attempts we began with an overall safety and organizational meeting in which I reviewed primary and secondary rescue procedures and redundancies and established each of the roles required for the organization staff. Also, accompanying Stig Severinsen was a Danish television crew shooting a four part series on him for national broadcaster DR1. As active participants in the event it was essential that they too be included in the protocols and procedures. This continued throughout the week with briefings the night before each attempt. In addition to this a number of other tasks needed to be performed including stretching and marking the official lines, calibrating the depth gages and establishing the individual roles for Grant and myself as primary judge on game day.

The first attempts took place Saturday Oct. 23rd. First to go was Carlos Coste who rode a weighted sled down the official line to 135 meters (442 ft.). According to regulations a minimum of three official cameras must capture the entire performance. One mounted to the sled captured the incredible ride as Carlos flew past safety scuba divers at 35, 70 and 100 meters at speeds averaging 2 meters a second. A second camera secured to the bottom plate captured his arrival at depth. Meanwhile two surface cameras, the Danish television crew and a host of safeties, organizers and spectators anxiously awaited his arrival at the surface. For the Variable Weight category the diver is required to ascend under his own power, which Carlos did in a final time of 4:08. The dive was clean and Carlos maintained his control as he coughed up some of the remaining fluids due to the thoracic filling that takes place at extreme depths. [Thoracic filling is the critical mammlian diving reflex a.k.a Blood shift that shifts plasma from the bloodstream into the lung cavity to prevent compression damage. These fluids are reabsorbed during ascent/expansion].

Several minutes later Stig Severinsen left the surface for 67 meters (219 ft.) without the aid of fins (Constant No Fins) or weight. Though his initial descent was strong Stig turned at 61.2 meters due to equalization problems. Unfortunately later review of both official surface videos of Carlos' dive revealed the video documentation did not meet A.I.D.A. International standards having missed approximately 1:30 of the pre-dive time required so a second attempt became necessary for him as well.

With the athletes on rest days Grant and I began the Judge in Learning course, which upon completion would see the addition of four new level E judges to the A.I.D.A. roster. Carlos Coste, Gabriela Contreras (the head organizer) and our two safety freedivers, Luis Delgado and Giovanni Profeta registered for the course. Over the next five days a total of 16+ hours were spent reviewing rules, theory and regulations followed by practical application in water. Book ended by real world records attempts the course was both in context and highly relevant for each of the participants.

Stig's second attempt took place on the 26th. After successfully reaching the targeted depth Stig returned to the surface elated but hypoxic enough to forget to breathe. Looking around he gave a small cheer and briefly lost consciousness. The next day Carlos repeated his incredible 135-meter performance this time taking his sweet time to ascent for a total dive time of 4:36 seconds. It was tense as the safety team was instructed to drop the counter ballast at 4:30 however thanks to the clear water we were able to see the final fifteen seconds of his ascent. This time the video documentation was good and the performance has been recommended for final ratification and world record status.

The final dive took place on the 29th. Once again Stig made his targeted depth but blacked out at approx. 15 meters requiring Carlos, acting as the safety diver to bring him to the surface. Tense moments again as Stig was out for a good 30 seconds before coming around and coughing up fresh blood indicating some level of lung barotrauma. In no time we had him back on the boat breathing oxygen as the remaining fluid in his lungs reabsorbed. It's a set back for Stig but something he will surely overcome as his good spirits were restored almost immediately.

Though it was a disappointment for Stig and his crew everyone was glad to have come to the end of the event. It had been a long ten days with numerous ups and downs and tests of our abilities to judge and safely conduct world record performances. Congratulations to the athletes, hosts and organizers in Venezuela and thank you for the opportunity to be part of your successes.

Perry

Posted by pike at October 31, 2004 07:17 PM