Earning himself a New 73m National Record in CNF – Read the story in Dave’s own words Saturday 11 October 2014 – On 6th October 2014, Dave Kent beat his previous Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) national record, by diving to 73m at the Little Blue Hole competition in Dahab. In fact he had already broken his own national record a week earlier by 1m. Dave’s previous national record, from 27 July last year, stood at 70m (again at a Little Blue Hole competition). Dave was kind enough to give us here at the British Freediving Association (BFA), a report on his recent national records:
I came out to Dahab on the 20th August with not the greatest preparation, as 1 week earlier I cracked my head open which required 3 stitches. I had these removed the day before my flight.
I planned on 10 training days, spread over two and a half weeks, ending with my record comp on the 6th; however there was a competition happening at the end of my first week which I used as a warm up. In hindsight, I wish I had announced much deeper for this dive. The competition date was 30th August. I announced 71m, as I just wanted to get a white card. The dive though was by far the easiest competition dive off my life. Completed in 2 minutes and 28 seconds, very comfortably. Unfortunately in the time between this dive and my next competition on the 6th September, I caught a touch of the ‘Dahab Bug’ which clearly affected my final announced performance (AP), this being 73m. The dive was still quick, 02:35, though I had clearly lost a bit of strength that week, and it showed during the dive.
What I am most pleased about now though is how quickly I can get to these depths coming from the UK. Within 4 days of arriving I was comfortably back in 70m territory. I attribute this to three things: My dry strength and conditioning training programme; the weekly use I have of a 4m dive pit with my local scuba club Sovereign Aquatrek (www.sovereignaquatrek.co.uk); and the equalisation dry training programme that I have developed having worked over the last 12 months with the likes of Jonny Sunnex; Andrea Zuccari and Aharon Solomon. What used to be the weakest part of my dive is now my strongest. For both dives I set my alarm at 21m to charge the mouth-fill, and this took me comfortably to the plate each time.
I feel very confident about a competition doing an 80m plus CNF dive in 2015.
I also need to thank my good friend and coach when I am in Dahab, Brian Crossland, for amending the finer points in my technique, and the calmness he brings every time I hook on the line.
Finally a huge congrats to British Freediving. Seriously, there have been some amazing achievements over the last 12 months, pool and depth. I don’t see many of you very often, and some I haven’t met at all, but to all concerned a huge well done.
The BFA would like to congratulate Dave on his continued success and dedication to the sport of freediving and to British freediving, your support is very much appreciated and valued.