Tag: National Record

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Dave Kent Continues to Push Greater Depths

Dave Kent 73m National Record in CNF

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.

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Rebecca Coales takes Dynamic National Record to 179m

Rebecca Coales Dynamic National record
Picture Credit: Nick Robertson-Brown

10th July 2014; — On the 6th July, 2014 Rebecca Coales took the previous female dynamic with fins (DYN) record to 179m at the Life Leisure, Grand Central 50 metre Pool in Stockport (www.lifeleisure.net/enterprise/grandcentralpools). For those new to freediving, DYN is swimming as far as you can horizontally in a swimming pool with a mono fin or bi-fins on one breath of air. Rebecca already holds the current UK dynamic without fins record (DNF).

The DYN record had previously been held by Ruth Griffin, incredibly since 2009. Rebecca, with a very comfortable dive beat the 175m on the board, surfacing with great control and suggesting she is well within her limits. The whole dive took 2 minutes 36 Seconds.

Previous to the 2009 record, another female freediver, who also trained at Grand Central pools, had held it before Ruth: Mandy ‘ the mermaid ‘ Buckley. Many freediving champions and record holders have been coached there and it is a centre of excellence with the swimmers from Stockport Metro training there.

Rebecca is a founder member of the Bristol Freedivers group (www.bristolfreedive.org.uk), where she trains with friends. She is a relative newcomer to the competition circuit, only starting to explore her potential in the last 18 months, starting with a no-fins clinic, and mono fin clinic with Steve Millard of the Apneists UK group (www.learn2freedive.com), based in the North of the UK. Rebecca runs the Om Diver Yoga website (www.omdiver.co.uk) and runs Yoga courses which seem to be perfect cross training for freedivers. She trains with Bristol Freedivers regularly and is sponsored by Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com), and wears the Aqua Skins suit.

The team who came and supported Rebecca and her coach Steve Millard at the event were:

International Judges: David Tranfield and Gary Lowe

Safety Divers: Matthias Ruttimann and Rebecca Warren

Surface video: Paul Butterworth

Videographer / Photographer: Martin Toole (http://mtoole.co.uk)

Photographers: Frogfish Photography (http://frogfishphotography.com/underwater.html)

Photographer: Dean Martin, Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com)

Medic: Rebecca McCabe

Rebecca would like to thank the management and staff of Life Leisure, Grand Central Pool for their continued support and hosting of this event.

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New Static National Record for Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Georgina Miller beat her own static national record
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Saturday 28 June 2014; — On the 20th June 2014, Georgina Miller beat her own static national record, holding her breath for an incredible 6 minutes and 27 seconds at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis. The previous record she set was in 2012 of 06:20.

On the morning of the static competition, George, who has been suffering from bouts of competition nerves of late, dealt with them beautifully by she says ‘concentrating on one step at a time, rather than looking at it as a target’. A lot of thought, training and energy goes into a long static performance and George is very positive when talking about the discipline which she genuinely enjoys tackling. Georgina freely offers advice and openly shares her experiences with fellow athletes, genuinely wanting to help them improve and see them succeed. She credits her partner and coach, Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com), with her success: ‘I give enormous thanks to Daan for all of his help, love, advice, incredible pictures and fantastic coaching.’ George also reflects that a calm environment is essential to performing at your best and at such a high level: ‘Stavros Kastrinakis has organized an amazing 7th Med World Cup series, making the athletes feel relaxed and supported. Good performances and records are only possible with the help of friends, coaches, safety and organization. So thanks to my friends at London Freediving too for your support!’ As well as gaining a new national record, Georgina also came 2nd out of the women for the main depth event.

For higher resolution versions of the images attached, or for other official images of Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, please contact Daan Verhoeven at: info@daanverhoeven.com

The official video of Georgina Miller’s static national record is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqJQpkkKbU

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Dynamic no fins national record of 167m set by John Moorcroft at Manchester Classic Competition


Picture Credit: Sean Peters, Frogfish Photography

Wednesday, 4 June 2014; — John Moorcroft has broken the dynamic no fins (DNF) national record at the 2nd Manchester Classic competition, organised by Steve Millard of Apneists UK (www.freedivingcompetition.com), with a marathon swim of 167m. Chris Crawshaw previously held the record for his 163m swim at the Great Northern competition back in March 2012.

DNF has long been one of Johns strongest freediving disciplines and the only one that he trains regularly in the pool. When Moorcroft started training in 1999 at a 25m pool, there were no long fins were permitted. The world record was held by Frenchman Andy Le Sauce and was 125m, so when John swam 100m he realized he might have a talent for the discipline: “Back then nobody used neck weights or suits, it was purely a speedos and goggles job!”

Before long the world records for DNF got bigger and bigger and John stopped training the discipline as much, but he returned to it in 2009 and came close to a national record with a swim of 140m, but unfortunately blacked out upon surfacing. In 2012 he came back fighting with a 153m swim this time, taking Chris Crawshaws previous record of 150m, which at that stage was just days old, but it was a short lived victory as John explains: “My record lasted even less time, a matter of about an hour as Chris came back with a massive 163m.”

John credits Crawshaws record standing for the past two years despite his attempts on it, the most recent of which at the Great Northern in Liverpool earlier this year, failing due to a technical error in the surface protocol, a silly mistake he says, not caused by hypoxia. Looking back on his training in the run up to this years Great Nothern competition, John openly reflects “I put in a lot of training, something like 70 sessions over 3 months consisting of a combination of pool, hill running, depth and gym. It certainly helped me gain the fitness to be confident in regularly going beyond 150m but with hindsight I think I was over training; recently I’ve not been able to train so much due to work and the distances have if anything been a bit easier. Something to bear in mind.”

John attributes his success to his buddies and sponsors: “None of my freediving achievements would be possible without my regular training buddies in Apneists UK and of course Steve Millard who has coached me and provided great advice and training opportunities not just for me but for everyone up here in the northwest. I would also like to thank Alun George who has always been there to inspire and motivate me. And I am grateful to my two sponsors, Polosub and Carbonio GFT whose products I rely upon with my [other] training.”

John is now setting his sights on the open water and improving his depths in both constant weight disciplines (with fins CWT, and without CNF).

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Three National Records Made at 5th Great Northern International Pool Competition, Liverpool

Rebecca Coales breaks own UK National Record for a third time

 
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

Tuesday 2 April 2014; — The 2014 Great Northern International Pool competition, incorporating the UK BFA National Pool Championships, took place on the weekend of 22 and 23 March, at Lifestyle Fitness Aquatic Centre in Liverpool (www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles). Three national records were broken and there were many impressive performances by experienced and new athletes alike.

This was the competition’s fifth year and organiser Steve Millard of Apneists UK (www.freedivers.co.uk), delivered yet another fantastic competition, catering for 51 athletes representing 15 countries: ‘We had an amazing helper list, with safety divers based all over the UK coming from different clubs to support what is the most inclusive competition in the calendar. The media set was made up of many of the organiser’s favourite photographers and videographers, all highly skilled and each having their own take on shooting good footage.’ The competition was made up of a combined point score over three disciplines: dynamic no fins (DNF) on day one, static (STA), and dynamic with fins (DYN) on day two.

Antonio Del Duca travelled all the way from Venezuela to compete and with three solid performances he secured himself first place out of the men (142m DNF, 209m DYN, 06:11 STA). Second place went to Roman Walczyk of Poland (155m DNF, 205m DYN, 05:24 STA), and third to British Tim Money (117m DNF, 161m DYN, 05:31 STA). And as this was an International and National competition, the UK podium was made up of Tim Money placed first, Gary Lowe second (126m DNF, 167m DYN, 04:30 STA), and Gary McGrath in third place (100m DNF, 150m DYN, 05:20 STA). There were other notable male accomplishments with UK athletes Chris Crawshaw swimming 146m DNF, Nick Uzel 124m DNF, Adam Drzazga completing a hold of just under 7 minutes and Hungary’s Mike Benke and Romania’s Constantin Timosca both swimming themselves into national record territory with a 142m DNF and 146m DYN respectively.

The ladies gave a good show and were no less exciting with three British athletes taking the place on the podium for the International and UK part of the competition. Rebecca Coales delivered three well-executed dives, breaking her own national record for a third time no less, in the discipline of DNF with a mighty swim of 145m! Coales also swam 154m DYN and held her breath for 05:27 for STA. Georgina Miller took second place (105m DNF, 139m DYN, 06:15), and Beci Ryan came in third (129m DNF, 151m DYN, 04:35 STA).

As with previous years, there were a number of newbies taking part with some excellent accomplishments. The award for Best Female Newbie was given to British Claire Ellwood and Best Male Newbie to Jev Maligins from Latvia who both received three well-earned white cards for promising performances.

Steve had a wonderful group of volunteers on hand to help ensure the smooth running of the event. The safety crew as usual were spot on and the judges Pim Vermeulen, David Tranfield, Christina Suck and Kate Jardine were professional, encouraging and welcoming to all. The sponsors support and generosity in supplying fabulous prizes, helped make the competition even more special, they were: the British Freediving Association, Fins 4 U (www.fins4u.com), Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com/uk), GLowe Fluid Goggles (gazza_lowe@hotmail.com), Lifestyles Fitness (www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles), Orca (www.orca.com/gb-en), Apneists UK (www.freedivers.co.uk) and Blue Water Diving School (www.bluewater-freediving.co.uk).

Thank you Steve Millard for putting everything together and making it all possible!

Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZs5eO6Vlp8

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Michael Board’s journey to 100 meters under the Sea. First Briton to 100m in the discipline of Constant Weight

Earlier this month Michael Board competed at the annual Vertical Blue (VB) competition held at Dean’s Blue hole in the Bahamas, where he became the first Briton to dive, in competition, to over a 100 meters in the discipline of constant weight (CWT).


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

The VB is extremely popular worldwide with freediving athletes and always attracts those at the very top of their game. The attraction of this competition is not just down to its stunning setting, but also because of the meticulous organisation, brilliant safety divers and experienced AIDA judges.

From the start there was a huge amount of pressure on Mike’s shoulders from both himself and other people. All eyes were on him to see if he could make it down to that golden 100 meter mark. All he had to do was swim down vertically, the length of the marked rope, with the aid of his monofin, pick up a tag attached to the bottom plate, and swim back, complete his surface protocol and hey presto, National Record. But of course it is not that simple and a CWT dive to 100 meters is no mean feat. For a start, the dive is done on one breath, lasting approximately 3 minutes; add to that the huge exertion of pressure on the body which builds at depth and the water temperature which gets colder through the thermo cline and then the fading light into darkness. Experience is vital and key.

In Mike’s words “it was a good competition in the end even though I had a shaky start. After my initial attempt at 100 meters CWT on Day 1, where I blacked out on the surface for a few seconds at the end of my dive, all of my other dives were solid with clean surface protocols and no signs of hypoxia, so it really does look like the pressure of the first dive of the competition and the weight of my own and lot of other peoples expectations just got to me. I actually tested my heart rate on the beach before my dive and it was 10-15 beats higher than my normal resting rate, so definitely some pre-dive jitters!”

Being an experienced diver, Mike planned his dives over the next few days with thought and care. His second dive in Free Immersion (FIM) was to a deliberately low (for him), 91 meters. This ensured a relatively easy dive where he felt relaxed and strong, giving him confidence going in to the next 100 meter attempt. There was the added bonus of setting a new National Record in the discipline, adding 8 meters onto his previous record of 83 meters back in 2011.

During the course of the competition, Board deliberately swapped between FIM and CWT to give maximum rest time for his legs between big dives. Going into the 100 meter record attempt on the 13th November, his second go at it this competition, he felt that strength and confidence as hoped. Board says “I pulled off a really nice dive that only took 2 minutes and 54 seconds. I had finally cracked some equalization issues which had plagued me since my first attempt at the 100 meters the year before and which caused me to rupture my ear drum in Greece just 9 weeks ago at the World Championships.” Mike was now on strong form and with equalization to spare at the bottom plate and clean surface protocols he says “I was excited to see how far I could push it. Still I rested my legs for the next dive and chose to do a FIM on the 15th November with a dive to 96 meters in 3 minutes 32 seconds, another National Record.”


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

With the pressure now gone on the remaining two dives, Board decided to do them just for fun. On the 17th November he decided to announce only a 2 meter increase for his next dive and go for 102 meters CWT, “as I was keen to continue coming up clean on the surface rather than just making it. I completed the dive in 3 minutes 1 second and it felt strong, and I again felt I had more in me, which is a good way to feel after a dive!”

However, Mike’s joy at having achieved the dive was short lived. He told me “I stayed in the water to watch Nick Mevoli’s dive and cheer him on and by now everyone knows what unfolded. So it has been a real journey this year with some significant setbacks and injuries, some real lows as well as the recent highs, but I could not have hoped for a better end to my season in terms of personal achievements, but of course it has been tragic end of the season for freediving in general.”

Nick Mevoli lost his life at the end of a competition dive on the 17th November at the Vertical Blue. Nick, an America freediver, was a silver medallist at the 2013 World Championships and Constant Weight National Record holder; he was well known and loved by many of his fellow athletes. The cause of his death is under investigation.

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Another Freediving record falls during Huddersfield competition… this time Dynamic No Fins (DNF)

Rebecca Coales, trained by Steve Millard of the freedivers.co.uk group, managed to extend her own record from 120 metres to 134 metres distance underwater swimming doing just breast stroke. The total dive time took 2 minutes and 52 seconds at the Huddersfield Stadium health and fitness complex run by Kirklees leisure kirkleesactive.co.uk on Sunday the 17th November. It was overseen by internationally qualified judges from the main Freediving agency, AIDA International.

Rebecca is a yoga teacher and uses a wide range of yoga techniques in her training to build physical strength for swimming, mental focus and relaxation. Rebecca said “The competition atmosphere was very relaxed and so focusing on my dive felt easy. My main problem has been shaking off a winter cold in time for my performance. Rebecca prepares for her dives with gentle stretches, music and a deep guided relaxation. She is a founder member of the Bristol Freedivers group and also trains with a local fin swimming club… omdiver.co.uk

A number of athletes from around the UK came to Huddersfield compete in one of three disciplines. Dynamic apnea with Fins (DYN), which is swimming horizontally, as far as one can, wearing a single mono-fin or bi-fins. Dynamic no fins (DNF), swimming as far horizontally as one can with breast stroke. And static apnea (STA), lying stationary holding your breath for as long as you can. Each discipline has a point score, the highest point score wins, simple. We also have depth disciplines but this competition just concentrated on the pool.

Other note-able results were a 152 metre swim from Bart Lubecki of our Liverpool club using a mono-fin. Masa Sorn took the overall second place turning at 150 metres, also mono-fin propelled. And 5 minute 10 second breath hold from relative newcomer Jason Amson-Orth, and a 4 minute 46 second breath hold from Deb Gaskell, who only started freediving in the last few months.

As Freediving grows steadily in the North of England, we have been running professional courses and have had groups operating for well over a decade. Freediving however isn’t just about competition; it is also an enjoyable recreational activity taking us to all parts of the country. freedivers.co.uk started in Manchester but we have clubs in Liverpool, some in Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland and Crewe with people travelling to us from far afield. There are many opportunities for people to start to try Freediving nowadays. It is a great sport for increasing fitness and losing weight, as a confidence builder for Scuba divers, for snorkelers we can give you an improvement in style and ability helping those wanting to explore the reefs on holiday and of course it holds the exciting possibility of records for those who have good swimming style.

Freediving is an extremely personal sport, you do your own dive on the day, but at the same time you never dive alone without someone properly looking after your safety. I think this, in part, is one of the reasons for the strong, welcoming, community spirit within the sport and, all divers encourage the best out of their peers whatever their goal may be.

This competition was also be a good opportunity to make sure every wrinkle is ironed out of the background organisation for the International competition we have on the 22nd/23rd March 2014 in Liverpool. We have some camera testing to do to make it really special. Above is the intro video from this years competition, videos of Huddersfield will go up on the ApneistsUK facebook page in the next couple of days Apneistsukfreedivingcompetitions

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The UK Female Dynamic No Fins (DNF) Freediving record is broken!

On the 31st July, 2013 at 10.05pm Rebecca Coales broke the current female DNF record at the Total Fitness centre in Walkden, North Manchester. For those new to Freediving, DNF is swimming as far as you can horizontally in a swimming pool without the aid of fins.

The record had previously been held continuously, by Liv Philip, since 2007. Rebecca with a very comfortable dive beat the 116m that was on the board, and pushed the distance to 120m, which is well within her Personal best (PB), in a dive time of 2:24 minutes.

Rebecca is a founder member of the Bristol No Tanx Freedivers group where she trains with friends. She was a relative newcomer to the competition circuit, only starting to explore her potential in the last 6 months starting with a no-fins clinic, and mono fin clinic with Steve Millard of the Apneists UK group learn2freedive , based in the North of the UK. Recently she earned the right to represent her country in the World Freediving Pool Championships and with this new record it has placed her firmly on the map. Rebecca runs the Yoga website and courses which is the perfect cross training for Freedivers.

The video and a short story of the dive can be found here.

Record attempts can be organised for those wishing to gain National records in the UK. Thanks to the dream team who came and supported the event.

Athlete: Rebecca Coales
Organiser: Steve Millard

Judge: Gary Lowe
Judge: David Tranfield

Judges Assistant: Fiona Cahill

Safety Diver: James Cluskey
Safety Diver: Steve Millard

Videographer / Photographer: Sean Peters http://www.sppv.net/

Surface Coach: John Moorcroft

Medic: Dr P. Taylor

Thank you to the management and staff of Total Fitness Walkden for hosting the event and their continued support of UK Freediving athletes and students. Please visit here for more details to join the gym.

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New UK CNF National Record by Dave Kent

Sunday 28th July 2013; — On Saturday 27th July, in Dahab, at the most recent of the Little Blue Hole competitions, arranged by Brian Crossland of Blue Ocean Freedivers, British Freediver Dave Kent smashed his own National Record in the discipline of Constant Weight No Fins by swimming to an amazing depth of 70 meters.

It was only two years ago in September 2011 that Dave competed at his first major competition in Kalamata at the AIDA Depth World Championships, where on the opening day he gained his first National Record in CNF by swimming down to 62m. The following month at Dahab’s Blue Hole no less, he swam down a further 4 meters, increasing the record to 66m.

At the competition on the 27th, Dave had to swim down to the previously announced depth, marked with a weight at the end of a rope, and back without the use of fins, propulsion aids or pulling on the rope to assist him. CNF requires, as well as other things, a high level of technique, coordination, equalisation and buoyancy. Dave said that his training leading up the competition, his first one of the year, had gone well with solid 70m plus dives over the last month.

However in Dave’s own words, like most best laid plans, things didn’t go 100% as they should have done! On the day of the dive, Kent miscalculated his warm-up time and found himself getting cold during the two minute Official Top countdown, which is the countdown the athlete hears just before their competition dive. The cold is not conducive to relaxation and this combined with nerves, resulted in a not so comfortable descent compared to Dave’s training dives. This might have been detrimental to a less experienced diver, however his training and discipline, clearly put him in good stead. He was pleased with his dive time of 2:35, as he had announced 2:40 and the ascent part of the dive was very comfortable and was made in 1:15, it was Dave said the most positive part of the dive. This is also the part of the dive, which is going to give him the confidence in striving towards 80m, which he has his sights set on as his next goal.

Dave is now heading back to the UK for a short break after which he will return to Dahab where he is planning on competing in another competition at the end of August as his final preparation for the Aida Individual Depth World Championships in Kalamata in September. Brain Crossland (organiser of the Little Blue Hole competition), coaches Dave whilst he is in Dahab and has done for the past three years. Dave has also been working with Aharon Solomons through his remote coaching program, and trained with him last October and earlier this year where the main focus was solely on equalization, which Dave says, is arguably the single biggest change in how I dive now compared to 12 months ago.

Currently on a career break from his job in Sussex Police who have allowed him once again to take un-paid leave in preparation for this year’s World Championships, Dave is financing himself from his previous years savings and he says, basically letting go of most, if not all, of his worldly possessions to fund this year’s training. It’s been a huge sacrifice, and a difficult one at times – but one that is paying off when you look at Dave’s results, and he clearly has a lot more in there to give!

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Mike Board is Britain’s deepest man – 96m Constant Weight

Monday 10th December 2012; — Mike Board has officially claimed his place as Britain’s deepest man; at the Vertical Blue competition last month he pushed the men’s Constant Weight record of 91m to 92m, 94m and finally 96m. He attempted 100m to become the first Brit to officially cross the line, but despite being conscious on the surface was disqualified for forgetting to remove his noseclip.

Mike had already made his mark on British freediving with two National Records in the discipline of Free Immersion (pulling himself down and up a submerged, weighted rope) to a maximum depth of 83m. These records, and his closest of misses at the 100m, really solidify Mike’s reputation as an outstanding freediver.

The competition got off to a wobbly start as nerves got the better of Mike in this, his first, attempt at the lauded CWT title. On 20th November Mike turned early at 88m on his first attempt at 92m, however two days later managed to pull the record out of the bag with a dive to 92m in two minutes and 50 seconds.

With the record secured, the pressure was off, and things began to get very exciting for the British freediving instructor and owner of freediving school, Freedive Gili in Indonesia. On 26th November, Mike did a far more comfortable dive to 94m one second faster than his previous record, and on 28th he hit an incredible 96m the same depth as fellow Briton Sara Campbell’s former World Record in two minutes 51 seconds.

Buoyed by his success Mike decided to take a risk on his final dive and attempt the magic 100m. To all intents and purposes it was a clean, successful dive, however the protocol of competition requires that a diver removes all facial equipment before giving the ‘OK’ sign to the judges. Mike forgot to remove his noseclip, thereby disqualifying this attempt as an official British record.

Mike said: After having narrowly missed the National Record at the Worlds in Kalamata last year I set my sights on Vertical Blue to really test my ‘depth legs’. Equalisation looked like being my main barrier to achieving it, but with a few tweaks, which clearly worked, any by increasing the speed of my dives to reduce my hypoxia at the end of the dives, I not only stole the record from Dave King, but I broke my own record twice over! The Worlds are being held again in Kalamata next year and you can put money on me attempting the 100m once more officially then! For now it’s back to work in Gili, and training whenever I can find the time and depth.

Liv Philip, one of the UK’s top female divers, was also at Vertical Blue, and came third in the No Fins category with a dive to 50m, and an excellent fourth place overall after a very tough and tight battle with Japan’s Tomoko Fukuda.