Miscellaneous Blogs
The World Championships 2013
We’ve been in Kalamata training for just over a week now. When we first arrived, the water temperature felt so much colder than in Sharm. It was 26 degrees on the surface compared with 29 degrees in Sharm and so I quickly switched from my 1mm wetsuit top to my 3mm. The colder water really helped my dive response kick in and I was doing really nice Free Immersion dives to 52 metres. I haven’t trained Free Immersion much so I spent the week working on just this discipline and seeing how much I could push my body. But after the first few days of really nice dives, the water temperature was dropping fast and few people were getting clean dive results. There was a huge percentage of early turns during the Constant Weight Competition (with a monofin). At 50 metres, the temperature was 20 degrees, 9 degrees colder than in Sharm, and my dives were getting harder and harder each day.
Finally, the day before the Free Immersion competition I went out to do my dive and I could not stop shivering. I tried to ignore the cold as I was breathing up but today was just too cold. I went for my dive and it started off really well. By the time I reached 40 metres the thermocline hit me hard and although it nicely pre-occupied my mind, the journey from 40 metres down to the bottom was just too cold and I came back to the surface and had a samba (un-controllable muscle spasm due to hypoxia – or lack of oxygen). This would have been a disqualification if it had been a competition because I did not make the surface protocol cleanly, to let my safety divers (or judges if it had been in a competition) know I was okay.
The cold water at depth caused tension in my body which used up vital oxygen and also resulted in a very tiny lung squeeze. It wasn’t a bad squeeze at all but I could feel that my lungs were not 100%. Not a great result the day before a competition day! So after much contemplation, I decided the best decision would be to not compete. I based my decision on two big lessons I’ve learnt over the summer. The first is to always listen to your body. If it’s not feeling right, then don’t dive. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a competition dive if your body or head is not in it. Secondly, you have your whole life to compete. Progress will come so don’t rush it. There’s always tomorrow and thankfully for me, there was also last month where I got a good world ranking in Constant Weight to end my season of depth training with a smile.
It’s been a great summer and I’ve learnt a huge amount about freediving and also about how to train properly. I’ve built a solid foundation in all three depth disciplines and so I’m excited to see how I progress. But for now, it’s time to head back to London where I look forward to having a much needed break in my freediving. Although I have a feeling that I won’t be able to stay out of the water for very long!
Enjoy the blue and I hope to see you there soon.
Gemma and Ian visited DEEP and were hosted by Phil Short, Research Diving, Training Lead, and were given a tour of the facility at Avonmouth and then over to the Campus at Tidenham.
DEEP is evolving how humans access, explore and inhabit underwater environments. Through flexible, modular and mobile subsea habitats that allow humans to live undersea up to 200m for up to 28 days, work-class submarines, and advanced human performance research, DEEP completely transforms what we are capable of underwater and how we conduct undersea science and research.
You can listen to Episode 173 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
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Gemma and Ian chat to Dr. Joseph Dituri. Dr. Jospeh Dituri lived undersea for 100 Days in a mission combining education, ocean conservation research, and the study of the physiological and psychological effects of compression on the human body.
Dituri enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1985. He served continuously on active service upon various ships and shore stations where he was involved in every aspect of diving and special operations work from saturation diving and deep submergence to submersible design and clearance diving. Now that he is retired from 28 years of active service to the United States, he is the president of the International Board of Undersea Medicine. He also volunteers his time as the CEO of the Association for Marine Exploration. He is an invited speaker on motivational, sea and space related topics.
Fuelled by his passion for exploration, discovery, adventure, and making the greatest possible positive contribution to the world, he is fighting for change in a big way and with great enthusiasm.
You can listen to Episode 172 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
We are on Instagram @thebigscuba
We are on Facebook @thebigscuba
We are in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian%F0%9F%A6%88-last-325b101b7/
The BiG Scuba Website www.thebigscuba.com
Amazon Store : https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thebigscuba
Visit https://www.patreon.com/thebigscubapodcast and subscribe – Super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.
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