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Australian Freediving Record Attempts 19/20 March 2005 - UPDATE"Mr Murphy pays a visit on record day"By Walter Steyn
Why the strange title you ask ? Well sadly for both Ben Noble and Lisa Egan - Mr Murphy did show up to say hi on their record attempt day… We all met up on Sunday morning, Ben and Lisa to attempt dynamic records, myself
and Jessica the judges and Nathan was the official camera-man.Video is required
for record attempts under AIDA rules. It is used for both evidence and also
to handle any disputes and protests so that the video can be reviewed if needs
be. When we got there the pool was still set up for 50m, and they were shortly
about to move the divider/boom to split it into two 25m pools. I went over the
rules with Ben & Lisa, and talked to Nathan about the video. They had already
started moving the divider, but looked like that had not finished yet as it
wasn't set in the middle of the pool. A while later they still haven't moved
it yet, and I was starting to wonder what was going on. I walked up to one of
the staff and he told me they were having an underwater hockey comp in the other
pool and it needed to be split so that their half of the pool was bigger. Ben
had specifically booked the time just to make sure that he got a 25m pool. The
lane he had booked was now 14 meters ?! Lisa agreed to go first and got into the pool. Looking very focused, she took
her time to breathe up. I was acting as both judge and safety diver so would
swim along beside her. She finally went and looked nice and relaxed with a smooth
steady kick and good streamlining. She passed 2 laps very easily and was onto
her third. I was then loosing track of what distance it was. I thought 3 was
over 100m so expected her to come up soon, nope, third lap, turned and kept
going. I was getting worried by this stage about what distance was she doing
? Ben was next and determined to do well. He started out well, his no-fins technique maybe not quite as smooth as how he looks in training but quite good none the less. After 2 laps he took a few more strokes and looked like he started heading toward the surface. The plan was to come up onto the wall (side of the pool) for support and to recover after the dive. The pool jets however were blowing him away from the wall quite a bit. When Ben came up he was too far away from the wall, we handed him a float but not quick enough. Whilst grabbing it Ben's mouth & nose dipped under water. Ben's performance was clean no doubt, but having your airway go underwater after you surface is a DQ (it's a common sign of a blackout and that someone is in trouble). The 'float' was only a small pool noodle and probably not really enough. My fault for not thinking of that although we hadn't planned on needing one. The lane Ben had originally booked was shallow enough to stand up in, this pool was way to deep. Both Jessica and I were really disappointed that we had to DQ both of them. Some time ago last year I had them both as relative beginners in one of my freediving courses, and they have come so far since then. I was really hoping that they would do well. After all the effort of organising it and training so well it just doesn't seem fair. Nothing seemed to go right that day. I think it was no fault on part of the divers, I blame it on Mr Murphy. My hat goes off to both Ben and Lisa for some big performances under lousy conditions. 97m no-fins and 130m dynamic are impressive performances and right up there in the world rankings. I know next time they will do great.
Quote from Ben Noble "Yeah I can't say how much of an anti-climax it was for Lisa and myself. Given everything that had happened that morning, having to jump into a different length pool with a different depth with a lot less prep time than anticipated I felt like I was already on the back foot. Lisa went first, and put in such a top effort but unfortunately pushed a little too hard and had a samba. If not for the samba it would have been one of the top 5 female dynamic - fins performances of the last 12 months. We'll be seeing big things from her in the future. After watching Lisa samba and having 10 minutes before we lost the pool I was not confident at all. I knew that 2 laps would get me roughly 75m, so it would need to be 2 laps, a turn and about 2 strokes to beat the 82m record. Some purge breaths, packing, and off I go for 2 horrible laps where every metre I am telling myself I won't make it. I finally hit the wall on the second lap and think "i'm going to make it". I think I did about 4 arm strokes, all the time the jets in the side of the pool are pushing me towards the middle of the pool. I thought I had done enough and decided to come up while I was clean, but unfortunately the jets had pushed me about 2m away from the edge and I couldn't touch bottom like every training session i'd had. Jess threw me a small float but it wasn't very big and didn't support me. As I swum for the edge my mouth went under for about a second, I can't even remember it happening. But it was enough for a DQ. I can't tell you how gutted I was when Jess had told me. I always had it in the back of my head how bad it would be to be DQ'd on a technicality but until it happens you don't know how sickening the feeling is. But anyway it was still the 2nd best no-fins i've done and under the conditions I was still happy with the performance. Anyway this has been a great learning experience and one i'll definitely take with me once I start competing overseas. Thanks to Wal & Jess for your time and support! " Quote from Lisa Egan "It's kinda funny now, I don't know what I was thinking after the third turn - only wanted to do a 100m but I guess I forgot where I was and tried to go for the fourth lap anyway. It definitely was a day of mixed emotions - but you take the good with the bad. I've learned heaps and look forward to my first competition with the knowledge I've gained from this experience. Benny did an awesome job! I was more disappointed that he didn't get it after I stuffed up. Ben really looked calm & clean (unlike some people.. ) You're gonna nail it next time!" Original article :-Record attempts to be made on 6 March 2005On March the 6th the following athletes will make Australian record attempts
in different AIDA freediving categories :- For complete list of current Australian Freediving Records - Records Location: Sydney There may also be record attempts in both the Men's and Women's static category by athletes not yet named. All athletes have had formal training and practise with strict safety procedures. Please do not try without proper instruction or experienced safety divers.
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