Posts Tagged ‘William Trubridge’

It is extraordinary how the sport of Free Diving has evolved…

Not so long ago it was considered a feat of all feats to dive to 30m without the aid of suplemented air. Now, well… now, you just have to look at free divers like William Trubridge to see how far this extreme sport has come.

At 11:50am on the 19th April, 2010 in Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas New Zealander William Trubridge became the first man to pass the barrier of 300 feet (92 meters) freediving completely unassisted – a discipline called “constant weight no fins.”  The dive time was 3:45. Constant Weight No Fins is the purest measure of human aquatic potential, and athletically the most demanding of the freediving disciplines.

He completed this extraodinary achievement with another dive, this time  with fin and constant weight, and achieved another incredible dive – 116 m in 4 minutes and 9 seconds, but Herbert Nitsch set the record in this discipline with a staggering 124 m in 4 minutes and 10 seconds.

William Trubridge learnt to swim at the age of 18 months, and was freediving to 15m by the age of 8, however he did not begin serious training for the sport until 2003. In 2004 he became the first non-Italian instructor at Umberto Pelizzari’s prestigious Apnea Academy.

Dean’s Blue Hole is the deepest blue hole in the world, at 202 meters (663 feet). You can find it in a bay west of Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas.

That’s the more extreme side of freediving and it is amazing how it continues to break all its own records as the divers, a mere handful at competiton standard, push themselves to the very limit of their abilities.

However, freediving is not only a sport for these supreme athletes. It is fast becoming the thing to do if you are in search of the purity of eco-bonding. The intensity of freediving fulfills all your subliminal wishes. It’s got something to do with the feeling of freedom and weightlessness…

Of course Free Diving is not a new sport… Archaeologists say that  records show that people have been earning their living from freediving since the 5th century BCE. The first nation which was famous for it was the Haenyeo in Korea. They collected shells and sponges to sell to others. The Ama Divers from Japan began to collect pearls 2000 years ago. Spear fishering around the Mediterranean Sea was also important in the historical background of free diving or apnea.

The art to freediving is to remain relaxed. Hard, you might think, as your push your way to the bottom some 50 feet down, but not impossible if you have had the right training. And then… when you’re there… well, then, you will find that the rigouress training was well worth it as you move along the bottom  effortlessly and free, watching the antics of cavorting fish among the bright hues of sponges, anenomies, and complex coral colonies.

You don’t even have the rasp and roar of oxygen in your ears as you marvel at the beauty of this silent underwater world.

You will find that you can glide along at close to twice the speed you could have traveled with scuba gear on, but with virtually no exertion. Your fins will be longer, nearly twice as long as those for scuba or you can use a monofin. Either will give you huge thrust with very little muscular contraction. You will be like a ghost moving through the water. Silent and efficient.

Sara Campbell

Of course you can’t stay down there for long. We are, after all, not meant to be able to emulate fish.

As your breath wears out you kick back to the surface with slow relaxed movements and my goodness do you enjoy that first lungful of air. But the amazing thing is that your whole body ‘zings’ with exhilaration from the exercise. You feel rejuvenated, re-energised and ready for what the world will throw at you next.

You will not be able to achieve any of this without proper training. We are not designed to survive underwater, we do not have gills (no!!!)  and so it goes without saying that there are many hidden dangers to freediving. BUT with proper training, well then, the world’s your oyster….

Oh dear, that was a terrible pun.

It is worth repeating that if you train properly and never dive alone (a cardinal rule in free diving) it is an underwater sport that is less dangerous than scuba diving.

On 22nd April, William Trubridge dived to 92 m breaking the CNF (constant weight no fins) world record, and yesterday (26th) he smashed his own record, reaching an astounding 95 m (311 ft) in 4 mins 7 secs.

He performed a flawless dive ascending to the surface in complete control, looking up for a moment and rotating around the line so as to exit away from the boom.  With a clearly coherent surface protocol, it was just a matter of waiting out the 30 seconds before white cards were shown and the crew erupted, splashing water around him and congratulating him for his second no fins world record in Vertical Blue 2010.

Ryuzo Shinomiya from Japan completed a 108 meter CWT freedive in full control, for a new Japanese national record in constant weight.

Alfredo Romo, a man who only learnt how to use fluid goggles two weeks ago is now the king of depth in Mexico – 3 national records in all 3 disciplines.

Sadly Herbert Nitsch turned at 74 m and pulled up the line, and will leave this Vertical Blue without completing a dive in the CNF discipline, meaning he cannot now win the Suunto Dive-Off.

It looks like that title is going fair and square to William Trubridge.

Our heartiest CONGRATULATIONS…

There are still 2 more days to go and the competition is becoming intense as WilliamTrubridge and Herbert Nitsch battle it out to become the world’s  best freediver in the Suunto Dive-Off competition.

We reported the other day on William Trubridge’s record breaking 92 m dive CNF ( constant weight, no fins) and we have now been sent the video. Please follow this link to underwater videos. It is worth watching.

In the meantime, records continue to be broken.

On 22nd April, both William Trubridge and Herbert Nitsch made new personal bests in FIM (free immersion) and CWT (constant weight) respectively, setting new records at the same time.

Trubridge, 29, dived to 116 m below the surface and, despite taking a few extra seconds to pull the Velcro tag from the plate, “it was hard to get the tag from the bottom as I struggled with some narcosis,” he said. “But it’s great to have the free immersion record again,” he completed the dive in 4 min 9 sec. The depth was verified by a Suunto D4 dive computer. This is Trubridge’s tenth world record and his first in FIM since 2008. 

In FIM, divers must retrieve a Velcro tag from a metal plate, which is lowered by rope to the announced depth. They are not permitted propulsion equipment such as fins but can use the rope to pull themselves down.

Nitsch reached an incredible 124 m with a CWT dive (constant weight) to set the 30th world record of his career and the deepest self-powered dive of all time. In CWT, athletes must also retrieve a Velcro tag from the plate, but cannot use the rope during the dive. They are, however, allowed fins to assist them. He took 2 min 13 sec to reach the bottom, and looked strong during his ascent. With 35m remaining, his legs appeared to tire and he resorted to alternate arm and leg strokes to successfully complete the dive in 4 min 10 sec.

A graphic description always helps I think, so again, using a tall building as your guide,  Trubridge dived the equivalent of nearly 39 floors and Nitsch achieved an incredible 41 floors in depth (averaging 3 m per floor).

Extraordinary isn’t it?

Subsequent to those dives, yesterday, the 25th, Herbert Nitsch broke the brand new FIM record by achieving a dive of 120 m.

This puts the 40 year old Austrian ahead of the 29 year old New Zealander for the Suunto dive-off  competition held during the Vertical Blue competition to find the best all-round freediver. Divers score points based on the ratio of their dives in three freediving disciplines to current world records.

American Carla-Sue Hanson leads the women’s table. This is how the chart looks at the moment:

The last two days promise suspenseful diving as these two competitors go to the wire in an attempt to be crowned the best all-round freediver.

Denmark will be hosting the next big freediving competition in August. It is worth remembering that this is an extreme sport on the fringe of mainstream sports, but with dedicated participants and supporters.

A really dedicated following because there is minimal sponsorship and divers do not recieve any funding. This means every dive, every competition is funded by their own hard work, dedication and love of the sport.

The indoor freediving world championships will be held in the town of Aarhus in Denmark from the 17th – 22nd August.

That means freedivers will be working their butts off (excuse the expression) to get there.

AIDA Germany has announced the following people as the official German Team:

• Women: Barbara Jeschke, Ilka Michaelis, Anna v. Boetticher and Olga Martinez-Alvarez
• Men: Martin Legat, Ulli Wulf and Sergio Martinez-Alvare

AIDA Canada is also on their way for selecting the pool championship team. It’s still small and has open spots:

Women: Jana Strain, Mandy-Rae Krack
Men: William Winram

Team New Zealand held a competition in mid-May to see who would be chosen to represent the country at the upcoming indoor world champs – they are still waiting on the selection to be confirmed, but in the meantime have come up with a novel idea to raise funds to help with the costs, and for $250.00 you can be the proud owner of this:

A swimming cap signed by 4 of the world’s top freedivers:

William Trubridge
William has broken freediving world records 7 times. His 2008 no 1 world rankings were in Constant weight without fins with -86m and Free Immersion with -108m, both of which were world records. On 10th April 2009 he did it again bettering his own mark in the discipline CNF (Constant Weight No Fins) with a dive to 88 meters (288 feet) in 3′30″.

Dave Mullins
Dave has broken 4 freediving world records and set a spearfishing world record with biggest marlin. Last year he ranked world no 1 in dynamics without fins with 213m and constant weight with -108m. He also was 2nd in dynamics with his world record dive of 248m and 3rd in static apnea with a breath hold time of 8 minutes, 11s.

Kathryn McPhee
Kathryn set her first world record and was ranked 1st woman in 2008 in dynamics without fins with 151m. She also ranked no 2 in dynamics with 179m and statics with a breath hold time of 7 minutes 1s.

Guy Brew
Guy has the second biggest breath hold time ever in competition. He topped the 2008 world rankings with a huge static apnea of 8 minutes 31s.

There is an added incentive to winning the auction (ie: paying over $250). If you, too, would like to learn how to freedive and live anywhere in the vicinity of Wellington or could get to Denmark over those dates in August, Kathryn McPhee will throw in a free one hour coaching session to suit your level.

Closes: Sat 6 Jun, 7:34 pm. This auction may auto-extend.

Please read the questions and answers for this auction.

You may well remember that I did several articles on the Vertical Blue Invitational Freediving Competition in Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas last month….

I thought I’d round the series off with this video from W.T. (williamtrubridge) of his unassisted record breaking Freedive of 88m (288ft) in 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Spectacular, isn’t it.

At 11:20am in Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas New Zealand freediver William Trubridge broke the world record in unassisted freediving, descending 88 meters (288 feet) and returning to the surface on a single breath of air and without the use of any weight or propulsive assistance.

The dive took place as part of Vertical Blue 2009, an invitational freediving event where the world’s elite freedivers compete over nine days of diving. Already in the competition three world records had been broken by British Sara Campbell and Austrian Herbert Nitsch, but this was the first to be set by a New Zealander in the event.

William Trubridge has been training as a freediver for the last 6 years, and in April of 2007 he set his first world record in this discipline, with 82m. The same year the record was broken with 83m by Herbert Nitsch, widely considered the world’s greatest freediver, but William bettered it again in 2008, with 86m. Herbert attempted the record on the sixth day of this event, but turned early at 71m. William also attempted 88m on the 4th day of the event, and although he made the depth and returned to the surface he blacked out as he took his first breath, and was thus disqualified.

William admits that there was a lot of anticipation and anxiety when he entered the water for another attempt at the record this morning, but he managed to remain calm and finished the dive in 3 minutes and 30 seconds, returning to the surface completely lucid.

He said that this result is the product of years of intensive training, and the support of his sponsors Suunto, Extreme Drinks and Orca and a generous scholarship from AMP.

News and photos from Vertical Blue 2009 can be found at http://www.verticalblue.net/news

If you want to see or find out more about William Trubridge, please go to:
info@verticalblue.net