"Sea Lion Riot"

November 1999, Brett LeMaster set a new world freediving record. Finning down and back up under his own power (no sleds, no dropped weights, ...), he hit 266 feet/81 meters. Since then, he's been in training for three new record events. Additionally, Brett and freediving coach Kirk Krack have been holding four-day freediving clinics at various locations around the world. When I was invited to participate in their first Performance Freediving clinic in northern California, I went for it.

So, October 21 & 22 found me in San Jose doing a combination of pool work and classroom sessions. In the classroom, they walked us through background stuff concerning the mammalian diving reflex as well as their suggested exercises in how to breath up effectively. Some of the information/techniques I knew going into the clinic while others were totally new. Indeed, a lot of nagging questions from personal experience were answered in those classroom sessions; things like: Why am I more comfortable when diving below 20' than at 10' or 12'? Or why are the tips of my fingers tingling? The interesting part of the class work was how the pieces of the puzzle came together to make a coherent whole. An understanding of that whole proved useful later during our ocean work.

The San Jose pools sessions included rescue techniques (as in, what to do when your buddy passes out from holding their breath too long), surface dive techniques (an improvement on the one-leg pike dive commonly seen on the north coast), static apnea (how long can you hold your breath at the surface), and dynamic apnea (underwater lap swimming). For what it's worth, virtually everyone achieved 3 minute static breathhold times, many hit better than 4 minutes at least once, and one guy (Scott Campbell) held his breath for 6 minutes and 39 seconds (of course, Scott was a ringer; he holds the U.S. record for static apnea at 6:30). All in all, the results were pretty impressive considering that we only worked at these exercises for a few hours over two days. The clinic handout materials include a two week training schedule for static apnea with an offer to provide extended schedules on request. Based on the results of a couple of hours of work, I'm definitely curious about the improvements that could be gained from a few week's training.

Following on the two day San Jose session, we moved to Monterey for a day and a half off the Cypress Sea. Conditions were best off Pebble Beach, Carmel (little swell, 25' vis, 56F) so that's where we spent the better part of October 23 & 24. The ocean work was definitely the most fun. With weighted lines attached to surface floats, we worked on techniques that stimulate the mammalian diving reflex (free immersion and negative pressure immersion) followed by work to increase our maximum depth/bottom times.

Day one ended with a variable ballast drop where, instead of wearing a weight belt, you hang onto a heavy set of weights tied onto one end of a long line. After breathing up at the boat's swim step, you roll into the water and let the weights pull you down. When all of the line has played out, you've completed an effortless drop and the first half of the ride. Let go of the weights, give a slight kick up, and your suit's buoyancy continuously accelerates you through the water column. By the time you hit the surface, you're moving fast enough to come a third of the way out of the water. A couple of divers went for height and you could almost read the brand of their fins. For day one's variable ballast drop, the line was limited to 95'; for day two, it would be extended to 150'. Yee ha!!! A lot of fun, indeed, the variable ballast drop was useful in getting experience with the pressures at new depths and the work required to clear way down there.

The final ocean session was divided into two parts (warm up and target dives) to be followed by a variable ballast drop. The warm up part was a shortened version of the first day's ocean work. It was followed by discussions between each participant, Brett and Kirk. The point of those individual discussions was for each person to declare what target depth they wanted to go for. It was limited to no more than 15' beyond the maximum depth we'd been achieving in the ocean. Once everyone had declared their target depths, we got back into the water and each got our one shot in sequence starting with whoever declared the deepest target. While we were on the boat between the warm ups and target dives, the ocean conditions kicked up a few notches (from calm to downright sloppy) just to make things more interesting.

So how did I do? Not as well as I'd hoped. My target depth was 100'. Based on the diving of the previous two days, I knew I had more than enough gas to hit that target. The only problem I'd been having was clearing past 85'. That problem had to do with finding enough air to equalize fast enough to prevent one or both Eustachian tubes from slamming shut; ear clearing has long been the bane of my diving. While I'm fairly sure I could sort things out with more practice, I was unable to break the 85' barrier in the six or so dives to that depth over the day and a half. Still, 85' is 10' to 20' deeper than a personal best set under much friendlier diving conditions (day three of a freediving trip in much warmer, clearer waters). What else was gained? In addition to increasing my maximum depth, the clinic also reset my comfortable working depth in cold, murky waters from 30' to something in the 55' to 65' range. I was frankly amazed at how easy and relaxing it was to drop and hang out at 60'. And, potentially most valuable to me, instead of needing 45 minutes to warm up and really get comfortable getting to depth as has been typical in the past, I can now make that transition in 5 or 10 minutes, no sweat. Too cool.

How did others do? Bob Bachman got lost on the way down during his target dive, went past his 100' target, stopped for directions from the safety diver at 109' and, finally, found his way back to the surface. If he'd followed the rope straight down and straight up, gosh, who knows. Of the other participants, I'd estimate something like half hit depths between 90' and 100'. Not too bad considering that many in the class were relative newbies to freediving.

Finally, it's worth noting that both Brett and Kirk were outstanding. Kirk has the physics, physiology, and psychology this freediving stuff down cold and his presentation is well honed. Brett, who seems to spend the majority of his waking moments seeking that place between sleepy dopiness and out-of-body detachment (no offense intended), was still very accessible and always quick to light up and energetically add his insights, suggestions and encouragement. During the in-water work (pool and ocean), they were very safety conscious up to the point of having a safety diver down as well as meeting each of us at 60' during the target dives. And, it turns out they're both really nice guys and very easy to be around. Getting back to day two in the ocean, the warm ups and target dives ran us over the available time by an hour and a half. As a result, we had to skip the variable ballast drops. Therein lies the extent of my disappointment in the clinic.

The clinic wasn't cheap and, indeed, that was an initial hesitation for me. Costs ran $450 for the clinic plus $157.50 for two days on the boat. Add in gas, accommodations and dinners with a bunch of hungry divers and you're pushing $1000 total. Definitely not cheap. OTOH, the lessons from the clinic, the experience gained, and the people we met will all be remembered long after the money is forgotten. In hindsight, I'd definitely say it was worth the price and then some. If I were to do it again (very possible), I'd probably kick in the air fare to get me over to Kona for a clinic.

{norcadiver@sonic.net}