Part of the beauty of this event, and freediving in general, is that because it is such a small sport there is not enough people in it to have enemies or any kind of antagonism.  You quite often find yourself safetying the very person who has intentions to attempt your record, or discussing training techniques with your potential rivals.  This is nowhere more evident than in Vertical Blue, where the event was founded on the concept of a group of freedivers working together to achieve mutual goals.

Photos courtesy of Frederic Buyle (www.nektos.net), Dave Button & Blue Eye FX and Ryuzo Shinomiya.

Herbert, Sara, Ryuzo and Tomoko in the garden at Ellen's Inn, where half of the athletes were staying.  The Ellen's Inn cat (foreground) never knew so much love!

(from left to right) Mads, Walid and Leo discuss their training on the beach next to Dean's Blue Hole.  Walid is wearing an Orca Apex 2 wetsuit, Mads an Orca Alpha, and Leo used an Orca Pflex in the competition.

Walter transports William from the platform to the oxygen station after a deep constant weight dive.  Most of the freedivers found partners amongst the other athletes to coach them during their dives.  Coaching entails looking after the athlete, giving them time cues leading up to their official top time, carrying any equipment needed, transporting on the surface, and reminding the athlete to breath and do the surface protocol upon completing the dive.

PR manager and comic relief Dave Button (middle) is courted by the lovely ladies of Vertical Blue, from left to right Kathryn McPhee, Jana Strain, Olivia Phillip and Georgina Miller.

(above and below) a pot luck dinner held at William's apartment during the training days of Vertical Blue.  Never before has Long Island seen such diversity of ethnic dishes all under one roof!

(above and below) William, Herbert and Alex Sarasitis (Herbert's coach) went on a spearfishing trip after the competition was finished.  They are holding 2 hogfish, a conch shell and 2 yellowfin rockfish - some of the most tasty seafood the Caribbean has to offer, and served up on a barbecue later that night.

The Vertical Blue athletes and crew together at the midway barbecue at Kris and Jean's private beach in Salt Pond.  Conflicting goals, common spirit.

In February we opened a competition (see Suunto "Pick the World Records" challenge for the original post) to pick which, if any, world records would be broken during Vertical Blue 2009, by whom and with what depth.  The closest entrant would receive a new Suunto D4 freediving depth gauge and a Vertical Blue team shirt, second prize would receive the team shirt.

 AIDA judge Grant Graves checking the depth on the official depth gauge for Vertical Blue 2009, a Suunto D4.  Photo courtesy Frederic Buyle.

Vertical Blue saw 5 world records in 4 events, and the correct answer in the competition, for total of 14 possible points was:

male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 120m
male CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 88m
male FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 109m
female CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96m
female CNF: unbroken
female FIM: unbroken 

Two entrants both finished with 11 points: They were LEONARDO D'IMPORZANO from Italy, who picked:

male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 114m
male CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 88m
male FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 111m
female CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96m
female CNF: broken, Sara Campbell, 61m
female FIM: unbroken 

and STEFAN DROGUET, who picked:

male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 115m
male CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 90m
male FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 111m
female CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96m
female CNF: unbroken
female FIM: unbroken 

Leonardo: 3:21
Stefano:   3:37

Apologies for the delay in uploading these photos - as you can expect the competition ended with a flurry...

Sara Campbell (left) decided to close her campaign after her huge 96m world record, and an oh-so-close attempt at 100m.  Saturday was an easy 40m dive for the cameras and "for the love of it!"  Jana Strain (right) ended with a solid 60m CWT dive that will qualify her to return also in this discipline at the world champs in November.

Once again Leo Muraoka (above) stole the show at Vertical Blue 2009.  The 53 year old Hawaiian battled his way through body-wracking contractions to win back the US National Record in Free Immersion that Robert had taken from him, with 81m in a time of 3:28.  The crowd of spectators watching from the beach erupted into applause and cheering as Leo showed his white tag and the judges replied with their white cards.

William Winram (above) displays the tag he retrieved from 90m in Free Immersion, setting the Canadian and continental records for this discipline.  Never a big fan of the freefall, William continued to pull himself at intervals all the way to the plate at 90m, before turning and pulling quickly back to the surface in a time of 3:06.

William Trubridge again attempted 111m in CWT on the last day, but the sudden darkness on the last day of the comp meant he lost the line on the descent, retrieved it via his safety lanyard, corrected vertical position, but by which time he had missed an equalisation, and so turned at 103m.  He finishes the competition with 107m in this discipline, an improvement on his competition PB of 88m set two years ago in Dahab with bi-fins.

History in the making: Herbert Nitsch ascends the last couple of meters in the bubbles of his own exhale (above).  Below, Herbert greets his father after the successful record attempt. 

120m CWT!

Pictures and more news to follow.

The last day of Vertical Blue 2009 is already upon us...

Tomorrow Herbert will again attempt 120m, after having problems with his equipment today (a small float attached to his carabiner which was supposed to detach as soon as he started the descent, but didn't).

Leo and Robert will duel it out for the US national record in Free Immersion, William Winram will go for 90m in the same discipline, and William Trubridge will re-attempt "the wickets" - 111m with a monofin.  7 national records and one world record are on the line, but will the athletes have enough stamina to perform at their limits on the last day?

all photos courtesy of Frederic Buyle www.nektos.net unless otherwise stated

The Blue hole as seen by a lizard on the eastern wall (above).  Below, if the water wasn't so blue it could be a scene from a Nile cruise: camera crews are filming a documentary in 3D and use an extendible boom to get their lens close to the action.

Freediving paraphernalia.  Suunto have sponsored this year's Vertical Blue and have donated D4 depth gauges to use as the official depth measure (above left).  Suunto is the brand ratified by AIDA, the homologating body for freediving records, as it combines maximum precision with function.  On the right, all you need is a mask and a fin, and maybe not even that...

Day 8 of Vertical Blue 2009 was the day William Trubridge finally pulled through with his first world record of the comp in his specialty discipline, Constant Weight No Fins (above left, photo courtesy Grant Graves).  He has been training also with the monofin, and trying to juggle the two disciplines has made it difficult to perform in both.  The use of a high-performance Orca Alpha 1.5mm suit has reduced buoyancy change and increased hydrodynamics.  Every little bit helps: William wears his lanyard belt on the inside of the suit, with a sealed hole for the line to pass through to the carabiner.

William would like to thank his coach in the water, Kerian Hibbs, who has been the most sought after coach in the competition, and to the safety team who have been so supportive during the first half of the competition.  Thanks also to the medic Joy Hibbs for her lucky charms, and judges Grant and Linden for showing the right colour! 

photo above courtesy Dave Button

One of the stars of Vertical Blue 2009, Walter Steyn was a freight train hurtling towards 100m, and today he was the first Australian and only the 10th person in the world to acheive this historic depth.  Walter is one of the few all-rounders of the sport capable of huge performances with and without fins, in depth and in the pool.  Maybe this taste of depth after several years of absence will spur him on to greater goals.  Watch this name at the World Championships in November...

Medic Joy Hibbs (above) takes another dousing as a diver goes under.  Joy has also been platform supervisor, reading out top times and countdowns and monitoring divers' descents and ascents on the sonar.  On the right Ugo Giordano, a celebrated Italian skipper and newly graduated Apnea Academy Instructor, is filming the official surface video so that all dives can be regulated by AIDA.

The beauty of Dean's Blue Hole: while a child plays in the shallow water freedivers are preparing to attempt feats that will extend the idea of human acquaticity.  In this case it's Japanese couple Ryuzo Shinomiya and Tomoko Yamanouchi, who have demonstrated eastern-world qualities of discipline and agility to net new national records in Constant Weight.

88m hands and feet!! 

Wiliam is back, with a new world record in CNF (Constant No Fins category).  His dive to 88m lasted 3:30.  After the initial speed bumps and a lot of stress early in the competition William found his form on the second to last day of the event to register his 7th world record and 5th in this, his specialty discipline

More photos and the dive profile will be uploaded shortly... 

 photo courtesy Frederic Buyle www.nektos.net

Every once in a while an event occurs in freediving where the synchrony of a great athlete in peak form and diving in perfect conditions is able to redefine our measures of what is possible underwater.  More than one such event may just happen over the next two days of diving at Vertical Blue 2009...

On the 5th of April Herbert Nitsch amazed the crowd at Dean's Blue Hole, as well as spectators following the event all over the world, with a monofin dive to 114m (374 feet).  Tomorrow he will attempt a depth of 120m (393 feet).  Never before has a single athlete shifted the world record in constant weight by such a margin, and to do so now, when many believe we are approaching if not a limit then at least a plateau in improvement, would be a staggering feat.  In freediving there is a fine line between fearless and reckless, and Herbert admits that he is making "a bit of a poker play."  The thing is that his 'plays' often pay off...

During this event both Herbert and William Trubridge (left) have made attempts at William's existing constant weight no fins world record (86m, 282 feet), with William returning from 88m only to black out momentarily on the surface, and Herbert turning early at 71m.  Tomorrow William will have his second attempt at this target.

We could see the standards for human potential undergo a phaseshift in a single day.  Stay tuned to this site, which will be first to broadcast any news from Dean's Blue Hole.

Full announcements for tomorrow's diving are listed below.  It is interesting to note that the average depth of all the day's dives is 86m.  Vertical Blue continues to be the highest calibre freediving event on the international calendar.

Davide Carrera (left) executing another picture perfect constant weight national record for Italy.  Davide breathes up through a snorkel on his front, and in the photo you can see an assistant grabbing the snorkel he abandons in the duckdive.  Watching from the surface is AIDA judge Linden Wolbert.

Kerian Hibbs (above right and below) is racing to meet his kiwi peers Dave, Ant and Will, with a lightning quick dive to 81m in 2:23.  He has developed a pair of low profile fluid goggles that he sells through his site www.monofins.co.nz and which are being used by almost half of the athletes at Vertical Blue 2009.

Tomoko Yamanouchi (above and below) is the rising star in women's freediving.  Today as well as extending her Japanese national record she entered the exclusive 70 club in CWT, with only 7 other female athletes.  What is most incredible about Tomoko is that she possesses only 2.8L of total lung volume, even after she has packed!  Both her lungs would fit inside half of one of Herbert's lungs!  At the depth she achieved today her lungs would be compressed to the size of two small oranges...

Herbert Nitsch (below left) was up to something today.  He announced a depth of 95m in CWT, and ambled down with his normal slow knee-kick at less than a meter per second for the first 60m.  After a brief pause on the bottom he pulled and finned back to the surface with a total dive time of 4 minutes.  He was back in the water in the afternoon testing a "new technique that applies to all disciplines," so we may see some surprises in the last couple of days.

Walter Steyn is unstoppable.  The Australian (below right) has been freediving for many years, but hasn't competed at depth for at least two, and came to Vertical Blue 2009 with a PB in comp of 77m.  Today he continued to gain ground on his kiwi rivals across the Tasman sea, with a very confident dive to 98m.  After finishing the surface protocol in 1.3 seconds he told us he was "narked as a skunk down there!"  If he can brave the narcosis again, and has enough juice left in his legs then he could become the 10th entrant into the exclusive 100m club.

A stingray lies in wait on the sandy bottom of the lagoon next to Dean's Blue Hole (below).  Could there be some last minute surprises in store in the final two days of Vertical Blue 2009?  Sara Campbell is resting and plotting another attempt on a three digit depth, Herbert is experimenting and calculating, William is getting steadily deeper in CWT, with today's dive to 109m, but may turn back to his trademark discipline no fins, Ryuzo is a dragon waiting to breathe fire and Walter is steaming downwards...

Within a few hours we will release the top times for the penultimate day of Vertical Blue, and I recommend that you are sitting down, or lying on a sandy bottom like this stingray, when you read them.

Standby...

14 dives, 10 national record attempts!  We're in Act Three now, so tighten your seatbelts - this is the finale! 

The last pull on the line to a Japanese national record - Megumi surfacing from a Free Immersion dive to 60m

Walid (above left) overcame some first-comp demons to net a confident dive to 60m without fins.  His first few dives were perhaps made difficult by the use of a 2.2kg neck weight, which given his complete lack of body fat made him too negatively buoyant during the dive.

Eric Fattah (above right) exhaled and sank all the way to 71m, before sprinting back up to the surface.  The deepest FRC dive in competition thus far!

One of the stars of the day, Tomoko Yamanouchi (above) finally reached a national record in Constant Weight for Japan.  She has been training hard in this discipline, and spectators said that she made the dive look easy, so Tomoko could soon be a major player in the world championships later this year.

William Trubridge is continuing with constant weight for now, and completed a comfortable 107m in 3:11.  As yet the photographer hasn't managed to snatch a photo with his arms still, but we can assure you that William is using that appendage attached to his feet.

What does the first women to attempt 100m in CWT look like as she is breathing up on the surface?  Sara Campbell swam to a depth of 67 body lengths today - the most ever by a freediver of any sex and came within a hair's breadth of making it.  A few days of rest will definitely be on the cards for this valiant athlete before her next attempt.

The deep safety team, from left Antonio Cavallo, Simon Bennet and Marco Cosentino, who have been meeting the competitors at 30m on every dive.  An event of this magnitude wouldn't be possible without a trained team of this calibre.

A quick update before we're all off to the midway barbecue in Salt Pond.  Four national records today from Frank, Megumi, Tomoko (her first, congratulations!) and Wal.

Herbert turned early during his descent, quoting equalisation problems and reluctance to swim all the way back.  If he can bear taking a day off tomorrow then he might feel fresh enough for a new attempt on the next competition day, Thursday.

Sara made a valiant effort at the 100m barrier, and came to the surface clutching the tag in her hand for everyone to see.  There were a couple of seconds while she took her first breath in almost 4 minutes and everyone else held theirs, before she started slipping sideways under the water and the safety divers grabbed her.  She was back in a flash, giggling and talking about a brief dream, but for today the 100m mark is still intact for the ladies.

That's the end of Act Two.  We'll have photos up from today shortly.  Tomorrow is a day off for everyone, then it's the final 3 days of Vertical Blue 2009. 

Today is the day Sara will attempt to be the first woman to reach the mythical 100m in self-propelled freediving.

William Winram and Herbert Nitsch have also announced world record attempts in the discipline of Constant Weight without fins, vying for 87 and 88 meters respectively... 

It was another perfect day in the Blue Hole, whose glassy surface was like the lens covering a deep blue iris.  The tarpon have become accustomed to the gangly forms that scurry down and up through the middle of their watery vault, and they cruise languidly out into the open water between the lines to play chicken with the divers as they fall and rise.

Georgina Miller was up too late litigating with a mosquito, so she renounced her dive this morning, and is on a plane back to Great Britain - the 50 mark will have to wait for now!  Mads was still feeling squeezed, and Kathryn had noseclip issues, so after three DNS's (did not starts), Megumi Matsumoto (below) was the first to dive, and she landed her first national record of the competition, with a comfortable 58m in free immersion.  After a slow start due to an untimely cold Meg is back, and will bear down on the remaining Japanese records she has lost over the last year.

Kerian Hibbs (below) has been chasing qualification for the AIDA World Champs, and he grabbed it today with a super quick 75m CWT dive.  There is plenty more in the tank, but equalisation is the rate reducing step.

Davide Carrera (above) made his 4th national record of the competition, with 98m in constant weight.  He is running out of whole numbers in the 90's now, and his Italian supporters are begging him to announce something with 3 digits.

The star of the day was again Herbert Nitsch (below being filmed by Dan Burton with a 3D camera), who claimed his second world record, this time in Free Immersion with 109m, breaking the 108m record set by William Trubridge at Vertical Blue 2008.  There have been criticisms of his technique (off the bottom his distance gained per arm-pull is 1.5m), but if results justify methods then Herbert cannot be doing anything wrong.

Ryuzo Shinomiya didn't follow through with his 107m attempt, while William Trubridge logged his first positive dive after a stressful week, with a straightforward 101m CWT in 2:53.

Walter Steyn (below) became the first Australian below 300 feet, with a 2:43 constant weight dive to 92m.  In the picture below he has already removed his goggles and noseclip in the last few meters of the ascent, and is raising his hand to make the OK sign as he comes to the surface.  Just as long as he knows that he can't say "I am OK" while still under the water...

Lucky Leo was last today, and continued his inexorable climb downwards..  Today he turned early at 75m in free immersion, with Rob's national record only 5m away.

All photos courtesy of Frederic Buyle www.nektos.net

109m FIM!

114 for the boys!