Patrick Musimu - new record attempt?

[island_sands]

I just got a phone call from a dive centre here in the UAE - to ask me about deepest depths on our east coast, as apparently, one of the Sheikh's has offered Patrick Musimu the opportunity to do another no-limits attempt, in UAE waters. Apparently Patrick has been to Abu Dhabi before and has dived to 50 metres in our waters and now a record attempt is being discussed?

My first thoughts are, the UAE is a max of roughly 115 metres, and to get that depth you need to take a boat out for about 2 1/2 hours, almost into Iranian waters. You will be possibly arrested by the coastguard, or shot at by Iranian fishermen (it's happened in the past), and it is also a heavy shipping lane. I guess if you are diving with the Royal family they may have some kind of surrounding protection. You would need to have a nearby boat with a helipad in case of required emergency rescue for the divers as its 28 nautical miles offshore to get to that depth (which is still not deep enough for a no-limits record attempt, unless he is planning to do another discipline?). The organiser came to the dive centre to ask about boat hire... the regular dive boats here in the UAE are definitely not suitable to use for such an attempt.

The organiser and sponsoring company (who I won't name), has asked the dive centre for just 6 local UAE divers for support. (None of our technical divers, who dive the U-boat at 110metres have freediving competition experience and there are only a handful of divers who have been to this depth). None of the freedivers resident in the UAE have freediving competition experience, at any level.

The visibility and current vary. Sometimes the current is so strong by the U-boat area that its impossible to make the descent. The visibility ranges from 0 -10metres in the first 20 metres of depth, and below that it can be anything from clear to 2metres of viz. And the current can be non-existent and then come up suddenly. There is no exact tidal pattern here, the water conditions are variable and tend to surprise.

If they plan to pull this off, it would be interesting to know how it would work logistically. Perhaps Patrick will make an official statement?

Whatever the case is, good luck with your endeavours Patrick , and may you be safe.

[samdive]

amusing... sounds like some of Patrick's early attempts in Hurghada! best of luck to him

[Jorg]

It's been a while since I've posted, but...
I remember that after a few months after the dive I heard something about plans for a new record attempt. I don't remember exactly where it came from but it was a pretty serious source.

It had something to do with doing a 10 min long dive to 100 meters. Which is pretty strange if you look at the symptoms that Patrick had after his no limit dive and what we now know about deep freediving... But that's the info I have.

[nimus27]

Last year when I was in Belgium, in June/July, I red a magazine about belgium 100 personalities and amazingly there was an article about Patrick Musimu.

One thing that i remember was a setence that would go more or less like this translated from french:
"I dream to dive to 100m with no weight, no fins and no rope"
Is this another "Ultimate Dive"?

Is constant no fins dive to 100m a mirage right now?

...

Another more probable attempt would be as Jorg said a dive to 100m for at least 10 minutes, as a suggested by this

video" target="_blank">video

(a dive of 8m04s) upload to youtube three weeks ago.

Whatever it comes it would be a challenge for only a few in this world and perhaps a turning point in how we see freediving nowadays.

[Mullins]

Originally Posted by nimus27

I dream to dive to 100m with no weight, no fins and no rope

Which leaves... a scooter!

The watch company will have combined VW footage with static breathhold time for promotional purposes - but it will be interesting to see what kind of dive Patrick is planning.

[chrismar]

Originally Posted by nimus27

Another more probable attempt would be as Jorg said a dive to 100m for at least 10 minutes, as a suggested by this video (a dive of 8m04s) upload to youtube three weeks ago.

We'll see 100 CNF before we see someone do a 10min dive to 100m. Think of the DCS risk, just to start things off. Besides that, only Tom & Stephane (that I know about) have done 10min statics, while the 100m CNF is getting closer. Not many people are taking more than 4min for a CWT dive, ten doesn't seem likely. Dave, I seem to remember one of your CWT dives was nearly 4:30? Even then, that's a long way off.

As Dave said, that video implies that the dive was a VWT, but the time was from a static.

[ADR]

most good scooters are well beyond 100m rated.

[efattah]

A 10 minute dive to 100m is no big deal, just drop down, come up and do an 8 minute deco stop at 6m.

Murat was doing 9 minute dives to 20m on the sled a few years ago.

[turtle]

9 minute dives - that's the most mindblowing thing i've heard for ages.
f

[pat fish]

Originally Posted by Mullins

Which leaves... a scooter!

The watch company will have combined VW footage with static breathhold time for promotional purposes - but it will be interesting to see what kind of dive Patrick is planning.

I recommend a Cayago Magnum...

Cayago Magnum: turning Navy Seals into dolphins?

good luck to Musimu!

[trux]

Originally Posted by efattah

Murat was doing 9 minute dives to 20m on the sled a few years ago.

Was it before he started with FRC diving, or did he hold his breath for 9 minutes on FRC? What surface static could he pull with a 9 min sled dives? Not that I'd want to doubt your statement, but 9 minutes on a sled few years ago (when the STA record was barely above 8 minutes) seems to be a rather sensational performance. Not even speaking how sensational it would be if it were done on FRC.

[efattah]

Murat's 9min+ sled dives were with packing, before he started FRC. Actually if the sled is properly configured, you can go way over your surface static time, because the compression shrinks the lungs which reduces the strain & high HR from packing, not to mention slows the heart etc...

In fact I don't know the exact times, all I know is that his static PB was in the high-8 minute range and he told me that he had gone 'way over' his surface static pb during these sled dives, which would imply nine minutes (at least!)

[efattah]

Keep in mind tha Seb Murat competed in the 1998 Sardinia World Championships and was doing more than 8 minutes during the static training days, when the world record was still 7'35". Fred Buyle in particular told me he personally witnessed one of these 8+ statics in the Sardinia pool in 1998.

Sadly Murat had a problem with extreme nervousness during the competition and did under 6 minutes.

[chrismar]

Originally Posted by efattah

A 10 minute dive to 100m is no big deal, just drop down, come up and do an 8 minute deco stop at 6m.

Murat was doing 9 minute dives to 20m on the sled a few years ago.

Maybe with a sled, but the suggestion was for a constant weight dive. Do you still think this would be feasable? I would doubt it.

[trux]

Thanks for the details, Eric. Very interesting! I'd never thought that you can do considerably more on sled than with a still surface apnea. Already holding to the sled, and operating it requires some muscle work and inhibits perfect relaxation (at least for me), so I thought the time would be rather inferior.

On the other hand it is true that the higher O2 partial pressure in depth allows to pull more oxygen from lungs than on surface, but that again would fire back on you when you ascent. It would cause a severe ascent hypoxemia (SWB) if you really used the effect, and went below the surface level of PaO2, at depth. And that would be the case if you ascent just from the deco stop at 6 m too. It means that you must be right with the stronger diving response at depth, which compensates not only from the less than perfect muscle relaxation, but apparently preserves the oxygen strongly enough to give this advantage.