a yankee in siberia

[kirez]

Greetings --- I actually have an account on DeeperBlue from 2001, that I couldn't find the info for; but I haven't really been active here much since 2002.

I'm a freediver and recreational SCUBA diver. My haven used to be La Jolla Cove in San Diego, California. Now I'm in Tomsk, Siberia -- about 800 miles north of the intersection of Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.

There's an awesome monofin swimming program here -- the world champions. They've also got a nice indoor dive tank, 9 meters deep.

I've been spending time diving with these Russians, who have done wreck expeditions in the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Sea of Japan, Kamchatka, off of Spain, Baltic Sea, and more. They've made documentary movies of some of their wreck dives.

All of their dives concerned World War II. They've got quite a museum here of relics they've recovered from war vessels.

Continuing this theme, they want to do a joint expedition with some Americans off Palau --- exploring the sunk US warships there. We'd like to make a movie of this expedition.

And I'm in charge of finding the Americans. Can you help me? I'm looking for people with significant wreck diving experience, interest in the history of the battle and World War II, and interest-ability-experience making a movie or documentary. Of course, experience and knowlege of Palau also helps.

Contact me if you're interested or if you can connect me to someone interested. The thumbnail version is: a joint Russian-American World War II Battle of Palau Wreck Expedition and Historical Documentary.

I was excited to find, a few days ago, that thread of "Freediving 101" - How to Start Freediving by Akoni. The material on the Frenzel technique and the CO2 and O2 tables (breathing exercises) was new to me and I think it will prove very useful. I'm enthused to start training more formally and with more discipline thanks to this community.

If you want to contact me off-board, email gorillasoph at gmail.

[trux]

Late welcome, Kirez, and thanks for the info. Are there any clips or screenshots from their films available online? Or are they available on DVD? Do they have any website?

[kirez]

No, none of the films are available online, nor on DVD (sadly if they were on DVD I wouldn't have the means to upload them. Siberia has no subterranean fiber-optic, T3 or other backbone connection; all internet traffic is via satellite).

Our web site is at http://skate.tsu.ru/

Thank you for the response!

[sanso]

Welcome to the show, kirez,

> I was excited to find, a few days ago, that thread of "Freediving 101" - How to Start
> Freediving by Akoni. The material on the Frenzel technique and the CO2 and O2 tables
> (breathing exercises) was new to me and I think it will prove very useful. I'm enthused
> to start training more formally and with more discipline thanks to this community.
These people here are great motivators! And that thread was a clue-treasure for me as well :-D

Tomsk, eh? Is the diving/documentary Your main reason for going there?
My de-facto-father-in-law is from Siberia, (or at least has lived there for quite a while - his history is somewhat fuzzy, because of the revolution[s] and all) and I'm hoping to go there and to Kasachstan (where de-facto-mom-in-law is from) sometime in the near future. Maybe I'll want to interview You on that some day .

приветствие,

sanso

[SEDATE]

Welcome to DB.net!

[kirez]

Originally Posted by SEDATE

Welcome to DB.net!

Thank you, Sedate, I appreciate the hello. :-)

I wonder what on earth I did to cause my other response to be duplicated some 10 times...

[kirez]

Originally Posted by sanso

Welcome to the show, kirez,

> I was excited to find, a few days ago, that thread of "Freediving 101" - How to Start
> Freediving by Akoni. The material on the Frenzel technique and the CO2 and O2 tables
> (breathing exercises) was new to me and I think it will prove very useful. I'm enthused
> to start training more formally and with more discipline thanks to this community.
These people here are great motivators! And that thread was a clue-treasure for me as well :-D

Tomsk, eh? Is the diving/documentary Your main reason for going there?
My de-facto-father-in-law is from Siberia, (or at least has lived there for quite a while - his history is somewhat fuzzy, because of the revolution[s] and all) and I'm hoping to go there and to Kasachstan (where de-facto-mom-in-law is from) sometime in the near future. Maybe I'll want to interview You on that some day .

приветствие,

sanso

Sanso,

I'd be happy to talk to you about Siberia. I wrote you another (longer) response and first, it got duplicated some 10 times; when I deleted one of those, ALL of them disappeared.

Regarding the Palau expedition: I think this was simply a dream expedition these divers have long wanted to do, and they wanted me to put it together with American financial largesse.

Where is your SO (significant other, your wife or girlfriend...) from? And I notice English is not your native language --- where are you from? Thanks for the welcome!

peace,
Kirez

[sanso]

Originally Posted by kirez

[...]Where is your SO (significant other, your wife or girlfriend...) from? And I notice English is not your native language --- where are you from? Thanks for the welcome!
[...]

My SO, girlfriend in this case, was born and raised in Germany, but her parents are from the former Soviet Union. Their history includes, but is not limited to, Siberia (dad), estonia (mom and dad), Kasachstan (mom), ... I always have a hard time remembering all stations of their lives over there. Even though my SO wrote a couple of short stories about the lives of her [grand-]parents.
Some time in the future we'd like to travel to all the places her family has seen in their lives, but I'll have to hone my Russian before we leave for that trip.
And what makes You think english is not my native language? I always thought people can't tell. Anyway; I was born in Romania, but was brought to Germany when I was a month old, so I'm pretty much German not only legally but also by being raised here.

A merry Christmas to You from Germany,

Sanso

[Lockedin]

Originally Posted by kirez

...And I'm in charge of finding the Americans. Can you help me? I'm looking for people with significant wreck diving experience, interest in the history of the battle and World War II, and interest-ability-experience making a movie or documentary. Of course, experience and knowlege of Palau also helps. ...

Kirez,

Welcome (back) to DB!

I know of a few companies, in Southern Ca, that may be able to help you gear-wise. If you are interested, pm me, and I can get you in contact with them. Personnel wise, some of the gear houses around here also do crewing, but you may be better served through the forums (UW shooters are $$$ in this town).

Rick

[kirez]

Sanso -- the only tell on your English was your spelling of Kasachstan --- no native English speaker would spell it that way (we spell it Kazakhstan). (Also, in English "you" is not capitalized as Sie is auf Deutsch). You are indeed quite fluent though!

Where are you at in Germany? I had a girlfriend from Frankfurt when I was 16, we traveled there together from Israel (went to east berlin in January of 1990 just after die mauer fell), and I returned and worked in Augsburg for a summer when I was 18.

[sanso]

Ah, se djörman "ch" gave me away. Verdammt!
I do know about not capitalizing the 'you', but chose to do so nevertheless. I kinda like it, it seems more personal to me.
I live in the far south of Germany, in Konstanz, right by the swiss border, I could probably even swim into switzerland from Konstanz, both bordering on lake Constance or the Bodensee, as it is called here. As soon as I have a proper wetsuit, this is where I'm likely to do most of my diving as well, even though I haven't found any (but one) freedivers around the lake - yet.
Augsburg I've only seen once yet, and that view was pretty blurred, since I went to a friend's party at the time

Well, I'll leave it at that and go find something to do until Bescherung (You have spent the holidays in Germany, haven't You?)
merry christmas and all that

Richard