-110m by Herbert Nitsch

[pim]

Today Herbert Nitsch returned from a succesfull -110m Constant Weight dive during a competition in Greece. The dive lasted 3:43 so a lot slower then Guillaume.

The sad part is that due to coach error Herbert finished his surface protocol after 18s!!!!!!! Still a stunning performance from Herbert and congratulations with the dive.

Ciao,
Pim Vermeulen
sport officer AIDA International
www.aida-international.org

 

[ROBERT REYES]

Oh no, such an awesome dive, and it does not count?
Still, he did it.

 

[pat fish]

Outstanding performance. Very sorry for the messed up SP- anyway "Herbert rules"! Pat

 

[Walrus]

Well done Herbert!
such a shame to get a technical DQ for that dive.
It seems a lot of people are getting technical DQ's these days for otherwise clean dives, I've been done myself for not removing a noseclip in time. The 15second rule is pretty tough and doesn't give you any room for error. It seems like more people are getting DQ's for clean dives these days then under the old LMC rules (but easier SP).

Wal

 

[trux]

I think that the main problem with SP is that people do not use to do it properly in training, and they do not have the automatism for doing it easily. When you do not do it automatically, you can easily fail when under stress during a competition. However, from what it was written here, tis was not the case at Herbert - it was told he failed the protocol because of a mistake of his couch - I suppose he started to count down later than the judge.

In our club, I am trying to push everyone to do the surface protocol after every dynamic and static apnea, even within the CO2 / O2 tables. Well, when the breath-up is really short (15s), it is not really possible, but whenever when it is, we try to do the SP properly. You then do not need to think about it and stress with it when competing.

 

[wolleneugebauer]

I think the time for the surface-protocol is to short!

It is more dangerous because the athlet is total concentrated for the protocol after surfacing. A lot of freedivers forget to breathe...

In Lysekil we have seen that it is possible to do the surface protocol automaticaly. You can do this without consciousness.

In the future everybody will train the protocol automaticaly. We will see a lot of blackouts just to fulfil the protocol. To shorten the surface protocol was not a good idea.

Therefore, regardless ... Congratulation Herbert! He performed well and in my eyes he made the new record.

 

[Stavros]

The bottom line is that Herbert did a 110m dive under VERY BAD CONDITIONS. The dives were done from a fixed platform (anchored sailboat) with a heavy weighted straight rope under VERY BAD currents (ie fixed platform with straight rope and diver going down and up under strong current). As far as I heard from the safety divers he got to the surface with very nice form and not showing any signs of LMC...he was fazed and took more than 15 to complete the protocol... This is still a huge achievement if you consider that all 5 athlete diving from 65 to 71 suffered bad BOs (including myself ) which can to a great degree be attributed to the conditions...

His dive was an amazing achievement and I am sure he'll be getting a white card for it shortly.

Cheers Stavros

 

[Panos Lianos]

Just some corrections,

The surface protocol was done in 16,6 seconds, there was no coaching error. According to what Herbert told me later, we has not able to listen to anyone after such a dive.

The conditions were not so bad. There was a current but not so strong that would lead anyone to say "oh, without the current we would have made it". Manolis Giangos dived to 85 meters in the same conditions, looked very fresh, did the protocol in about 7 seconds and didn't complain at all about anything. Of course he has dived a lot deeper in training.

 

[Stavros]

Just some corrections,
The conditions were not so bad. There was a current but not so strong that would lead anyone to say "oh, without the current we would have made it". Manolis Giangos dived to 85 meters in the same conditions, looked very fresh, did the protocol in about 7 seconds and didn't complain at all about anything. Of course he has dived a lot deeper in training.

Out of 7 people diving bellow 65 only one made the dive. 4 Got BOs... The only one that made as you had mentioned was diving a lot (possibly around 10) of meters off his PB dive... It was an amazing achievement for Manolis but trust me the conditions were very difficult. Especially bellow 30m (I did my FIM warm up by hanging horizontally from the training rope)

Stavros

 

[Panos Lianos]

Exactly because it's a competition and because you can never know what the conditions will be like, people who want to be sure they will make the dive, announce less than what they have done in training.

From those people diving more than 65m, only Manolis had done more in training and yourself. All the rest had either done the same depth in training (maybe once?), or not at all (Herbert, Ryuzo, Kostas). So if you ask me, they took a huge risk. And taking a huge risk in our sport, very often comes with a price (the red card).

So if I was in your position I would look for the real reasons that led to the disqualification (were you tired? competition nerves? too deep? hypocapnia? ect), and I wouldn't blame the conditions. As an athlete you can't control the conditions, you can only control yourself (+ your announcement and if you will turn early or not).

So you now have a simple choice. You can either really look inside you and find what you did wrong, or you can simply blame the conditions. The first is hard but very rewarding the second is very easy but will teach you nothing. I hope you haven't made your choice yet. Think it over.

 

[efattah]

I know that Ryuzo had done 90m before, at least two months ago...

How deep has Giankos gone in training?

 

[Panos Lianos]

Hello Erik,

I'm talking about the days before the competition. Ryuzo did 88 (if I remember right) in training. Manolis has been deeper than 85 but I can't say.

 

[Billextreme]

Hi ALL

You find every singel diveprofile from AIDA Hellas 2006 Summer Apnea Games on www.apneamania.com ...very nice pictures to save.

:friday

have a nice weekend
/B

ps. Ryuzo's pb is 93 meter (not yards)

 

[Herbert]

Thanks everybody!

I just came back from Greece.

The competition was the beginning of one of my best trips ever!
It was very well organized, great people and a beautiful setting.

Due to the fact that I totally f…ked up my first training day, I had to “feel” some depth the day just before the comp. If this was the smartest decision –I am not sure…

During my warm up there was a moderate current on the surface visible by the ropes bending. As I only warm up down to ~10m I have no clue how the current was below. Fact is, the deeper you dive the bigger the chances for current. The surface was almost flat! Before the dive, I considered to turn early, due to the current, but couldn’t really come up with a satisfying solution. During the dive, I decided to go for the tag. I came up very exhausted and lost any sensation of time, so I was late for the protocol. It was a beautiful dive to me and that’s what counts for me.

I don’t blame the judges and for sure not the organizer. If I wouldn’t have had absolute faith in the safety of the comp, I wouldn’t have “tested it”. The environmental circumstances were not perfect and the closer one decides to approache his limits, the more relevant they become.

The present rules, I consider an improvement, but far from perfect.

Happy and save dives,

Herbert

 

[gman]

Wow,
Is anyone else awed at the fact that we in the genreal public and fans of the sport can actually communicate with the world's best on this forum? Maybe some of you old timers take this for granted as you have been doing it for so long.
There are only a few communities out there where "Joe-public" can exchange openly with "Joe-world champion" and actually feel like they are getting personal attention. This is great.

Congratulations again Herbert!!

 

[Jee]

1. Congrtulations Herbert for that nice dive!

2. Gman, freedivers are not so many around the world, and that is why it is like that. Anyway, we think similarily, a little group of the mankind, so this is understandable, why the bests of the freedivers are so open to the others, why you will easily find friends from freedivers around the world.

Here on DB you can find really top freedivers (as Herbert), using the forums, and not walking inthe clouds. And yes I agree, this is great!

Jee