[Article] Diver on a leash?

[ArticleBot]

World Champion William Trubridge offers his point of view on why he believes competitive freedivers should not be tethered to depth lines via a lanyard and how the counterballast system could be incorporated into certain events.

This is an article discussion thread for discussing the following DeeperBlue.net Article item:

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[Arjen]

At the risk of blundering blindly in an April Fools joke, the article was placed on the first of April after all, or opening another thread on a discussion already in place, but I don’t agree with opinions expressed in the article. I don’t think that the complete system with the technical divers will be safer for all participants compared to the counterweight system in place now. I also think that you will create unequal conditions for athletes wanting to do a deep attempt.

Technical divers have a limited ascent rate and do not descent as fast as freedivers do. They are also bound by bottom times and decompression ceilings. Depending on the intervals and response times you regard as safe and the visibility and surface condition at your dive location, you will need quite a few competent dive teams, all with their own back up and safety teams. This may be feasible for a one off world record attempt, but at a competition with multiple deep divers and more lines, the amount of dive teams will skyrocket. With increased bottom times for the deep safety divers, the total dive time will increase quite drastically, especially if there are several freedivers doing 100+ meters dives. Not a difficult thing to imagine for the coming world championships. This might be safer for the freedivers involved, but we have transferred the risk to the considerable amount of technical divers we need and the long deep dives they will need to make.

I also expect that this will not be a cheap solution.

So either you can afford to do a one off record attempt with all the technical divers in place and you are rewarded with an advantage of some reduced drag, or you can not and will be penalized for it.

I have not even gone into the discussion on how to implement this in deep training dives or what the relationship is between the technical divers and the organizing freedivers.
Do we have an employer – employee relationship in that case? How to insure such an endeavour? What kind of procedures and facilities do we need for those technical divers?
There is also a risk of lanyard entanglement in a training dive. Would we have to use deep technical divers during those dives as well? If not, why?

Or might it be more practical to look into the current line and lanyard system in place and find a way to minimize the risk of lanyard entanglement?

 

[Will]

Hey Arjen,
I agree with you on almost all your points. Using tech divers for competitions is never going to be feasible. I guess I was just bemoaning the fact that in a sport that denotes the purest expression of freedom underwater, we have to effectively be tethered back to the surface.
So lanyards aren't aesthetic, and create safety issues of their own, while tech divers are never going to work logistically. Unfortunately there aren't really any other solutions out there...

 

[efattah]

There are other solutions, but most do require a tether. My favorite is still the N.E.P.T.U.N.E. system that I built in 2004 (non entangling pulley train underwater emergency system). This system has many advantages over the current one, but it is more complex and costly.

The only zero drag system I know is another system called ZiSOS which I developed also in 2004. It is basically a DRUMS system with a small lead weight on the line which nullifies the reel drag, and results in zero drag both on the ascent and the descent. I wrote a long document about it as well. However this system has its own difficulties and challenges.

Then you have Terry Maas freediver recovery vest. That is a non-tethered solution, but the device is massive and bulky, and you could not set a record style depth with it.

 

[Kars]

Will I agree with the quest for the freedom sensation, I too have that urge.

But I do see a difference in diving for performance and diving for sensations.

I I would dive for sensations, I would seek comfort, a long dive time, and try to find a nice medium in between effort and depth. One op my dreams it do a ~50m - 5 minute dive cnf, no suit, basically as natural as I'm able to. I would like to do this in a warm blue ocean slowly flying down and landing on a sand bed, taking off and flying up.

In regard to performance dives, I like the lanyard also because it prevents a narcotised me falling way past the plate, maybe even between the hands of the deepest safety diver...


I was thinking for a moment that an advanced freediver recovery vest might offer a solution, but you know it will influence hydrodynamics, mass, buoyancy.

Let's be creative, and have a big net underneath the plate in a frame, and 4 pull in motors. Expensive. Maybe a single round disk net at the plate would catch the diver on the way up? Two heavy motors and platform could be enough.

I have to look into Eric's idea's. Though being on a line from the surface would still limit the movement. With the line in front, you're very close, and the varying speeds and the long distance to the surface are likely to yield in some slag. With the line on the back it's more difficult to orientate.


Big congratulations on your FIM WR Will !!!

And Eric congratulation on your 104m CWT !!! - I'm looking forward on some more detailed user dol-fin info.

 

[Arjen]

@ Will:
I understand your quest for the purest freedive sensation. I'm just a kind of practical pig that sees an idea and immediately looks if it is feasible to organize or implement. Especially when I’m back at work and immersed in Australian Safety Management Systems. In many respects they are completely of their rockers in the Down Under Land.

And congratulations on your 121 FIM World Record. I am still amazed at what you deep divers are capable off. The same goes for all the others who are doing their stuff in the Bahamas at the moment.

 

[Kars]

Another idea is to have a specially coated carbine on a thin cord or cable to reduce the drag and resistance. What then remains maybe only the awareness of being attached.

What kind and purpose of safety systems are you building Arjan?

Congratulations to Natalia with her 100m CWT!
Equally to all others with National records, personal records or just having a really nice sensational dive