Last weekend (Oct 17-19) st3fan and myself ventured down into croatia to catch the last sunrays before the winter. It was a blast and things developed beyond our expectation. Considering the fact that we only knew each other via the internet for the past few weeks, we had a great time as we were pursuing the same goal: friendship, camaraderie, submarine life and progress under water. We succeeded in all of these.
Our destination was Sveti Marina, half way between Rijeka and Pula on the east side of Istria, just below Labin.
Airtemp was around 10°C/50°F, water temp around 16°/61°F. In contrast to the air the water felt balmy. Friday and Saturday the sea was rough with waves up to 1mt/3ft, sunday was perfectly calm (with a 15m viz) and I felt comfortable with my 2 piece 3mm suit for one hour.
I have been training cold water acclimatization for the last two months, alongside with taking in more calories. Obviously successful, because the cold water didn't bother me, in fact I went for a swim with my bathing suit for half an hour. However the change of my diet (mostly simple carbohydrates) seemed to be detrimental to my capacity for maximum dives and I had to keep it conservative. On top of that I became sloppy and stopped taking my vitamins (C, E + Magnesium). Because I didn't expect a performance drop, this experience may have been genuine, not clouded by placebo (ie consciously diving without vitamins).
Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend and st3fan managed to progress from -40 to -45 to -48m within a few nice tries. Soon he will be the 4.th Austrian (two official, and two unofficial) who will have reached or surpassed the 50 Meter mark in Costant Weight (if Hertbert counts for two, then there would be 5
). Congratulations to Stephan
On the last day (sunday) the ocean was totally calm and we went to Brsec, 35 km south of Rijeka. A steep, paved track took us from the coastal highway down to the Zeus-Faber Bucht after 1½km. Right from the edge where we parked our car a 20 Meter cliff drops off right into the water. People take advantage of this place in various ways: some were throwing their cars down the cliff (some years ago) creating a divesite at a depth of -25m, while some others (including myself) jumped right off.
Under water the walls drop down immediately to -15-20m from where the bottom is staged further down to -25-30m. It was awesome to look back up from the lowest point into the sunlight along the corals through schools of fish.
Here are the pictures from this weekend. (You may have to register first before You have access to them)
dive safely and deeply
Gerald
Our destination was Sveti Marina, half way between Rijeka and Pula on the east side of Istria, just below Labin.
Airtemp was around 10°C/50°F, water temp around 16°/61°F. In contrast to the air the water felt balmy. Friday and Saturday the sea was rough with waves up to 1mt/3ft, sunday was perfectly calm (with a 15m viz) and I felt comfortable with my 2 piece 3mm suit for one hour.
I have been training cold water acclimatization for the last two months, alongside with taking in more calories. Obviously successful, because the cold water didn't bother me, in fact I went for a swim with my bathing suit for half an hour. However the change of my diet (mostly simple carbohydrates) seemed to be detrimental to my capacity for maximum dives and I had to keep it conservative. On top of that I became sloppy and stopped taking my vitamins (C, E + Magnesium). Because I didn't expect a performance drop, this experience may have been genuine, not clouded by placebo (ie consciously diving without vitamins).
Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend and st3fan managed to progress from -40 to -45 to -48m within a few nice tries. Soon he will be the 4.th Austrian (two official, and two unofficial) who will have reached or surpassed the 50 Meter mark in Costant Weight (if Hertbert counts for two, then there would be 5
). Congratulations to Stephan On the last day (sunday) the ocean was totally calm and we went to Brsec, 35 km south of Rijeka. A steep, paved track took us from the coastal highway down to the Zeus-Faber Bucht after 1½km. Right from the edge where we parked our car a 20 Meter cliff drops off right into the water. People take advantage of this place in various ways: some were throwing their cars down the cliff (some years ago) creating a divesite at a depth of -25m, while some others (including myself) jumped right off.
Under water the walls drop down immediately to -15-20m from where the bottom is staged further down to -25-30m. It was awesome to look back up from the lowest point into the sunlight along the corals through schools of fish.
Here are the pictures from this weekend. (You may have to register first before You have access to them)
dive safely and deeply
Gerald
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