Freedive-a-palooza III

[Jon]

Jim,

Did ya mean these 80's? I'was so busy that I never got a chance to try them and see how they compare to my Falcon 80's.:head

Cigarlung tried out my 40's on the first day and switched to my 80's on the second. It's nice to switch to a soft fin after spending so much time in the water with a pair of stiff fins on the first day.

Nick had the super cool looking omer Ice fins. they are the softess fins I have ever tried. I could see swimming all day in them, but am not sure how deep I would want to go with them?

Fred brought along his waterway monofin and used it as long as his feet would allow. I was using my carbon mono, which was supwer comfortable, and switched to freds for a dive or two. His fin is faster, it's just that I can't wear it all day long like my fin.

Fred's dive buddy, Roland, spray paints his cressi's pink so that people can see him in the crappy water he normally dives in. It was a good idea as he was the only one we could actually see at depth. I started to think about putting some bright stickers on the back of my monofin so people could actually see me when I'm underwater.

Jon

 

[Fondueset]

I was talking with Matt at spearfishinggear.com awhile back and he mentioned putting flasher-stickers on his Ice fins - maybe that would look cool on your mono.

 

[ceason]

Thanks for organizing this again Jon. Great opportunity to meet fellow divers, try equipment and shoot for personnel best. Most of all several new freedivers got the itch ... have to seek redbull sponsership next year

 

[dallasdiver]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for putting on a great event and for everyones hospitality. It was a nice trip up to God's country. A special thumbs up to Jon for setting up his counter balance system and bringing all that cool gear. I really liked the scooter. Also a special thanks to Rik for the great food. I really enjoyed diving with all of you!

Jim, those Flap 80's are great, thanks for the deal brudda!

 

[khel]

It was so much fun! Thanks Jon and others for making it happen.
I only wish that it would last longer and we had those events more often

p.s. waiting for more pictures and videos

 

[ceason]

Anyone have a good place to post some videos and larger pics?

 

[Jon]

Nick,

Next year my kids should be old enough so that I cna bring up the whole family. that way we can come up earlier, saving campsites , and extended everything by at least a day. I would have stayed a bit longer this year but my ears had had it by Sunday afternoon.:crutch

As far as shots go I have a few more, but I never shot any video- thought that UNIRDNA was going to do that with his spiffy new camera.

Here's some shots of the cribs and shallow platforms that were above the thermocline. I also have a shot of part of the group who hung around until the very end. A quick shot of the counter balance system as it was being assembled.

Here's another shot of Jitka- who was nice enough to bring up a stage of 02 for me to offgas on. Jitka, besides being one of the captians who works for my father-n-law, is also a trimix diver and haappens to have lots of extra tanks lying around- doubles, stages, argon bottles, ect. I find myself to be so tired at the end of the day, 10 hours in the water and repeat dives to 30 meters all day long in 45 degree water does that to me, that I decided to offgas a little at the end of the day so I wouldn't fall asleep by 8 pm. It worked out pretty well, but then again we did have the Redbull models handing out free samples at the end of the day as well.

Jon

 

[Jon]

The "tough guy" award goes to Cedric!:king

He was braving the 45 degree bottom temps in nothing but a 3mm shorty- although he did finally add a thin hood onto this halfway through the day. I can't describe the kind of ice cream headache you get when diving through that kind of water without a hood on.:waterwork

He seems to be used to adverse conditions because his day job is as a firefighter for the city of Chicago- where he is on the diveteam. Of all the dive teams I've worked with in the past Chicago's seems to have the most "on the ball" from what he was telling me.

We also decided to measure out some of Fred's ropes as they were longer than mine. In the past our depths were always limited by rope length and nothing else- this year it was allergies and head colds. :head

Jon

 

[ceason]

Not sure if this was the best place to put them but posted some vids on the following link.

http://ceason.zippyvideos.com/gallery.z

 

[Jon]

Nice videos Jeff.

Here's some more random shots of the lake bottom and other divers.

Jon

 

[Jon]

A few more random diver shots and some pics from some of the platforms in the lake that we were playing on.

Jon

 

[Fondueset]

Nice! Vis looks pretty good down there. 45f is enough to keep my daughter from overheating We'll try for it next year for sure.

 

[Jon]

A few more water shots.

 

[Fondueset]

The second one is an interesting composition!

 

[Jon]

Here's my last few shots.

First was my attempt at a night shot from one of our night swims. The picture really doesn't do justice to how bright the moon and stars were, but you, might, get the idea. I do have other shots from this swim but since this is a family site I won't post them- Fredrofl

I should also point out that since gas has gone up so much over here in the past year (although, where still no where near our freinds in Europe) that Fred decided to trade in his Ford Explorer and bought a new Honda- that gets a zillion miles to the gallon so he can drive three states away to go freediving.


Next shot is of a recent scuba convert, Rik. It seems that his Atomic regulator took a dump on him his first day there so he was "forced" into becoming a freediver- one in great need of a pair of fin keepers I might add.

Last shot was one a scuba diver took of me on the first day.

Jon

 

[Jon]

The vis was good, but no where near as good as it normally is up there. One of the training ropes ties into a barrle at 105' and we can usually see it from about 70'. This past weekend you needed to get to around 93'-95' to catch a glimpse of it.

The surface vis was good and the 75 degree surface temp was was nice. I have to admit to dropping down to 30' a few times just to hang on the rope for a while to cool off. A 3mm was MORE than warm enough and if you just wanted to stay above 25' and shoot pictures, or spearguns , you only needed a swimsuit so as not to overheat.

Jon

 

[Fondueset]

Moonlight diving is something I've yet to do. I'm hoping we get a clear, calm bright night here before long. It'll be creepy with some of the stuff I've seen along the breakwall lately!

 

[khel]

Great pictures and videos all!!
And here's my 2 random pictures

 

[fjohnson]

Hi everyone, if you weren't at the apalooza you missed out! out on great diving, great people, great food, great weather, and great water, and a full moon! It's a lot of fun to spend time with folks that have the same insane passion for being in and under the water as I do. I uploaded a low res video at zippyvideos.. and a video that consists of still photos.. I didn't doctor any of them up as I haven't had time or energy since I got home. But, here ya go.
http://www.zippyvideos.com/7567202225627756/wazee06vids_0001/*fjhnsn
and the stills... http://www.zippyvideos.com/9656431475627716/wazee06_0001/*fjhnsn
Fred

 

[freedivechicago]

great pics & video! thanks Fred.

Jim