Herbert Nitsch 214m News from Greece

[shoutatthesky]

This is a theoretical depth I assume?:t

 

[ADR]

A proper mouthfill technique can allow a diver to reach 250m without the EQEX....

Hi Eric - In theory and practice how deep can you dive on a surface mouthfill alone? ...and it would be great if you can give the maths(volumes info) behind your calcs

thanks

 

[inseader]

p.s. Just for the record; Herbert easily equalised down to -122m head down, just holding a few SCUBA weights in his hand whilst testing the HF.EqEx.

Not that I would dare diminish Herbert's accomplishments, but I believe it was Claude Chapuis who mentioned in an article about Loic Leferme that, just before his fatal accident, Loic easily equalised head down to 165m without flooding his sinuses or EqEx or any other artifact... Now, that is truly remarquable.

Jacques.

 

[MIG]

Well nothing is going to go perfectly…yesterday was blown out so I didn’t get up here to the house, No Wi-Fi = No Blog…. Sorry!

The last thing I said was that it was extremely late and the guys had not returned from a technical training session. The problem was that a small clip had broken, which meant the system for retrieving the huge counter weight didn’t work (in fact it was very deep along with said weight). 2 hours later they came back…. I was in bed!

So what is occurring? I hear you ask. Well the technical session actually went well. A few hiccups such as the lanyard not being long enough and another one having to be crafted at sea. But generally a fantastic dive using the NEW CH (Hooray it works).

Using a human brake to make a decent stop at 30m (Thanx Andy), Herbert was able to fill the HF.EqEx and continue to 150m, where he was easily able to equalise. (just for the record a full equalisation at 150m will allow him to go a further 40m to a record breaking 190m). After touchdown (1min 17sec) he ascended surprising slowly, considering the assent rates reached using the smaller, less hydrodynamic CH1. After 3 seconds (Time from the D9, modified to have a max depth of -250m, thanx SUUNTO) his assent rate increased to 2.5m/s, after 10secs the counterweight system sped him up to 3m/s.

There was a deco brake which stopped Herbert (and the sled) at around 12m where he immediately went onto Oxygen for about 5 minutes. He then came to the surface and breathed Pure Oxygen for a further 15 minutes. Total dive time 2:24 (up to deco stop).

As has been mentioned before on all of Herbert’s deep dives, he has (and will not) come directly to the surface, but will stop to decompress, to limit the possibility of “The Bends”.

The boat is now equipped with high precision SONAR (Thanx Lowrance), allowing the entire dive to be monitored from the surface. One thing we didn’t consider was the time lag of the SONAR, As far as we can gather 2-3seconds. But this is one of the tested we needed to carry out yesterday.

Phew… right, I know that a few of you wanted the technical blow by blow account, so there you go.

Today another training session, he may go deep again ( -180m) or it may just be a shallow Variable dive -140m or so. Variable, variable who mentioned that…. That’s another story all together… Sled or no sled? Head down or head up? Well we will see.


MIG

The No Limits World Record team consists of:
• Herbert Nitsch– Athlete, HF.EQEX development
• Marcus Greatwood (Me) - Coach, Spare Rope Coordinator, Parts Scavenger, EqEx location manager,
• Alex Sarasitis – Technical Designer, Inventor, Conceptual Maestro, inventor,
• Karsten Schneider- SCUBA Coordinator, Advanced gas blender, Master Helium Mixer, Pilot (Alt 0), Apprentice rope measurer, Chief of Safety,
• Alex Tzanerakis- Freediving Safety Coordinator (dry), Abrasion Manager, Official portrait Photographer
• Andy Laurie – Herbert’s P.A, G.D (General Dogsbody), Freediving Safety Coordinator (wet), Spare nose clip holder, Brake
• Arnaud Palu – Operations Manager, Chief Panicker, Inspector (Clouseau), Chief in charge of tangles (sub aqua),

 

[strauss]

Cool!

Good luck, team. (insert hyperlink)

 

[MIG]

[ame="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s59/freedivermig/herbert/greece%2007/?action=view&current=1181044215.pbw"]greece 07 :: 1181044215.pbw slideshow by freedivermig - Photobucket[/ame]... so far!

 

[timm]

Mig, Sounds like a top time, if somewhat hectic.

Have you had any time to play yourself, tried out the CH or new EqEx or are you going to?

Say hi to Andy, Arnaud and Herbert. So want to be there.......

Tim

 

[shoutatthesky]

There was a deco brake which stopped Herbert (and the sled) at around 12m where he immediately went onto Oxygen for about 5 minutes. He then came to the surface and breathed Pure Oxygen for a further 15 minutes. Total dive time 2:24 (up to deco stop).

Surely you are not saying that he is breathing O2 before he surfaces? Wouldn't that break the rules being that its not apnea?

 

[BennyB]

I interpreted this to mean that yes he is is stopping before he surfaces on the training dives, but purely for safety reasons and not chancing getting DCS before the official attempt occurs. On the attempt he will go straight to the surface, do the surface protocol and then head straight down for oxygen to decompress.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[TRITON]

He won't do that on the record attempt.........he'll surface , do the protocol and return to do the deco stop...i think

 

[shoutatthesky]

Ah ha! That makes sense.

 

[wolleneugebauer]

I think it will be a better way, aida banish nolimits as an aida-record disciplin. It is called "no-limit" and it will be safer (without dcs-risks) with a deco-stop in -10m incl. pure oxygen. It will be safer for everybody outside from aida.

I think audrey, benjamin, carlos and loic were enough experiences. I don't like the feeling to wait: "who will be the next?"

sorry, herbert.
just my 2cent only.
wolle

 

[samdive]

is Hannah there yet? How is she getting on? any news now the bar has been raised so far by Sara C???

 

[Erik]

Great updates Mig. Go Herbert!

 

[JCDenton]

Thank you for the infromation and best of luck to the team, i am sure everything will go perfectly

 

[trux]

I think it will be a better way, aida banish nolimits as an aida-record disciplin. It is calling "no-limit" and it will be safer (without dcs-risks) with a deco-stop in -10m incl. pure oxygen. It will be safer for everybody outside from aida.

I am afraid that this claim is a rather dangerous mistake. Same as CMAS and other organizations do with some other freediving disciplines too. Removing NLT from AIDA will have only one effect: freedivers will go on chasing the record on their own, creating own rules, and respecting the security only as much as they find useful. We would possibly see many more tragic accidents in that way.

It is no solution banning the discipline, but rather creating such rules, that the risks are minimized as much as possible.

 

[Bill]

Let me agree with Trux. Wouldn't it be relatively easy to change the rules to allow the surface protocal at ten meters. Please note that I didn't say it would be easy to do or judge just safer in some way.

 

[shoutatthesky]

Why on earth would you have someone doing surface protocol when they are not on the surface? That would defeat the whole purpose - to dive as deep as possible and return to the surface on one breath of air.
No-Limits diving won't go away in a hurry. People like Herbert are going to continue to innovate, find new and safer systems, and continue to change the limits we place on the human organism.
Sure people have died in this event, but what use is a life if we are not willing to risk losing it in search of our dreams?

 

[alki]

Here's the Filmon 700 Crew for Herbert's dive.

 

[Jorg]

That's some serious training going on!