Herbert Nitsch : a -328m no limit dive ??

[Stavros]

Herberts 200m+ dive is being scheduled for the beginning of June. A new diver retrival system has been created and will be tested in the next couple of weeks so everything is looking good.

stay tuned

Cheers Stavros

 

[strauss]

Okay.

Q: Emergency system or lift system?

 

[ROBERT REYES]

In theory, if you go down fast enough you can have time for deco going up, but for that he would have to let go of the balloon, I guess somewhere between 40 and 20 meters. The whole thing is extremely risky. I remember when Patrick Musimu did his 209,6 meters in 2005 he acknowledged that he "did not came out uninjured", although AFAIK he never revealed the nature of his injury. One of the observations at the time was that the maximum depth for the German submarines in WWII was 180 meters. Other was that Musimu's lungs at over 200 meters would have been compressed to the size of a tennis ball. He reportedly used the technique (that I believe was pioneered by Pipin Carreras) of flooding his sinuses and Eustachian tubes, thus avoiding the need for equalization. Maybe one of this days Herbert himself will give us a more detailed idea of his plans.

Yes, it was Pipin Ferreras who teach Patric Musimu to use the flooding techniques,it was in Dominican Republic, when Musimu did his 87 meter dive, and used Pipin's sled for the first time, they did not became friends after that, so I dont think you will hear Musimu giving Pipin any credits.

 

[samdive]

on another issue... kinda related.. I heard that Patrick Musimu is going to make another "attempt" this year with some kind of deep static stunt.
To me it sounds like a recipe for a decon problem - but we will see!

 

[Marwan]

what about saety divers in this attempt?? i think very few trimix divers go to these depths if im not mistaken....i think it would take very long for them to decompress on ascent,.... they need a whole other planning system for this event i would guess...

 

[ctswm711]

Well all I can say is I hope Herbert puts A LOT of time and research into this.
We don't need to lose another giant of the sport this year.

As far as his mask, why the funky mask with a hose and air and all?
Why not just use a fluid mask?

I understand how Herberts EqEx thingy works, but its still seems to me like finding a way around the rules rather than abiding by them.
I know he is not breaking any rules and I take my hat off to him for being innovative, but still, something about it just seems wrong to me.

At any rate, I wish him nothing but the best. I am very interested to hear about the new safety system I read about a few posts up from mine.

 

[h2schmo]

Are powered sleds in the offing here? Perhaps it's not practical, but if the dive line were moving, then the sled would need only to grab hold of it to move.

I thought up a system a while ago for training/fun which consisted of a closed loop of rope running around a motorised pulley, down to another heavily weighted pulley on the bottom, then back up, giving you two lines, one moving in each direction. You then need two clutches on the sled, engage one and you descend, the other and you ascend.

By slipping the clutches you can easily adjust the speed from very slow to full blast, at least the maximum speed the line is travelling at. By simultaneously slipping one and engaging the other, you have brakes. I haven't built it yet as I don't have a boat, but as long as you can keep the lines from twisting (perhaps via a drogue on the bottom) it should work reasonably well.

From there on it's a matter of power and drag. And redundancies... and probably lots of other stuff too, but, early days I guess

 

[carlosyage]

some french dude named Cabarrou said that beyond 50 mts one will be crushed....yeah right!!!
best wishes to Herb on this and let's show him some support....

 

[marginatus]

Have you checked the info on www.trygons.com
trygons and herbert "NO LIMITS SLED AND COUNTER-BALLAST DESIGN"

 

[OceanMan]

Very cool.

I think that the inflating system should not be triggered by the freediver (narcosis etc..). It should be triggered automatically for maximum safety.

 

[trux]

I think that the inflating system should not be triggered by the freediver (narcosis etc..). It should be triggered automatically for maximum safety.

It indeed seems to be the case:

With this machine, surface personnel can decide to abort a dive while it is done, by watching the sonar. So an accident can even be prevented before it happens.
...
Finally, an automation add-on will make possible to test most parts, speeds, safety and emergency procedures without Herbert himself on the sled.

 

[ADR]

Forget saftey scuba divers as the world record deepest open circuit scuba is only 308m and on closed circuit only 318m. The 318m was a dive with serious deco 12hours 20mins total dive time. Anyone diving that deep on scuba can only worry about looking after themselves and would be useless to a freediver as safety

 

[sheepeck]

I mentioned some kind of single person submarine in one of early posts.
Another option could be highly trained dolphins

In fact - if the safety submarine would be able to descend and ascend fast - then he could sit straight on it.

 

[cebaztian]

We have come to a stage where the rules are not realy helping the No-limit athlete to stay safe. The first thing an athlete wants to do after a 200 meter dive is not stare at a judge for up to 60 seconds waiting for a white card.
He wants to start breathing oxygen, preferably at depth. Some day in the future the athlete might just want to get into a pressurechamber right away.
Two failed initiatives (this spring) when it comes to competition and record attempts has wanted to use a "new" faster system of athlete ascent/retrieval. But due to lack of interest (faith?) the projects never got launched.

More details:
the ultimate dive - looking for the ultimate organization

Sebastian
Sweden

 

[Billextreme]

Hi Sebastian,

AIDA can have what ever rules we want when it comes to safety. But when it comes to private training, outside of AIDA, there is not much we can do.

I'm sorry to say this, but there are still freedivers training apnea by them self in the sea all over the world.
Now I've got info about athletes doing this even in Dahab, and it makes me very sad.

Maybe we should start use some kind of penalty system for this. Let's say 2 years rest from AIDA events or something like that.
...but I guess we don't have the administration to handle this in a good way. (not yet at least)

With a special AIDA Athlete Competition Licence (certificate) we could maybe come closer to control this in the future.
Then we could have a contract between the athlete and AIDA that incl some basic rules and simple obligations.

...would it be totaly insane to look in that direction?

/B

 

[octopus]

...would it be totaly insane to look in that direction?

In my opinion...yes.

 

[tylerz]

Are you differentiating between "training" and "recreational freediving"?

 

[Billextreme]

Hi Again,

Octopus, could you please explain WHY this would be totaly insane?
It would really help with some constructive inputs about this, please.

Tylerz, where do YOU put the line between these two?

Personally I would say that easy snorkling could be done alone.
(snorkling is more or less an surface activity for me )

regards
/B

 

[Jorg]

License for small club and national competitions no
Ranking competitions yes

This is something that was already discussed a few times in the board and assembly and a big majority always said no to the license idea because the sport should stay open. I agree, but international competition and WChampionships are not them and if we would have a license for ranking competitions then we would at the same time have the serious/higher level.

And if you know who is training by themselves in Dahab just put their names on the freedivers wall of shame. The same as I think you should make a blackout/lmc top ten. The people on that list will do everything about it to get off that list... Or then again maybe there are people who will proudly wear the title Blackout King 2007, judging some freedivers performances over the years.

What is the difference between snorkeling and freediving? I came up with the simple rule:
More then 10 meters deep
Further then 25 meters dynamic
Longer then 1 min static
Then you are freediving

 

[watts]

Other than penalizing people shouldnt the emphasis be on encouraging people to buddy up and set up the best possible way maybe an online buddy hookup.
I dont see anything on the Aida site trying to do this only expensive courses.
Id hate to go diving by myself worrying if i went to deep or to long i'd get busted and a cross put next to my name. How about Divesafe.com.