Here it is. Please, be kind to me. My english isn´t the best. I had to use a dictionary at some parts. I hope you can understand it, and you don´t get a goose-skin or toothache because of the grammar or so....
Austria has no ocean. But it´s the home of the best Apnea-Diver in the world. Herbert Nitsch from Vienna is a legend even today.
Model-Athlete: Herbert Nitsch is called „Robot“ by his competitors. Half appreciative, half despising.
Deeply inhaling isn´t enough. Herbert Nitsch first devours the air, then he snatches more and more small bits of it and stowes them away in his body. Like a fish on land, fighting for air. The lungs are filled already. Additional five liters he plugs into himself and stores it in the angles of his body. It´s called „packing“ by the freedivers. The larynx works like a piston which presses the air down. „It´s like if you pump up a filled bike-tire with even more air.“, says Nitsch.
Air is the thing Herbert Nitsch needs more than anything else. Nitsch is an Apnea-Diver. Without an air-tank he falls down into the black abyss. Therefore he gulps for air.
Something pulls back the human being into the dark abyss. Back into the ocean which he has left millions of years ago – a success story of evolution. In a young age the human starts to practice diving. First, as a child, in the bathing tub, after this in the pool, finally in the ocean. Who can stays under water for the longest time? To cheat-out the nature, which developed our lungs for living on land.
Nobody emobdies this contrast better than Nitsch, the best Apnea-Diver of our time. The representative of a Sport which attracts more and more fans. A Sport which lured in the year 1988 Millions of people into the cinemas with Luc Bessons classical Movie „Into the blue“, and later on into the oceans. And it´s definitve one of the most risky sports to play with your own life.
It´s about crossing borders, about the ultimative record. And this is it, in which Herbert Nitsch is the best. There are eight disciplines, and in seven of them he has been the world record-holder. Like in the „No Limits“-discipline. 214 meters, no one has been closer to the bottom of the sea before him. This happened last year. His next goal; 300 meters. In a depth, which is as deep as the Eiffel-Tower is high.
And this with only one single breath.
Such a ride into the depth lasts four minutes. Nitsch is pulled down by weights, constantly taking care to equalize the pressure. It´s neccesary to survive. So; slow down the pulse. Press the air out of the lungs an press it in the middle ear. Become a fish. Completely stiff, but nevertheless relaxed. In the record depths the lung is shrunked to the size of an orange.
The water off the southcoast of Crete is steelblue. Nitsch doesn´t realize that much of it. His mind and organs are focused only on one objective; the world record in „Variable Weight“, the deepdiving with a variable weight, the only discipline, he hasn´t been the best since now. He wants to become immortal with it. And he risks his life, again.
Nitsch hangs in his Neoprene suit to a buoy. In... out; his breathing sounds pressed, you can hear it in the boat nearby. The body cools down to the water temperature.
„Robot“ he is called by his colleagues – half appreciative, half despising. If you look at him in the water you can understand why. Only five persons have been deeper than 160 meters. Two are dead, one sat in a wheelchair for months.
For years french Loic Leferme has been the favourite in the scene. He achieved the impressive records. Then Nitsch appears. „No Limit“, the discipline of absolute deepdiving, wasn´t interesting for him. In his eyes it was only a pure „material battle“.
„I found no secure way for me to do this“, Nitsch says. He puzzled and tried until he found his way. And he sets this record; 183 meters.
Long haired beau against bald-shaved muscle man. The duel between Leferme and Nitsch was a medial fairy tale. Leferme, the romantic, who said things like „I want to be one with the water, become water in water“ – divers trash. He was Rocky. For Nitsch, the pragmatic Austrian-Airlines-Pilot, remained only to play the part of the awful robot Drago.
Nitsch speaks fast. Precisely. Almost no miming. Instead of saying No he moves his head almost imperceptibly. As he doesn´t want to waste air even on land.
Rocky Leferme didn´t want to be Drago Nitsch to be the best. And he died during the revenge. In a depth of 30 meters he was situated motionless. A technical failure. Quickly he became unconscious, without any oxygen left in his blood. The death fight of an Apnea Diver doesn´t take much time.
Nitsch with his pragmatism terrifies many. He was preparing himself for his new record; 700 foot, 214 meters, as he heard about Lefermes death. He was frightened only shortly. As it was cleared Leferme died due to a technical failure the tinkerer new; „It´s under my control.“
Perhaps you have to be like Nitsch. Like a robot. To defy the deep intoxication. To cut off feelings, like during the super record in „No Limits“. Because joy is adrenaline, and adrenaline is death. Nitsch knows the calculation: „The body would use so much oxygen, that you won´t have a chance to get back up.“
About himself he says; „I´m not so good because I have a god´s gift, but because I think about it.“ Of course somebody like Nitsch makes a short decompression stop before reaching the surface again. Due to surfacing too quickly nitrogen can deposit. The blood would sparkle up and cause damages to vessels and brain. Also a danger is the „Shallow water Blackout“, a decrease of pressure within the lung. Divers didn´t die hundreds of meters down, Divers die shortly before their comeback into the light.
Nitsch says he´s thoroughly healthy. „All the medicians say I should stop, but it doesn´t harms me.“ He masters the strictly med-checks for his main occupation with no problem. Because of the constant observation of his body on the edge he gets more and more views on „how the wonderwork human works“. A short time ago he became a friend of a so far understimated organ: „The spleen is a real air reservoir and pumps air into the blood cycle while diving.“
New potential for new records. But nobody knows what happens to the body exactly down there. Not Nitsch. Not the medicians. Urs Braumandl, the medical conductor of the institute for hyperbaric medicine in Regensburg says strictly: „The current depths are pure suicidal in my mind.“
Since a few months ago Herbert Nitsch has a Manager. He thinks, Nitsch should slow down the hunting for records. But Nitsch dissuaded him quickly from that. „I need a bit of pressure“, he says. He was already 30 years old, as he startet Apnea-diving. This was only eight years ago. He improved record after record with an sensational ease since then. Now there´s only one left for him.
Off the coast of Crete it should happen. Nitsch lies in the water like a crocodile on the hunt, motionless. Only mouth and jaw are moving. The hands are lying on a buoy. It can last one hour until the pulse is moved down enough and the lung is packed sufficiently. Nitsch is ready.
But not everybody is as professional as he is at this day. In the waters off Crete, Stavros, the organizer, had brought the wrong rope. It hadn´t been measured officially. It takes two hours to eliminate this failure. Two much for a new record. Nitsch does 131 meters. Nine are missing to the world record. He will try again. Very soon.
