Martin, Mandy, and Dr. George Lopez in the Caymans

I think the deal with the bending of the knees is two things. First the straight knee thing is more of a bi-fin technique. Swimmers use mono fins sometimes to improve their butterfly, which in that disciple, they are taught to bend the knees. Second, I believe it was said Martin uses a straight monofin with no angle, which requires more bending of the knees.
Sammy

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know of a TV program called 21C (Twenty First Century) that aired a freediving segment several days ago. It features freediving, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, Annabel Briseno and others. It also shows the unfortunate dive of Audrey Mestre, but I believe we and they did a great job in helping to explain that this avoidable tragedy shouldn't reflect on the rest of us.

It's a well done program and one worth watching online. You'll need the Windows Media Player 9 to watch it. The program is called "Breathless" and is shown in two parts. It can be found at www.21c.ca

Enjoy,

I like Martin's technique on his CW ascent.

I have done many experiments with knee bending, and I have always found that when travelling at slower speeds, lots of knee bending is the most efficient technique (for me).

The main idea AGAINST knee bending is that at HIGH SPEED (such as a FINSWIMMER), bending the knees causes high drag.

However, we are not finswimmers, and we do not travel at high speed. We are not interested in the highest speed technique. We want the highest efficiency technique. That same idea is what taught me to keep my arms by my side during the ascent, unless I'm really sprinting up and have a thin suit on.

Personally I've been somewhat disappointed by the 'dogma' of no-knee bending which is being propagated by some trainers. In the end, look at the technique of the people who dive the deepest and see for yourself. When I did my 82m, people complained I bent my knees too much. When Guillaume did his 87m, people complained he bent his knees too much. Now Martin does 100m, and people complain he bends his knees too much. Funny that the people who do the complaining can't reach the depth they are complaining about!

There is an old saying:
"Don't take advice from someone unless that person has already achieved what you are trying to achieve."

It may not always be true, but in this case it gives food for thought.

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

Interestingly Martin was a competitive Finswimmer so could easily use that style if it worked him. The fact that he has chosen not to speaks volumes. As a novice freediver I have been trying to model my style on finswimmers but am now questioning this given that a finswimmer/freediver reaching 100m+ chooses to modify the style and use more knee bend. From what I've heard Martin also uses a very hard blade rather than the traditional soft blades used by freedivers........funny how he seems to break the norms and still break records

Andy

Sam,

Just wanted to touch on your comment:

"Also - how many scuba safety divers were present? I can't see any on the video other than the guy filming? just interested"

On game day, there was three sets of buddy teams on inspiration rebreathers or full technical equipment. The buddy teams consisted of videographer/back-up safety and primary safety.

The primary safety divers at depth carried a DAFRS (diver assisted freediver retrieval system). Essentially a 0.5L / 13cuft bottle directly connected to a 58kg / 128lb lift bag with a dedicated carabeener that would attach to the comp line and therefore the athlete due to the lanyard.

The other system we employed was a CBFRS (counter balance freediver retrieval system). This relies on a counter balancing weight to bring up the comp line, weight, target plate and finally the athlete who's attached by a lanyard system to the comp line.

Martin and Mandy would typically have the following persons involved in the safety/judging/organization:

2 X 100m (video / safety)
2 X 70m (video / safety)
2 X 30- 40m (video / safety)
2 X 0-30m (safety freedivers)
1 X 0-30m (freediver videographer)
1 X 0-30m (photographer)
2 X Surface (safety snorkelers)
1 X Boat (Videographer)
2 X EMT/ Paramedics (actually 2 X EMTS, 2 X Dr's, 2 X Nurses)
2 X Judges
? X Spectators/Family/Friends
1 X Evacuation Boat (Off The Wall Divers)
1 X Support Boat (Divetech)

Hope this helps explain the safety set up for the record attempts. It's not easy and I'd like to thank all those freinds who came out to support our endeavors.

Our sincerest thanks,

Thanks for posting that Kirk - as I think you know, Laura and I are working hard with saltFree to establish some basic levels of supervision u/w with our "Angels" scuba team and safety freedivers - it's interesting and useful to see how everyone else does it.

If only we had such clear water!

Sam

Eric - nice post on knee bending. I am getting sick of everyone going on and on about how bad it is when it clearly seems to work for a lot of people

personally I try not to overdo it, as I can feel the burn far more quickly if I use my knees to much - but I do find it useful for that extra burst towards the end of a dive or maybe after a turn

as you say - the belief going around that we should all swim like finswimmers even though we are going vertically most of the time is getting tiresome. I have done some training with finswimmers which was really useful from a fitness point of view and helped with dynamic - but I don't find it particularly relevant to depth.

If you watch the DVD of Cyprus, I reckon 90% of the monofinners are bending their knees right back

Sam

Wow, Kirk, good post. That sounds to me like a serious set of safety measures in place. I specially like the fact that you guys do not rely on just one form of safety, but have double retrieval system next to safety scuba.
I have not much experience in deep competitions, but would feel very safe competing with this kind of safety and backup safety and backup backup safety in place.
Maybe then i can convince my mother the sport is safer then footbal. (i have friends doing footbal who spend more time in hospitals and physio therapy then playing ball)

Knees and fin position

This might not be what is being evaluated here, but if you look at the freefall part of Martin’s 100 CB training dive, you will see that he is keeping his knees bent to make the fin vertical. Looks like the surface area of the fin, if it was not straight would be much greater and cause more drag than any drag caused by the bent knees.

Looks like the bottom plate came as a surprise to him!
Drew