[News] Famed Magician In Freediving World Record Stunt

[laminar]

What Tyler? I didn't see anything. Hope someone local taped the show.



Spill it!

 

[chojan]

Congratulations to David Blaine, Mandy, Kirk & Martin --

David showed some incredible determination. I still can't believe that he would have attempted such a huge static after the completely depleting ordeal he must have endured just before. I doubt that he could have simulated its effect on the static before the event day. That takes a pretty bold man.

I was watching intently for the start of his contractions, and he looked good until around the 6 minute mark where I truly felt his pain. I know the feeling in a static when you realize that you are not going to make your target, and how this absolutely consumes your mind. How awful I felt for him. Leading up to the event, I didn't know how I really felt about the whole "world record" spin on this... but when Kirk yelled, "top off", I was truly overcome with sadness and my reservations shifted to respect.

In the end I think many may have come away with even more admiration for the guy after sharing such a humbling experience and heartfelt response to the crowd. How often do you see that happen?

Mandy, Kirk & Martin -- you guys really did a fantastic job given the circumstances, and hopefully are rewarded by many long nights of rest!

It will be interesting to see how the sport will change after this event's significant publicity and mass distribution. I am sure it will.

 

[efattah]

The CNN story from the front page!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/08/blaine.stunt.ap/index.html

 

[Aquagenic]

I too had my doubts and reservations, but that all changed when he was pulled out at 7:02. I'm now left with a sense of accomplishment for the sport of freediving as a whole. The PFI team performed their duties flawlessly, which gives us all a good reputation, and I now no longer question their involvement in this event.

I'm left with only respect for David for his apparently legitimate attempt. Also, as has been said, a 7:02 static considering the circumstances is pretty fantastic! Though I was saddened and disgusted to see Audrey's footage, I was proud of the way that David (not the media or ABC) handled the event as a whole. Even if he did bite off more than he could chew. Though in my mind, he succeeded. He accomplished what he ultimately set out to do...further his career and keep us entertained. I hope to see him around these forums, and I would be honored to dive with him.

Kudos to David and the PFI team, I think they both gave freediving a good name. I'm very happy that things turned out the way they did, and I've enjoyed every moment of keeping up with things here. Thanks to the DB team for keeping us all up to date. Till later...

~JMP

P.S. It just occured to me that Blaine could have attempted this stunt saturated with pure O2 breathed from his regulator and still failed. If this is the case, I retract all of the positive things I said of him, though I truly hope it's not the case.

 

[wolleneugebauer]

I have just put the video of the last 22 seconds from david blaines "static attempt" on my website. the blackout you can see at:
http://www.freedivers.info/wolle/apnoepics.htm (video 4)

greetings, wolle

 

[Scuby]

WOW!!!!!! Wasn't that a spectacle?!

Some Video footage for those who missed from the good 'ol BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/...s=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nol_storyid=4752871

And then the depressing reality for the 'real' (to quote Paul) freedivers (this was taken from e-online news):

"Blaine, 33, had been hoping to hold his breath for nine minutes. The current best for underwater breath-holding is said to be eight minutes, 58 seconds. It was not known who the current record-holder was, and if he or she was holding his/her breath to see if Blaine would knock him/her out of the record books"

 

[Stavros]

Just a couple of thoughts on what I've read here (this event got no media mention in our part of the world -Greece):

Excellent job done from the PFI team - they all deserve high praise.

A 7:02 BO is not a 7:02 successful static - it is still a very good attempt and it is really scary if this guy under all this pressure can hold a static to BO. I sure wouldn't want to have him as my training partner - it would mean too much rescue and revival practice.

To stay on the serious side of things I doubt we will be seeing Mr Blain around the freediving scene in the future - this meal coupon was cashed in and I am sure he is moving on to bigger better things. (Maybe he will go after the 110m mark D lol lol lol ))

All in all no one got hurt, some people got some TV time - and as far as the improvement of the image of freediving in the general public, I bet you this whole thing will be forgotten within 24h (48h if we are lucky).

But they really gave us something to talk about over the last 15 days, didn't they.

Stavros

PS And so life returns to normal in the smurf village.

 

[fcallagy]

Got very little coverage in Ireland too just a brief mention at the end of the news so thanks to Paul and deeperblue for keeping it up to date. The breath hold aside it was a great feat just staying in the tank on public view all the time and seeing some kids on the news saying how great it was even though he didn,t break the record. Just hope there were the usual disclaimers that you see on all freediving sites so not all the kids will rush home to try the same. Congrats to PFD who I,m sure will get a lot of well deserved business from it and who came accross as pure professionals just a short while after setting world records themselves. Congrats to D Blaine as it certainly has us and some more of the world talking about it.

 

[the seal]

well this has been an amazing story. i wonder if it is still possible to get some questions answered about his "world record attempt" i'll say that since if he would have made 9min undoing those chains after breathing fresh air i would have seen it as legit, well some what.
glad i'm not in david's shoes but i'd like to learn from his "crazy stunt" he did say it will be insane?
1) how did his red blood cells cope with constant breath holds? like his counts increase, get shredded or nothing?
2) can we say that the aquatic ape theory is true or false? has david been acepted as a homo aquatis?
3) could we see 02 and heart rate data from his black out if there is any or data from other statics?
4) what training did he do while in the sphere, just 6min holds and short breaks? no holds over 6min?
5) what was his pb/s before entering the sphere
6) how long will he be in hospital and what effects has 7 days in a gold fish bowl had on him?
7) he sowly ate/ drank carbs, no protien? (could have put some fish in the sphere with him rofl )
8) what was it that effected david's body the most: lack of protien, to much time in the water, something else?
is this what caused liver damage etc or smth else?
9) will he be trying to compete officaly now?

any other medical data you could give us/me would be very intresting.
also paul some very nice reporting, i've enjoyed reading your articles alot. thanks for spending time to write them up dude.
thanks
alex the seal

 

[Haydn]

I saw no news in England on any TV station. So it was great to have DB. Suddenly David became one of us.....more respected than us.... better than us. The whole story will probably be published as a chapter in a biography. I expected though, to see David at least attempt to free himself from the chains from the start. When was he planning to do that part?

As for this thread, has any thread previously achieved such high responses in so short a time?

Cant wait to see David at a comp (an Aida one obviously).

 

[cebaztian]

I have not been following this event, or read the "half a million post" in here

May I ask:
- Is it not possible that he failed on purpose to show that it was a real event without fake. And that he will turn up doing 12 minutes in a few weeks and thanks to this failed attempt we will believe the 12 minutes.
- Is it not possible that the training with PFI in advance was just a coax to convince us that it was a real try.
- Is it not possible that he received 02 before his "attempt"? And yet he failed.

Am I beeing too sceptic? I mean after all he calls it a stunt and desception is his game.

Sebastian
Sweden


PS. This event is not over - now we need coverage (Paul), see all the questions in the previous post. This is where it gets intresting.

 

[Haydn]

I think Cebaztian that the points you have raised, have been discussed many times previously. I hope that David will turn up and compete the event with the rest of us and get close to whatever record will exist after Dahab in a few weeks. Of course it is possible he breathed O2, although I doubt he did. I prefer to think Kirk would have influenced David against this very early on. There is a huge integrity issue at stake otherwise and indeed, as it happened has made David more believeable. Yes you are being too sceptical, and time for those issues were last week. Now its time to trust.

 

[yugyug]

well I just watch the BBC and CNN videos and especially in the BBC video it looks like he breathed regular fresh air before the attempt. Though I don't know if Manhattan air can be called 'fresh' :t

So it looks like the attempt was genuine. (?) So I wonder what kind of ego imagines they can break a world record attempt after only a few months training AND the physical effects of 7 weeks underwater PLUS having to escape from chains WITHOUT cheating.....!

Or is it that he was breathing pure O2 before surfacing and breathing fresh air for a few minutes, and that saturated his blood in 02 enough to still give him an edge? Or is it that the 02 must be breathed on the final breath to give any advantage, proofing that Blaine's attempt really was genuine?

 

[Merlin]

I was and still am appalled by the circus sideshow I saw last night. A guy convulsing with LMC, half blacked out on national TV..... yeah that is bound to bring a positive image to our sport [/sarcasm off]. I cannot wait to hit the pool just to have the lifeguards thinking I am a "copycat". Or even worse, inexperienced new comers who think pushing the limit to blacking out is "cool".

 

[Rémi]

I am just wondering if Martin is a magicien too or if he had the key, because he seems to be prety quick to undo the chains attached to david's feet

 

[dannybuoy]

From a PR/communications point of view this stunt might have done our sport some good. The obvious image problems we face is the 'brain damage' thing, the dare-devil associations and the sad story of Audrey -i mean, those are the things my mom worried about when she knew nothing else of the sport. I think people who've watched this not only saw an example of how a failed attempt does not lead to imminent death, but also how David was quite coherent after failing, and how professional and calm Kirk and his team were in their guiding of David and pulling the plug. It was exciting to see but at no point, even when David started to go into LMC, did it get panicky. The rescue could have easily turned into something sensationalistic, but because of PFI's deliberate movements and obvious know-how, it was exemplary. Because of Kirk's, Martin's and Mandy's involvement, our fears of having even more explaining to do to life-guards, spouses and moms have, i think, been proven wrong. I think the overall image people who have watched this will come away with is one of awe for what a human body can do, not one of 'duh' for us being damaged in the brain for holding our breath.

Check it out for yourself at youtube.com , and then send a big congratulations to team PFI, if you are so inclined, like me.

 

[pbarnes]

Can anyone tell me if there were tubes dangling in the headspace at the top of the tank?

Just because he didn't take his last breaths from an O2 reg doesn't necessarily mean that he was breathing fresh air! The headspace volume in that tank was quite large and the opening at the top was small. That would make it very easy to fill the volume to overflowing with O2 and thus allow him to breathe pure O2 without looking obvious about it.

I find it hard to accept that a relative novice would be able to do even 7 minutes on pure air given the physical exertion of removing chains and the physiological stresses of having being underwater for a week.

What we really needed was someone to have lowered a glowing splint into the top of the tank to check for re-ignition. Trust me, I'm a chemist :t

Pete

 

[trux]

... Of course it is possible he breathed O2, although I doubt he did.

Of course he did. There is absolutely no doubt about it. It is physically impossible to stay 7 days submerged under water, often sleeping for hours at the bottom of the 2.4m tank, without being regularly or permanently purged with O2. If he breathed plain air all the time, the result of the surfacing decompression would be disastrous. And although the final few minutes before the attempt, he breathed on the surface (frankly told, I did not even expect it), he was still saturated with O2, and the air over the water surface very probably too (he kept the regulator on the surface).

Was it amazing performace? Yes. Could anyone do it? No. But still, it was not as exceptional as it was hyped for. There were too many lies pushed through the campaign that turned me completely against it. In every report of the event you can hear that he spent more time under water than any other human being (a lie - that is 10 days), and that he was going to beat the world record (a lie - that is 15 minutes), and that he either succeeds or dies (a lie - rescue was planned). So sorry, although I have repsect for the performance done, I have no respect for the lies and for people spreading them intentionally for own profit (regardless if they are magicians or presidents)

 

[OceanMan]

It's not a good static for sure.
But I don't think it's a good attempt either.
You don't attempt to break your PB by 2 minutes unless what you trully want is BO.
And BO for the show is lame.

My opinion.

 

[trux]

...Apparently there were lots of big shots there - I wish I knew who they were. Is there some way to study up on this stuff ? How is it everybody else knows who these people are ??

Well, Paul, that's not too difficult. You just need to pull your head out of the water time to time, and look around on the dry land - there are things happenning too sometimes.