I just got a phone call from a dive centre here in the UAE - to ask me about deepest depths on our east coast, as apparently, one of the Sheikh's has offered Patrick Musimu the opportunity to do another no-limits attempt, in UAE waters. Apparently Patrick has been to Abu Dhabi before and has dived to 50 metres in our waters and now a record attempt is being discussed?
My first thoughts are, the UAE is a max of roughly 115 metres, and to get that depth you need to take a boat out for about 2 1/2 hours, almost into Iranian waters. You will be possibly arrested by the coastguard, or shot at by Iranian fishermen (it's happened in the past), and it is also a heavy shipping lane. I guess if you are diving with the Royal family they may have some kind of surrounding protection. You would need to have a nearby boat with a helipad in case of required emergency rescue for the divers as its 28 nautical miles offshore to get to that depth (which is still not deep enough for a no-limits record attempt, unless he is planning to do another discipline?). The organiser came to the dive centre to ask about boat hire... the regular dive boats here in the UAE are definitely not suitable to use for such an attempt.
The organiser and sponsoring company (who I won't name), has asked the dive centre for just 6 local UAE divers for support. (None of our technical divers, who dive the U-boat at 110metres have freediving competition experience and there are only a handful of divers who have been to this depth). None of the freedivers resident in the UAE have freediving competition experience, at any level.
The visibility and current vary. Sometimes the current is so strong by the U-boat area that its impossible to make the descent. The visibility ranges from 0 -10metres in the first 20 metres of depth, and below that it can be anything from clear to 2metres of viz. And the current can be non-existent and then come up suddenly. There is no exact tidal pattern here, the water conditions are variable and tend to surprise.
If they plan to pull this off, it would be interesting to know how it would work logistically. Perhaps Patrick will make an official statement?
Whatever the case is, good luck with your endeavours Patrick
My first thoughts are, the UAE is a max of roughly 115 metres, and to get that depth you need to take a boat out for about 2 1/2 hours, almost into Iranian waters. You will be possibly arrested by the coastguard, or shot at by Iranian fishermen (it's happened in the past), and it is also a heavy shipping lane. I guess if you are diving with the Royal family they may have some kind of surrounding protection. You would need to have a nearby boat with a helipad in case of required emergency rescue for the divers as its 28 nautical miles offshore to get to that depth (which is still not deep enough for a no-limits record attempt, unless he is planning to do another discipline?). The organiser came to the dive centre to ask about boat hire... the regular dive boats here in the UAE are definitely not suitable to use for such an attempt.
The organiser and sponsoring company (who I won't name), has asked the dive centre for just 6 local UAE divers for support. (None of our technical divers, who dive the U-boat at 110metres have freediving competition experience and there are only a handful of divers who have been to this depth). None of the freedivers resident in the UAE have freediving competition experience, at any level.
The visibility and current vary. Sometimes the current is so strong by the U-boat area that its impossible to make the descent. The visibility ranges from 0 -10metres in the first 20 metres of depth, and below that it can be anything from clear to 2metres of viz. And the current can be non-existent and then come up suddenly. There is no exact tidal pattern here, the water conditions are variable and tend to surprise.
If they plan to pull this off, it would be interesting to know how it would work logistically. Perhaps Patrick will make an official statement?
Whatever the case is, good luck with your endeavours Patrick