Trevor Hutton

[Yehoshua Zohar]

A few days ago I saw a program on the National Geographic Channel about trevor Hutton's 2000 attempt to break the then world freediving record of 73m. (I think). It was an interesting program but Trevor came off as a guy with a death wish. He failes twice in sanctioned dives (although he nailed it in a training dive) and passed out both times. He had a top notch support crew so he made it back to the surface. So much for freediving being a simple or natural sport. You need alot of financial backing for the support crew he had and without those guys he would be long dead.
Anyway, I have 2 questions:
1. TREVOR DOVE WITHOUT FINS! This is the first time I have seen or heard of this. Can anyone comment on this?
2. Trevor is very very skinny. Is this done purposely, perhaps to prevent muscle from using up O2?

 

[Erik]

Sans fins

The dive he did is in a classification called "free immersion". In this style, you can use your arms to pull yourself down and up the line, therefore no need for fins. In constant ballast , where you swim up and down without ditching weight, you cannot touch the line, except to stop your descent at yout target depth. I don't think Trevor has a death wish...more like a "depth wish". At the competition were doctors, medics , etc. to make sure he was ok. Recovery from blackout is high, maybe 100%, as long as there is someone who knows what to do there to take care of you. Cheers, Erik