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Day 8: June 6th, 2004

Written by Rudi Castineyra

Welcome to all again, it has been a week since we started diving and today we got our 3rd world record in a row. Yasemin reached 46 meters in a dive time of 1:57 min, adding 4 meters to her record of a couple of days ago, something really remarkable, but it all didn’t go as we would have liked to.

Yas has been complaining of a back muscle cramping on her frequently, something that has been there for the past 2 months, as a result of having to do most of her pool training using the arms exclusively since she injured a knee badly during a skiing accident last March. The knee only healed completely about a month ago, which is when she started using her legs again in the pool, but the remaining 2 months of swimming with nothing but arms resulted not only in a very polished and strong technique, but also in a couple of these chronic injuries. However, she had managed to do the dives without much trouble up until now and I was taking care of the problem with some ointments and massages. Today though, since waking up, she was feeling worse and I was afraid that this could influence her dive to some extent, which it did. Today was also the only day when the sun didn’t cooperate with us, it was hidden by the clouds most of the time, and though we have even pushed our dive time to close 12:00 noon in an effort to benefit from the sun’s heat as much as possible, that benefit was absent on this dive. So Yas started shivering early and some of the bigger muscles began cramping. But she was actually strong apnea wise and the negative pressure dives went well, with the best times she has done so far. So we went ahead with the dive, which she did with even better than ever technique, as you will see on the video. I am still amazed how this little girl can get to 15 meters in only 4 strokes, that is still surreal to me, what a difference proper technique makes. Anyway, she had an easy dive all the way to the bottom and the first part of the ascent, but at around 25 meters, her back started cramping badly, rendering her strokes less effective, and tiring her as she tried to compensate with stronger kicks. Still, she was looking very good at 15 meters where I met her, I checked her for contractions and she had none, her eyes were bright and her lips pink, so I had no idea that she was having difficulties. As soon as she broke the surface, she started her normal recovery routine, looking good and composed but after about the 3rd breath her back contracted in a massive spasm and she bent backwards, still breathing and in control, replying to my: “Yas, you ok?” with “Yes, I’m ok” and waiting for the contraction to subside. This only lasted about 4-5 seconds and as you will see on the video, she had no shaking or trembling and was fine, and once she incorporated she delivered the tag to the judge, he considered the performance valid as she was always in control and performed the whole procedure without help. But you know, even if the cause is muscular, you never like to come to the surface and go through something like that. So I guess we’re too much of perfectionists because it was a perfectly good and acceptable performance, but we would have certainly liked for her to be as she was in the previous dives. What concerned me the most is that, if we are not able to properly take care of her back, we probably will not be able to attempt the deeper goals that we know she can do and we wanted to do, so perhaps this means that a 50 meter dive might be out of consideration for now. However, I am confident that with some good rest, she should be able to at least dive without problems to a depth slightly deeper than 46 meters, so that is our plan for now.

Click on the photo to watch the video of the dive

Still, it is not right to deconstruct and analyze this dive based on what went wrong, as it is still a new world record and a great performance, so my congratulations to Yas, specially for showing the wisdom, maturity and strength of mind of coping with such a debilitating muscle problem in the middle of the dive, adapting to it, staying focused and completing the dive totally in control, a more remarkable achievement than the easy dives she has enjoyed until now. Way to go Yas!

On another note, this has been a week of intense work, everyday at dinner, I see all the faces of the team and everybody shows the fatigue of the day’s work. Then I realize myself that I also feel very tired and that I am dying to sleep as early as possible. For those who are not familiar with how a world record goes, there is always something to get done, and when you’re finished with it, something else appears. Furthermore, the price we pay as a team for being so organized and having so many resources ready at our disposal is that we have work much harder than many other teams. On top of all the diving and training, we are doing promotional photo shoots for Yasemin’s new sponsor, Hyundai, and I can tell you that the bigger the company, the more things they ask for. Then, in whatever time we have left, we are trying to film a documentary about these records and our time here, as well as capturing footage for Eurosport, Fox Sports and other big networks that will have specials on the dives after we are done on June 11th. So, we are always on the move, doing something, and I just realized that this week has been anything but relaxing. As we have been so pumped up with all the great dives we have enjoyed, we have barely noticed, but it is slowly beginning to sink in. To top it all off, the food here is not doing any of us any good, and beginning with Yas and David’s stomach ailments of a couple of days ago, we have all experienced problems of some sort. So, it is my hope that we can keep the team healthy and strong for another week, since the work ahead of us will only intensify. So, with that in mind, I will carefully review our work plan and make sure that we keep only those tasks that are absolutely necessary and reduce the stress and wear-and-tear on everyone, specially Yas and David.

David's Comments:

One of the most interesting things in freediving I think is to be a deep safety diver and then see a freediver gliding past you into the depths. While you are there breathing your precious air, it seems that it shouldn’t be possible. Because of this reason I decided to film Yas today from 35m. I went down at 5:00 before and started filming. I watched as this graceful being slid pass me and then using flawless technique to get back to the surface. She completed the dive fine but midway her recovery breathing, an old injury comes back to haunt her. For the last 3-4 days Yasemin has been having back pains in her mid to upper back that causes the muscles to contract and pull. Rudi and I had been working on her using icy-hot creams, massages, and stretches. Today, the weather was colder because there was no sun. Overcast and gloomy all day long. One of the things I have realized that is essential to perform these dives is to be warm before going down. If you are shaking from the cold it will work against you. As it did today in Yasemin’s case. I remember on the first day when I did two 40m dives back to back. I didn’t give much time in between and I was so cold. On the ascent of the second dive I felt my quadriceps contracting and also my mid back muscles were doing the same pulling me in a backwards motion. Only thing is, mine didn’t happen at the surface, it happened at about 20m from the surface. I worked through it and came back with lots of air to spare but with hurting muscles from the contractions. Same thing happened to Yasemin’s back today. I really feel the cold worked against her since she was not able to warm up between the negative pressure dives. Upon her return she had this wicked back contraction after about 2-3 recovery breaths causing her to arch backwards for a second and then as soon as it loosened up she was fine. I spend a bit more time with my comments today because this is a touchy subject in the freediving world. When someone looks at her video it seems like she has a disconnect, but, that was not it at all. Some are calling it back spasm, I call it a back contraction because it is exactly what I felt about 4 dives ago. So if you were to ask me. It’s a clean performance for me. If you ask, “would you accept it if it were your dive?” I would say “Hell yes!” It’s like running a race and taking first place but you crossed the finish line with your calf cramped up. So for me (and the surface Judge since she received no help) I say CLEAN…Way to go Yaso!…Some rest for both of us and back in the water we go.

Yasemin's Comments:

Finally another record. Our safety diver Arthur had a funny remark today, calling this whole event recordmania. The team is complaining saying that they don’t get to do an easy dive any of the days, that we should stop doing records. Anyway, this has been quite a strange day for me. One problem I have on every record period is the hotel food. I can eat it only for a maximum of 2 days, after that I start rejecting every food you can find outside (hotel, restaurant, etc.), it’s probably that oil they use that causes this, which especially in Turkey they use a lot. That’s why we also brought some protein shakes which I’m drinking every now and then, but that’s not enough for the vitamins and carbs I need to get. With the food problem and the heat that I’m not used to I’ve been feeling quite down in general the last couple of days. But after completing the 42 meter dive, as my first dive since I don’t know when, doing it feeling very weak because of the food poisoning, doing the dive to almost 43 meters by accident and coming out of the water with lots of air, no contractions, I was very confident about this dive where I’d just go 3 more meters while not being sick. The day started very nicely, I did my long stretch (making longer than normal because of the developed back pain Rudi and David mentioned), I had slept well. Once we went to the dive site the clouds covered the sky in no time, giving me no chance to heat up before the dives. That made my back contract more during my preparation. The negative pressure dives were little better than usual, one to 16 meters, 1:46 dive time, the other to 19 meters, 1:55 dive time. Apnea wise I was feeling good and ready, just a bit cold. Rudi and I had decided to gain some time on the descent because I never have equalization problems anyway (until 60 meters), so I could deal with a faster speed. So I did the first 4,5 strokes very powerful, didn’t do any more strokes after that to allow me enough time till the bottom to relax and rest. I shook my muscles every now and then in the freefall to relax them. Started the ascent, feeling still fine, but after about 4-5 strokes I started running out of energy very fast. My arms particularly were getting tired quite fast and I had this pull getting worse from my back. I paid utmost attention to every stroke to get the best out of them, I worked on my mental strength to keep myself very focused. All of our divers were shouting as I passed by, that can be really helpful in those conditions, so I thank them very much for not forgetting this. Right after I got the 15 meters signal I got myself focused on the recovery breaths I would do. My upper body muscles were getting worse, I set myself to hold the pipes on the right side of the buoy and doing the short recovery breaths that we work on always. I did exactly as I planned but as I was afraid my back muscles started contracting. I kept on breathing and they softened up in a little bit. I was very surprised about this result, feeling so tired after this dive. I was really not counting on this. As Rudi said, although it was a performance that I was clear the whole time, we would have loved it to end without this problem. We had prepared with real good training for me to do this dive with a good range for both muscle and air. And the data we had from the 42 meter dive showed that we were on track. I have a feeling that it has something to do with the current setup. For example I don’t get breakfast before the dives, because 1-I get extremely nauseous when I eat in the mornings and 2-I perform much better apneawise feeling hungry. We’ll study all the details that happen around us, try to fix them and see if I can perform more within the comfort range we’ve planned ourselves for. We’ll see… I’d also like to thank for all the congratulations emails we have received, and all the supportive words we get. I really appreciate it and it makes the big effort we put into writing this diary well worth it…