On the 27th July, Mark Andrews PADI, TDI and PSA Instructor dived to 156m/511 ft on air.
He did what was said to be impossible.
Marks initial training in deep air was carried out by one of the legends of our sport; the controversial Hal Watts. Hal Watts is a Guinness book of records deep air diver, and founder of the PSA (Professional Scuba Association).
PSA, is one of the oldest professional training agencies. They are also the only one with a 100% safety record (they have never had a fatality in training). PSA specialize in deep air training. PSA Instructors had previously trained six deep air record holders. Mark is the seventh.
Mark decided on the record attempt after starting PSA training in the UK. Mark and I had done several very deep air dives before; initially he had asked me if I would go for the record with him. I decided against the record attempt for personal reasons. He then asked if I would be his deep support on trimix, I agreed to this and said that I would also do the warm up dives with him.
Having dove with Mark I truly believed that if anyone could do it he could. I also wanted to test my own personal limits. We both agreed that such a dive would be foolish without a support team. Chuck agreed to work with Mark on the support team and also said that Mark would get any help that Capt'n Gregg's and he could give. The date was set.
Mark returned to the UK where he concentrated on preparing for the dive. His training included hard fitness workouts daily. No chemicals, such as alcohol, lots of water and anti-toxins would be his set diet. Some where along the way, the idea that eating ice cream after deep dives can help you off-gassing was born. He regularly dove to depths of 107m/321 ft in the cold, dark waters of the UK. these dives would help him with the record dive.
He arrived back in Puerto Galera on July 12 for the final stage of his training. I arrived back from Hawaii a couple of days later and we started diving the following day.
Mark wanted to do six final very deep air dives before the attempt. We made seven; three of these dives were below 122m/400 ft. All were made on air.
Many of Mark's techniques were new to me. They were very different to conventional thinking. He employed very fast descents and equally fast ascents. His theory was to try to stay ahead of both the nitrogen and oxygen dangers.
The dive was delayed due to bad weather for three days, hence the extra warm up dive.
The plan was surprisingly simple, but would require exact timing. We would use the decompression platform that we had used on our series of mixed gas dives. Chuck and I would descend two minutes before Mark and wait for him on the bottom. Daran and Axel would wait at depths between 76m/250 ft and 91m/300 ft.
Nobby Beinlich (another of the owners of Captn Greggs) and John Bertenshaw would be at 40m/130 ft. Lucy Burton and Dave Peterson (another owner of Capt?n Greggs) would again help out by acting as medical cover. For the divers taking part in the support team it took a lot of courage, likewise for Chuck, Nobby and Dave Peterson the owners of Capt?n Gregg?s to let the dive take place. Their attitude was hes going to do it, its better done somewhere where there is a team able and willing to look after him.
On the day. Chuck and I descended as planned. Mark started his decent with Daran. They stayed together until his speed of decent took him slowly away from Daran. Daran then hovered and waited.
At this time Chuck and I were at 156m/511 ft. The plan called for Mark to come down on my descent line. Chuck would wait on a separate line and cross over to help if needed.
I saw Mark coming about two minutes after we arrived at depth. The first I saw was his wrist mounted torch shining downwards. I could clearly see his silhouette, he was locked tightly into his normal descent position, one leg forward, the other bent backward to keep his position stable. One of his arms, his right, was holding the decent line, the other holding his inflator. As he reached me, I reached out, and took hold of his BCD (wings). I did this for two reasons: the first to arrest his descent, if required (it wasnt), the second to get close enough to get eye-to-eye contact and to let him know we were there if he was having problems.
Loading...
3:30
HMS Ullswater.movby filmingunderwater1,614 views
Another Koolaid drinking stroke-singing GI3 nut hugger.. I'm sure he's enjoying his record more than the benefits of diving lock-step with his DIR "DUH!" buddies.. Good job on the record and I'd like to hear more of the story.
frisk151 7 months ago
I know why this is difficult and i have some admiration for him surviving it. But i also find it ridiculous to do "records" like that. Air is a crappy diving gas as it is. But for -156m just takin an unnecessary risk. I wonder why he did it to be honest.
Was there anything gained in terms of knowledge/research?
Samurailord 1 year ago