...and we made over £1000 for the work of the Multiple Sclerosis Society!
I finally got my sunny weekend - it was 22 degrees. In October. In WALES! Look, blue skies...
I decorated the pontoon in MS Society colours...
...and made sure that there was some information about MS for people to read.
I was a bit nervous, since it was over a month since my last depth training session. I'd been preparing for this dive for months and I knew I only had one opportunity to get it right. Lots of people had sponsored, coached, buddied and encouraged me and I really wanted to live up to their faith in me!
Stretching in the sun and chatting with everyone helped to calm my nerves a bit and I got ready for my warm-up dive. The plan was to do one warm-up dive to around 20m to check equalisation and buoyancy.
Equalisation and buoyancy were fine, but the diving demons were putting up a fight. I didn't hear the alarm I'd set on my computer to go off at 12m so I was finning most of the way down. I felt quite tense and had what felt like contractions on the way down, which freaked me out a bit!
After the warm-up I sat quietly for ten minutes, going through the now-familiar visualisation of the dive. Then it was time for the dive...there was a bit of extra pressure having people watching but that was easily outweighed by the amazing feeling of having so many friends there rooting for you to succeed...it was definitely a team effort!
The team...
"Three minutes..."I lay back in the water, closed my eyes, and concentrated on the feeling of the sun on my face.
"Two minutes..." I imagined the tag waiting for me at the bottom of the line.
"One minute"...I tried to breathe normally, which wasn't easy with all the butterflies in my stomach.
"Ten seconds..." I exhaled fully and took my last breath, filling my lungs from the bottom, then feeling my ribcage expand, the air fill my upper chest and rush through my throat.
"Official top..." Duckdive into the green, the first few kicks...
...and my nerves vanished. I didn't think, I just felt. Felt the hypnotic rhythym of movement in a monofin. Felt the water flowing over my face. Before I knew it, I heard the alarm for 15m, stopped finning and started gliding. The glide was almost imperceptible at first and was only really speeding up when I reached the plate. Not being used to collecting the tag, I fumbled about with it for a bit. Adrenaline shot through my body as I realised I'd made it! A couple of powerful kicks and I was on my way to the surface. I saw Gary, my safety, and smiled, water creeping into my mask. The sun had turned the shallow water a beautiful colour green and I looked up to see the silhouettes of my friends waiting for me. I didn't want the dive to end and almost stopped finning just so I could spend a few more moments underwater. I reached the surface and there was relief and laughter and whooping and lots of splashing!
Here's a brilliant video of the dive that Sam made for me. The first dive is the warm-up and the second is the 100ft dive (skip to 1.42 if you just want to jump to the 100ft dive).
The rest of the afternoon we spent playing on all of the aeroplanes, containers, tanks, tubes, and buses that are sunk in the quarry. The weather was so beautiful that no-one wanted to get out of the water!
We emptied Tescos of burgers and steaks before heading to the stunning Beeches campsite to pitch our tents for the night. We had a celebratory barbeque and I discovered the art of properly toasting a marshmallow. Toasted marshmallows are possibly the best post-diving food ever.
After a late night chatting, we woke up on Sunday to blue skies and a view of the tree-covered hills and misty valley below. We headed back to NDAC for some more freediving and a very special competition; the NDAC Deepest Bikini Freedive Competition! Saltfree sponsored the competition, my instructor Hannah agreed to match whatever we raised and I somehow got all the guys to sign up! Some needed more encouragement than others, who frankly jumped at the chance of some cross-dressing :-p.
Here is the (frankly hilarious) result of our afternoon. It was FREEZING! Sam filmed the whole thing in her bikini - she's one tough mermaid.
It was a perfect weekend, and I will remember it forever.
THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone who made a donation to The 100ft Freedive Challenge for the MS Society! Your generosity has been astounding; we smashed the fundraising target of £1000. The money we have raised will help the MS Society continue their groundbreaking work researching treatments and a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. As most of you know, I decided to raise money for the MS Society because my Mum lives with MS. She's very shy but she wanted me to pass on her thanks to you all for supporting this challenge, and the MS Society.
I want to say thank you to my Mum. I wanted to recognise her courage and perseverence in the face of MS and to let her know how much I admire her kind and hopeful nature. I hope that the money we have raised for MS research goes some small way toward doing this.
The 100ft Freedive Challenge wouldn't have been possible without the sponsorship I received from Saltfree Divers. Sam Kirby was incredibly supportive of the challenge from the very beginning and kindly provided me with the training, kit and facilities I needed to make it successfully to 100ft. I received excellent instruction from Hannah Thurston McGowan, whose enthusiasm, patience and encouragement transformed me from a quaking newbie into a confident beginner freediver. I did all my depth training for the challenge with Saltfree; their set-up for freediving at NDAC is second to none. If you're thinking of doing a freediving course, I can highly recommend doing it with Saltfree. I'm saving up for my AIDA*** already...
I also want to say a huge thank you to Mark Harris of London Freediving. To have someone with Mark's experience and insight guide me into the world of freediving has been a real privilege. Mark's coaching for the challenge was invaluable; it allowed me to reflect on and improve my training in a structured way. I was also one of many people who have benefited from Mark's commitment to education in freediving, which I greatly admire. Earlier this year Mark ran two fantastic seminars on constant weight for everyone at London Freediving. He also led an open Frenzel workshop and organised a one-to-one session for me on stretching exercises. Mark's been there to answer all my questions (there have been a lot) and I know I can trust him to give me thorough and balanced advice in the future. I am super-excited about a little prezzie I ordered for him that's just arrived in the post!
Thank you to everyone I trained with this summer, both the pool and in the lake - it's been great fun! Joining such a friendly and inspiring group of people has been the best part of this whole experience :). I have been amazed at how many people have been willing to take the time to help me to improve; I'm really grateful.
Special thanks go to my awesome AIDA** buddies Harry and Tom, who gave me confidence by assuming I'd be able to keep up with them! Also to Tim, who's been a great friend and training partner and who saw potential in me that I didn't know I had.
Last but certainly not least, thank you to all the readers of this blog. I'm astonished that the blog has had over 6000 hits from all over the world! It's been really nice to know that there have been people following my freediving journey - I hope you enjoyed reading!
I can't imagine life without freediving now. I'll post once more on this blog to let you know what I'm going to do next!
Thank you again, everyone!
Lots of love,
Grace
