The 100 ft Freedive Challenge Begins!

A couple of days ago the 100 ft Freedive Challenge was just one of those amazing ideas that strike after one too many glasses of wine but promptly depart your brain once the hangover has faded. Thanks mostly to Sam Kirby at SaltFree Divers, it's become official and I have a blog and fundraising page to prove it! Since the euphoric high of putting a plan into action has now worn off, I have decided to make a level-headed assessment of the challenge ahead.

Potential Obstacles include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Having spent the winter replenishing my fat stores, I am currently more "walrus" than "mermaid".


2. I only stopped smoking earlier this afternoon.


3. My Mum, whose own experience of MS is the reason I set myself this challenge, is so convinced that I will end up in a watery grave that she's forbidden me from talking to her about it. Ever.


4. I'm scared. 100ft is a long way down...

Enough of that. Now for the Motivating Factors:

1. I get to train with SaltFree, learn lots about freediving and hopefully dispel some of the myths about it, e.g. it's really really dangerous (see point 3. above).


2. Raising lots of money for the MS Society, whose work I wholeheartedly support.


3. Having something non-law related to talk/think/stress about.

If you'd like to follow my progress, this blog should keep you interested and amused in the run-up to the challenge, which will take place in October. I'll post diary entries, photographs, videos and much more!

I also hope that I can convince you to make a donation to this very worthy cause. No, not the comedy sight of me in a wetsuit - the MS Society! Please donate here: www.justgiving.com/Grace-Capel

For those of you who don't know what freediving is, here's a video that will give you some idea. Obviously it hasn't been filmed on a single dive, but the reason I like it is that it's beautiful and gives a real sense of the feeling of freedom you get.