3-2-1 Its competition time folks!

Well it is the first day of Competition at the blue hole and unfortunately there has been a storm brewing over the past 48 hours, we have had thunder and lightning, oh and lets not forget the torrential rain that hit us at 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon – this is the time we were measuring and stretching 130+m of rope, needless to say the 3 judges ( Grant Fran and I) were totally soaked by time we had finished with that rope. Because of the storm there is a lot of rubbish around and the visibility at the hole is not that great. William says that he has never seen conditions like this in the 3 years he has been at the Blue Hole.

Today was all about testing the safety procedures and counter ballast system ( this is what is used if the diver is late returning from their dive or there are obvious signs of trouble ) Kerian volunteered to be the crash Test Dummy for this, it was a double edge sword for him however as it meant he was able to attempt a depth of 70m to see how he felt, of course as he was going down with the plate, and being hoisted back up again, it meant that he physically didn't need to do any work. The test was successful, and for Kerian it meant he safely descended to 70m, which of course means he wants to go even deeper now because it felt so comfortable and easy.

Kerian, William and Dave are having a rest day today, and there are 4 athletes that are aiming for National records.

Fran and I have spent what little time we have between judging duties exploring the local shopping, there are only 6 shops in our local area ( ie 50k stretch of road), 2 of them grocery stores, one a bottle store, and 3 of them interesting nik nak shops, what is puzzling is that most stores, even the dive shop, have an unusual amount of Avon products on their counter tops – today we were at the local telco and the Avon lady turned up there with a big smile and lots of product. Despite the baron roads, the houses in ruin's, and the potholes ( some of them you could loose a whole car down i am sure!!) and the lack of development, tI am sure that here is more Avon per head here of population, than there is back home!

The Boat, The Boat!

Well imagine the delight after looking at the fresh ( week old) lettuces' that are at the local supermarket rotting in their bags, to find out that the boat has been and delivered more produce and groceries, by crikey were we in there fast to buy as many fresh fruits and vege's as we could, as we are all sick of eating pasta and canned fruit.

The amount of sugar the Americans put in their food is amazing, imagine looking at the nutrition labels on a pot of yogurt - serving size 140gm total sugars 47gm! - oh well it looks like by time i get back i will have lost a bit of weight - as the safest things to eat are just the fruit and vege's ( even bread tastes very sweet!)

Have been trying out being without the pump for 2-3 hours each morning - which has been a little trickey - today i think i got it right however - so that is a good step, the problem being that it is hot so us kiwi's are dehydrating pretty quick, add to that running blood sugars high and getting deyhdrated from that as well - it could be a bit of a disaster.

I went and visited the local medical clinic as part of the prep for the competition as Medic. It was a lot more advanced than i thought it would be, and the Dr there, was very re-assuring when he said ( imagine the following in an indian/island sytle accent ) " No one die on dis island...unless they want to. I call plane and plane take dem to other island where dey die, no one die here" this was his way of re-assuring me that if we do have any "incident" we are all in safe hands here. I was relieved to see an ambulance parked out the back, BUT then i realised that it hadnt been used in a while as the grass growing from underneath it was quite impressive.

Kerian did a great dive yesterday - reaching 60m - which is a personal best. Today, and he tried Variable Weight for the first time, which is the discipline that he wants to set the record in, and got to 50m. When he surfaced he was very happy, and saying that was wayyy too easy - tomorrow he will try for 70m.

Well im being kicked off the pc now - so Kerian can do his - stay tuned - theres only 2 days till the competition starts!

Down she goes.

Talk about being like a fish to water, that blue hole is something else – i jumped in boots and all, no worries at all and had a great time swimming around with bi-fins. I even swam back to shore ( all of 15m or so!!) with Kerians Monofin!

But the big achievement of the day was ....drumroll please...I gave the line a crack and got to 4m “free immersion” which is pulling yourself down on the rope, its really quite fun...and quite a bit of hard work as i am very floaty...so pulling down is hard...but coming up, you just let go and weeeeeeee.

I took a few underwater pics at the hole, but we dont have the download cable for that camera here, so they will have to wait till we get back

We are training with Natalia and Karol tomorrow – so it will be very cool to see these 2 ladies dive!..and i might have another go if the line is free for a few mins ( well all i need is about 30 seconds!!!

AARRRGGGHHHHHH Kerian theres an animal!!!

After spending 4 days in getting to the Bahamas - we are finally here at deadmans caye, haven't done much on day one however, drove around with Will who had to get his truck fixed on the other side of the island, and met some pretty amazing free divers, who's reputation comes before them ie William Winram, Ryuzo Shinomiya, Guillaume Nery, Natalia Avseenko, Karol Meyer, Christian Maldame – the list goes on but needless to say It will be great to see them perform over the coming weeks

Well I spent the night not sleeping because just before dinner we were told a delightful story about how someone found a tarantula by a mat.....and then this morning, after getting up and organising a few things, I grabbed a book off the dresser and saw something move. Then I yelled at Kerian who was in another room " Kerian...theres an animal" - ok so it was only a small skink, but I got a hell of a fright, and why oh why did that thing have to jump on my side of the bed???

We are off to the blue hole shortly, we are both pretty excited after all this is what we came here for. I have decided – before seeing the hole, Im going to give this freediving thing ago – my big goal to freedive “no fins” to 5m, I know its a huge goal, what will these superdivers who dive to 100+m think of that!!!!

Oh – by the way for those people who think the Bahamas are idealic and ohh soo romantic....the shopping is ghastly ( ie a box of cereal cost $8!) there is no “creature comforts” ie the hotel we are in doesnt get serviced while you stay, for a 4 person room – they supply 2 towels and you have to purchase your own toilet paper, soap, dish wash etc. The TV doesn't work, there is no cell phone coverage and the internet...well lets just say theres no watching of youtube here!!!!!

The Big Trip

Here we are in the USA ( well Bahamas actually) and boy - its not like i thought! The first thing that struck me is how big the cities are and flat the land is, it took about 35 mins to fly over LA to get to the airport - and the whole time all you could see was housing, buildings and it was all on flat land, not a hill in sight, it was strange to see - and in fact i still don't believe what i saw - its a very very different landscape from NZ. the other thing that is remarkably different is that the metropolitan areas are in grids - all plotted out nicely and tidily with big straight roads in the middle of them, not like our sprawling towns with roads going in all directions.

Our baggage got checked straight through from LA to Nassau - which in theory was great, however it would have been great to change out of our clothes in LA - instead we spent nearly 2 days in the same stuff - it was great to get a shower when we got to the hotel in Nassau!!!!

We are staying overnight at the Wyndham ( shot of the slide to the pool to the left)- which in itself is a small city, it has a casino in it and we went down there a short while ago to give this gambeling thing a go - we spent ( lost) a total of $9 - but were there for around an hour and a half - the other patrons looked at us funny when we said to each other " i just won 8 credits...or 10 credits...or even wow i just won 200 credits" 1 credit = 1 cent!

Tomorrow we head off to Deadmans Caye, and of course the blue hole - lets hope the weather is better than here ( blowing a gale like it does in wellington at the moment, and its not that hot really...well afterall i am wearing my jacket!)

Study study STUDY

What have I done?????...well i was looking at all my course details and i have, as usual over extended myself - i have 10 assignments due before i go away - this is probably par for the course when you take on 5 distance learning courses .....at the same time.

Ok - so heres what i am studying:
Sports Development and Training
Health Sciences
Forensic Science
NCEA Level 2 Biology ( old 6th form Bio)
NCEA Level 2 Maths with Stats ( old 6th from maths)

ARRRRGGGHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhH!!!!!!!!!

Kerian and I worked through one of the maths exercises what a laugh that was, it took two, pretty intelligent adults a good hour to work through one of the exercises regarding probability distribution. ( and we all know any 6th former probably would have got it done in 10 mins!) but I was left with one question.......why? Why do we need to know that there is a 4/16 chance that if we toss a coin 4 times we will get 4 heads in a row, just take the risk, toss it, see what comes up ..isnt that what life is about...taking risks and dealing with what happens, rather than pre-empting your future???

Time to dig deep!

Well after a few blooming hectic months at work, I am starting to find time for me, which means I can record my "life's events" here - really its for no one else to see, its just so i can vent and share with myself whats going on to gain a little perspective.

The "BIG" thing at the moment is the free diving trip, I am quietly really really excited, theres lots of work to get on with, organising the trip for one, financing it, training, fund raising , which I seem to have taken on board to do, when really I am struggling to figure out when. Not only will it be a great opportunity for Kerian to learn from some of the world greats, but for me to learn from them as well, investigate new training techniques and systems, and of course try out those red, white and yellow cards!!!! Most of all, for the both of us, it will be us time, something we have very little of, and after a pretty horrible 3 years I think we deserve and need it.

So thats it, time to watch a movie now and reflect on reality and fiction at the same time, no doubt while eating chips and drinking Grolsh.