Just shy the length of a football field, 108 meters is a distance that bears little significance to most people. However, for 28 year old Martin Stepanek, 108 meters represents the depth to which he must descend in order to claim the freediving world record. To bring this in perspective, 108 meters is equivalent to 350 feet; a depth that is attainable by only the most elite and well equipped scuba divers in the world. And yet, on April 5th, with one breath of air and a mono fin to propel him, Martin effortlessly dipped below the surface and reappeared 4 minutes later with a smile on his face and a world record under his belt.

A week before this attempt, Tad Masek and I stepped off the plane on Grand Cayman. We were exhausted, hungry, and with nine fully loaded Pelican cases, garnered a bit of attention from custom agents who were suspect of our “recreational” intentions. Luckily, at the root of customs interrogation, it seems that entry into Grand Cayman hinges upon one simple question, “Do you have a speargun?” With a quick side-to-side shake of our heads we were past customs and ready to start shooting…. video.

Representing Light & Motion and HD Odyssey, Tad and I had the unique task of documenting this event while also providing a realtime video solution that would allow spectators to view athletes as they descended. While seemingly a simple task, operating four separate cameras at depths of up to 350 feet and sending the video feed wirelessly to spectators on surrounding boats proved to be a worthy challenge.

The video team consisted of four divers. Deeper Blue’s own Paul Kotic rekindled his breath holding skills and, armed with a Bluefin HC-1, was responsible for shooting any action occurring between the surface and a depth of 50 feet. Safety Crew Chief, Bill Coltart, and his advanced trimex student, Luke Moloney, swapped roles between operating the mid level camera at 150 feet and the deep camera at 300 feet. The student/instructor relationship always provided interesting video dynamics; spectators were often treated to bonus, impromptu bailout drills, finger pointing, and highly questionable hand signals which Bill claims all have origins in fish identification. Housings used at these depths were the Bluefin FX1s due to their superb low light capabilities. Rounding out the deep diver video team was Chris Brandson. The first one in the water and definitely the last man out of the water due to lengthy amounts of decompression, Chris was our one brave videographer who continually hit depths of 350+ feet in order to capture Martin’s turnaround point.

On the surface, Tad and I did our best to orchestrate the entire video team and wireless feed. Our operating platform was a 6 foot glass bottom boat that contained a generator and the electronics necessary to create a wireless network/wi-fi video feed. Did it work? You betcha. However, I must admit there is something disconcerting about sitting inches above the water in a boat humming with electricity…rubber boots anybody?

For now it is back to the drawing board to critique, revamp, and create a better freediving viewing platform for next year’s record attempts. Thanks goes to Kirk Krack and Performance Freediving for organizing this event, Light & Motion whose housings worked flawlessly, and of course to all the top notch freedivers; my hat’s off to you.

For more information about freediving and the record attempts please visit the following websites:

www.performancefreediving.com
www.deeperblue.net

To view video of the Cayman events please go to:
http://www.performancefreediving.com/news/news_2006.htm

For information about the Light & Motion HDV underwater video housings used throughout the record attempts please visit: www.uwimaging.com

For more information about HD Odyssey please visit: www.hdodyssey.net