Saturday, November 3, 2012

The Gypsy King and Queen


I have just returned from two trips.

First I went to East London where I ran a course with Tom and Nicci Swartz at Manta Marine. Wow, they have a really cool set up, very friendly people, with cars that have a personality :)

The course went very well with an excellent day in the swimming pool, on the diving day we were not so lucky, the notoriously  poor conditions of East London saw the wind pumping and bad visibility on the Sunday morning, so no dives were done, but the divers saw huge improvements in their skill and breath-holds.

I made some excellent friends in East London and look forward to doing some more exciting things with them.After East London I went straight to Durban.

This was my second course with this particular group of divers. The Crocodilian freediving group.  Annelize, Eliska, Paul and Stuart formed the core of this group.  Jay joined from left-field, I think they are all going to work well together. The purpose of this trip was to train the whole group to become more self sufficient, not just individual skills, but group and leadership skills, to cut the umbilical, so to speak. They are maturing into a wonderful group and I am hoping to see good things coming from Durban freediving as time goes by.

During this trip the conditions were also atrocious and it saw all of us throwing up out

in the ocean, although all divers hit their mark, something I was pleased about. It really does take a  particular mindset to dive in our oceans.

Nevertheless, that experience did lead to us scurrying of to Shires quarry to complete the course. I had not been to Shires for 11 years. Last time I had been there a squatter camp had developed around it and it did not feel safe or hygienic. Now after 11 years, I was pleased to find the squatter camp gone, the water clean, the quarry surrounded by a security fence and a guard posted. It really is a pleasure to dive there now.

I am back in Cape Town now and preparing for some special things over the next few weeks... more about that later.

Right now Lesley and I are just enjoying some time together as she is leaving (again) in a week to go back to the Bahamas to dive with the Tiger and Lemon sharks, lucky girl...although, those trips of hers are flipping hard work, I went with her to Durban to do some photographic work once, it was a non-stop body of work, carrying cameras, cleaning equipment, packing, charging battery packs, planning shots...any excuse and I'm out of there.  Nevertheless, I  wish I was going with her...

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A new season!

I have been putting off writing this blog since my last dive of 'Deep Freedive for Sharks' in Durban.


I never did write a blog for the actual competitive dive, the reason is that I "ran out of steam", plain and simple. Now after a long winter hiding away, I am finally starting to get into the ocean again and enjoying the sensation of sliding through the water.

The campaign itself, which was designed to create awareness of the plight of SA's sharks was a massive success, Lesley Rochat and her team at AfriOceans Conservation Alliance and myself reached millions of people worldwide and we are very thankful to all our supporters and sponsors who helped us to achieve this goal.

As regards the freediving, I felt a great sense of disappointment at the end of 'Deep Freedive for Sharks' - I know I left a deep dive out there.  I know it was the way things were meant to be and that it was not going to happen just then. The two weeks leading up to the event had taken too much out of me, I had no right to have too great an expectation, and yet the disappointment was there. Such is life for a competitive soul. So now 4 months after the fact I'm  finding my groove again, that dive is the past and I am now looking ahead.

But for the record, I did a successful 70m before the two AIDA judges, it was the deepest ever, official competitive dive in South African waters by 10m. I went past the 60m I set at a competition in Houtbaai five years previously. Everybody got home safe and the campaign itself was succesful.

Next time, I will write about it immediately when I get off the boat!

As for that 'next time', I am getting increasingly antsy about the dive I left in Durban. As I sit here looking over  the ocean I feel that it is time for me to get back out there.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Just like drill!

My Personal Account:
It took me a number of days to gather myself after my last excursion into these waters, which was last Thursday (May10th) . I consulted my usual trusted advisers, Lesley Rochat, Cormac McCreesh, Gary Akal, all leaders in their lives in different ways. And I consulted a few others too, experienced divers, Dean Channon from underwater world, Shane Breedt from Freedivers and other experienced divers. Some friendly words from my good friend Simon Thomas. All solid people.
Lesley was her usual feisty, pragmatic, caring self and her advice was to feel the fear, and listen to what it is telling me, give it time and then make up my own mind as to what is right for me. Do not concern myself with what anybody else may or may not expect of me, and do not concern myself with the table I have set for myself. There is only one question here...what is the RIGHT action now for me. Can this dive be done safely?

Well that will always be a question , no matter where one is diving? It is something of a relative question, I guess it can be framed better thus, “Can this dive be done with relative safety?”

If I have learnt one thing on this trip it is to be flexible, in this regard I am latex!

On Friday, although afraid, I was still running on adrenalin and was adamant that I would do “whatever it takes”. By Saturday I had settled and I was lucky to be visiting with close family, perspective started to kick in, and slowly over the weekend I started to feel a very clear doubt and fear. By Sunday the brave face had totally disappeared and I knew that I had to come up with something new.

About a year ago while diving in Egypt I had latched onto Einstein’s famous quote…”insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…”
This had become something of a mantra for me. But while I thought about it, it is easier said than done to change the way on thinks and the way one perceives things.

I have always believed the way to be is to ‘break down the door’. I have never stood back, and it has often brought results, unfortunately in this sport it can also have consequences, and I have been on the receiving end a number of times. Most importantly, this attitude erodes trust, if you use this paradigm to bring out your best it can become a very limiting energy. The problem is that you cannot trust yourself to always act in your own best interests. It is actually your ego doing whatever it takes to keep feeding itself. And from there doubt creeps in.

So, on Monday I had a new thought, I have thousands of shark warriors following my progress, fellow Freedivers, peers, friends, family, members of the media. While they are all supporting me, they are also trusting me to make mature decisions and to do what is right. My safety team is also putting their own safety in my hands and their reputations. I have a four year old son to consider. My partner Lesley, her daughter Tamera, and my own family.

So, I was ready to walk away, I decided that I would go out to sea one more time with my team. We had a few things we felt could make a big difference to diving these conditions. I wanted to test these changes, but if things were still the same, I was ready to WALK AWAY.

On Tuesday I was feeling less fearful because I knew I could trust myself to do what was right. I was actually feeling more nerves about the impending announcement that my campaign and my career is over.

On Tuesday evening I called my team together and we had a full briefing, I told them exactly where I was, and brought the gravity of the situation into full focus and we had an open and honest discussion. With me obviously doing most of the talking, but the guys pitched in with their points.

Then I came home to the Tropicana hotel and got ready for bed. I wonder if I got in even 2 hours of sleep. I went over the dive in the minutest detail in my head, over and over again, every muscle movement, every feeling and sensation in the finest, brightest detail in full focus, I heard the sounds, I felt the sensations, I saw the colors and the shadows and the light.

At 5.30 the alarm went off and Roelof got his kit together and left to get the couterballast prepped with Gareth.

I ate an apple and went down to the harbor, everybody was arriving and going about their tasks, prepping kit, loading the boat. I had a good long stretch, I saw Cormac looking over and deciding whether he wanted to get some pics of me stretching, it was a surreal picture, I was stretching my hamstrings on the trunk of a tree, the other side of the tree was the prone body of a homeless person, wrapped tight in his blanket, probably wondering who is this person in his bedroom!

God’s energy and presence is everywhere.

 We launched and it took us about 45 minutes to get to the site, the sea was bumpy, there was a large swell and when we finally stopped I thought, “so this is what my retirement looks like”.

I can handle some current, I can handle poor viz, I can handle the fear of the deep open ocean, I can handle the swell, I can handle chop, I have handled the lot combined. BUT I am done risking all and I will not dive deep if faced with the full house of these conditions.

My team deployed the rig and I got into the water, they were all fantastic, Roelof  showed real maturity way beyond his 22 years and he communicated so well with the rest of the crew, giving clear instructions on my behalf. He anticipated my every move and took a massive load off my shoulders. Chris West was totally in the present and brought a great deal of security and calm with his 33 years of diving experience in these waters. Gareth Staats was his usual joking self, with an underlying steeliness that I think will often be missed by most, but I saw it…and drew strength and confidence from it.

I have the least contact with my scuba team, my face is already down breathing through a snorkel by the time they get into the water, I hardly even see them during the dive, but the sense of security they bring cannot be measured, in freediving competition these days, safety divers are hardly ever used anymore, we rely on the counterballast for safety. But to go deep in these waters all by yourself , with no other human soul down there, somehow just seems to be asking too much. I have done it on many occasions, but as with the current and swell, it is just another of the multiple factors that when combined makes it all too much.

During my warm up I do a partial exhale dive to 40m and meet Ian Pasley and Mike Osborne there, we test the current and I am pleased to see that the line is more or less vertical and I am able to stay with the line. I know then that this dive is going to be a walk in the park. I am feeling relaxed and my whole team is working like clockwork.

Back on the surface, Dean Channon comes up and gives me a report on the deeper water, he can see the bottom plate from 50m! What a turn around. There is a cold current in the deeper water, but it does not appear to be too bad, the line is pushing off vertical, about 2-3m over a 20m stretch, but if you consider that I have got about 50kg at the end of a 12mm line, that indicates a very strong current on the deepest part of the dive.

So this is a niggle that is a bit disconcerting, but at least if I can get through that quickly and powerfully on the  way up, I can rest for the last 50m back to the surface. And I made a mental note to check the movement on the descent and abort if it is too strong.

As things stand, on the balance of things, the surface is ugly, but underwater we have great visibility today, the current is reasonable, there is uncertainty over the current in the deeper water, but I feel confident that I will abort if needed. And my team is operating like a well-oiled machine.

I called 6 minutes for a breathe-up, now one of the most critical phases of any freedive is the breathe-up. This is the part that has challenged me the most, to stay attached to the bucking bronco that is the surface rig and still relax and breathe deeply is quite an ask.
Here my safety team has got to get a lot of credit, they somehow manage to stabilize me enough that I can relax. When the count comes I take a deep breathe, with my usual 10 packs (which I don’t think are real packs anyway). And turn down towards the bottom, I have a good wide amplitude kick down to about 25m and at 30m do my mouthfill, kick for about another 10m and then go into a foetal freefall position, I drop like a rock and feel the rush of the cold water as I hit the deep current, while it is definitely there, it is not washing me off the cable and there is no need to correct my position too much so I continue, at the bottom I have to work a little more than I like to position myself on the rope for the ascent but quickly get into a powerful upward stroke and it really only takes about 6 strokes of the monofin and I know I will be ok, now it is just a normal freedive until I reach the surface, where I will have to be very alert to the conditions and the surface structure.

My safety freedivers pick me up at 20m and we glide back to the raging bull topside. I snatch a breath of air before the swell can engulf me and while I do my hook breath I am ever conscious of the swell and the structure and I do a surface protocol, with my signature Greek OK. I practiced my surfacing protocol so well in Greece 2 years ago with my friend Michael Chelmis that the accent has stuck.

We have accomplished something very special here today. I say we because it really took a team effort, from my skipper Rob Welman, who led the way and organized the team from the boat and tended us so professionally to Gary Akal, the boat sponsor who made sure we had everything we needed long before we launched. All of my safety divers.
The AfriOceans team who is working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that these dives are not done in vain, or just for vanity.

For more info see:  www.deepfreediveforsharks.com


And a very big thank you to my angel, Lesley Rochat. She has helped me arrive at a place where it is possible for me, if I choose to retire today, I could do so with an open heart. She has taken me to a place of safety. I no longer feel the world is a desperate place. I can go into challenges with an open heart and an open mind. That is a priceless gift.

The judges arrive on the 29th May. I will be diving a few more times before then and hopefully once they are here I will be able to do this dive in their presence and make it official. But I have already won my battle.




Cormac McCreesh's account:
I’ve known Trevor for a while now and I’ve become accustomed to his can-do, all-conquering attitude. So when I met with him last week after his taxing dive to 66 metres and he told me that the dive had rattled him, I knew it was far more serious than that.

The tight jawline, thin lips and the frown on his brow gave the game away. That he seemed constantly distracted and struggled to stay on topic in conversation told me there was much going on in his gray matter.

When I read his blog and understood the full impact of his 66 metre dive, I became pretty rattled myself just thinking about it. It’s one thing to dive the Blue Hole in Dahab (and I have dived it, albeit on scuba) and quite another to plunge into the uninviting dark, churning, swell heaving waters off Durban.

Free divers choose to dive in Egypt, Greece and similar places for a reason – the water is calm allowing for controlled breath-ups, there is little or no current to contend with and visibility is generally pretty good, add to this the miniscule chance of bumping into a large predator and you can understand. Or rather, you may struggle to understand why Trevor has chosen to follow the road less travelled and plunge into the oftentimes gray-green and dark waters off Durban.

But leaders go where others choose not to and Trevor is on a mission to raise awareness of the need for conservation of sharks. What better way to do that than set the bar in waters that are renowned for sharks?

Yesterday was Trevor’s day. He hit the plate at 72.6 metres and breached the surface with loads in his tank. This was the Trevor I know, in control, determined, pushing his limits and staring down his demons.  Inspirational, motivating? … Absolutely.

I attended Trevor’s predive briefing the night before the dive. The tension was palpable and Trevor was firm, authoritative and focused. Minor glitches with far-reaching consequences were resolved and team members were told in no-uncertain terms of their roles. When we left the briefing the nervous tension in the team crackled.

On dive day the tension was heightened and each team member retreated into his own world as Rob skippered us out to the dive site where the sonar reported a depth of in excess of 200 metres. The swell was pretty big but the water was less gray-green, hinting at an inviting blue.

At the dive site, the equipment was deployed with a minimum of fuss and activity by the team and Trevor was shepherded into the water by the three free diving safety divers of Roelof Du Plooy, Gareth Staats and Chris West. The scuba team of Ian Pasley and Mike Osborne,  led by Dean Channon of Underwater World, efficiently slipped on their gear and disappeared down the line and Trevor’s diving began.

It all went according to plan: Trevor’s warm up dives were ticked off efficiently and procedurally and the big dive was over before anyone was able to register the full import of what Trevor has just achieved.

On the day and in the water, Trevor was different from the man who had led the predive briefing. Gentle and coaxing he talked his team members through their processes and his needs. Roelof, his surface manager stepped up and assertively called time, dispatched divers and managed Trevor’s breath-up and relaxation.

The free diving and scuba diving safety team hit their stations and did their jobs in a focused and relaxed way.  And skipper Rob stood by on high alert. It was an exercise in teamwork, communication and focus.

When Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar module of Apollo 11 onto the surface of the moon he said “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” but it is also reported that he said “just like drill”. Trevor’s dive reminded me of Neil Armstrong’s reported words because I know that Trevor had dived that dive in his head over and over again before actually doing it. I know that every member of Trevor’s team had mentally played their role repeatedly and I know that everyone’s energy was focused on the one goal they were out there to achieve. It was “just like drill”.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Indian Ocean 2 - Trevor 0


That was hectic!

Do not let that smile deceive you!
I was up at 4.30 to stretch and prepare for the mornings diving, we launched at 6am.
I was feeling very upbeat about the dive ahead, having made some significant changes to my rig, I was prepared for anything the Indian ocean could throw at me today...that's a scream...I have totally lost my sense of humor, SERIOUSLY, I am not making a joke or trying to be witty here.

The first error I made was to take my mask into the water with me to have a look at the water before I started diving. Yesterday I had dived with fluid goggles, so I was not aware of how spooky the water looked. Believe me, I am no stranger to poor visibility diving, I am particularly good in low and even zero viz. But there is something disconcerting about diving deep in low visibility water that is home to Great Whites, Tigers, Bull Sharks, Oceanic White tips, Duskies, Mako's and I am sure there are others.

The visibility is reasonable until 30m but from around 40m it is non-existent. From the surface though there is already an inky black hue to the water. Anyway despite the nervous tension that this caused, I processed it, and was still committed to diving. The real problem I was faced with was the current, I had a 30kg lead shot weight attached to the bottom of my 10mm line, it should have been more than enough to keep my line vertical. But it was not, the rope was nearly horizontal at times.

I did a few warm up dives and got back on the boat to sort out a few snags and refine the system. All this extra activity is not conducive to deep diving at all.

Then it was back in the water, the boat drops us off and we have to swim to the rig, it is like a bucking bronco in the swell. Anyway, I still felt good to go, so I started a breathe-up of 6 minutes, mostly just trying to reduce the CO2 that inevitably builds up just from being in there.

 When I surfaced, it took me 10 minutes of recovery breathing before I felt comfortable enough to talk to any of my team.

First Ian said to me that it was like swimming against the Umgeni river in flood down there. Then Dean came up and he asked me if I had my eyes open or closed… before I could answer his rhetorical question he said, “because it would have made f#@%-all difference!”

So I have gone back to the hotel with my tail between my legs, again.
This has been without a single shred of doubt the hardest diving I have ever done in my life.

As I said before, current, surface chop, wind, poor visibility, sharks and swell are individually all potential deal breakers. Combined they are downright terrifying!

I never thought I’d see the day that I’d let people know I was frightened of anything.

Truth is, today I was. 

The first thing I did when I was back within cellphone range was to call Lesley, both for comfort and to discuss the way forward. Fortunately I came prepared, my mental resources are bolstered by the campaign and my desire to spread the word as far as I possibly can about the plight of our sharks. Find out more about our campaign at


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Oh my God! (Truly, not blasphemy)

I planned a relatively moderate depth today to iron out any wrinkles and check out my equipmen t and rigging and to just familiarize myself with conditions. Now I would just like to state before I carry on describing the day that I am no newcomer to diving in Durban, I have set a number of records here over the years and I have done some very deep spearfishing here too. I have never been under any illusions about what a challenge it will be to dive really deep here. It is not for no reason that ALL South African deep freediving records since 1999 have been set in either the Mediterranean or Red sea's.

I have always known what it will demand of a diver to retake the record here. There are so many factors to contend with, swell, surface chop, wind, current, very poor visibility (especially below 40m), the fear of sharks (whether perceived or real, more about that later), each one of these factors can be a deal breaker, combined they are formidable.


































So perhaps you will understand the shock when during my first dive to 52m my lanyard got stuck on the bottom plate and I surfaced feeling positively INTIMIDATED! ....I mean here I am in Durban, I have stated my intent to do a dive in excess of 80m to the whole world and I am feeling like this on a 52m dive!

Fortunately, after changing a few things I did a second dive to 54m and it went much better. I made the decision to focus only on what lies immediately in front of me and I have been working through the afternoon with my assistant Roelof on improving our set-up. Roelof was also looking a little downhearted this afternoon, but I told him that he did very well under extreme pressure, he has to deal with the conditions, and he has to deal with me under pressure. He handled himself very well under very trying conditions and he experienced a very steep learning curve. To his credit, he has also put today behind him and is responding like a real winner and focusing on the task in front of him.

Dean and Ian were a real comfort down there, it is so good to be diving with a diver I have known for so many years. Tomorrow evening I will be meeting with his whole crew at Underwater World, Durban.

We have re-set the rope and will dive deeper tomorrow. 




Thursday, April 26, 2012

End of the (long)LINE!

This has been one heck of a week, I always knew Lesley was efficient, but I actually had no idea until I started working so closely with her on a project, the woman is a FORCE!
I have had to cancel three training sessions this week as there is simply too much to do before I leave on Tuesday next week. No worries though, I am enjoying the break, Maik my swim coach is a little concerned and has told me to switch off, which I will do soon. Difficult thing to do though since this whole project is about so much more than any dive I have ever been involved in. To make a campaign run takes so much more than I would ever have imagined, I have a huge new found respect for all serious campaigners.
In between that I am running around Cape Town collecting the bits and pieces that I still need to take with to Durban. In the pic on top I am busy selecting a rope, it is serious business buying the right rope, it must be highly visible, strong, low stretch, good grip, low friction (yes, try work that one out!), UV resistant to last.
This evening I will get my counter-ballast back, it has been sent in for galvanizing and powder coating, I never even knew you could powder coat after galvanizing! Lesley has been working around the clock with so many things and it is one deadline after another, I don't know how she found the time to still do the artwork for my van which I will be taking on the road trip to the schools along the coast as I travel north to Durban. Charmaine is working on the arrangements with the schools we will be visiting and Terry is sorting out all the details and logistics for the educational and presentation aspect of the trip.
Below is a profile of my very last dive in Blue Rock which I did this past Sunday. I am really testing it out myself so that I have it all worked out for when I get to Durban.

 Blue Rock is a freshwater lake, so the actual depth here is a few metres more than indicated on the gauge, and we are limited to 46 or 47m (depending on where you land  on the bottom), so I either do partial exhale dives here or like this dive, spend some time on the bottom. This is a dive I have been doing for years, I am not sure how many times I have done it in the past 7 years since Blue Rock came onto my radar, but I love it!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Campaign Launch - Deep Freedive for Sharks


It started towards the end of last winter, I had just returned from another disappointing trip to Egypt, I was disillusioned and not really overexcited about deep diving.
I had just started dating Lesley Rochat, executive director of AfriOceans Conservation Alliance and we went to dive with the sevengill cowsharks in False Bay. We started to discuss the sharks and Lesley showed me her documentary Sharks in Deep Trouble.
While I was obviously sympathetic to her and the shark's problems, I was not really in any hurry to do anything about it. I had been way too wrapped up in myself for so long that I was not really able to consider anything outside of myself.
I guess that is where Lesley went to work on me. I also had long discussions with my father about the shark problem. Slowly as the months passed,  I began to realise that it would not be possible for me to simply walk away anymore.
Eventually, on Saturday the 19th November the day we buried my father, I realised that this fight had chosen me.
So now I wanted to wreak havoc, I wanted to take out all my frustration on the foreign fishing vessels that are annihilating the sharks out in our national waters. Lesley was at hand again, she pointed out that while all my freediving competition had been utterly pointless over the years, I now had an opportunity to use it for something greater than myself.
By the end of December I had decided what I wanted to do and presented her with my plan, she liked it and we started to build the campaign on 31 December.
It took a lot of reflection, introspection and prayer. God-willing, I now pray that we are successful.

To go to the new campaign website click on the link  "Deep Freedive for Sharks"  on right hand side of this page, under "favorite links"