(Free)diver retieval systems

[Freedive WI]

MARK,

Number 1- NO.

Number 2- It depends.

When Tanya does her thing she has divers on Inspirations, and Twinspirations, up and down the line- Usually every 10 meters or so.

When Martin was doing his 103 meter constant dives, no sleds, he had safety divers evey 10-15 meters. This consisted of a primary safety diver and a back-up diver/ photographer at every station. They have lift bags, and sometimes even underwater communication gear.

Pipin had squat for his dives- and thus lost his wife in the process. He had one guy on O.C. trimix at 560' and one guy on air at 330'. He then had a couple of freedivers covering the top 100'.

Loic Leferme is now considered to be the deepest man- going for 180 meters pretty soon. He has a very different system. He is attached to the sled, so he can't fall off even if he blacks out. He stations two divers at the half way point, around 80 meters, and some surface freedivers. If he isn't back in a specific time the 80 meter divers attach a lift bag onto the rope at 80 meters and send it up to the surface. He then comes up halfway, to 80 meters, where they hook on a second lift bag and he goes the rest of the way up. It is much cheaper, but takes longer to recover. He has been doing this a long time and is still alive to tell about it.

There is another VERY different system used by a guy named "Seb" in Australia. It's called a DRUM's system. It is basically a mechanical winch set up to let out only so much line and then retrieve it again auotmatically. There are NO support divers and no lift bags/tanks involved. It shows a lot of promise in the future, but not widely used right now.

Jon