Lady of the Lake

When Western Australian freediver Jasmine Bastow’s hand broke the silvered surface of Lake Eacham’s mist shrouded waters, you half expected it to be waving Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur – instead it was clenched around something just as precious -  a white tag rescued from the darkness some 39m below.

That one flash was enough to proclaim Jasmine as the DiversWorld Australian Freedive Championship’s true Lady of the Lake – setting the scene for a day of fierce competition.

Day 2 - and everyone is eyeing off the Woree Pool tallies as they suit up and slip into the chilled waters for a 400m swim out to the competition platform floating 70m above Lake Eacham’s muddy floor.

With safety divers assisting, they take their place at one of the three ironically named ‘warm up’ buoys floating behind the judges platform and the corded line descending into the frigid depths. It’s here they seek the freedivers ‘zone’ with slow controlled breathing as they await their call to the shot line.

Did I mention it was cold?

As the final seconds count out, I descend into the olive green fading to black, and take
up position with camera for the next diver. Above - the silhouettes of safety divers and the platform and soon another – a freediver, slipping past me on a journey to the mud below.

I can barely see a thing so no one's down there for the scenery, although many competitors remarked later on how serene they found those darkened depths.

I check my depth gauge, realising I’ve dropped far below my original position. No sign of the freediver emerging from the gloom so I wait. And wait.

I’ve checked my watch again and still no sign as I take another deep suck on good old air – a luxury our friend far below and hopefully soon to re-emerge, does not have.

The wait continues…

At my periphery there is a flash of white as safety divers glide past me. They too share the one breath restriction of their charge below. Moments later they are ascending past me sheepherding the returned freediver to the surface.

I follow, ever mindful that unlike them, I still carry the limitations imposed on me by my cumbersome equipment, which has been slowly saturating my bloodstream with compressed gasses just aching to foam up like a tearaway soda bottle if I ascend too quickly. The notion of Freediving starts to take on a different meaning.

At the surface the judges, heads down in the face of the returned diver check that all is ok and record the reading from the diver's gauge. The depth is announced, everyone applauds and a beaming face turns toward my camera – YES!

TV news crews arrive and are ferried out by rowed dinghy (a freshwater reserve, Lake Eacham is a no go for motors of any kind).

More rain and they cover their cameras as best they can whilst the freedivers beneath, attempt their best on the shot line.

The day before back at DiversWorld's centre in Cairns, each had nominated the depth they would attempt in one of three events: Constant Weight with Fins (CWT) – where divers descend with masks and fins; and Free Immersion (FIM) where divers without fins pull themselves hand-over-hand to depth.

The DiversWorld Australian Freedive Championship also saw the staging of a new event to the sport with the introduction of the Unassisted Freediving Challenge (UFC) – no mask, no fins, no wetsuit! – Good luck with that one!

The UFC is the last event, so I purge my BCD and drop again into the dark only this time I find myself head down, arse up and my fins beating air like a crippled duck. I continue flapping away and manage to snap off a couple of images of the next competitor as he descends. Later that evening, my floundering water ballet is aired on the local news – it was not a pretty sight but thankfully a lot more attractive then the images I caught of that last UFC diver, Gladstone’s John Pingelly.

John – ever a fashion tragic did his record attempt in a bright red Mankini!

Fortunately I was unable to follow him with the safety divers due to my sudden buoyancy (my integrated weight system has decided to drop their leadened load unannounced), but the laughter and cries of disgust were enough to let everyone know that mankini’s are unlikely to become standard Freedive criteria for future competition!

With rain threatening, everyone gathered ashore for the final tally and presentation of awards - three spectacular hand-blown glass freediver figurines mounted on hefty granite bases that had us all mentally calculating Qantas' carry-on surcharges! Aeris had also donated two F10 diver computers for the male and female overall winners - which were (pictured left to right): UFC winner - Cairns' Bjorn Nielsen who attained a depth of 26m; Overall Mens Freediver Champion - Queensland's Ben Noble who attained a depth of 53m in the Constant Weight with Fins (CWT), and Overall Womens Freediver Champion, WA's Jasmine Bastow, who attained a depth of 39m in the Constant Weight with Fins (CWT).

Click here for detailed scores for each section.

AFA President and Australian depth record holder Ben Noble remarked later that the DiversWorld Australian Freedive Championships - Cairns 2010 was one of the best national competitions he had ever attended and judging by the cheers that went up when Diversworld's Quinn Smith announced that DiversWorld would underwrite the national competition for the next two years making Cairns Australia's top Freedive destination - it looks like 2011 will be even bigger and better!

Special thanks also to Bjorn Nielsen of 1Breath who supplied all the competition apparel - but strenuously denies any knowledge of the mankini!