Here at Evolution we get a wide variety of divers who have a wide variety of goals and objectives. When it comes to the more extreme end of diving – Advanced Trimix dives to 100m and beyond people have different motives. Like Dr Klaus Stiefel who trained with Evolution to make 100m dives so he could observe and photograph the various Goby species living at these great depths.
Or there was Jakob Hinrichsen who joined Evolution on our most exciting exploration project and along with Matt and David became the first person to find and dive the long lost MV Pioneer, sunk in 1966 in a typhoon with great loss of life and now lying in 110m.
Or veteran CCR diver Graham Sharp-Paul who after 40 years diving a rebreather had never seen it tick over into triple digits. But after diving with Matt he knew Evolution was the right dive centre to help him and Kalanggaman was the perfect location.
So when Advanced Trimix diver Valentin Stepanov came to Evolution for a week’s tech diving a discussion started about a potential deep dive. However Val had a particular number in mind – 111m. The reason is he has a nice Liquivision X1 T-shirt which pictures of a Liquivision computer display and the maximum allowable depth is . . . 111m. Apparently he often gets asked if he has been that deep and was sick of saying no. OK. So now we have a reason, let’s make a plan.
Val warmed up over the week with some incredible 55m shark dives at Monad Shoal as well some 55m day dives with Devil Rays and a big Marble Ray. Val practiced with the extra travel gas required to make the big dive and was comfortable quickly.
So the day arrived. Using 10/60 Trimix for Back Gas, a 20/40 Travel Gas and standard gases 50{3c584785206271acba0b48c760be4725f0625fa591b4a52f771ab721d5a102df} and 100{3c584785206271acba0b48c760be4725f0625fa591b4a52f771ab721d5a102df} for decompression David and Val were all set. With Matt kindly acting as support diver it was going to be a fun dive. Just 5 minutes from Evolution’s golden beach is The Trench, a deep drop off discovered by Evolution in 2010. This was to be the location of the dive with 105m already achieved here by Matt and David a couple of years ago.
There is a very deep section of vertical wall here so Matt plunged ahead and located this area and deployed an SMB to the surface. Once Val and David saw the marker it was time to go. With all 5 tanks attached they went over board and followed Matt’s line to the wall and kept on going. It was a sheer, vertical descent taking several minutes to get to 95m and felt much like a slow motion sky dive over a cliff.
But suddenly it started sloping more gradually so David and Val pushed down the slope using energy-efficient kicks to keep respiration at normal levels. Once the computers read 111m it was time for a quick look around and then start the long journey back up the wall. A slight down current made the deep section of the dive a little more interesting than it needed to be but soon the divers were back on travel gas at 54m and making the slow 3 metre-per-minute ascent.
The dive turned out to be a bit longer then expected. Although diving a written plan David and Val had a Heinrich Weicamp OSTC, a Shearwater Predator and of course the Liquivision X1, which gave rise to the whole adventure, between the team so the most conservative options were always followed.
So what better reason do you need to set the Open Circuit Deep Diving record here on Malapascua? A T-shirt, some good training and a sense of adventure is all it required. Well done to Val on this great achievement.
If you want to make a 100m dive with Evolution then get in touch. We can take you through all the training necessary to help you achieve this incredible goal. No T shirt required!
