dariusz wilamowski - garda 2012 deep dive project
TRANSCRIPT
The Garda 2012 projectDeep diving record a6empt -‐ unedited full account
by Dariusz Wilamowski, Finnsub.com ambassador (full story at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012)
This entry's a bit on the long side. I dedicate it to all those who complain that I don't write enough or I impose some sort of informa:on embargo. I don't write you see. I dive.
For the dive, thirty tanks were needed for deposits only. Together with the nine tanks I'd have on me and a couple of others waiIng on the shore "just in case" I needed more tanks and regulators than a mid-‐sized diving centre keeps for its OWD students. I've been diving with Sherwood for two years and they've done well on a couple of trips below 200 meters. Some of the regulators were provided by Scubapro company and some by my unfailing friends. "Only" ten stages with regulators were missing, which in the end was contributed by Alex from VerIgo.
full story and photo gallery at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012
ARer preparaIons and a couple of hour drive we arrived in Garda. August is a tradiIonal holiday month in Italy and finding space in the campsite is a miracle,
especially if you need more than one plot. There were no spaces available around the diving site so we had to go to a campsite located 45 km away.
The first days were spent on seWng up the direcIon line. We brought with us both the line and the dinghy as well as the line weights that were made for me by Sławek Dobrowolski. Piotr and I swam within a couple of hundred meters around the entry to the diving site. We threw the line every couple of meters and searched for the right depth. ARer two days of trial and error we managed to fix the line. It seemed the hardest part was done. On Saturday Adam and Foka joined us straight from Ireland. They brought a van full of equipment and tanks. Just like us, they brought the gas-‐mixes with them.
full story and photo gallery at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012
On Sunday I made a trial dive down to 150 meters and Piotr, Adam and Foka made correcIons to the line tension. Also on Sunday we tried to align the deposit line and that's when the trouble started. Despite a couple of a;empts the deposit line didn't want to go along the direcIon line. Within the first 100 m the weight caught on the rock shelves. I needed to make three dives above the iniIal plan – once to 110m and
twice to 130m to adjust it. It seemed that aRer that the line was fixed all right. Unfortunately, considering all the Ime spent on fixing the line I already knew I wouldn't be able to perform the main dive within three weeks, aRer which Ime my support team was leaving. On top of that we were also troubled by a strong wind that was making all the preparaIons even more difficult. The waves pushed by the blast of winds hindered even geWng into the water. To carry the twinset down the steep rocks was difficult at the best of Imes and mounIng more that 4 stages required help. On the rough lake mounIng stages was impossible as the diver tossed about by the waves was in danger of hiWng against the rocks and slipping from the hands of the support team mounIng the stages.
As the iniIally fixed date of the dive approached, my team was assembling. On the 10th of August Ania arrived and then, mid-‐month, Robert Antonowski with Rafał. Also the Czech part of our team joined us – Zdenek Mazec and Zuza Banasova. Within three days we fastened all the deposits except oxygen. Robert found Ime for a li;le 150m dive, too :} Zuza broke Czech women's diving record, she dived 151 meters. Piotr, Kasia and Foka went back to Nova Gorica and fetched the rest of the gas mixes. On 22nd of August the team dispersed and I stayed with Ania, Zdenek and Zuza. I was ready for the main dive. We set up THE date for the 24th and watched the weather anxiously.
The day before the dive was almost windless. The heat, unIl now about 30ºC, increased. We were resIng in the campsite under a poplar tree and waiIng for the morning to come. We were going to set off early, aRer breakfast. Yet during the night the wind came and at 3 a.m. we already knew it wasn’t favourable. The campsite is located on the lake’s wide shore while the diving site in the narrow part. The wind restricted by the surrounding mountains gain speed there and raises bigger waves than in the open part of the lake. The diving spot are surfers Mecca but for the divers even light wind means that going into the water is more difficult if not impossible altogether. A;empIng to dive to such depth I needed a really calm day. Only with a completely smooth surface we could mount six stages – 20 litres each – without risking to crash against the rocks.
The wind was blowing for two days. The following night, hoping it would calm down in the morning, we slept in the cars parked on the shore, just by the entrance to the diving site. At 4 a.m. we were woken up by a storm. The wind had no intenIon of stopping. Another a;empt failed. I decided to wait Ill the aRernoon, as about midday the wind usually calmed down. On Wednesday aRernoon the weather improved but the heat wave returned too. At 40ºC in the shade – the shade not to
be found in the diving site anyway – I wasn’t able to put on layer by layer of thermoacIves, the undersuit and the dry suit. When I was at the last layer of thermos I felt already that I was geWng a heat-‐stroke. I got undressed just in Ime.We planned the dive for Thursday early in the morning and again we were going to spend the night by the diving site. On the day everything went smoothly, the weather was great – the sun sIll hiding behind the mountains, no wind, no waves – and the equipment worked fine. I submerged to 50 meters without a problem. At 60 meters I felt cold inside one glove. During the first gas change, twisIng off the valve I must have damaged it. Water was clearly spreading over my hand. I decided to go back. I started to slow down at 70 meters so, the load considered, I managed to stop below 80.
full story and complete photo gallery at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012
I had to make up my mind. Piotr, Bogusia, Zdenek and Zuza had to leave and Ania was going back too. We agreed with Zenek and Zuza that they’d be back on the 4thSeptember. I couldn’t leave all the tanks under the water, so my decision was to stay and do some deeper dives and to pracIse submerging along the direcIon line. I was waiIng for return of my Czech support for 10 days. I did a few air dives and 3 Imes I went down to 150m. I regularly checked the deposits. The August was gone by then and so were the tourists. The campsites offered a choice of spaces and
I moved to the one that was 5 km from the diving site. Zdenek and Zuza returned earlier than promised and brought with them Petr Graca. With their support I pracIced afresh diving to 150 meters with the equipment I was going to take below 300 m.
Lake Garda in September is even more harassed by wind and storms than in August. It caused breaks in diving rouIne. I did the last trial dive on the 5th September. The final a;empt was to take place on the 7th. The weather – again! – thwarted our plan. In the morning of Saturday the 8th we were in the submersion place at 8 a.m. Unfortunately the wind was blowing and the waves raised high so we decided to wait Ill noon.
full story and complete photo gallery at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012
The improvement didn’t come. Windsurfing forecast predicted light wind for Sunday. We put off the a;empt Ill the next morning, but on Sunday in the morning weather was sIll unfriendly. On that day we’re ready at the submersion spot at 6 a.m. Large waves make it impossible to dive but the wind seems to be calming down. We go back to the campsite but I checked on waves every 20-‐30 minutes. At 12.30 the wind dies down at last and there’re only ripples on the lake surface. We set off. I start dressing about one o’clock in the full sun. Zdenek parks the car so that it gives me maximum shade. Umbrellas help too. Everybody fans the air around me with towels :} I works! I didn’t get overheated. PuWng on the equipment and
mounIng the stages goes calmly and smoothly. I begin submersion around 2 p.m. I have 22 minutes for going down, aRer this Ime I have to start back up. If everything goes according to the plan I will finish the dive in the morning – in more than a dozen hours. The first gas change takes place at 50 m. I switch to travel gas used to the depth 200m and swim along the direcIon line, not further than 4 meters. At 170m the main light goes off – it turns out later that I abraded the torch cable with the twinset while puWng the gear on. That doesn’t bother me though. I’d assumed that I’d be using mainly the light fixed in the harness. I move closer the line to see it be;er in the dimmer harness light. At 200m it’s Ime for another gas change. I conInue going down. ARer a while I feel something graze against my legs and see a white loop of the line next to me and then underneath. White loops are squeezed between the stages to the leR. My descending slows down and stops altogether aRer some Ime. There’s a kno;ed deposit line behind me. The same to the leR. I try to disentangle but the line catches all the sIcking out elements and there’s so much of it. In front of me I see a deposit line weight and the line coiled round it. I check the manometer on the stage, it reads 80 atm. In a moment I have to switch to the twin supply. Galileo reads the 18th minute of submersion and 243 meters. I try to reduce the depth by pumping up the wing’s, it’s good to have ample buoyancy reserves :} Finnsub did a good job. The gas runs out in the stage. I switch to the twin and start to emerge sIll disentangling the stages. The first effects are already visible – I see a couple of coils driR away. I throw the weight over the line and that also goes down. At 220m I switch to the first decompression stage. I stop for a minute. There are a couple of coils leR between stages. I’m heading up. I stop at 190m. The bloody line is sIll twisted around stages but I can emerge now. Some minutes past and I get rid of the last coils.
At 153m I switch to the next deco gas and only then I start thinking of adjusIng the run-‐Ime. I’d done some similar dives so I remembered approximate Imes and depths of decompression stops. I switched to the first deposit stage at 114m. That was when I felt Ingling in my leR hand, a clear sign of decompression problems. Planning the dive I have taken these sort of troubles have into account. Pulling the line and struggling with entangled stages at 240 m doesn’t go without consequences. I adjusted decompression as I went. ARer about 2 hr 30 min I reach 66 m. Zdenek came to me with a ba;ery pack for heaIng. I didn’t want to take it with me because I was using Lola heaIng equipment which doesn’t provide canister ba;eries for such depths. About one hour later Zuza came to bring hot water and to take some of the stages. On the way up I’d collected 4 deepest deposits and together with the six ones I had from the beginning I’d had ten on me. At 24m Greca
arrived with more water and chocolate bars. Between 18th and 15th meter Zdenek relieved me of all the remaining stages. ARer that I received some more water&chocolate visits :} from all of them. Chocolate bars were soR and easy to swallow but the caramel hardened fast and it took some chewing, without taking a breath! I wonder whether freedivers take chewing gum :} ARer 10 hours and 12 minutes I finished the dive.
full story and complete photo gallery at h;p://bit.ly/garda2012
A whole year of planning and implemen:ng the project was an invaluable and very instruc:ve experience. It also confirmed my thoughts on good luck: is it about diving, diving prepara:on, or diving support and about all those people who didn’t take part directly in the dive but without whom the whole thing couldn’t have happened :} I would like to thank all of you :} Darek
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