If the word of the day was “anxious” on day one, day two was summarized by “redemption”. Davide Carrera of Italy shook off the monkeys and saddled back up for another shot at the 106m national record. Smooth and clean Davide brought back the tag and claimed the Constant Weight (CWT) record! Davide’s training has been going exceptionally well and everyone not only expected him to make the dive but cheered him on wholeheartedly. He truly exemplifies what it looks like to be part of the ocean and his faith and demeanor are infectious. Of his dive Davide says,
“The last two weeks in training have been going easy so I expected yesterday to go easy. I was stressed and a little bit tired so it didn’t go well. Today was a nice dive The most important thing is that I failed yesterday. Everyone was expecting me to do the dive easy but I was humbled. Today I was feeling the love from my friends and I felt really nice vibes. I even started to cry during my warm up because of the love I felt. This feeling was even better than achieving the record.”
But he wasn’t the only one wearing big boy pants on day two. Sebastian Lire of Chile gave his attempt at joining the 100m club another try. Having achieved the depth in training, everyone knew it was just a matter of taming the nerves, which he did! Sebastian plunged down to 100m Constant Weight (CWT) becoming the deepest man in Chile, and the first to break the 100m mark. No easy feat when the likes of Daniel Aries shares your flag. Sebastian said,
“The dive was nice although slower than I thought. A beautiful dive. The safety divers cheered me on on the way up and I surfaced with a national record of 100m, which is 15m more than the previous one! An important moment for me. I’m pretty happy.”
Kurt Chambers is no stranger to smashing national records. He reminded everyone of this fact on day two by pushing his own Free Immersion (FIM) record to 94m. The often quiet but thoughtful Kurt imparted these strong words; encouragement to himself and the rest of us.
“Only those of us here competing know our true capabilities up against the wealth of personal challenges we’re individually facing. Many of us could announce less to earn the crowd-pleasing white cards, but the number of yellow cards indicates how many of us are pushing ourselves ‘to our limits’ (whether physical, mental or simply equalizational). Hopefully we shall succeed!”
Pepe Salcedo started strong on day one and finished even stronger on day two earning a national record for Mexico with a 62m Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) dive. This guy is one to watch in the coming days!
Last but never least, Tomoka Fakuda of Japan also racked up another national record! 81m Free Immersion (FIM) and clean as a whistle. Her calm, collected and smooth dive style is inspiring. Yesterday, she celebrated under a barrage of splashing.
You wouldn’t think the athletes at the Caribbean Cup would have time for much else with all of the redemption dives going on but they always make time to honor each other! Don Kimball, 40 year swim coach and freediving enthusiast is sharing his time with the athletes, imparting his swim technique knowledge with them through daily pool workshops. Yesterday, he celebrated his 73 birthday.
Photos Courtesy of Alex St. Jean
