A day and a dive in Dahab

Woke up 8.00. Small breakfast. Meet the others at Freedivedahab at 9.00. Drive to Blue Hole. One hot lemon without honey. Putting on my worn out 3mm wetsuit and 3 kg of weight on my belt. Relaxing a bit in the sun. Swimming out to the line. My first warm-up (half empty lungs) to 19.5m ended abruptly when I by mistake swallowed all the air I had in my mouth to use for equalisation. The other freedivers were watching from above. Second warm-up dive. In this dive I did'nt swallow the air in my mouth and went all the way to 27.7m. Good. Im ready. After another minutes on the surface I was starting to get cold and needed to dive soon. My last deep breath with 4 packs on top of my full lungs and then a horrible duckdive into the line. Trying to keep calm and focused despite the bad start I continue to kick myself downwards with my monofin. At 22m my depth alarm sounds and tells me to take the famous mouthfill of air up from my lungs to the mouth. Good. I keep kicking slowly, slowly using the air in my mouth to make equalization. At about 35-38m I stop kicking since the air in my suit and my lungs is so compressed down here that my buoyancy is now negative and without moving a single muscle Im falling quicker and quicker down the line. At around 50m I see the arch (a big tunnel of blue water connecting The Blue Hole with the Red Sea) and I keep looking at the giant doorway until my other depth alarm sounds. Now Im close to the end of my rope. At the bottom, 1:14 after I have left the surface, I turn and start kicking myself upwards again. I enjoy the view of the arch and take care not to get tired in my legs too early. Around 45m I put my arms above the head and start looking for the safetydivers that should meet me around 25m. Oh, there is Linda smiling to me :) Where is Astrid? Oh, there she is... and now Im close to the surface so I relax and float calmly up to the surface. 2:33 has passed and Im feeling very OK. Happy smiling, I look at my divewatch and realize I just did a personal best with a few meters. The rest of the day I did nothing but smiling, resting and eating. Tomorrow is another day. Another deep dive.

Sharks, whales and whalesharks

Freediving with the big creatures... and some small too...

Mozambique has so far offered excellent freediving with big marine creatures. All quite accessible. And spectacular. In Pemba we went on a dolphin safari (you know, the kind of boattrips where you look for dolphins, but dont see them) and suddenly there was a whale! a humpbackwhale with a small calve. And we went in the water as it dove - but only reappear just under us and break the surface just in front of us - with the calve following close... that must have been the biggest thing I have ever seen move. As a contrast to the big whale - Pemba bay was this day filled with jellyfish, which added a psychedelic touch to the whole experience...

In Tofo (a bit boring place for a freediver) was i lucky to snorkel with a whaleshark. It was slowly cruising around and astrid and I followed it for some minutes until we got tired of keeping up with its speed. At one point the shark turned and passed one meter below me (I was in the surface and very excited).

Lately Astrid found out how to equalize with the fenzel Technique allowing her to go much deeper and she is now fooling around at +15m of depth taking pictures of what sealife passes

by...

On a drop east of the island of Ibo we found some whitetip sharks (small reefsharks 1-2m)that were cruising around at 18-19m depth. Astrid and I took turns photographing them while the other was waiting in the surface. A very nice experience.

Spearfishing offshore Maputo

Fishing with Nuno Dias and Emiliano

The day started early. 5 oclock I was woked up and off to Club Naval we drove. Rigging the guns, checking the gear and putting on some mid 90ties electropop on the boats stereo. Off we went. 1 1/2 hour out on the other side off Inhaca Island. 55km Offshore. First spot was fishing bluewater flasher style - no luck. Next stop was a big big reef with lots of wrecks. 10-18m. Fantastic. Lots of reef fish. In my first dive I dove directly down on a big freeswimming grouper, but beeing used to bad visibility from the Northern Hemisphere I misjudged the distance to the big fish and my spear didnt even reach the head before falling down on the wreck... That was my first dive. And it was only 12m deep. In the next two dives I saw nothing but just tried to calm down and focus. Then Emiliano dove down and was suddenly followed by 3 big creatures... I had no idea of what species - seeing them from the surface I thought of mini-torpedo-dolphins - but then as I approached I saw that it was big GTs (kingfish) and I took a shot to the biggest - but was again tricked by anxiety and good visibility and the spear hardly touched the fish. NOW I needed to get a grip on this... Easy now, Morten... Approaching a small edge overlooking a wreck was a nice predator swimming in the distance. Easy Morten... Wait. The fish got closer. I made some sounds and little by little I saw that it was a nice size. and quite close now. Waiting even a few seconds more and then I pulled the trigger and spear flew through the fish just behind the gills - a little too low, but still a good holding shot. I rushed to the surface with my hand on the line trying to pull the fish off the bottom where it started thrashing the spear around. I was really surprised by this strength! After a few minutes the fish was under control and Emiliano grabbed it and put it in the boat. A green Job Fish and with 8.8kg a quite good size too.

Then later Nuno shot a grouper and we spent some time pulling it out of the cage at 12m depth. But it succeeded at last. Meanwhile the grouper had attracted a few other fish that was effectively shot by Nuno and Emiliano during the pulling out proces. I got another Jobfish and managed to do the final pulling out of the gropuper before we took off to more dirty places (bad vis). Here it was 1-2 dives and then the spot were finished. As a newbie in these spots I watched Nuno and Emiliano working the spots catching very nice fish... very very nice fish. On one of the dirty spots we saw big schools of GTs rushing through the wreck and a giant grouper (named Rosalina, by Nuno and E) of +150kg patrolled the area. Quite astonishing and scary to see that big fish in that bad vis.

The day ended with a GT of 15kg shot by Nuno inside the wreck with a killshot. And with loud Electropop from last century we drove the boat back through the wind and waves. A very good day of fishing... Thanks to Nuno and Emiliano - and their fabolous boat "African Pompano".

btw I didnt even mention the whales on the way out, the rays and turtles on the reef and and and...

Freediving with sharks in False Bay

Kings of the kelpforest!

Sevengill Cowshark doesnt sound of much... does it? But to dive with them in 4-6m visibility in the chillish waters of False bay among big boulders and giant kelp - is quite an adventurous freedive! Steve, Astrid and I went for a day at the Cape Peninsula to see wildlife and dive with sharks... False bay is quite famous for its Great White Sharks but we had other plans than sitting stuffed into a cage with a bunch of other people... In a small channel in the kelpforest at about 10m of depth congreate the Cowsharks in late winther/spring. I was a little worried about the visibility and if Astrid could dive down to them. But after a few waits on the bottom. The sharks were there - and Astrid had nearly bumped into one from above as she came swimming downwards to the bottom. So cool. The sharks were quite confident and curious - they knew who rule the kelpforest! So we had awesome diving with these big fishes! Wow!

Below here are pictures from Dassin Island were we swam with the dolphins (in bad vis, but still...) and had a great day!

Last but not least I wanted to show you one of the best human/marinelife/freediving pics I have taken so far (please dont steal it). It was at Duiker Island in grrreat viz and with a lot a lot of seals hanging around to check us out... Cape Town, Steve, Hanli: Thank you!

For more photos from this day check: http://www.animalocean.co.za/diary/2009/09/cowsharks-ostriches-and-cape-point/