A cool experience

I must confess I had my doubts on weather or not I would be able to cope with the freezing water temperatures under the ice in Oslo. Most of my deep diving have been done in Egypt or Sweden in the summer, and the coldest I had previously tried was 7-8 degrees. This was on a short dip in Mjøsa, Norway's biggest lake, in May 2006.

But to look on the bright side, this would be a proof that I'm not so much of a chicken as I sometimes seem ;) And it would be an experience to tell the grandchildren about some day...


Luckily, I had just got sponsored a brand new suit from Elios sub. It is a 5mm Freedown suit with open cell inside. I also used a 2mm vest and shorts underneath, and stayed practically dry! The only place where I really could feel the cold, was on my face, hands and feet (the feet was okey after I put on a pair of socks with the tip cut off, partly over the monofin footpockets). It also helped alot to have some hot chocolate to keep warm :)

The cold water poses other challenges than simply keeping warm. Equalizing becomes much more difficult I realized. On the last dive of the competition on Sunday, I was focusing too much on getting down and the fact that it's really getting dark. I simply forgot to fill my mouth with air for the deeper equalization, called a mouthfill. On 35m I didn't have any air left, and even though I could see the light and the bottom plate clearly on 40m, I had to turn around. It was a new lesson learned about cold water diving!

I really felt that I moved some bounderies in Oslo Ice Challenge. I now know that cold water, no warm-ups, darkness and bad weather can not stop me from freediving. On my second dive, I was feeling the urge to turn around so many times. All the different excuses were passing through my mind, but I kept going down. Touching the bottom plate and starting swimming back up, I felt a great sensation of success. Seeing the light coming through the ice and the dark hole where I was returning to, is something I'll remember for a long time.