Bali Adventures

Hi everyone!!!

The guys asked me to write a report on the trip, which I'm happy to do... I'm sure someone will find it interesting.

At the start of October I flew to Bali with my family for the deep-water training run by Natalia Molchanova (I don't think I need to explain who she is... :) ) I should say that Bali isn't the best place for freediving seminars, because the currents are really strong. And finding deep water without a current is practically impossible. Even though it wasn't my first time at the seminar, I picked up a lot of useful stuff. Finally I managed to break the 50-meter mark and dive to 51.5 meters!!!

After the week of training on Bali we moved over to the small island of Ceningan for spearfishing. I'd been to the Indian Ocean twice before, but this was the first time I really felt the full power of the ocean. The tides, with the water level changing by 2 meters, create currents so strong you could compare them to mountain rivers. Right at the peak of the rising and falling tide there's no strong current for an hour or two, but at that point there's no fish either. "No current - no fish" - that's what the local fishermen say. I have to say that over the 10 hunts I did there, about three times I had to haul myself up from 15-20 meters hand over hand on the float line. I mean, you're underwater trying to surface, kicking with your fins as hard as you can, and you're just standing still... Spearfishing in this region is pretty tough, but the trophies I saw there are worth getting used to these conditions.

On one of the hunts off Ceningan island, which is a sheer wall dropping into the depths (not sure exactly how deep, the divers say 40-plus meters), at 15 meters the biggest GT I got on this trip came out at me, 23 kg. The shot was practically point-blank, and here's the snag - the gun's bands got tangled in the monoline. The fish dragged the shaft down along with the whole rig. Trying to yank the gun free, I came to my senses at 23 meters and realized it was time to go up. Keeping the float line taut, I made it to the surface on my last breath. For 3-5 minutes I slowly pulled in the line, and I could already see from the surface that the gun was no longer on the monoline... The ocean took its toll for my trophy. My 140 Rob Allen. However many circles we did with the boatman, we never found the gun.

One more memorable moment... After finishing a hunt at the most tragically notorious spot (a lot of spearfishers have died here), called Batu Abah, my boatman was picking me up from an ocean that had already gone wild, and, underestimating the height of the waves and the strength of the current, one of the waves washed over us from the bow so that the boat was a quarter full of water. And the next wave tipped the boat over, almost capsizing it. I don't know by what miracle the boat righted itself, but when I looked around I saw my navigator-boatman floundering in the ocean 15-20 meters from the boat. The water had swept him overboard. I jumped to the motor to turn the boat towards him, but he shouted at me to stop. Luckily the guy was a good swimmer :) Once he climbed back into the boat, we slowly made our way out of that dangerous spot... For about 5 minutes all I heard out of him was swearing :) All's well that ends well! Now I look back on it all with a smile. And I'll remember this trip for the rest of my life!

Clear water and the trophies you're after to everyone!

P.S. I'll post a couple of pics now, and later, once I finish editing it - the film.