Deep Week November ’19 is a wrap!
Well ladies and gentlemen of the underwater world, it’s official; November 2019 Deep Week was the largest non-competitive freediving event in the history of the universe and it was held in the sleepy fishing town of Amed in East Bali.
For those of you that don’t know Deep Week, it’s a congregation of freediving students, instructors and celebrities that all converge on one location a few times a year to hang out, train, dive, learn from and get deep with each other!
Image: Francisco Mesina (@francisco_mesina_films)
Headed by Australian freediving champion Adam Stern, Deep Week has become increasingly popular and this week’s was the largest Deep Week yet. With 111 students, 67 instructors and four freediving celebrities, it really was a smorgasbord of freediving fun, logistically achieved through the amazing efforts of the Apneista and Blue Earth Village crews!
In what was probably the smoothest Deep Week yet there were no incidents and the safety crew had an easy week spending most of their time sunbaking on the paddleboards whilst debating quantum physics and reciting Machiavelli. The conditions were virtually perfect inside Jemeluk bay – as usual – and divers were well protected from the spring tides and strong winds we experienced during the week. Visibility was between 20 and 30m with the average water temperature sitting around 30C. November is always a great time to dive in Amed as the water has warmed up again after winter but the rain hasn’t spoilt the visibility yet!
Joining Adam was New Zealand freediving superstar and 102m Dynamic No-Fins world record holder, William Trubridge. William held workshops on No-Fins technique, maximising MDR and lung volume and equalisation it was fantastic to learn from him and have him visit Amed. Hopefully we’ll see him again soon!
Also visiting were Ukrainian world record holder Natalia Zharkova who held workshops in bi-fins technique, training programs, diet and equalisation, and Molchanovs pro instructor Vitomir Maricic who helped people solve their problems throughout the week as well. A big thanks to all of our visiting celebrities for giving their time to help everyone out.
There were plenty of highlights throughout the week but probably none more impressive than the lucky students that were visited by first a mola mola and then a pod of dolphins on the boat dive. Equally impressive was Adam Stern’s fin rescue in Jemeluk Bay (third video in the Instagram post below). When you lose a fin in 45m of water, who ya’ gonna call?
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4rvaCNAk0h/
As usual, the wreck diving was a big hit with the students and in their free time students took advantage of the amazing wreck diving that East Bali has to offer, with past visitors to Amed particularly keen to take a look at Amed’s fourth and newest wreck!
The lap pool and the static pool are both now open in Blue Earth Village so Deepweekers took full advantage of the great facilities to train and test themselves in the pool disciplines.
Image: Harry Webber
When you combine all of this diving with the hands-on training and problem solving on offer during deep week as well as yoga, crossfit and meditation in the mornings and evenings it’s no wonder Deep Week is becoming increasingly more popular as word continues to get out about this wonderful festival.
The next Deep Week begins this Saturday in Amed and there are a handful of last-minute places available so if you’re interested get in touch with Adam Stern ASAP. There’s also another Deep Week in Amed in April next year which is filling up quickly too so get in touch with Adam if you’re interested.
Image: Harry Webber
So with all that said and done all that’s left now is to rock the Deep Week closing party tonight but unfortunately for you guys there’s no cameras allowed because as any Deep Weeker knows, what happens at the Deep Week party, stays at the Deep Week party!
See you at the next one!
Written by Jereme Lane