Gqeberha freediver Dr Gletwyn Rubidge has broken two South African records at the Freediving World Cup in Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt.
Competing against professional freedivers with unlimited access to the safe clear waters of the Mediterranean, the 55-year-old Nelson Mandela University chemistry lecturer combined SA gees and his hard-earned experience in big shark-infused swells off Noordhoek to make his mark.
On the first day of the competition in the constant weight no fins discipline, he dived to a record 58m in his son Zephyr’s wetsuit to honour the memory of the youngster, also a freediver, who died in a car accident a year ago.
And then on Wednesday, he held his breath for three minutes and 22 seconds and plunged to a 100m SA record in the constant weight monofin category.
Chevonne Bishop, Rubidge’s wife, said on Thursday she was proud and happy for her husband, who had fulfilled a long-held dream.
“There are not many freedivers in the world that have gone down to 100m, and even fewer who are not full-time professionals.
“This has taken him nine years of training almost every day.
“Gletwyn doesn’t get overly excited but when he phoned me from Egypt after the event, I could hear how pleased he was.
“He said he could feel the strain in his legs coming up from the bottom, but overall, things went exactly as planned.”
She said the biggest challenge for freedivers was handling the increasing pressure as they dived deeper.
“They have to ‘pop’ their ears to equalise the pressure in them with the surrounding pressure on their chest, lungs and eustachian tubes which connect the middle ear to the sinuses.
“If they don’t do it properly, they can burst an eardrum.
“Most freedivers turn back from trying to go deeper not because they’re running out of breath but because they’re struggling to equalise and the pain is too great.”
A total of 44 divers from 20 countries are competing in the 2024 Freediving World Cup in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, which began on May 16 and ended on Thursday.
The freedivers descend one at a time attached by a lanyard to a vertical line held taught by a weight.
They wear GoPro cameras or wrist computers and the judges use the data captured on the devices to verify how deep they have gone.
Their progress is also monitored on an echo sounder and sometimes, depending on the category, they have to grab a tag at a certain depth.
In the constant weight monofin event, the divers have a maximum six chances to see how deep they can go with a single weight, carried around their waists or their necks, which must be chosen carefully because it helps their descent but slows their ascent.
By descending to 100m, Rubidge — who has his Springbok freediving colours — broke the previous SA constant weight monofin record of 90m, which he set at an event in Cyprus in 2019.
In a post on Facebook after the second event, he said he was satisfied he had achieved the objective he had set himself nine years ago in a chat with dive buddy Bruce Mills.
“In SA waters, it is not easy to progress because of the cold, shark fears, current, boat requirement and so few freedivers who can handle the swell, wind, dark water and current.
“Try freediving in the pitch dark, it’s fun.
“But I finally attained my goal.”
His post was received with a flood of congratulations.
Bishop said it had been a difficult decision for Rubidge to travel to Egypt to compete because the event coincided with the anniversary of the death of Zephyr, 19.
The young man was in Sodwana on a dive master course when he suffered fatal injuries in a car crash.
“It was heartsore, but Zephyr was also a freediver and the no fins event was his favourite, so Gletwyn wore our son’s wetsuit to honour him — and perhaps it helped him achieve his first record.”
HeraldLIVE
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