Parisian attempts world diving record at Blachford
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 18/01) - "Holding your breath for one minute, 20 seconds is nothing," says Olivier Terzolo.
"But because of the temperature of the water, the psychological aspect of being under ice, the effort -- that presents the difficulty."
Sitting in a comfortable chair at the Yellowknife Inn Saturday, Terzolo is speaking in a heavy French accent about the challenge he will face either today or tomorrow at Blachford Lake. There, he hopes to set a new world record for free diving under ice.
Terzolo is going to attempt to swim 80 metres -- the equivalent of three lengths of the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, plus five metres -- through water one or two degrees above freezing.
For the attempt the 28-year-old Parisian will be wearing a tight-fitting wet suit that will stave off hypothermia for up to 15 minutes. A team of divers -- in dry suits -- will provide safety support and document the attempt for an adventure program produced by the Eurosport media network sponsoring the attempt.
"Because he will be free-diving under ice, he has to be very speedy, very hydrodynamic," said Theirry Flitti, part of the dive team, explaining why Terzolo will be enduring the cold in a wet suit. The current world record is 78 metres.
Visibility: 20 centimetres
Things went wrong beneath the ice three weeks ago, when the team was practising in a frozen lake high in the French Alps.
It was Terzolo's first time under the ice and conditions could not have been worse.
Beneath the 40- centimetre thick ice at Tignes visibility was 20 centimetres. You could see your hand in front of your face, but no further. As it will be at Blachford, a safety line running from hole to hole will be staked to the underside of the ice.
"There were problems with the attachments," recalled Terzolo about his experience in Tignes. "I was blocked between the holes."
Terzolo detached his safety line. In the darkness he had to feel for the hole, running one hand over the underside of the horizontal wall between him and the surface until he found it.
Because of that experience, he will not be using a safety line if the water is clear at Blachford. Judie Cohen, manager of tourism and sales for the lodge, reported the lake water was crystal clear.
A better view
The clarity of Blachford Lake is one reason the eight-man team chose it for the record-setting attempt, but what is above the water matters just as much. At 2,000 metres above sea level, the air at Tignes contains 20-30 per cent less oxygen than the air at Blachford. No amount of pre-dive deep breathing was going to get as much oxygen into Terzolo's bloodstream as there will be for the attempt at Blachford.
Sumptuous Blachford Lake Lodge also serves well as a comfortable base of operations for the attempt.
The main reason for holding the event here has nothing to do with diving. As a backdrop for adventure, there's no beating the rugged North in the eyes of Europeans.
"That's one of the big reasons we are here," Terzolo said. "I think the big Northwest Territories represents something like a dream in France. It's the adventure." The appeal of swimming under the ice begins and ends with the physical and psychological challenge.
"It's not a pleasure swimming in 2 C water," he answers when asked if there was any enjoyment in ice diving. "It's a way to go to my limits." Blachford is a far cry from the Mediterranean Sea, where Terzolo has done most of his free diving.
Over this winter he has been attempting to acclimatize his body to the cold by walking around Paris in a T-shirt.
"It's a physical and mental preparation," said Terzolo of the minutes before he takes the plunge. "The third element is oxygen. I have to prepare myself to pass one minute twenty seconds under water."
That involves jogging to warm up and deep breathing to maximize the oxygen content in his blood. In the minutes before sliding into the hole, he meditates.
The tone of Terzolo's explanations is sombre, a stark contrast to the banter between him and his fellow divers.
During their one-day stop in Yellowknife, the seriousness can wait until they are out on, and under, the ice.
