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Counter Ballest System

We mentioned earlier that we would talk about other safety systems being used here at the world championship. To explain the counter ballest system we first need to explain that in Freedive depth events an athelete swims down to a preanounced depth. At that depth is what we call a bottom plate. Attached to that bottom plate are tags that the freediver is to retrieve. Under the bottom plate is a 20Kg weight, a light and a bottom camera to record the performance. The rope that attaches to the bottom plate is premeasured while wet and under stress. Markers are placed on the rope so that the rope can easily be moved up and down to the announced depth. In this case the rope runs through two blocks at the surface and off the back of the platform. The rope that is off the oposite side of the platform has a 40Kg weight so that if the rope is released from the clam cleats on the platform the heavy 40Kg weight will sink and will pull the bottom plate to the surface. Because the athelete is attached to the competition line with a 1m lanyard the diver will also be pulled to the surface. The setup here is really nice because a lot of rope is exposed to the surface and during our trial activation 4 people helped the rope run in the direction of the counter ballest significantly increasing it’s speed. Briging a diver to the surface at about 1.5 m/s.