Helen Garner is training to become the deep-diving champion of the world.
The South African champion free-diver left Cape Town for Dahab, Egypt, yesterday to begin preparing for the World Free-diving Championships in October.
Garner broke all the South African deep diving records last year. Her depth of 35 meters in the constant weight, no fins category placed her third in the world.
She says her main goal is to beat the world record for unassisted free diving. Russian free-diver Natalya Mochanova holds the record, 55m.
“I can sustain myself for well over five minutes on a single breath, and with the training I have lined up for the next four months, I am confident I’ll break the record,” Garner said.
She would also like to reach 70m with a monofin. Her personal best is 60m.
Free-diving unassisted means swimming breaststroke down to a marker, turning around and swimming back to the surface while wearing weights. Garner wears 2kg of weights around her neck.
“When I get to Egypt, I’m going to dive and better my standing records,” said Garner who switched to free-diving from competitive swimming last year.
She hopes to break the world unassisted record before the championships from October 21st to November 4th.
When she isn’t diving she teaches yoga and free-diving.
COMING UP FOR AIR: South African freediving champion Helen Garner has left for Egypt to prepare for the Freediving World Championships, where she hopes to break the 55-metre record.
Source: Cape Times, 4 July 2007
Author: Caroline Duncan
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