Going Deep with Deep Dive Dubai

Towards the end of last year, on the 25th of November, I had just had a series of blissful freediving sessions. I had this strong, unshakable urge to push myself as far as I could go. I wanted to answer a question … how deep could I go?

That afternoon, as I sat in an outdoor restaurant by the sea with my wife, I thought about how I might go about answering that question. Where could I train? Who could I learn from?

As the sunset, I wrote a short list of potential sponsors to consider reaching out to:

Given my involvement with the Saudi Racing team, I thought government sponsorship might be a possibility, but unless a team or initiative already exists, response and engagement tends to be slow. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Saudi doesn’t have an official freediving team. Redbull came to mind because they have a clear mandate to sponsor athletes involved in so-called extreme sports. Looking back, I’m not sure why I ended up writing them down … I wouldn’t want to represent a company that sells a product I’m not a fan of, let alone one that I’d never even consider ingesting. It’s just not in alignment with my values. That left only one option. I drafted the following message and sent it through Deep Dive Dubai’s website contact form.

—— message starts ——

Nov 25, 2021, 15:28 UTC

Hi there, hope you’re doing well!

My name is Fahad. I started freediving last year, and have since become completely obsessed with the sport. My goal is continue to explore my aquatic potential, particularly in the no-fins discipline, to see how far I can go.

I’m currently in the process of reaching out to potential sponsors and partners to help me achieve my goals.

Having visited Deep Dive Dubai for a few sessions recently, I thought it might be worth reaching out to you to see if there’s a chance of working together.

I see that you’re investing in different forms marketing to help raise awareness about your beautiful facility and also to raise awareness about the sport in a broader sense. But I believe that there’s an untapped opportunity that we could potentially collaborate on, which is … documenting the journey of reaching the bottom of the pool, using the purest form of freediving. I believe this could add a relatable, “anyone can do this” kind of story that would complement your current promotional activities very well.

What I can offer:

• Mindset and dedication to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom, safely.

• Being a native Arabic speaker, I could help create a compelling story that resonates with locals.

• I’d be willing to move to Dubai, at my own expense, until the goal is achieved.

In exchange, something along these lines would be amazing:

• Complementary access to the pool to train with an instructor during unbooked hours, or possibly before/after official operating hours.

If this is something that might interest you, I’d be more than happy to get on a call and think things through in more detail.

Here’s a link (https://fahadalgosaibi.notion.site/Fahad-s-Bio-ea4848dfd3634d15a7dc5d91f822f241) that includes information about me, to simplify your background check :).

Best regards,

Fahad Algosaibi

—— message ends ——

You can only image how excited I was when I received the following response:

—— message starts ——

Dear Fahad,

Thank you for your interest in Deep Dive Dubai. We already have a few freedivers working with us to achieve goals similar to what you are proposing, but we feel that you could be a good match.

We would like to invite you for a meeting at the facility, and discuss the details of the collaboration.

I am looping in Nataliia, one of our resident freediving instructors, and also Saska and Sened who is on the marketing team with me.

Let us know when you are in town and available for a meeting.

Many kind regards

Jesper

—— message ends ——

Not knowing what to expect, I flew to Dubai for our initial meeting in early December. I was pretty nervous as I walked into Deep Dive Dubai. I knew this could be the start of something special and I didn’t want to mess things up. The team was extremely friendly and welcoming. Right off the bat, from the way everyone spoke, it kind of seemed as though everyone was on board with the general idea and keen to get the ball rolling. We very quickly moved onto to discussing minor details, which made me very happy. Generally speaking, we were all in alignment!

Being able to train at Deep Dive Dubai was a dream come true because …

• It means access to depths up to 60m is just a 15 minute commute away. I became so accustomed to spending anywhere from 45 minutes up to 2.5 hours to reach a depth of 20 - 40m in Bahrain or the Eastern Province of Saudi.

• It means guaranteed perfect conditions … every, single, day. The pool is temperature controlled at around 30 degrees Celsius. Zero current. Truth be told there might be the occasional scuba diver that might get in your way, but that’s just part of the love/hate relationship we share wherever we go.

• It means no compromise when it comes to safety. The crystal clear visibility means it very easy for your safety diver to keep an eye on you even when you’re 30+ meters away. It’s a controlled environment with over 50 underwater surveillance cameras.

Little did I know, I was about to get so much more than I could even dream of. Having access to a world class facility is one thing, but having access to the right mentor or coach is equally, if not more important. The team behind Deep Dive Dubai includes some of the most talented people in the world. Lucky for me, this project (codename: DDD Bottom Challenge), was being spearheaded and managed by none other than 5 time world champion, 100m+ freediver, Nataliia Zharkova. Woah!

From left to right: Yours truly, Coach Nataliia, and Jess. Jess is my partner in crime on this mission to the bottom of the pool. She’s using the bi-fins discipline (CWBF), while I’m focusing on the no-fins discipline (CNF).

Natallia’s wealth of knowledge and experience became clear as soon as I started training with her. It was my first time learning from someone who can dive over 100m. I absorbed every word she said like a sponge, and wrote down notes and reflections diligently after every training session. Nataliia’s level of care and commitment to our development as athletes felt extremely empowering. Before attempting a deep dive, it felt as though she was more nervous than I was. Upon setting a new personal best, she seemed even happier than I was. The dream team was in place, Deep Dive Dubai was our new home, only one factor remained … diving deeper.

Of course, things don’t always go according to plan. Setbacks, hurdles, challenges, problems … they are bound to arise. It’s not about how to avoid them because they’re inevitable. It’s about how to confront them with the right attitude and make the best of each situation. If you’ve come across an earlier post, Dahab Setbacks, you’ll know I’ve had my fair share of setbacks, which have helped me build resilience to face the looming challenges.

Contracting Covid-19 towards the end of December after just 2 weeks of training was my initial setback this time around. Fortunately, the symptoms weren’t too bad. I did lots of reading, kept up to speed with work, became obsessed with chess, built a Taj Mahal out of lego, and did some light yoga and breathing exercises when I had enough energy. As I eased back into training I was happy to quickly get back to the depths where I left off without a tangible impact on my performance.

About two weeks later, I experienced one of the most intense sensations of pain I’ve come across. It was a severe pain in my left ear, which made it impossible to sleep all night. By around 3 am, in sheer despair, I began calling all the hospitals in Dubai, only to be repeatedly told that I’d need to see a ear specialist later at normal working hours. I was a bit scared because I’d never experienced anything like this before. Turns out it was an ear infection caused by a build-up of excessive earwax that ended up trapping water inside. The doctor removed the earwax, which was one of the most satisfying feelings. All of a sudden, I could hear things in high definition … all this time I had no idea what I was missing out on! She said that I needed to stay out of the water for at least seven days. Two days later, I was back in the pool. Leading up to this point, I had been having difficulties equalizing, specifically in my left ear. Finally, those issues were completely gone. Now I know why!

About another week later, on the 24th of January, we were gathered for a special occasion: Nataliia’s birthday. It was a lovely outdoor gathering at a park, where we played frisbee and barbecued food. I love frisbee … well, I used to at least. As we started throw the frisbee around, I felt the monkey inside me break free. I began doing handstand, forearm stands, front / back rolls, and theatrical dives to catch the frisbee. During one of these completely unnecessary dives, my hand was wide open as I neared towards the grass to try catch the disc at the last second. To my surprise, my ring finger got caught in a slight bump, and it didn’t stand a chance against the sheer momentum of my body in flight. I heard a really loud snap. When I looked towards my hand, expecting to see something not too pleasing, here’s what I saw:

This isn’t actually my hand. I found this picture online. But this is pretty much how my right ring finger looked.

My first thought: I’m not going to have a ring finger on my right hand anymore.

Second thought: I’m pretty sure I can keep freediving without this finger … ah, what a relief.

Third: Maybe I should try snapping it back in place? … Snap!

Snapping it back into place felt a lot more painful than the initial dislocation, but I had an instinctual feeling that this had to be done (and thankfully, in hindsight, I was right).

Meanwhile, a few people around me witnessed this process. I laughed it off, picked up the frisbee, threw it, and said “Alright, let’s keep playing!” Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the group was a bit too traumatized to keep going. Up to this very moment as I type these words, my finger is still swollen, and hasn’t regained it’s range of motion. It’s slight discomfort basically, but otherwise I’m pretty much back to normal.

Saska made this awesome splint while we were at the park using tissues, a hair band and cardboard. Thanks Saska!

Working with the doctor through this experience was interesting. Long story short, he really wanted to put some sort of cast as a brace that I’d have to keep on for a month. The brace isn’t waterproof which would mean no freediving. I told him that this wasn’t an option. He said there was another option of using a removable brace, but he strongly advised me against this. I went for the removable brace, and three days later I was back to training at the pool. It was a bit painful initially, but got easier over time.

On the 16th of February, less than a month later, after a training session, I felt a sudden urge to cough, and a slight heaviness in breathing. I did a spit test. And found out that I had significant internal bleeding. It felt like a trachea squeeze. I’ve found that, with every freediving injury, comes a lesson, and it worked on analyzing every possibility with coach Nataliia until we found our takeaways. Since it can be risky to go back to diving with a wound that isn’t fully healed, we agreed that I’d need to take at least two weeks off training. These are the times when mentally things get very challenging. Self-doubt creeps in as I start to wonder if I’ll ever make it to the bottom of the pool. It can be crippling to think of the big picture at every step of the way, so I tried my best to stay with the present moment. After all, life is just a series of present moments.

On March 5,  I did a very light open water freediving session. On March 11, I finally went back to the pool, continuing to gradually ease back into it.

April 6 marked a huge milestone. I touched the bottom of the pool for the first time, but I pulled myself down and back up using the dive line which is freediving discipline known as Free Immersion or FIM. Now I knew I was able to equalize my ears down to 60m, I was ready to switch back to diving without fins.

What followed were a series of really blissful dives (without fins) where everything kept going according to plan. I rode a wave of confidence that kept getting bigger and bigger. I conserved as much energy as possible between dives. The only physical activities I did, besides diving, were yoga and walking. My emotional state was as calm the time before a storm.

• April 8: 50m.

• April 10: 53m.

• April 13: 55m.

After this dive, later during the day, a sebaceous cyst that I’ve had on my back for the past two years or so popped and started bleeding. When I went to see the doctor she said that this might get infected, and that I’d need to go on a 7 days course of antibiotics. I asked her if there were any signs of infection, and she said that there were none but it’s a necessary precaution. I tried to asked her why it was necessary but she brushed me off and said that I should just take them it I wanted it to heal safely. Little did she knew, I had other things in mind.

Studies have shown that antibiotics can have strong side effects and could lead to a decrease in physical performance. I know it’s risky to go against your doctor’s orders, but I decided not to take them (and luckily I didn’t end up getting an infection … phew). I needed my body to be in the best state possible for the days to come.

• April 17: 56m.

• April 20: 58m.

• April 22: 60.2m.

Here’s what part of the dive looked like from the perspective of a scuba diver at 30 meters (swipe right to see the video):

falgo.jr

A post shared by Fahad Algosaibi (@falgo.jr)

The 60m dive felt relatively nice and easy, and less physically stressful than some of the previous dives. It’s exciting to know that I’m still not close to my limit. And equally exciting that Deep Dive Dubai will continue to support me as continue to set my sights deeper. I’m still just as curious as I was the 25th of November … how deep can I go?