William Trubridge
Which Suunto products are you using?
Suunto D4 and D9 dive computers as well as Elementum Aqua.
What’s the best thing about your Suunto?
What impressed me most with the D4 was its functionality, accuracy, intuitive programming, and attention to details. The buttons are easy to find, and, compared to most dive computers on the market, very easy to depress. To enter dive mode takes just a single button press, and to turn dive mode off (so necessary for when you are safetying and need the stopwatch, or spearing/playing in shallow water and don't want to clog up the dive log) is just two clicks.
There is a 'depth notify' as well as an alarm, and both are very audible, so for those who need to mouthfill at exactly 38.5m, you won't miss it again! A surface interval alarm makes it easy to set recovery times for training tables. The D4 comes with a clear plastic sticker which can be applied to the screen (like an ipod) to protect from scratches. Big improvement on the D3's chunky plastic guard. When viewing the dive profile (which is displayed on the screen as a graph), you can stop or speed up the replay at any point.
The water temperature is graphed so that you can see how it changes with depth. The display can be backlit with green light: essential for when you are diving in murky water, or when doing naked statics in the pool at Long Island Breezes on the last night of Vertical Blue 2008.
Most memorable sporting moment
Breaking the world CWT record in 2009.
Story
Will Trubridge was the first ever winner of the Suunto Dive-Off competition held during the Vertical Blue 2010 invitational freediving event in April 2010 at the 203m deep Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas. Trubridge broke his own world record in the constant weight, no fins discipline (CNF) to top the Suunto Dive-Off table, reaching a depth of 95m on the penultimate day of the event and earning the title of World’s Best All-Round Freediver.
In CNF, divers are not permitted propulsion equipment such as fins and must use pure muscle strength to reach a metal plate lowered to the announced depth and retrieve a Velcro tag. A Suunto D4 dive computer is used to check the depth. For his 95m effort, Trubridge, 29, made seven breaststrokes to descend to 24m. At that depth his lungs are compressed to the point that his body is heavier than water and he enters the freefall phase of the dive, sinking all the way to 95m.
He turned at 1min 53sec after retrieving the Velcro tag, requiring a further 2min 3sec and 30 breaststrokes to return to the surface where he was cheered on by a group of athletes, close friends and local spectators. The record is Trubridge’s eighth in CNF and 11th in total.
“This was a great dive for me, especially since it puts me in the lead in the Suunto Dive-Off,” said Trubridge. “I'm also organising the event, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to achieve the relaxation and mental quietness that are necessary for very deep freedives. But when I entered the water I was able to detach myself from the stress. I really enjoyed the dive and felt calm and confident throughout.”
Awards
Based on competition ranking of multiple freediving federations, APNEA.cz awards annually the world best freedivers. William Trubridge won the World's Absolute Freediver Award 2010 (WAFA 2010). WAFA is the only existing global freediving award.
Related links
William Trubridge on Suunto TV
Check William's latest achievements in the Sports News!