Let It Be Tough – Ant Williams

I saw we’re both pushing for 70 metres today. Good luck with your dive. How are you feeling?’ Jean practically winces and returns my gaze with palpable reluctance. He looks miserable. ‘Look, man, nothing personal but the truth is I’m freaking out that you are here right now,’ he says. ‘As if there wasn’t enough pressure.

Now I’ve got a newcomer competing against me and going to the very same depth…’ With an audible sigh, Jean turns to face the sea again. I walk away feeling a little sheepish that my friendly approach backfired. This freediving lot can be a tough crowd. But the encounter has also buoyed my confidence.

Some of these hardened veterans are clearly struggling to deal with the strain. Perversely, that makes me feel calmer and more in control. By the time our boat arrives, the barge platform is lurching up and down on the waves. I’m keen to get into the water soon to stave off the possibility of getting seasick.

All up, there are eight men competing in this session. Joseph Tufts, a photogenic American who’s starring in a big freediving documentary next year, is aiming for 61 metres. Three of us are targeting 70 metres, while the remainder are attempting depths between 74 and 84 metres. Maybe it’s the trickiness of the conditions or the pressure of competition, but the overall success rate is low, with only three of the divers achieving their goals. Jean is one of the unlucky ones and blacks out. After he surfaces, safety divers crowd his limp body, blowing on his face and saying his name repeatedly until he coughs, splutters and jerks back to consciousness.

Somehow, I still feel unusually calm. You know what to expect, Ant. You know it’s going to be brutal, you know that you’re going to be crushed. Let go and accept it. Just get it done. Four minutes later I surface with the 70-metre tag in my hand. Dazzled by the sunlight, I flash the okay sign and take a second to compose myself before offering the verbal confirmation the safety protocol requires.

‘I’m okay,’ I say a little breathlessly at last.

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook. Join our mailing list to get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox. OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com For whoever needs permission to take the risk they want to take. Here it is. OceanofPDF.com PROLOGUE At the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, Long Island in the Bahamas is a splinter of land barely 6 kilometres wide at its broadest point.

One side is buffeted by the roaring surf of the Atlantic, the other lapped by the neon blue of the Caribbean, with the two halves conjoined by a tropical coastline scalloped with rocky coves and stretches of pristine white sand. Yet tucked in a hidden nook of this beach- bum paradise is an underwater cavern that locals claim is a direct portal to hell.

Islanders believe that Dean’s Blue Hole was dug by the devil himself. Most flatly refuse to swim there out of fear that Satan will emerge from the depths to drag them down to their doom. This sense of dread is fuelled by the sinkhole’s freaky geology. Positioned just 20 metres off the beach, Dean’s Blue Hole consists of a long, vertical cave that looks like a bottomless pit. The limestone shaft extends down and down to a depth of 202 metres.

For superstitious locals, that leaves plenty of room for demonic forces to lurk. The scare stories are backed with a body count. Three tourists from Nassau drowned at the Hole a few years ago, while six months back, a 19-year-old lobster diver vanished while his family enjoyed a picnic on the beach. The teenager’s body has never been found and his white bones are now believed to lie somewhere in the Hole’s black abyss.

Personally, this folklore doesn’t faze me. The only demons I’m worried about are the mental ones that could sabotage what I’ve come here to do. I’ve travelled more than 15,000 kilometres to the Bahamas from my Sydney home to compete at Vertical Blue 2012, an invite-only competition for the best freedivers in the world.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Unique ID: 1f8bfb3bbf3c788c
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 32,274,090 bytes (30.779 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 275
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 440.9 minutes
• Total Words: 88,181
• Total Characters: 493,974
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