Suunto Blog

Crystal clear waters, incredible sealife, unspoilt beaches and untapped diving sites. And did we mention the pure luxury that only Ayada Maldives can offer? You could be enjoying all this and more next month but only if you send us your most memorable diving moment. There are just three days left before the contest closes. Already we have been inundated with your submissions – over 1,000 received so far. But we want to see more. Check out the collage below for some inspiration and then click here for all the details on how to enter. The contest closes at 9am CET, Monday 8th December. We look forward to seeing your entry!

The #Paradise contest is now closed and we will be announcing the lucky winners soon. Thank you to everyone for taking part. We have been overwhelmed by the number of images that you have sent in! Inspired.

They came from all over the world – 35 divers from 19 countries and for over a week they dived in the incredible location of Deans Blue Hole, to attempt records, to push their limits, to redefine the possible. Below we feature the full story from this year's 2014 Suunto Vertical Blue. At 100m depth the pressure is so strong your lung volume has reduced from the size of a watermelon to a can of cola. Everything is pitch dark. At the end of a line that hangs from the surface you have a simple job: to collect a tag from the bottom plate as proof of your depth and swim back to the top. But even simple tasks are rendered complicated – your body is desperate for oxygen, hallucinations are not uncommon. You have to rely on your training, on visualisation techniques to focus on staying calm and swimming back to the surface, one stroke at at time. Tomoka Fukuda celebrates after a dive. ©Daan Verhoeven For multiple record holder William Trubridge, everything was seemingly going to plan for his epic attempt to break his own record to 102m in the entirely unassisted freediving discipline of CNF (constant weight no fin) at the Suunto Vertical Blue freediving contest. This is where divers descend and ascend under their own power, with no fins and just one lungful of oxygen.“I prepared a lot for this dive and I feel like everything went well,” he said afterwards. “I spent a lot of time meditating and visualising the dive beforehand. I took my last breath and began the dive. In the freefall [descent] I was feeling good but I just wasn't quite capable.“Two thirds of the way up I started to feel tired and that it was going to be too tight. I signaled to my safety divers that I wasn't going to make it. They grabbed me and escorted me the last 10m to the surface.“Though I'm disappointed not to have achieved the goal, there is some content in the fact that I gave it my utmost best shot.” Will Trubridge makes his way to the surface. ©Daan VerhoevenFor the 34-year-old athlete, the failure to make the world record was off-set by the fact he was overall winner of the 7-day contest, in which divers accrue points over six dives. In second place was Russia's Alexey Molchanov and in third was Samo Jeranko from Slovenia. Overall female winner was Marianna Krupnitskaya from Russia. She said: “I knew I could do it. I'm pretty happy with my performances and I feel strong that I can go further next year.”To achieve overall first, Trubridge made a flawless CWT (constant weight) dive to 117m. “It turned out to be one of the fastest ever CWT dives I've ever done to that depth which is suprising to me because I haven't done CWT in a long time, as I've been focusing on the no fins discipline.”“I was really happy to have a nice comfortable dive and to win the competition with it,” he added.Now in its eighth year, Vertical Blue has been the venue for the breaking of dozens of world records. Competitors had six official dives to challenge themselves and their rivals to obtain the coveted Suunto Vertical Blue Championship title, which is awarded to the freediver who has accrued the most points. Prizes included the Suunto D6i and D4i, which both feature a freediving mode for easy recording of dives. Alexey Molchanov. ©Daan Verhoeven Suunto Vertical Blue 2014 also saw the introduction of the “Apnea Games” – a day of fun and alternative underwater events such as underwater somersaults, blowing oxygen rings and diving in tandem in memory of Nick Mevoli, who tragically lost his life in 2013. The contest takes place at Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas, the deepest known blue hole in the world.“Over the years we've grown to attract more of the world's top freedivers,” adds Trubridge. “They're going deeper, more national records are getting broken. The average depth in this competition was in the mid 70s. It just shows you how deep we're going! I plan to keep on holding it every year. It's really a great event.”“These are all friends, we're a big family,” says Austrian freediver Jakob Galbavy. “Everyone has a great attitude. Everyone is cheering with everyone. It's really great.”For now Trubridge is content to relax but he has vowed to come back with another record attempt. “I'm definitely going to attempt the CNF record again. This was just a plot twist.”

Mid-winter is traditionally a time for hibernation and holing up before the better weather of spring arrives. And so it is for the Under the Pole expedition who are currently over-wintering in Greenland. “All our suppliers are now installed in front of Ikerasak in our wintering place,” the team say in their latest dispatch. “The strong winds of these last weeks have not let the sea ice form. We hope to see the WHY [the team yacht] immobilized in the sea ice at the end of December.” “We have still two hours of light despite the fact the sun doesn’t rise any more above the horizon. Navigation is still practicable and we’ve made some back and forth to Uummannaq to pick up crew members and to protect us from the violent storms. At the beginning of December we registered winds of more than 65 knots! During 20 hours the crew did shifts to keep an eye on the hawsers and to protect the boat from the icebergs that came and hit the boat’s hull.” Despite this, diving conditions have been exceptional. “Visibility is magnificent, worthy of the incredible environments that we found at the North Pole in 2010. This winter is going to be remarkable,” adds Ghislain Bardout, expedition leader. Under The Pole is a series of submarine polar expeditions aiming to explore the hidden face of the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions in their diversities. The expedition, which is supported by Suunto, aims to further our scientific knowledge of the region and environment. For more info: www.underthepole.com All images © Lucas SANTUCCI / Under The Pole

Diver, cave explorer – someone who just loves to go diving at every opportunity. 2014 has been memorable for many reasons for Jill Heinerth. Here's why:      Any memorable dives of the year? Diving in the rift between the Eurasian and North America tectonic plates in Iceland was a real highlight. Slinking through towering icebergs in the misty ocean near Disko Bay Greenland was unforgettable and snorkeling with ten women across the Arctic Circle was a memory I will not soon forget. Was there anything you feel gutted you didn't do? I traveled to Croatia for a diving event that was fabulous but I had hoped to do some significant cave diving as well. Europe was experiencing some epic flooding at the time and many of the regions for cave diving were inaccessible. But you still went diving? I can’t really complain… I did get a couple of caves dives in any case and a terrific visit to a 1st Century Roman shipwreck. The archaeological work was being conducted by a large group of international students. I spoke to them about exploration, science and water conservation and they took me to their workplace – a Roman wreck of great significance.Looking ahead to 2015, what's number one on your tick list?I am heading out on for cave diving project in Cuba. If all the travel permits come in, I will be working with some scientists on documentation and exploration. I’ll also do some training for local scientists who have not had access to international expertise in cave diving. What other projects are you working on? I am working with an artist on some potential exploration of spring caves in Turkey. Many of these locations are significant Roman archaeological sites. Margaret Tolbert, painter and conservationist, has been traveling to Turkey for almost 30 years, painting the stunning landscapes around the springs. She is rallying an inter-disciplinary team that includes artists, scientists and explorers and I look forward on developing that project with her in the coming year.Where will you spend the holiday period? My holidays will be spent primarily underwater. I am working on some camera testing with a colleague from National Geographic. We are going to be cave diving with some new cameras and brand new lighting technology developed by Light and Motion. We were shooting some test photos and video over Christmas. For me, that is the best present I could ask for – a chance to do more of what I love most! All images ©Jill Heinerth

We received over 1,700 submissions in our Dive Paradise contest and chose three amazing winners to join us on an exclusive diving trip to Ayada Maldives. Choosing the winners was a challenge since there were so many potential candidates to win the main prizes. In the jury’s final selection there were about a dozen images, but only three initial winners. Now, as a new year’s gift, we have made room for two more winners. Welcome to join our trip to dive paradise Jen Weston and Dapeng Juan! Here are Jen’s and Dapeng’s great diving experiences. “Diving off of Koh Tao, Thailand, I came across a large anemone with some anemone fish hanging out at home. I got my Canon G16 camera as close as I could without being bitten or stung and snapped a few photos. I was lucky that there was plenty of light and no need for flash.”–Jen Weston from New York, USA “I had a stunning diving trip in Mexico and Galapagos Islands during October!”– Dapeng Juan from Beijing, China