Who Trolled Amber? - In the bag | Deep Water Ep3

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Vertical Blue, 2023, the moment the doping scandal erupts. The competition organiser, William Trubridge, recounts his plan to catch the dopers – and Lydia investigates the fallout of a very controversial drugs bust.Subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to binge listen to the entire series on Tuesday 18th November.To find out more about The Observer:Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentHead to our website observer.co.uk Reporter - Lydia Gard Producer - Gary Marshall. Music supervision and sound design - Karla PatellaSound design - Rowan BishopPodcast artwork - Lola Williams Fact checking - Poppy Bullard, Katie Gunning, Amalie Sortland, Madeleine Parr & Jess Swinburne Executive producer - Basia Cummings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Observer In the end, it fell on my shoulders to make it happen. It was a really tough decision, to be honest. It's 2023, and Will Trubridge has been free diving his entire life, competing for more than 20 years. now in his early 40s he's part of the establishment and as one of the most titled free divers in the world he has a strong voice in the community

he's from New Zealand but he's been based in Long Island in the Bahamas for years it's the home of Vertical Blue the world's most exclusive free diving competition the one at the centre of the doping scandal and Will's the guy who runs it he's hosting 39 athletes who've signed up to compete including the Croatians.

The event will be live-streamed to a crowd of up to 100,000 spectators, some of the biggest brands in the business, like Garmin, are sponsors. In the build-up to the opening ceremony, he's doing his usual preparation, but this year he's planning something a little different that only a handful of people know about. Remember that Facebook Messenger group that Donnie told us about, where the athletes have been talking about acting on the doping rumours. Well, Will's an instrumental member, and he's decided to put his head above the parapet.

We had realised that the existing strategies, the existing testing in free diving wasn't sufficient to prevent doping from happening. Vertical Blue is a private competition, but it's being officiated by Ada, one of the two governing bodies. Not yet a water signatory, they do follow the same. anti-doping rules. Ada's website says that while organisers have responsibilities regarding logistics, safety personnel and setup, they do not have the authority to change the core competition rules or create their own, as this would compromise the integrity and official status of the competition.

Yet in January, Will updates his doping policy for Vertical Blue, to include benzodiazepines, the drugs believed to be performance-enhancing. And he comes up with a plan. to catch the athletes he may be using them. It was a really tough decision to do the luggage search. I felt like it was the only way because it would be so unexpected, but it was by no means easy. Initially I'd asked other members of my team and none of them were capable or willing to take this role. I understood afterwards why.

Will's approach is to his mind justified. He wants to save his sport. uphold its values, but the road he takes to get there is off the beaten track, and that road does not take him where he expects it to. I'm Lydia Gard, and from Tortoise Investigates and The Observer, This is Deepwater. the bag. In July of 2023, I held the world record in

unassisted no fins free diving, which is where you don't get to use any propulsive equipment of any kind, and you cannot use the rope itself to pull yourself down and up. So you're just swimming with your hands and feet as deep as possible. I see it as pure human

aquatic potential because it's just the human body unencumbered. And at that time, I held the record at 102 metres. Will Trubridge has held this record since 2008. No Fins is the purists' discipline. A dive to 100 metres takes around four minutes and 15 seconds. No equipment, nothing to assist you down and back to the surface,

but a modified breaststroke and a lung full of air. That requires exceptional, mental and physical strength. Only a handful of people in the world that I've passed 80 metres in this punishing discipline and only two were in world record territory at that time. One of them was Petar Klova, the Croatian diver at the centre of the doping rumours. I mean, he was obviously chasing the world record in Nofans

and that had been his goal. At that point, I don't know if he'd come very close to it, there'd been rumours that he had done 100 metres in training or something around that depth. But in competition, I think the deepest he'd gone was maybe 93 or so. Coming to the Bahamas, where the conditions are so good, I'm sure he would have been able to go deeper. That was definitely kind of on the radar.

So what do you say to the people who argued that you just wanted him out of the competition because he was after your record? Yeah, it's an interesting question. And if that was the case, then maybe I would have tested or targeted someone else more heavily like Alexei because Alexei was closer he had also announced an intention to attempt that record

it's standard practice in this sport to organise a competition and also compete in it I can think of lots of examples in different locations different countries according to Ada policy it's not considered a conflict of interest yet just days away from the competition

starting Will quietly withdraws as an athlete Will sees himself as defending the free diving community from impostors. Imposters who some divers believe are stealing medals and records from the community. And his sights are set on two Croatian athletes in particular, Petta Klova and Vitomir Marichich. Had you been tipped off by anybody that they might be in possession of drugs at BB? Of course, we're being tipped off by everyone in the free diving world that they were using drugs

and would probably bring them to the Bahamas. We'd heard countless anecdotes of people who had seen them using benzodiazepines and other drugs. So there's all of that a mountain of evidence and all of it was anecdotal, so nothing would stand up, obviously, in a court of law, because it's not black and white. It's not a photograph of a substance that was present in their luggage. It was for this reason that we conducted the luggage search. So the plan was to meet them at the airport and to ask them if they consented to a luggage search as per vertical blue anti-doping policy. The Croatian divers land after a long haul flight to find Will at the airport with an armed police officer. He tells them that he plans to search their luggage.

So we're going to try and make this as quick as possible. They agree and choose to carry out the search at a nearby police. search at a nearby police station where it's a bit cooler. There's aircon in the room, but otherwise it's pretty basic. Some tables and chairs, a sofa. Vitamir, Petar and a female Croatian diver, Sanda Delaya, are there. Sanda is coached by Vitamir too, and they have all travelled together. There's also a Mexican diver, Pepe Salcedo, who's been selected to be searched.

At one point, the divers asked for some water, but when they're hand at a bottle, they reject it. They say the seal is broken, and they don't trust that it hasn't been interfered with. Yeah, it was a little bit of a pressure cooker situation in that room, because I could tell that the Croatians were becoming increasingly more worried and upset. It all sounds civil, but there's an undercurrent of suspicion. Will and the police officer start to empty the luggage onto tables, and amongst the clothes and the toilet trees, he finds something else.

There was probably more pharmacuticals in their luggage than I've used or had in my position in my entire life, and that's not a hyperbole. He photographs each blister pack, most with pills missing. What was your overarching feeling during that time? I could tell that this was like a historic moment, and so there's, I guess, you could say, like a version of some kind of excitement of just knowing that there was probably going to be significant ramifications of this if we were finding in real-time substances that are banned in their luggage.

Among the various medications are painkillers and antibiotics and several types and strengths of benzodiazepines. Oh, and furocemide, a diuretic used to clear the system of other substances fast. That one is on the water-prohibited list. So out of these drugs, the ones that worried us the most were obviously the benzodiazepines because of the sheer quantity and volume and diversity of different types that they had in position indicated that they were using them extensively as PEDs. These are the sedatives I've been talking about, not banned by water,

but widely believed to be beneficial in free diving. Will has found what he's looking for. enough evidence to his mind to keep the Croatians from competing, perhaps for years. As Will continues his search, the female diver, Sander, notices that he's using his phone to record their conversation. One thing is like openly opening the bags, the officers are here, they bring the medications, they analyze them. And one thing is secretly that I see that your app starts having the audio and then you put it away. Like there's something weird about it. Don't you agree?

I'm using the phone the whole time to take photos, to record, everything. Yeah, but it's recording sound is a bit, it's kind of, it sounds illegal. The atmosphere becomes tense. I've listened to that audio several times and something really strikes me. Will appears nervous, hurried and at a certain point, very uncomfortable. While Petar is quiet and Vitamere is, well, casual. almost sarcastic. They are in a room with the competition organiser and armed police officers

and they're carrying drugs, including one substance on the Wadder list. According to the WADA rules, just having them in your possession as an athlete or as a coach in or out of competition is an automatic ban. Yet Vitamir is incredibly calm and in control. At one point, while Sanda is talking to Will about what her meditative is. indications of four, someone is whistling in the background. It's a well-known song, We Are the Champions. William, you base your appearance and credibility by saying that you're the deepest human of earth, which you are not, but you have a world record, which he can take. And you can influence him not doing it here. How can I influence that other than documenting? You can. You can slip something in. You can. You can flip something in. You can

make him stress sort of nervous. We've had police watching and doing the search as well. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. You're creating stress. You're in a couple of questions. Why don't you have someone professional?

A couple of days later, I'm packing for a trip to Greece when I get a message from Dave Mellar, my coach. He tells me that the evidence of the search has been shared on the Vertical Blue YouTube channel. Sure enough, images of the blister packs, clips of the audio,

and an official statement from Will have been uploaded for the world to see and interpret. My initial reaction is surprise. It seems like an extremely unorthodox maverick move to share documentary evidence of an ongoing case. As a journalist, I'm horrified. As a diver with an interest in fair play and clean sport, I'm intrigued.

There appears to finally be proof. What was the reaction in the Freedarvan community to what you'd uncovered? The reaction was mixed, but it was overwhelmingly on the side of Vertigo Blue at that stage. We received a lot of support, a lot of acclaim for what we're done and for bringing this into the light. Petar posts a story on Instagram. in which he says, we are athletes that are clean, have always been, and this will all soon be clarified. An open letter follows on July the 12th, calling for the Croatians to be banned from competition under the World Anti-Doping Code for the possession of furocimide, the diuretic. The letter is aimed at the two governing bodies in free diving, Ada and Seamass.

Ada is free diving specific, founded primarily as an education system. Seamass is the World Underwater Federation, a much larger competition body. It oversees several underwater activities, one of which is free diving. The message of the petition is clear. Whether or not benzos are on the water list, they're no more welcome at the party than the people who bought them in. 726 people sign it. It's a fairly large number given the size of the sport

and the fact that most recreational divers wouldn't have a clue this was going to. have a clue this was going on. At the same time, there's a lot of criticism, and obviously the Croatians themselves were posting on social media and denying everything and criticizing vertical blue, and they had their supporters too. The supporters of the Croatians are angry. Mud is slung. Will is called judge, jury and executioner.

He's accused of petty rivalry of tackling the problem by instigating a media trial, trying to damage their reputations. Some divers even comment on his social media post saying that their names are on the petition even though they haven't actually signed it. And that's uncomfortable because if your goal is to uphold the principles of fair game and clean sport, well, those principles apply to everyone,

including you. After the bag search, the Croatians are taken off to perform a urine test. The results come back negative. There is no evidence of prohibited substances in their urine, and they post on social media that they are clean, but they make no comment about what they were carrying. Vitamir calls the allegations untrue and unfounded. Post-event, Petow and Vitamir have denied using performance-enhancing drugs. What do you say to that? I guess you're right they have. In their social media post, that they're, that they're

then deleted, they denied using performance types and drugs at any time. But they have never given any kind of an explanation for why they're using benzodiazepines. And I was thinking about it and putting myself in their shoes. If I'd shown up in an event, let's say I've traveled 20 hours to get to this event and I'm sweaty and tired and cranky. And I get there and I find surprise, surprise, they want to search my luggage. And putting myself in that, situation, I realized that I would be overjoyed by that. Like, as tired as I am, I would be ecstatic that an organizer and event is taking those kind of measures in anti-doping. When I put myself in their shoes and realized that and saw how their reaction was completely

diametrically opposed for that, it made me realize that, I mean, the proof is in the point in basically, that compounds on what we found in their luggage. The justification they later use for carrying a band diuretic is that they had it in case of life-threatening injury. It's a small island with limited healthcare. It can help with recovery in cases of serious lung squeeze, but they say they've never used it. Yet, in the photo of the blister pack, there's a pill missing.

They claim to have a prescription. So with Ada, we sent a copy of the doctorate. reporting report, which included everything that had transpired, as well as the substances were found. Will expects Ada as the officiating body of the competition to report the possession of Furosamide to water. But unlike Seamus, Ada isn't a water signatory. And so despite being caught with that prohibited substance, water do nothing. This is not how Will is expecting things to go. Suddenly, he's losing control of the narrative. So later, Ada, publicly stated that they would investigate the case.

And then, nothing. They go quiet. Several athletes use social media to announce that they won't compete or teach Ada until they see action. Later, they appointed an anti-doping officer whose first order of business was basically anti-antidoping. In August, a month after the scandal, a Serbian professor, Dr. Nenad Dicich is appointed as an anti-doping. Doping Manager. His brief, to help assess and improve AIDA's anti-doping strategy.

They publish a new anti-doping webpage and plan a series of seminars. His first kind of month or two of business was primarily in defence of the Croatians who had been found to be doping. And vertical bluecase is interesting because a local organiser

gave himself a right to do dooping control and to do police research without legal warrant for that, without, how to say, involvement of the people who are doing that professionally. The new AIDA anti-doping manager, Professor Dickich, speaks publicly on the topic

and states that the use of benzos doesn't constitute doping. You have in social networks so many different kind of posts where the guys are claiming that benzodiazepes are doping. But with the same information available, CMAS make a statement. Following the recent developments at the Ada International Free Diving event in the Bahamas, we were the only ones to take immediate action. We have resolved to discontinue further cooperation with Ada.

We will increase the efforts of Seamass, strengthen our commitment to promote free diving under Seamass Aegis of clean, safe sport governance, until it's possible for its inclusion in the Olympic Games. As a WADA signatory, CEMAS doesn't have the jurisdiction to classify benzos as doping. But they do publicly state that it is totally unfair as assimilated into a doping practice to enhance performance. There are absolute reasons to use benzodiazepines only for strict, duly evaluated medical reasons. This is also an occasion to remember that no doping strategy has a place in the CMAS family. It makes me wonder, how can two bodies governing one sport

have such polarised views of what's safe and sensible for its athletes? The very fact that there are two governing bodies in the first place is confusing. Each host world championships and have separate rankings. To my mind, that just fuels the fetish for records and titles. But it doesn't help the sport. And when governing bodies radically disagree on fundamental policies like doping and safety, that speaks to a way more serious dysfunction, one that prioritises ego, personal or institutional, over harmony.

And so I reach out to both Ada and Simas, and Anna Arjanova, the president of Simas, is the first to get back to me. It's simply dangerous. And unfortunately, the people who maybe use this, they don't understand. especially now when we try to promote sport, to make it healthy sport, to push it in Olympic Games, to do these things. And the people don't understand that if now we have this massive using of this kind of stuff, of different stuff, it will kill sport.

It will never grow because of this. It's killing sport. The doping is killing sport. Seamass, despite being a water signatory, decides to adopt their own protective measures, they decide that the drugs are potentially dangerous in our sport and ban them. They use Ada's perceived inaction as a way to invalidate them. We want to declare that in our competition, in sport competition, is not possible to use any substances. This is the aim. And if you use benzodiazepinas, you can go to the other

organization to dive or you can stop. And they ban the Croatians from competing under CMAS for six months, fining them each 5,000 euros, but for an ethical violation, not a doping one. It's something, but it's not a lot. When you did ban the Croatians and gave them their fine, how did they respond to that? I think you can ask them, of course, we receive the letter from lawyers. For a while now, I've wanted to talk to Petter and Vitamir, but I've been waiting. First, I wanted to know as much as I possibly could about the circumstances leading to this point. I also wanted to speak to people who know them personally to get a gauge on who they are and how they might respond.

You've no need to be nervous. Honestly, don't worry. So I contact people who know them, train with them, dive with them. Some are happy to talk. One person who was close to them at the time of the vertical blue scandal told me that they had never heard Petter so upset. He was devastated, they said. And when I asked them if Petter was doping for depth, they said, no way, absolutely not.

But another diver, too afraid to be named, says that this cohort is a bit like a cult. That Vitamir is a snake oil salesman. I'm warned to be careful not to be taken in by his charms. I'm told he's extremely manipulative. And now I really want to speak to him. Since the doping scandal broke in July 23, the Croatians have gone from strength to strength. Vitamir and Petar took first and second place overall in the Ada World Championships

just two months after the scandal. They're currently first and third in the overall. Ada ranking. And this year, Petar took that 17-year-old record of Wills by diving one metre deeper. Speaking of Will, do you think that what happened at Vertical Blue has had a negative impact or positive impact on Vertical Blue and on him? On Will personally, probably I think it's fair to. to say that he didn't come out of it very well.

When I was in Greece to speak with my coach, Mella, I tested this on him. He knows and likes Will. But the reality is that the doping scandal still divides opinion. There's still no resolution. Can you talk us through why? Well, it's probably the way it was handled. I mean, like Will caught them, whether it was fair or not, he caught them. So that's a fact.

Yeah, maybe their privacy was crossed. So that is what the focus went on. The focus went on, but Will did this wrong. He should have done this. It's an invasion of privacy. And yes, you know, there was a big media, Facebook, Instagram, war with people saying, you know, you should respect people's rights.

And of course, all of that is true, which is why Will came out of it probably worse than they did. But, you know, I don't forget that the number, one fact is that they had suitcase full of drugs and one band one. The way I look at things now is that was two years ago. Does anybody actually believe this sport is clean? I would say the answer has to be no. And so if it's no who is cheating, clearly a prime candidate would be someone who's carrying a suitcase full of drugs. It's pretty black and white for me. Although they said they weren't using them.

They admitted they were carrying them. So, like, how are you going to believe somebody like that, you know? But the fact is, many people do. I was in a competition organized in Croatia. This goes back to five years ago after this. Thiburginez is one of the free divers. to talk to me. When he watched the scandal unfold on Instagram,

it took him back to a moment when he was in Croatia. Vitamir had invited him to train with them in the Adriatic, and it's there that he witnessed something that's really stuck with him. All I can say is I've seen some people clearly with my own eyes taking benzodiazepine before deep dives. He doesn't know what's happened since Vertical Blue, but he does know it was not an isolated incident. I saw only Peter taking it,

but at the time, Vitomir Marichichich, They're on a boat, and Tebow sees Petar taking two Valium before a training dive. And he told me, yeah, Peter has some nerves sometimes. He usually takes it in swimming pool before the dive because of his nerve. Yeah, at one point, they were allegating that they never took benzodiazepine ever. And I was like, ah, I saw it with my own eyes. Tebow's main issue at the time is their safety. He doesn't consider it doping.

He's just shocked, concerned about the potential danger. It was really not a concern about being doctored or not. It was really like, do you have any idea what it's going to do to your body at 100 metres? Maybe, maybe not. Same, I cannot tell you, but do you really want to take the risk? I can't stress this enough. Free diving is beautiful and mindful, but it's also an extreme sport. There is a risk to diving deep.

and there is a risk in taking benzos, but combine those two things and those risks increase exponentially. So if it's true that there are people diving to 100 metres plus on experimental doses of sedatives, that speaks to a certain attitude. And now, in 2025, there's a risk that this attitude will be normalized

and neither of the governing organisations are really able to act. Tebow's testimony doesn't prove doping but it demonstrates a mindset around risk and safety that many free divers are not comfortable with. They're wondering about how far this ink is spreading and while I'm interviewing an athlete I get a WhatsApp message from another diver I've never met. It's a forwarded voice note, no context,

but it's unmistakably Vitamir's voice. Coming up on episode four of Deepwater. But at the end of the day, people are all competitors. They want to win, and they'll do anything sometimes if they think they can get away. You are now being very romantic about things, and I don't like it. Okay, let me remove the pink sunglasses you have. The truth eventually is going to come out. Deepwater is reported by me, Lydia Gard.

The producer is Gary Marshall. Music Supervision and Sound Design by Carla Patela. Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. Fact-checking by Katie Gunning. The executive producer is Bashar Cummings. Hello, it's Gary here. I'm the producer of Deepwater. Before I tell you a bit more about how you can listen to the rest of the series, we have a house notice. You might have seen some changes to our feeds, and that's because we're now bringing our Tortoise Investigate series to you from our new home, The Observer.

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