the anatomy of a dip

Some people just can't get enough of being underwater. Even after swimming farther than they really should have, they go down again immediately after surfacing. A beautiful example of that was provided courtesy of the Dutch champ Nanja van den Broek, who did a 105 meters without fins, a long dive after a long day, came up good and purple



and went down again for a bit



but then decided she'd really had enough and came up again



signaled she was okay-ish



then really was okay



You'd think showing this kind of enthusiasm would be rewarded, but the rules don't allow for puppies wagging their tails, so the performance was deemed invalid. It is a sign of how great a champ Nanja is that she almost always knows how to contain her enthusiasm, and that she still walked away with medals and being third overall with the ladies

What i love about the dip in general, besides the enthusiasm it shows, is that it is a grey area, and it's hard to fit into rules. The grey area is between consciousness and a blackout, when the athlete surfaces and is not in complete control, but often in enough control to keep himself above water. A dip is then considered taking it too far, but the rest is pretty vague, up to interpretation. It's not black or white; it's somewhere between blackout and white card.