Shark Freediving

It seems that the freediving days in the 33 meter deep SETT (Submarine Escape Training Tower) in the UK are over. NoTanx reports that the MOD have not re-newed the contracts for civilian use in 2010. So the video below may be the last ever Freedive filmed in “The Tank”. Enjoy the dive and the incredible natural lighting!

This year’s Swiss National Indoor Apnea Championships will take place on April 18 2010 at Grand-Vennes, Lausanne. Some 30 athletes will be competing in static and dynamic apnea disciplines where capacity for breath hold and stress management will be crucial to winning a national title.

Organizing this year’s event is local apnea club Immersion Profonde, helped by the Swiss Subaquatic Sports Federation (FSS) and Lausanne City Sport Services. The competition is open to both Swiss and foreign freedivers who have the possibility of validating their performances just before selection for the world championships in Okinawa. Athletes will also get the chance to improve on their AIDA ranking whilst making a stopover in Geneva before both the worlds and Bizzy Blue Hole.

The competition is open to the public and begins at 9am. For more details and registration contact immersion.profonde@bluewin.ch or visit www.immersion-profonde.ch.

Thought some people would be interested to see the latest developments within AIDA. Below the notes from the last AIDA executive meeting from March 1st and February 7.

There is some real developments going on and hopefully the first actions will soon be visible and noticeable to all from the outside as well. Bravo to the new board and the energy they put in. Now, make it real!

• AIDA Executive Meeting – March 1
• AIDA Executive Meeting – February 7

I received the press release below about the US National Freediving Championships that will take place in Hawaii from April 22-25. Looks like it’s going to be an interesting competition, so if you’re in the neighborhood, go for it!

US National Freediving Championship set for April 22 through 25, 2010 at Freedive Paradise event.

Feb 25, 2010 – The United States Apnea Association (USAA) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the U.S. National Freediving Championships from April 22 through April 25, 2010 in Kona, Hawaii. This competition will consist of six exciting events; Dynamic Apnea, Dynamic Apnea without Fins, Static Apnea, and Constant Weight, Free Immersion and Constant Weight without Fins, The Constant Weight, Free immersion and Constant Weight without Fins event will be held off the coast in the scenic Honaunau Bay, Hawaii.

Event Details are as follows:

• Event Organizers: Freedive Paradise: freediveparadise.com
  • Annabel Edwards: divebel2@yahoo.com 808 756-1372 (h) 808 328-2307
  • Jessica Wilson: nursjessy@aol.com  530 515-7977
  • Hiko Ito: 808 333-1811
• CW, FI, or CNF April 22 & 24, Honaunau Bay, meeting time: 8:30 AM
• Static: April 23, Jack’s Diving Locker, meeting time: 8:30 AM
• Dynamic with and without fins: April 25, Kona Aquatic Center, meeting time: 8:30 AM

USAA will be fielding both Men’s and Women’s Freediving Teams at the AIDA Team Freediving World Championships that will take place at the end of June in Okinawa, Japan.  Competitors who want to try out for these teams are strongly encouraged to participate in the U.S. National Freediving Championship. Additional information on team selection criteria will be released shortly.

The U.S. National Freediving Competition has no minimum performance requirements and is open to anyone wishing to compete. Competitions are an excellent way to learn more about freediving, show support for USAA and fellow freedivers, and to witness performances by some of the country’s top freedivers. USAA is also seeking volunteers to assist in the logistics and safety operations of this competition. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the organizers.

Performance Freediving International has expanded their list of employees with another little female freediver. Yesterday Kirk and Mandy Krack became the proud parents of Kaila Krack (2.6 kg/46 cm).

Lung volume is still a secret, but with this gene pool, it will for sure become a very special freediver.

Congratulations from Shark Freediving!

AIDA International has a new website and a new web address. It is  not yet made public on the old website. Probably because it’s still work in progress. But it is already looking to good for not mentioning it here.

www.aidainternational.org – so the ‘-’ has disappeared.

Have a look around! What do you think about it?

Yesterday it was time for the 12th (!) Berlin Masters Cup, which took place in Berlin, Germany. 28 freedivers from 4 countries competed against each other in the disciplines static and dynamic with or without fins.

Clear winner with the women was Elisabeth Kristoffersen from Norway. She did a 6:14 breath-hold and a 136 meters underwater swim with fins. Total of 130,8 points. 2nd place was for Barbara Jeschke from Germany with 119,5 points. She did a 4:35 and a 129 meter performance.

Robert Cetler from Poland was the winner wiith the men. With a strong 7:28 min static and a 189 meter dynamic with fins, he got 184,1 points. Rune Hallum became a close 2nd with 182,1 points. With a 6:53 min static and a 199 meter dynamic with fins, he was close, but not close enough. With 56 performances in the competition there were 3  blackouts and 6 penalties.

Just received an email from William Trubridge announcing the Vertical Blue competition of this year. And wow, it will be very special!

The competition takes place from April 17 to 27 and will have a very special competition format. All three disciplines will take place during this comp and the special thing is that Martin Stepanek, Herbert Nitsch and William Trubridge will compete against each other during this event!

This already impressive field will be completed by divers like Guillaume Nery, Ryuzo Shinomiya, Dave Mullins, Walter Steyn, William Winram and Robert King.  All in all it looks like it’s going to be the deepest competition of the year!

More information about the event and the special rules on William Trubridge his website.

Personally I didn’t know yet eBlue Magazine, but as their philosophy is very simple, everything related to holding your breath, I thought I should check it out.

Big mistake is that you have to fully register on their website before you can read the magazine. That’s just a big no-no and I had some trouble activating my account and logging in.

After that an online reader was opened so I could read the magazine, which mostly covers spearfishing, but also spends some time about freediving and has some interesting articles to offer that are worth reading. For example the excellent article by Sebastian Naslund about monofins history in freediving.

Another big bummer is that you can’t download the pdf and print or read the whole thing.

Most of the articles can also be read online on their website in this part. So if you don’t want a fanzy reading experience, just take the regular posts for granted.

eBlue Magazine website

I have some bad news; we have cancelled the Shark Dynamics competition on March 6. With only 5 freedivers shown interest two weeks before the competition, it’s not possible to continue with this competition. The pool costs are too high for that.

Also finding the second additional AIDA judge is still in progress and because of this unknown factor AIDA International didn’t put the competition on the AIDA calendar. And given the history of the last competition, some freedivers stay away of the comp until they know for sure it’s an AIDA ranking comp, which we can’t blaim them for of course.

I’m sure we could have solved the 2nd AIDA judge problem, but due to the fact that it’s not an official ranking comp at the moment, some extra freedivers are staying away and we have to cancel it.

Furthermore, Shark Sports is going to think about their involvement (and investements) in freediving in the coming time. We’re not sure how to continue with some events we had planned this year. We need some time to evaluate and communicate with some parties involved.

For the people on the volunteer list and the freedivers who have shown interest; Thank you! Hopefully we can work this out and return with some intersting events in the near future..