On the last day of the year I present you my review of the freediving year 2007. Read and give the 24 most important posts the attention they deserve! It’s too easy to forget… On the bottom of this posts are some small statistics for this website, so you get an idea about that as well.
And as a last reminder, don’t forget the T-shirt give-away that’s going on until the new year!
January
Carlos Serra Releases Book About Audrey Mestre’s Death
For sure this post was for me the most interesting news in January. The book itself is one big eye opener to one of the baddest moments in history of freediving. I finished the book in one day. I just couldn’t stop reading.
February
Ibiza Freediving Grand Prix
Sebastien Murat announces an excellent idea for a competition. I really looked forward to this one, but as it has happened before, the freediving world is just not really interested in something that is different from the rest. I hope that 2008 will see a competition like that, but I doubt that Sebastien is ever going to organize something like this again.
Freediving Wins World Press Photo Award
One of my favorites! I just love to see freediving in the mainstream media. I always has nothing to do with AIDA freediving competitions, but everything to do with freediving.
March
Martin Stepanek Resigns From PFI
A big shock and awe moment for the freediving community when Martin Stepanek said goodbye to his team performance freediving international and shortly after that announced that he would start his own company called diveFIT.
April
Loic Leferme 28/8/1970 – 11/4/2007
The death of Loic Leferme is for sure something we can never forget. The safety man himself has an accident during one of his training dives and does not live to tell the tale. The whole accident is one big mystery, besides the normal theories that always appears. It was for sure a very sad moment when this news came in. Let us not forget!
William Improves Himself To 82 Meters!
After some unsuccessful attempts William Trubridge finally manages to get the world record in constant weight without fins at his home base in Dean’s blue hole in the Bahamas.
Mandy-Rae Freedives to 88 meters
Who would ever expect from Mandy to break the impossible 86 meters constant weight dive by Natalia Molchanova in 2005? I for sure didn’t and it’s a wonderful achievement.
May
Tom Sietas Does 9:08!
Tom Sietas let himself hear again by breaking Herbert Nitsch his static world record.
June
William Winram Does The Arch No Fins Style
William Trubridge announced it, but William Winram was the first to dive through the legendary Arch in Dahab (Egypt) in the discipline constant no fins. For sure one of the most amazing performances of the year.
New National Freediving Records For Dave, Patrick And Sara
This news announced the rise of a new generation of freedivers that progress so amazingly fast. Dave Mullins becomes a 100 meter man and Sara Campbell show what she’s capable of.
Stig Severinsen Freedives 225 Dynamic WR
The list wouldn’t be complete without the Stig. He shows he’s still one of the top freedivers by setting a new world record in dynamic with fins.
Herbert did 214 meters!
For sure the most amazing dive of the year, and I was personally very happy to see a good outcome. Herbert Nitsch does a no limits dive to 214 meters in his own special way.
July
World Championships Pool Freediving Maribor
Probably the best competition I have attended. Excellent world championship this year with such a high level of performances delivering many national records and 4 world record!
Stephane Mifsud Does 10:04 Static
Controversy all out when French freediver Stephane Mifsud does a 10:04 static performance for tv, media, frech diving federation, but not AIDA and still claims a world record.
August
Martin Stepanek New WR 83 Meter
Martin Stepanek claims a new constant no fins world record by diving to 83 meters and later becomes invalid by some judges mistakes.
Tom Sietas Does 15:02 On Oxygen
Tom Sietas is going for glory and fame and he’s understood that he will not find this by doing AIDA comeptitions. Instead of that he focuses on Media and TV coverage by doing static stunts with using pure oxygen.
September
Goodbye Dimitris
Another very sad passing away from our Greek friend Dimitris Vassilakis during a spearfishing accident.
Dave Mullins Improves WR To 244 Meters
Wonderboy shows what’s he’s capable of in the pool by doing a dynamic with fins world record of 244 meters! 19 meters improvement of Stig’s world record dive a few months back.
Martin’s Record Dive In CNF Invalid
Much controversy and discussion about Martin’s 83 meter cnf dive mentioned in the previous month. Finally AIDA decides the dive is invalid after much pressure from the community.
October
Herbert’s 83 Constant No Fins Dive
Herbert shows he can follow the rules and deliver the performance and sets a valid dive to 83 meters in constant without fins.
Triple Depth Competition
Preceding the official depth world championship in Egypt there is the excellent Triple Depth competition were the new freediving queen is born by the name of Sara Campbell. She takes 3 new world records!
November
Final Press Release WC From AIDA
Of course the years official world championships can’t be missed. As triple depth had more and better performances, the prestige of winning a WC is of course even bigger.
December
Apnea Academy Conference Report
Beginning of this month saw the light of the very interesting Apnea Academy training conference were all kind of lectures were given about freediving and training. Good initiative and for sure very interesting stuff.
Results ICARE Trophies 2007
ICARE is not an organization that you hear a lot about during the year, but some years ago they invented the ICARE trophies to pay respect to all kind of people in the freediving world. And it’s always nice to see which names come up, even when the outcomes are sometimes very debatable.
Statistics
Some general statistics about the website for the year 2007; 274 posts, 440 comments and 392,867 visitors. It’s clear that more and more people find their way to Shark Freediving for the lastest news about freediving. There is a big upwards curve with regards to visitors. I can only hope that this continues in the future and for sure that the readers start interacting more with me by leaving comments and sending in news, tips, etc.
All in all it was an excellent freediving year with the usual ups and downs. My personal up was for sure the world championships in Maribor and the downs were of course the passing away of Loic and Dimitris.
See you next time in the new year and I hoped you enjoyed Shark Freediving in 2007!
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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. 
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. 
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