by Jorg Jansen
March 10, 2010 in News by Jorg Jansen
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!
by Jorg Jansen
February 23, 2010 in News by Jorg Jansen
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?
by Jorg Jansen
January 25, 2010 in Article by Jorg Jansen
It has been somewhat quiet since the appointment of the complete new AIDA Board on January 1st. However, this doesn’t mean they are sitting still and doing nothing. I thought it would be interesting to publish the first report from the new AIDA executive board that was sent to the AIDA Assembly, so that everybody knows what is going on. Hopefully they start publishing these kind of things publicly by themselves soon.
What do you think about the letter? Leave your comments below!
Report from the AIDA Executive Board
There will be an Executive Board meeting the first Sunday every month. A report will be delivered to the Assembly after each meeting.
Urgent call to all members! We need to find all missing competition results from 2009. You may have to re-send results that have already been sent in. Please contact: aidaranking@gmail.com and CC: ivo@apnea.cz.
During the first Executive Board meeting (attended by Kimmo, Pia, Greg, Sebastian, Pim (in parts)), Kimmo outlined his vision of how the Executive board should work. He spoke about a lot of autonomy for the commissions. The Executive Board is already talking about new working groups (possible commissions) such as science/medical, media/PR and an IT work group.
The Information Technology Work group, (possible future commission), was formed by the president on the day he was elected. Sebastian Nasland, the media/PR officer is the Executive Board representative on the ITC. So far, the ITC has seen a lot of activity from Jonas A, Simo K, Ivo T, Eric P, also in the group, Paulo N and Peter S. Based on the freedivercentral foundation, Simos work from 2008 and Ivo´s work – this group is well on their way to delivering the first structure of a ranking system.
Pia (secretary) supported by Kimmo are working on making AIDA?s financial situation clear. The services of an accounting firm are being researched. Pia will also be responsible for updating contact details of people important for AIDA. Thus, we will soon be looking through the assembly members database.
A working group aimed at producing a fourth draft of the statutes has been formed. Robert King (attorney from USA) is leading this. Also in this group is Grant Graves (vice president), Christian Ernest (Aida Sweden), Petar Bojovic (attorney), Sebastian Naslund with some other people involved in reviewing the work.
Before the Executive Board meeting Dr. John Fitz-Clarke, Science/Medical Officer, proposed to research if AIDA can setup an AIDA FREEDIVER medical form that can guide doctors when they do medical exams specific to freediving. Dr. Fitz-Clarke would like organizers to report any situation where freedivers with medical problems have slipped through the screening process.
There is also a desire to discuss what is really needed in a competition when it comes to medical competence. Setting the standard too high and we make competitions complicated, too low and we are putting our freedivers at risk. Old procedures will have to be evaluated, since our understanding of blackout, DCS and squeeze has increased recently. We will base our decisions not only on experience, but also on the scientific data available.
Stavros Kastrinakis, Education Officer, and the Education Commission will be involved with these issues as well.
The Science Commission will be building connections with active apnea researchers. There is a lack of communication between scientists due to a potential “competition situation”, perhaps AIDA can bridge this gap in some cases and build a “community feeling”.
Kimmo Lahtinen, President, has ideas about building bridges between AIDA and DAN. Pim Vermeulen, Sport Officer, has already taken initiatives to building closer connections between AIDA and WADA (the doping agency).
Gregory Piazzola, Technical Officer, has already chosen three members for the Technical Commission (TC): Grant Graves (Judge A Instructor), Pim Vermeulen (Judge A), and Florent Pascal (national judge/lawyer). Several experts will be linked to this commission. One issue that the TC will address is how to help judges, organizers, athletes facing «out of rules» situations and report these situations to others judges. Gregory wants to see debate on how to reduce BO during the individual championships. A new version of the rules is planned before the end of the year.
The TC, the Sport Officer, and the Media/PR Commission will be working with the organizers of the Team WC 2010 in Okinawa with the aim of making it a big and successful event.
The Media/PR Commission is looking for volunteers with a background in journalism, graphic design, and video/photography. Igor Liberti, Anneli Pompe, Chris Marshall, and Christian Engelbrecht have offered their services. Peter S. and the ITC will be in close co-operation.
The Sport Officer will as always be working with all competitions, records related subjects, requirements for being in the AIDA Calendar, and result-list checking, etc.
Together with the Responsible for Judges, the Sport Officer will work on judge education and development. Comments on the rules by the judges will be processed by the Sport Officer and the TC for possible development. The Sport Officer and the Responsible for Judges will be in charge of Jury selection for WR attempts.
The Sport Officer will also be working with many outside contacts like doping, insurance, partnerships etc.
Any competitions should be announced to the Sport Officer through calendar@aida-international.org, results can be send to pim.vermeulen@aida-international.org
All payments for ranking, cards, annual fees, etc. are put on hold until the financial responsibilities has been solved.
Next board meeting will be February 7 where every commission will deliver a plan for 2010, to be presented to the Assembly later.
AIDA Executive Board
by Jorg Jansen
January 1, 2010 in News by Jorg Jansen
Finally the results are in for the second votation round for the new AIDA executive board. It’s a good thing that it’s on January 1st so that they can have a good start in the new year.
I must say that I’m pretty happy with the new board! Some excellent people in it who already have a proven record and some fresh minds full with energy. Let’s make this a good AIDA year and good luck with all the work that has to be done!
President
Kimmo LAHTINEN
Vice President
Grant W GRAVES
Secretary
Pia JERABEK
Sport Officer
Pim VERMEULEN
Technical Officer
Gregory PIAZZOLA
Education Officer
Stavros KASTRINAKIS
Medical and Science Officer
John Fitz-Clarke FITZ-CLARKE
Media & PR Officer
Sebastian NÄSLUND
The only position missing in this list is the Treasurer. I wonder what happened with this one, because there was some controversy around it.
by Jorg Jansen
December 21, 2009 in News by Jorg Jansen
It’s official now. The 2010 AIDA Team world championships will take place in Okinawa, Japan from June 30 until July 10. Disciplines will be constant weight, static and dynamic. Organizer Ryuzo Shinomiya will be responsible for the competition together with AIDA Japan.
Full schedule:
Hotel: Tokyo Dai ichi Hotel Okinawa Grand Mer Resort
CWT: Water is 27 degrees and we have 30m vis. (at Maeda Cape)
Pool: 50m pool out side (1.4m depth and heated)
Competition website will be out in January 2010.
by Jorg Jansen
December 18, 2009 in News by Jorg Jansen
Now that the new president is elected together with the secretary, education officer and the science and medical officer, it’s now time to elect the rest of the people to complete the new AIDA Board.
Deadline for voting is December 21st for this second round. It seems that Bill Stromberg also decided not only not to run for president but completely stop working for AIDA after the death threats he has received.
Below the votation list. Expect more info around thee 21st or 22nd with the results.
Subject ONE:
Which of the following two persons would you like to see as AIDA Vice President?
A. Hanli Prinsloo, RSA
B. Grant W Graves, USA
Subject TWO:
Which of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA Sport Officer:
A. Pim Vermeulen, NED
B. Susan Kluytmans, NED
C. Miguèl Vannieuwenhoven, SUI
Subject THREE:
If under subject two, Vermeulen and Kluytmans get most votes, I would like to se following person as AIDA Sport Officer:
A. Pim Vermeulen, NED
B. Susan Kluytmans, NED
Subject FOUR:
If under subject two, Vermeulen and Vannieuwenhoven get most votes, I would like to se following person as AIDA Sport Officer:
A. Pim Vermeulen, NED
B. Miguèl Vannieuwenhoven, SUI
Subject FIVE:
If under subject two, Kluytmans and Vannieuwenhoven get most votes, I would like to se following person as AIDA Sport Officer:
A. Susan Kluytmans, NED
B. Miguèl Vannieuwenhoven, SUI
If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number TWO, this person gets elected as AIDA Sport Officer directly without we using the subjects 3,4 or 5.
Subject SIX:
Which of the following two persons would you like to see as AIDA Media and PR Officer?
A. Sebastian Naslund, SWE
B. Hanli Prinsloo, RSA
Subject SEVEN:
Which of the following two persons would you like to see as AIDA Technical Officer?
A. Pim Vermeulen, NED
B. Grégory Piazzola, FRA
Subject EIGHT:
If under subject one, Hanli Prinsloo get most votes and become the AIDA Vice President would you accept Sebastian Naslund as the AIDA Media and PR Officer?
A. Yes
B. No
Subject NINE:
If under subject two, Pim Vermeulen get most votes and become the new AIDA Sport Officer, would you accept Grégory Piazzola, FRA as the AIDA Technical Officer?
A. Yes
B. No
by Jorg Jansen
December 17, 2009 in News by Jorg Jansen
Kimmo Lahtinen
First news about the new election after everything went completely wrong. Kimmo Lahtinen from Finland has been elected as new AIDA president. Congratulations to him and good luck with his new heavy job!
Vice presidency will be between Hanli Prinsloo and Grant Graves. Pia Jerabek is the new secretary. Stavros Kastrinakis from Greece is the new education officer and Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark will be the new medical and science officer.
Update: below are the votation results.
Subject ONE:
Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA
President:
A. Panos Lianos, GRE 6 votes
B. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN 20 votes
Subject TWO:
Who of the following five persons would you like to see as AIDA Vice
President:
A. Hanli Prinsloo, RSA 10 votes
B. Grant W Graves, USA 7 votes
C. Yuzov Vladimir, UKR 1 vote
D. Susan Kluytmans, NED 2 votes
E. Robert King, USA 6 votes
(The three with least votes will be eliminated and the top 2 will go to
a second round. If one person gets 50% or more of the votes, this
person gets elected as AIDA Vice President directly)
Subject THREE:
Would you accept Pia Jerabek, SUI as AIDA Secretary?
A.. Yes 26 votes
B. No 0 votes
Subject FOUR:
Would you accept Stavros Kastrinakis, GRE as AIDA Education Officer?
A. Yes 24 votes
B. No 2 votes
Subject FIVE:
Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA Medical
and
Science Officer?
A. Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark, CAN 19 votes
B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA 3 votes
C. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE 4 votes
Subject SIX:
If under subject eight, Fitz-Clark and Potkin get most votes, I would
like to see the following person as AIDA Medical and Science Officer:
A. Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark, CAN 23 votes
B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA 2 votes
Subject SEVEN:
If under subject eight, Fitz-Clark and Balanou get most votes, I would
like to see the following person as AIDA Medical and Science Officer:
A. Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark, CAN 20 votes
B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE 6 votes
Subject EIGHT:
If under subject eight, Potkin and Balanou get most votes, I would like
to see the following person as AIDA Medical and Science Officer:
A. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA 11 votes
B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE 15 votes
by Jorg Jansen
November 26, 2009 in AIDA by Jorg Jansen
News just came in that Bill Stromberg has just resigned as president of AIDA International. This happens 2 days after he has been re-elected again.
The how and why about it is slowly getting clearer, but for the moment it seems that some threats are being made against Bill. More info when it comes in.
If anybody has to share something, you know how to contact me (jorg.jansen@gmail.com)
by Jorg Jansen
November 24, 2009 in AIDA by Jorg Jansen
News just came in that Bill Stromberg has been re-elected as AIDA president. The complete result list hasn’t been send yet to the Assembly but a reliable source tells me that the presidency is back in the hands of Bill.
What will some of the other candidates do? because some of them mentioned they wouldn’t want to work together with Bill again. Only if there was a fresh start. At the same time I’m also wondering what the AIDA Assembly must have thought, because when you look back at everything that has happened, the last thing I would have thought that would happen was that Bill would be re-elected.
Anyway, congratulations to Bill! I hope the official result list will be made public soon.
by Jorg Jansen
November 21, 2009 in News by Jorg Jansen
As quite a lot of the readers from this website come from the UK, I thought I would share this news with you as well. The BFA (AIDA national for the UK), has a new committee. See the press release below.
The BFA has announced its new committee for 2009/2010. The committee consists of some long-standing experienced members, including Rachel Sharp, Sam Kirby, Dave Griffiths, Marcus Greatwood, Ben Noble and Martyn Jones, all of whom have held various roles over the years and continue their unstinting support of the sport. They are joined by some newer members, including 2008 UK Team members, MT Solomons and Stuart Bond, and four-times World Record holder, Sara Campbell.
2010 will be an exciting year for freediving, with the Team World Championships being held in the fabulous resort of Okinawa, Japan in July. Excitement among British freedivers over team selection has already begun and it looks as if the promise of competing in Japan will see many divers training hard throughout winter and spring to increase their performances for a chance of selection to represent their country at the 2010 Worlds.
The BFA is currently working on a sponsorship plan, as well as organizing training camps and competitions in Mexico, Dahab and the UK to support its athletes in achieving their very best in Okinawa, a competition which promises to be the most exciting, demanding and toughly contested Worlds competition the sport has seen for many years. Any companies interested in supporting the UK Team in Okinawa should contact Marcus Greatwood or Sara Campbell for information.
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