Shark Freediving

Results Submania Cup – 14 nov – Zagreb (Croatia)

Jorg — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:42:07 +0000

Photo by Submania.hr

As announced earlier there was a freediving competition taking place on november 14 in Zagreb, Croatia. With 20 freediver (13 male, 7 female) from 4 countries and some good names between them it was an interesting competition.

First the women. Winner in the static discipline was Mihaela Romić from Croatia with a 6:01 min breath hold. Lidija Lijić from Croatia did 181 meters in the discipline dynamic with fins and Dajana Zoretić, also from Croatia, a 125 meter without fins.

With the men Michael Mrozowski from Poland was the static winner with 6:31 min. Goran Čolak did a 233 meter dynamic with fins and was not so happy. He hoped to beat the current world record during this competition as he already had done in training earlier. Samo Jeranko from Slovenia did 152 meters without fins and was the winner of this discipline.

Complete results can be found here.

Freediving Champion Guillaume Nery

Jorg — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:17:08 +0000

One of my favorite freedivers is Guillaume Nery. He’s been doing some great things in the last years and thanks to some sponsors he is featured in quite some high profile TV, commercials and other stuff.

Recent appearance is in Paris Match with a beautiful photo collection of him and his girlfriend Julie Gautier. Amazing photography. Take a look here to see the whole collection.

From doing a freediving expedition to Afghanistan to appearing in a BMW commercial, the French freediver knows how to deliver an interesting personality.

At the moment he’s in the Bahama’s training for the world championships and he’s doing a great job of (video)blogging the whole experience. Below the full collection of video’s until now from him. Enjoy! There is some pretty good and funny footage in it.

Part 1

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 4

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 5

Click here to view the embedded video.

New BFA Committee

Jorg — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:10:40 +0000

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.

Chair – Sam Kirby
Treasurer – Ben Noble
Training and Safety Officer – Maria-Teresa Solomons
E media Officer – Martyn Jones
Secretary – Louise Ireland
Membership Secretary – Rachel Sharp
Press Officer – Sara Campbell
Sponsorship Officer - Marcus Greatwood
Records Officer and AIDA Liaison – Dave Griffiths
Clubs Officer – Steve Millard
Competitions Officer – Stuart Bond

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.

British Champions 2009: Mark Harris & Liv Philip

Jorg — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:00:11 +0000

Photo by Laura Storm

The BFA has announced the winners of the UK Freediving Championship trophies for 2009.

Mark Harris, a long-standing member of the BFA, supporting the sport through his committee roles, competitive diving and running the Richmond club, claims the men’s title for 2009, for the fourth time in his career.

Liv Philip, a popular and successful figure in competitive diving for three years now, who has held many British women’s records in all three pool disciplines, recently organising pool training and competitions too, takes the women’s title.

The awards recognise the athletes’ overall performance in the sport across the three disciplines of Constant Weight, Dynamic and Static throughout the year.

Mark Harris:

STA 5:21 – Prague Freediving Competition, June 2009
DYN 125m – Prague Freediving Competition, June 2009
CWT 62m – Dahab Mini Competition, May 2009

Liv Philip

STA 5:04 – Swiss Indoor Championships (60.8pts) 13 June 2009
DYN 133m – Swiss Indoor Championships (66.5 pts) 13 June 2009
CWT 62m – Triple Depth, Egypt Sept 2009

Results 12th Long Night of Apnea

Jorg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:00:02 +0000

Last Saturday it was time for the 12th version of the Long Night of Apnea which takes place every year in Berlin, Germany. There were 17 freedivers from 7 countries, 3 women and 14 men, which made for enough people to have a fun competition.

Winner with the women was Christina Kummel from Denmark with 158.8 points. She did a 5:07 static, 100 meter dynamic without fins and a total time of 19:04 minutes in the famous 16×50 dynamic event.

The winner with the men was Robert Cetler from Poland with 249,8 points which was made up from a 7:01 static, 180 meter dynamic and a 13:13 min 16×50. Strong performance.

Daan Verhoeven from the Netherlands set a new national record in the dynamic with fins discipline with his 169 meter dive. See the video below.

Complete results can be found here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ICARE Trophies 2009 – Time To Vote!

Jorg — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:22:43 +0000

For the people who want to, it’s time to vote again for the ICARE Trophies 2009. ICARE is short for International Center for Apnea Recognition and Education and was founded some years back by AIDA ex-president Sébastien Nagel. Together with Nicolas Laporte, Frédéric Busslinger and Marcello de Matteis, they form the staff for this company.

There has been some controversy around the voting system that says that you can nominate whoever you want during the year and in the last weeks of the year the vote will start and 50% from the voters will count for the end result. The other 50% will be voted upon by the ICARE staff. Oh well… There goes real democracy

I guess when the World championships are over I’ll start with the SFOTY (Shark Freediver Of The Year) Awards. Any suggestions for categories?

Dear freedivers,

The nominations for the ICARE Trophies 2009 are now closed, and we would be able to start with the election part untill December 17th, 2009. You will find below the nominate persons for each category, and a recapitulative of the election’s functionment.

Each individual personne could vote for ONLY ONE NOMINATED PERSON in each category, to the following address only : icare.lausanne@bluewin.ch

The nominated persons for 2009 are (by alphabetical order within each category) :

BEST FEMALE FREEDIVER 2009

Sara CAMPBELL, United Kingdom

Kathryn McPHEE, New Zealand

Natalia MOLCHANOVA, Russia

Jana STRAIN, Canada

BEST MALE FREEDIVER 2009

Alexey MOLCHANOV, Russia

Dave MULLINS, New Zealand

Martin STEPANEK, Czech Republic

William TRUEBRIDGE, New Zealand

BEST FEMALE REVELATION 2009

Lidija LIJIC, Croatia

Maria Livbjerg, Denmark

Susy OSLER, New Zealand

Saana PARTINEN, Finland

BEST MALE REVELATION 2009

Goran COLAK, Croatia

Jorénik EKSTRÖM, Finland

Bjarte NYGARD, Norway

Martin PETRISKO, Czech Repuplic

BEST NATIONAL INSTITUTION 2009

AIDA Croatia, Croatia

AIDA New Zealand

Dansk Fridykkerforbund (AIDA Denmark), Denmark

Freediving Team of Finland (AIDA Finland), Finland

BEST CAPTAIN/COACH 2009

Kerian HIBBS, New Zealand

Grégory PIAZZOLA, France

Bill STRÖMBERG, Sweden

Ivo TRUXA, Czech Republic

BEST INTERNATIONAL JUDGE 2009

Melita ADANY, Croatiaa

Peter BOJOVIC, Serbia

Grant GRAVES, USA

Kimmo LAHTINEN, Finland

ALL THESE INFORMATIONS COULD ALSO BE FOUND IN OUR NEW TEMPORARY WEBSITE

Best regards,

I C A R E
International Center for Apnea Recognition and Education

Bahamas Winners Prediction

Jorg — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:37:03 +0000

Still a week to go before the official competition starts in the Bahamas. Some freedivers still need to arrive, but most of the really deep freedivers are already present in the Blue hole. And while the friendship between the freediver is at a all-time high, there is also a lot of secrecy between the freedivers what they do in training.

Some just blog and talk about everything what they are doing, but some also blog and talk but don’t tell the real truth about what is going on. It’s all part of the game. And between the real winners it’s all about hoping that the other is thinking that you are going a little bit deeper then them and they try to reach you, while instead you play it safe, and they fail at the surface. It makes up for a good poker game and the winner of this game will be known in the next 2 weeks.

So let’s make a list of disciplines and who is going to win the discipline with what kind of depth.

CWT Men: Herbert Nitsch 123 meters

While there are some pretty strong competitors for Herbert like Guillaume, Alexey, William and Ryuzo, I don’t think anybody will be able to match the emperor of freediving Herbert. Martin Stepanek is in the Bahamas as well, but as a coach for his girl Nikki Roderick. I don’t think it will be necessary to set a world record again to get first place, but as Herbert wants his record back he probably subscribes for just enough.

CWT Women: Natalia Molchanova 105 meters

Biggest thread for Natalia is Sara Campbell. Sara already had done 100 meters beginning this year with a small blackout and wanted to be succesfull as the first woman to do 100 meters in constant weight. The last few months has been pretty quiet and as Sara Campbell is a pretty smart media-strategist I believe she has been training pretty hard in secret. But will it be enough?

CNF Men: William Trubridge 93 meters

William is doing 95 meters regularly in training these days. It’s like getting out of bed, brush your teeth, do 95 meters, dry your hair and back to work. I don’t think anybody is able to beat him. Herbert may try, but I don’t think he’s up for it yet. But then again, you new know with Herbert. Alexey and Guillaume could be the other guys who may come close. Maybe some other wildcards that may end high, but nobody will beat William Trubridge is he keeps it clean.

CNF Women: Natalia Molchanova 70 meters

The current 60 meter record by Natalia will be broken for sure. There are a lot of girls going deep in this discipline and doing routine dives between 50 and 60 now. Kathryn McPhee or Nikki Roderick will probably also do 60+ dives. But Natalia will make such a big jump that nobody will be able to beat her.

That’s my prediction for the moment. Of course I could be totally wrong, so let’s hear your thoughts about it in the comments!

AIDA Board Election Started

Jorg — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:15:42 +0000

AIDA has started the official election of their new executive board members. And AIDA wouldn’t be AIDA if somehow the whole votation system wouldn’t be as complicated as possible. The whole election consists of several votation phases were people will be eliminated until the best (wo)man keeps standing.

The first votation consists of the following questions (hold on, it’s a long list!):

Subject ONE:

Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA President:

A. Panos Lianos, GRE

B. Bill Strömberg, SWE

C. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN

Subject TWO:

If under subject one, Lianos and Stromberg get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:

A. Panos Lianos, GRE

B. Bill Strömberg, SWE

Subject THREE:

If under subject one, Lianos and Lahtinen get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:

A. Panos Lianos, GRE

B. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN

Subject FOUR:

If under subject one, Strömberg and Lahtinen get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:

A. Bill Strömberg, SWE

B. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN

(If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number ONE, this person gets elected as President directly without we using the subjects 2,3 or 4.)

Subject FIVE:

Who of the following five persons would you like to see as AIDA Vice President:

A. Hanli Prinsloo, RSA

B. Grant W Graves, USA

C. Yuzov Vladimir, UKR

D. Susan Kluytmans, NED

E. Robert King, USA

(The two with least votes will be eliminated and the top 3 will go to a second round like the vote we have for President. If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number FIVE, this person gets elected as AIDA Vice President directly)

Subject SIX:

Would you accept Pia Jerabek, SUI as AIDA Secretary?

A. Yes

B. No

Subject SEVEN:

Would you accept Stavros Kastrinakis, GRE as AIDA Education Officer?

A. Yes

B. No

Subject EIGHT:

Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA Medical and Science Officer?

A. Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark, CAN

B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA

C. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE

Subject NINE:

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

B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA

Subject TEN:

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

B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE

Subject ELEVEN:

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

B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE

(If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number EIGHT, this person gets elected as Medical and Science Officer directly without we using the subjects 9,10 or 11)

Subject ONE:
Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA President:
A. Panos Lianos, GRE
B. Bill Strömberg, SWE
C. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN

Subject TWO:
If under subject one, Lianos and Stromberg get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:
A. Panos Lianos, GRE
B. Bill Strömberg, SWE

Subject THREE:
If under subject one, Lianos and Lahtinen get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:
A. Panos Lianos, GRE
B. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN

Subject FOUR:
If under subject one, Strömberg and Lahtinen get most votes, I would like to see the following person as AIDA President:
A. Bill Strömberg, SWE
B. Kimmo Lahtinen, FIN
(If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number ONE, this person gets elected as President directly without we using the subjects 2,3 or 4.)

Subject FIVE:
Who of the following five persons would you like to see as AIDA Vice President:
A. Hanli Prinsloo, RSA
B. Grant W Graves, USA
C. Yuzov Vladimir, UKR
D. Susan Kluytmans, NED
E. Robert King, USA
(The two with least votes will be eliminated and the top 3 will go to a second round like the vote we have for President. If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number FIVE, this person gets elected as AIDA Vice President directly)

Subject SIX:
Would you accept Pia Jerabek, SUI as AIDA Secretary?
A. Yes
B. No

Subject SEVEN:
Would you accept Stavros Kastrinakis, GRE as AIDA Education Officer?
A. Yes
B. No

Subject EIGHT:
Who of the following three persons would you like to see as AIDA Medical and Science Officer?
A. Dr. John R. Fitz-Clark, CAN
B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA
C. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE

Subject NINE:
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
B. Dr. Ralph Potkin, USA

Subject TEN:
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
B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE

Subject ELEVEN:
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
B. Dr. Panagiota Balanou, GRE
(If one person gets 50% or more of the votes in subject number EIGHT, this person gets elected as Medical and Science Officer directly without we using the subjects 9,10 or 11)

So, when this votation is finished after a week, we will at least see the following positions filled:

President
Secretary
Education Officer
Medical and Science Officer

In the next round the following positions will be filled:

Vice-president
Sport Officer
Technical Officer
Media and PR Officer
Treasurer

Every Assembly member can now cast their vote, so if you want your voice being heard, contact your national AIDA institution and let them know your votes!

Shark Hot Tub Static Competition

Jorg — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:38:55 +0000

The Hot Tub

On December 11 Shark Sports organizes a small static competition in the “Tongelreep” Eindhoven, The Netherlands. And of course we wouldn’t be Shark if we wouldn’t make it special!

The static competition will take place in a 33 degrees hot tub pool and we’ve got some special rules:

No masks, goggles or noseclips allowd. Only naturals!
No wetsuit! If anybody who want this in this kind of water, he’s crazy anyway.
No warming-up! Who needs a warming up in a 33 degrees pool anyway? When you step in the pool 2 minute countdown starts. When the last person is finished, he gets out and you get in. Simple as that!
Fins allowed! If it makes you happy to wear your monofin during static… be our guest!

For the rest we follow the standard AIDA rules. So no strange things with the surface protocol and points.

We have an interesting setup for the competition. The whole competition will be broadcasted live with 2 or 3 camera’s to the internet (also underwater). So that will be fun.

Competition is from 21:00 to 23:00 and besides having fun in the Hot Tub, there will be room for some dynamic training as well. Price for the competition will be 12 euro and includes pool entrance.

Oh and don’t worry: the bubbles will be off!

As an extra note: this competition is also a test for our next, somewhat bigger competition, on January 23 when we will organize a dynamic competition.

At the moment I’m finalizing the competition website. I’ll put another news item online as soon as the website is live.

Places are limited to around 10-12 people. So if you want in sent me an email or leave a comment!

Jessica Wilson – “Humanly Impossible”

Jorg — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:26:03 +0000

Jessica Wilson

USA freediver Jessica Wilson will appear in the National Geographic Channel serie Humanly Impossible. It will be broad-casted on December 6 at 8pm. Below some more information about the series.

“Humanly Impossible” (also known as “Science Impossible”) finally has an air date! The first hour “Humanly Impossible – Beyond Bizarre” premieres on Sunday December 6th at 8:00 PM on the National Geographic Channel. NatGeo is very enthusiastic about this show, and they put us at one of their best time slots! Tell your friends and family to tune in to see the incredible feats of the Human Blockhead, Firewalker, Aquagirl, and Strongman.

For a sneak peak of “Humanly Impossible” click the link below to find video, pictures, and more information about the series.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/humanly-impossible/all/Overview