AIDA Indoor Freediving World Champs 2011

The competition organisation has been interesting to say the least. They do not speak English and do not want to try. Communications have been in some strange and special language created by Google Translate. The liability release form was such rubbish that it will never protect them. The judges were informed on arrival that the organisers where just arranging the venue and do not want to know about announcements and results lists for example. They decided to run two people at once to save costs on bringing more judges. The finals will have 23 people in each, so pretty much everyone who did not black out with get another chance to dive and the high end result are pretty disappointing as there is no real race to qualify and move on. But, the pool is lovely – it is clear, clean, deep and fast. Unfortunately we are using the 50m pool for dynamic without fins when there is a perfectly great 25m pool just in the next room, but at the end of the day it is a competition and all athletes have the same conditions to work with. Competition is between 5pm and 8pm daily. I find it pretty late. I prefer to get up, have breakfast and dive then rest for the remainder of the day. But they are feeding us well and lunch does not seem to be affecting me.

The accommodation is pretty simple but adequate and the food, while becoming repetitive is abundant and easy. We have four course meals twice daily and I’m sure I’m gaining weight. My room looks out over the entry to the pool and it is about a 3 minute walk from my bed to the athlete check in at the other end of the pool complex.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting a judge course. I have resisted for many years, but think it would be beneficial to NZ freediving for me to participate. Besides, I’m no longer required to organise so many events as well as compete in them. It could reduce our entry fees somewhat by not having to fly another judge in from out of town or forcing one of the boys to not compete due to the fact that they are judging. I just have to remember to stop the stopwatch…

I am resisting the strong urge to visit Venice. It would be a big day of about 4 hours travel, plus Venice is a walking city. I’m trying to rest and conserve my energy for when it counts. I haven’t even made it to the beach yet. It’s only a 5 minute walk. I will get there soon!

The official website is www.europevolutioncup.com and some results and photos have been posted there. There will be a live stream of the finals on this website and on www.evolutiontv.com.  I believe we will also be aired on NBC.

Thanks again to my sponsors:

Firecrest systems, who are a Palmerston North and UK based marketing and web design firm who paid my competition entry fee and are preparing a website for me www.FirecrestSystems.com

Orca, who donate the odd wetsuit and allow me to sell their gear www.orca.com Please contact me either by email  or leave a comment with your email on this post if you’d like to purchase an Orca Free of Breathe wetsuit (other gear available too).