Wellington Winter Champs 2013

Great competition on the weekend: the Wellington Winter Champs (8th annual - I'm starting to feel like an old timer), hosted by the Lazy Seal Freediving Club in Porirua. You can find the Lazy Seals on Facebook too - some competition photos and videos are available there now.

My performances came up a little better than anticipated. I pulled out a pretty comfortable 7min 24s static breath hold. First contraction was around 4:15 which is pretty unheard of (remembering that I do no "breathe up" or warm up - I just relax, take a breath and go).7:24 is a mere 10s off my best, which is pretty positive for the future as I only stepped up my training in about the month beforehand, and not really to the level I'd like to be at, and am not feeling particularly in form.

I did a token dynamic in the afternoon - it hurt a bit after the morning's static and I haven't trained long dynamics for about 4 months, so the lactic was fairly intense. I really just did it to encourage the spirit of the competition (we had lots of beginners) and because I'm not feeling particularly in form (ie wasn't about to better a world record the following day), but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be starting out. I achieved 151m with a little left in the tank. Might have to start training it a bit more. Pools are challenging over winter - our training pool is very shallow with sharp tiles that destroy your fin in the deep end and make it virtually impossible to turn in the shallow end. Plus it's pretty crowded - we're lucky to squeeze in at all most weeks.

On Sunday morning I did a 152m dynamic without fins. It's only my second DNF over 150m this year (managed one the weekend before), so I was pretty happy. I felt quite tired after 100m thanks to the previous day's events. I managed to win the competition and beat the boys, which is nice, but they weren't in the greatest form either.

Thanks Marine for organising. Well done to all the new divers who set a massive amount of personal bests. We hope to see you all again and get you hooked on the sport. Also thanks to Odette for offering the prize of a 1 hour massage. I still owe you your coaching prize when you get some spare time to train again.

The next competition will be August, organised by the Breathtakers Freediving Club (me probably). We're deciding where and when in the next couple of weeks - Masterton/Palmerston North/Ohakea or maybe a mixture.

Event four – Dynamic without fins finals

Last night the finals were run for the dynamic without fins event. As previously mentioned there were 23 men and 23 women in the finals with two divers run at a time. The finals were scheduled to occur between 5 and 8 pm. Obviously that was never going to happen since 23 starts requiring a minimum of 10 minutes each does not fit into 3 hours, but no one would commit to any schedule changes prior to our announcements. I announced 127m, the second highest. I really didn’t care too much about what the others did but like to have a high announcement in case of a draw in the results (the higher announced performances wins). I wasn’t very happy to find that my Official Top (start time) would be 8:40pm. This is very late for me. I also had to have a Lepin squeezy prior to my dive to keep my energy up (since dinner was so late), which I’m pretty sure kept me awake until very late last night along with the judges having a good chat on our floor until 1am (there is no sound proofing).

The day dragged and slowly moved from 12 hours to official top until I finally found myself in the pool. I’ve only experienced this once before when I had 12 hours between dives in Aarhus. My static was in the morning and then I had to wait around forever to do my no fins final, which was a pretty miserable performance. Yesterday I did try to move my day slightly, getting up and eating later than usual.

Anyway, my dive felt fine. I was a bit slow taking my final breath (I seem to be packing a lot more than usual, so must focus on doing good big packs) and possibly missed out on a few packs as I dipped my head under at Official Top + 9s (more than 10s is a penalty). I was pretty relaxed and any negative thoughts that popped into my head disappeared as quickly as they came. I came up when I needed to breathe which was 148m (remember this is an Olympic 50m pool, which reduces DNF performance length). I didn’t know I was so close to the wall, but I did know that if I touched the wall I’d win gold. Anyway, I needed to breathe so that was it and I won silver.

Congratulations to Jody from Australia who won gold (150m) and Dajana from Croatia who won bronze (153m with a 5 point (10m) penalty). Also congratulations to the men: Fred from France won gold with 207m, Goran from Croatia silver with 194m and Rune from Denmark bronze with 193m. Kiwi William Trubridge came 4^th with 174m losing his bronze after Rune won his protest. Chris did a massive 161m personal best and ended up 8^th. Guy did not participate in this event.

I have announced much lower for the Dynamic final tonight to try to dive earlier. I’ll be on at 6:20pm. I hope that the low announcement doesn’t turn around and bite me as my competitors have all announced higher. I also wanted to maximise my break between dynamic and static tomorrow morning and actually be able to watch some other people’s performances.

The schedule has now changed to run 4pm – 8pm tonight. Remember that you can watch the live stream on-line at www.europeevolutioncup.com.

Results from the heats

 Here are the results from the heats. Yellow highlighting indicates the 23 finalists.

Event three – static apnea heats

The static heats were last night. They ran all the heats in one session as opposed to splitting them over two evenings as they did with the dynamics. It was good to do them all at once, but did mean it was a little difficult coaching the rest of the NZ team and the honourary Kiwi stragglers we’ve picked up (Bjarte from Norway and Jodie from Australia who are here alone). Luckily we were all at different times. I unfortunately didn’t manage to see many divers but from the results lists you can see that mostly white cards were given out. The boys had a cut off of 6:06 for the 23 person finals and the girls were around low four minutes, so it was much as we’d expected going in. There were some impressive performances and I think there are some new divers that could surprise us with really great dives in the finals – watch out for the girls especially.

I coached Chris through a tough 5:24 static. He was in the second heat and this really is not his favourite event, but I’m pleased he did not pull out too early, I’m sure he was tempted.

I then disappeared to my room and rested for a couple of hours prior to my check in time. My official top was 6:58 pm (quite late to wait around for) and the little pool area is generally quite hot with not many chairs so it’s more comfortable to not stay there any longer than necessary before diving.

I got into a great relaxed state (almost asleep) prior to changing, but struggled a bit after.  I found the pool very deep and it was difficult to get comfortable with my head resting on the side. It’s meant to be 1.4m in the deep end and the organisers provided umbrella stands for those of us who could not reach the bottom very well, but they only gave us another 100mm. I’m not that short so I’m sure the Japanese ladies struggled much more. I don’t warm up so need to take the time to relax prior to my dive. I might just sit on the side for the finals and get in later. Anyway, having not trained a lot of statics in the last couple of months (unintentionally – it just worked out that way around travel and the last competition, plus my static training dive on arrival was aborted thanks to immense jet lag and a cold pool). I struggled a little more than usual with my contractions, and had a pretty strong heart beat for the first 2 or 3 minutes, not fast, just heavy. The contractions started pretty early for me, which I found a bit disappointing, but they were not too big or regular and I mostly managed to remain in control and pretty relaxed. The dive was fine and I have plenty left – in fact it was one of the first times I’ve gone over 6:30 without feeling very tired after. Just three or four hook breaths and I’d pretty much recovered. So I ended up first qualifier for the women’s final with 6:34. Hopefully this was a good training dive for the final and that my body is starting to remember so I’ll be a bit more relaxed for Sunday!

Guy did an easy 7:11 dive and William 7:02 for easy qualification to the finals. They were both just before me so I unfortunately completely missed their dives.

The static heats had four people at a time, starting every 14 minutes, ordered from smallest to largest announced performance. The organisers have LED displays of the times in each lane so spectators can see where the divers are up to and how much they achieved. It’s really great, otherwise you just have no idea unless you sit there with a stopwatch and really focus. It’ll be good for coaches and team captains in the finals too. Unfortunately they were announcing (in Italian) throughout the performances, but it didn’t really throw me, probably because I can’t understand it anyway – I barely recognise my own name.

The time for the static finals has changed to 9am Sunday finishing around mid-day in order to be able to complete protests, doping tests, etc prior to the closing ceremony. It’s not going to be fun for anyone to have to do a late doping test at about 10pm after dynamic followed by an early start in static. Remember that the finals will be live streamed on www.europeevolutioncup.com and www.evolutiontv.com

Event two – Dynamic with fins heats

Day four of competition is now over. We have had two more days of heats, this time the Dynamic (with fins) event. Again 23 men and women will proceed to the finals, leaving about 10-15 of each without a spot. A good clean dive is almost a sure entry ticket to the finals with just a few of the newer divers or those who made mistakes missing out, but many pleasantly surprising themselves with a place.

Many of the competition issues have now been sorted. Announcements are in a mix of Italian and English, the start buzzer has thankfully been discarded, there are a couple of start lists available to the people in the stands, we no longer have to remain in the cage after check in (however it does provide quite a good view of the divers and a place for people to lie down should they choose to) and the countdown is clearer and correct. In addition, they have started to spell my name right, however people are still a bit scared of using Nevatt (rather than McPhee).

Yesterday I coached Chris through a rather tough 165m dynamic. He is starting to feel a bit tired from all his travelling and recent lack of pool training. But the dive was clean and he managed 20^th qualifier for the finals.

I also coached Romain through his dynamic. He did not bring his monofin and choose to go without fins. He did a nice 173m dive but received a red card for not wearing fins. We protested as there is no rule requiring the use of fins for dynamic but the judges did not budge, despite the ambiguity in the current rules and the fact that the benefit of the doubt must go to the athlete. In addition there is no advantage to not wear fins in this event. They felt it was not in keeping with the spirit of the rules and the competition. Chris tried to protest the decision a second time to no avail. Expect some changes to the wording of these rules in the near future.

I was proud of my students’ performances once again and am pleased to be competing with them in the finals.

Today I did a nice 165m dynamic dive. It was a very pleasant dive again and another nice introduction to the pool. My start was terrible, I kind of got stuck somewhere on the edge of the platform pushing away from the wall, but I always take the first two or three kicks slowly anyway to sort myself out and set the tone for the rest of the dive, so it was fine really. My new technique is finally becoming natural and feels so much more comfortable. My new kick has a much smaller amplitude but I’m still kicking about the same number of times as previously. I have yet to time it but believe the dive was about 3 minutes. I have recently slowed down to a more leisurely and comfortable pace, my dives take longer but they tend to be less kicks and the distances covered are about the same, plus I am much more relaxed and sleepy throughout. The first length was 10 kicks, which I’m happy with, and I can’t remember after that. I only remember that one because I thought I’d suddenly better pay attention and the T was already underneath me.

A common problem seems to be that people are becoming more buoyant, myself included. When I arrived in France I kept sinking as I’m weighted for a very shallow pool and I tend to lose a little of my lung capacity while travelling. Now I have to swim right at the bottom as I seem to be very buoyant. I am able to do at least 5 more packs than usual, plus we are eating two four-course meals every day, which is likely to be the main problem. I was getting a bit too skinny before I left home anyway…

My poor old monofin is starting to delaminate after the travel and years of abuse, so we have a date with SuperGlue tomorrow. It’s almost time to consider a replacement/upgrade. I’ll have to try to sell a few more Orca suits to try to pay for it though.

Fellow Kiwis Guy and William also made the Dynamic finals, so thus far we have all qualified for all events entered. Guy did not participate in Dynamic without fins.

The girls’ dynamic performances are pretty high so the finals should be quite exciting and we shouldn’t count anyone out. I believe there are probably between 3 and 6 men with their eyes on the world record. Possibly 3 guys are realistically capable and another 3 that might not be too far off, so that should be pretty exciting too. Natalia is not here due to illness in the family so it will be interesting to see if any of her records are advanced on. Make sure you tune in to the live stream of the finals at www.europeevolution cup.com or www.evolutiontv.com.

Tomorrow is a rest day and there is a trip to Venice organised. I’ll be completing the judge’s course and trying to avoid the great pleasure of strolling the streets of Venice. I still haven’t made it to the beach here and it’s only 5 minutes away! Static heats will be Wednesday evening in the 25m pool. This pool is very hot – about 29 degrees in water but the air surrounding it is a bit like a sauna so it could be interesting. I only have my Orca suit with me anyway, but I know others are intending to wear 5mm suits. Maybe we’ll see repeats of Timmo’s pants removal trick during static apnea. Hopefully the organisers will open the windows and get some ventilation going through the space. The depth is pretty nice at the shallow end (1.2m) but a bit too deep for me at the deep end (about 1.5m) and the pool edge is again level with the surface of the water, which should be nice.

Ocean Hunter Deep Obsession 2011

Once again I’ve been a bit slack with my blog sorry! Another competition came and went – the Auckland Freediving Club hosted the “Ocean Hunter Deep Obsession” – surprising name for a an indoor event. I think they’re going to host part two in December where people will dive to the depths of Lake Pupuke. Yes, the lake does resemble its name, nestled on the North Shore of New Zealand’s largest city and home to many a duck, swan and eel. It does clear up a bit below 15m but is pitch black, great place to practise diving with eyes closed. They tend to limit the depth to 50m to avoid anyone getting stuck in the mud and having to swim back with additional weight.

Anyway, the competition was pretty average for me. We drove up to Auckland the night before, arriving quite late after an eight hour drive. Thankfully Mike, my Masterton buddy sponsored the drive. Tania from Wanganui came too – she’s my Palmy buddy.

I chose not to do a static. Statics fatigue me a lot these days. Anything over about 6:30 takes me a while to recover from. Besides, I set a new NZ record at the last competition and impressed myself enough with that. Statics were also in the afternoon after dynamics so I didn’t really have a hope of achieving anything fantastic. The new guys discovered this too with the largest struggle lasting just over 3 minutes. It was actually very refreshing to just have the new competitors in having a go without being “shown up” by the big boys. We’re pretty top heavy in NZ, so it’s good to give someone else a chance to “win” for a change.

I was quite proud of my buddies. Tania did a massive personal best of 126m dynamic without fins. We have been working hard on her technique and it is starting to come together. She just needs to keep practising the kick! It was Mike’s first competition and it took much convincing to get him there. He did very well with a dynamic of 65m. He’d only ever done one static session before and struggled through a bit, but I’m pleased he didn’t let that stop him. It was also great to see Gavin. He showed up to watch but ended up getting in for a static. He can still pull out 3 minutes without having done any training for what might be years now.

I managed a 158m DNF and 184m DYN. They weren’t quite the results I was after but I was happy enough. It’s always difficult when you have to travel. I was really just treating it as yet another training prior to the world champs and an opportunity to catch up with my old training buddies who I haven’t seen much of in the past couple of years.

Here are the competitors trying to sit on the bottom in exhale in wetsuits. Not sure that Wade understood the brief... Sorry everyone from Guy and I for blocking you! Tania is to the right of me and Mike is the one in the Orca suit looking like he should perhaps be at a different type of water recepticle... Photo by Phil Clayton:

A big thanks to Ocean Hunter for their continued support of competitive freediving in NZ. It's great to have some prizes! :) Here we all are at the prize giving (photo by Phil Clayton):

Wellington Winter Champs 2011

It's been a very long time since I competed. I really struggle for motivation in the meantime. Our last competition was eight months ago (if you don't count the depth comp that I very diligently sat out of and just participated as the safety diver).

Three months ago I moved from Wanaka to Palmerston North for work. Basically because there was none in Wanaka. Luckily I have a good group of reliable and enthusiastic buddies to train with and we have finally managed to arrange lane space to train in. Unfortunately we were struggling to get lane space initially so had to do a lot of static training in the play pool. This shows in my competition results. My statics in training have improved significantly. While I struggle to do anything close to a personal best in training after work I can tell when things are improving - the dives feel easier and I start to achieve greater performances. My dynamics are improving steadily but still have a way to go to get back to my previous results. I do feel they are on target, but definitely still require some work and dedication.

The annual Wellington Winter Champs 2011 are organised by the Lazy Seal Freediving Club. It was the first year I have not organised the event and it was a pleasure to sit back and see the boys have a go (which they managed very well). It was nice to be able to just concentrate on my own performances for a change.

My first event was Static apnea. I felt very relaxed and quite confident. I hadn't done anything truely magnificent in training, but my exhale training had increased by about 20s in the month prior and in training my comfortable max had increased by about a minute. It was one of the most comfortable dives I've ever done. The dive was no warm up (just relaxed on the side), no hyperventilation (no change in breathing patterns from normal), and no samba. I got my first contraction at about 4:15 without having to really hold them off. They did come quite regularly after this but they remained small and I managed to stay relaxed and in control. I aimed to not put my hands on the side until after 6 minutes as this normally makes me feel uncomfortable and I generally pull out quite soon after. I managed to not put my hands on the wall until around 7 minutes. I also asked my coach (Chris) to start the clock late as so many people pull out of there dives directly after a specific time call when they feel they've done enough. Anyway, he made me think I was about 10s behind where I actually was. I managed a new personal best and new national record of 7:34. The record places me second in the world after Russian Natalia Molchanova.

The whole dive was very relaxed and wonderful, a true testament to no warm up diving and my theory of retaining absolute relaxation prior to and through the first breath into the dive. As usual for anything longer than about 6:30 I felt very tired and wobbly for a while after. It seems to take me a long time to recover from these big statics.

Here is the video, sorry it's not very exciting viewing!

Unfortunately I felt a bit exhausted after the dive and it showed on my dynamics that followed. I managed 156m with the monofin (must start training with it again) and 144m no fins. I was hoping for a bit more in both, but I'll keep working on them and we'll see at the next competition.

A big congratulations to my Palmy dive buddy Romain Doris, who is pretty new on the competitive freediving scene. He managed 180m dynamic without fins, which places him 7th in the world and will give him the French national record (if AIDA France finally changes their dope testing policy for national records that makes national records unachievable for those who are not sponsored). Also to my other buddy Tania Wong, who is going to a be a really great freediver - we just need to give her a little more time. Tania managed a 104m Dynamic without fins.

Competition results

Videos

I found some videos of me from recent competitions:

Deep Obsession last weekend in Auckland:
Static, 6 minutes 31s

Dynamic without fins, 136m

Dynamic, 180m

Wellington Winter Champs about 2 months ago:
Dynamic, 151m

Dynamic without fins, 154m (the contentious one with the foot touch)

Summer training workshops and competition

This is a preliminary invitation to all freedivers come and diving with Deep South Freedivers in February 2011, at the end of the New Zealand summer in a beautiful spot; Lake Wanaka. Please register your level of interest by responding to this email (or to the event on Facebook: search for "New Zealand freediving adventure") so I know what to prepare for!

The set up is to allow novice through to elite freedivers to participate (new divers would need to complete the courses over the first two days).

The training workshops will definitely go ahead and if there is enough interest I will also run a week long competition (see below).


The rough preliminary plan:

Sat 12 Feb: introduction to freediving course - dependant on numbers: min 2, max 6 people - NZ$200
Sun 13 Feb: intermediate freediving course - dependant on numbers: min 2, max 6 people - NZ$200

Mon 14 - Sun 20 Feb: Structured training workshops (lake, pool, theory - based around competitive freediving) and sightseeing trips around Wanaka which, as part of New Zealand's main adventure tourism region could include hiking, mountain biking, fly fishing, drift dive the Clutha river, dive Arethusa Pool (a lake on Mou Waho island on Lake Wanaka where there are 1000 year old totara trees preserved in the water), kayaking, visiting Queenstown, bungee jumping, jetboating, skydiving, trip to coast where you can collect paua in knee deep water (fairly untouched), etc

Mon 21 Feb: rest day and competition preparation.

Tues 22 - Sat 26 Feb: Competition covering all AIDA disciplines (lake and pool) - competition will be dependant on numbers interested. We can potentially make it a world record status competition but please express your interest now to make this happen.

Sat 26 Feb: party in evening

Sun 27 Feb: head home


Lake Wanaka is 311m deep with good easy access points from shore, and various deep bays that will allow us to find sheltered deep water if the wind is blowing. The water is clean and clear and the temperature should be in the mid to high teens (Celcius).

The weather is usually hot and settled in February.

Wanaka has a nice 25m pool, but we will probably go to Cromwell for competition in dynamic disciplines as their 25m pool is a bit deeper.

Wanaka has a lot of holiday homes, where we will book accommodation. If numbers are small, all accommodation and food will be included in a package. A rental car may be required too.

Roughly budget NZ$150/day all inclusive once you're here (it will hopefully be less) plus courses if required (includes for workshops, entry fees and eating in, but not tourist activities). I'm trying to keep prices down and am not doing this for profit!

Domestic flights into Wanaka on those dates are very cheap right now (NZ$157 each way from Auckland/Wellington) - expect these prices to double closer to the time.

Please send this invite around your freediving friends/clubs and respond as soon as possible. Hope you can make it!

Kathryn McPhee
DSFreedivers@gmail.com

Cressi World Record Challenge

25-28 September 2010, Naenae & Porirua Pools, Wellington, New Zealand

We were coming up to Wellington anyway for Simon's mum's exhibition opening on Friday so we stuck around for the competition - worth a try.

The competition was organised for Dave Mullins to set world records in Dynamic and Dynamic without fins since his national records in both events exceeded the world records. I think he had a glimmer of hope for a static too but that faded once he put his head under. He was sucessful and made nice clean dives to 265m and 218m respectively, but unfortunately did not push out his dynamic without fins national record of 232m.



I didn't have high expectations which helped reduce some of the pressure on me (very nice). I don't really want to make excuses but my pool has been shut for the last three months (re-opened on Saturday funnily enough) and I've spent the last four months commuting to Queenstown from Wanaka daily, over NZ's highest sealed road, through snow and ice in my little two wheel drive car, mostly in the dark and working long days. This is a photo of the summit of the Crown Range (taken on the way to the airport departing Wellington) - it's meant to be spring time now.

Anyway, I've managaed to increase my training in the last month from one in water session per week to two, by staying over in Queenstown one night a week and driving to Cromwell on the weekend, plus a couple of rather fatigued dry sessions. I lose about 20% of my ability when fatigued so really had no idea of my capabilities prior to the competition and was hoping that everything would come together in time. Thankfully a few things did. Having a couple of days off work before competing and some good sleeps helped enormously. My dives have only just come back to feeling wonderful again after having such a big break, firstly from the pool (training in Egypt & the Bahamas), then holidaying and then settling back into "normal" life. Please remember that eventually all your training will pay off and long dives do feel fabulous!

Since the last competition I've managed to fit in one max dive with my monofin, simply because it's hard to focus on more than one event with such limited training time, but feel that my technique is really improving (feeling much better than ever before). I managed 177m in the competition, which I was pretty happy with. I do have high hopes for future months but I guess we'll have to wait and see - I'm hoping that with some proper training and a bit more technique work to make everything more natural that it will all start to come together soon. The comp dive was still a bit slow: 3:02, which is that time I'm aiming to make it to 200m in when the technique actually starts to work properly.

I did dynamic without fins on Monday after a day of rest, good sleep and a lot of eating. The dive felt great (remembering that they are just starting to feel really wonderful) but there were still some issues. I feel my buoyancy has changed again in the last week or so (or perhaps the Porirua pool water is a little different) and it affect my stroke count each length. I made it to the 161m and came up but had one of the world's tiniest black outs (I could remember seeing the marker on the bottom indicating when I'd arrived at the WR distance). Anyway, it meant disqualification so I had to try again today. Today I opted for the safe option and decided to get a white card rather than chase numbers (always my preference). I managed 156m without fins with a white card. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't 5m further (the world record is 160m) but I feel that I would have suffered the exact same fate as yesterday had I pushed through. It did save me $1000, which is quite significant considering my employment contract ends 30 September and I'll be without work again. There are definitely still things to work on as I essentially haven't had the time this year to work through any of the finer details. The next thing is to figure out how to stay under longer than 3 minutes. My 156m was 3:06, which is about the right speed. Please feel free to comment and post ideas... :)

If you haven't already, please become a fan of AIDA NZ on facebook. You can view videos and get regular updates on what is going on here in NZ. I also have a facebook page where you can click on like and see updates on me as a freediver and Deep South Freedivers.

How to organise a freediving competition

I've recently been asked to document this information, so here it is. I hope it's helpful to you. You can post a comment with your email address if you'd like me to send you a pdf version. Don't worry, I won't make your comment public! Please make comments - I'd like some feedback.


General notes:

Please note that this document has been set up only as a guideline to assist competition organisers. It is not intended as a finite document and organisers must be familiar with the current AIDA International rules, statutes, guidelines and forms to be found in the downloads/documents section on the AIDA website: www.aida-international.org Organisers should also consider local laws when organising events and investigate whether or not insurance is required. Any insurance cover must also protect officials and volunteers at the event. The organiser’s greatest priority should be to ensure the safety of all the participants, officials and volunteers at all times throughout the competition.

World record competitions require a little more organisation, further information on this can be found in the rules.


1 Decide on an organiser

I would recommend that you do not organise a Freediving competition as an individual. Organise it as a representative of an incorporated society (your club or AIDA National). In NZ this protects you and other volunteers, removing your personal liability. Stay alert and ensure that all required safety protocols are followed to avoid any claims of negligence.

Organising a competition is not difficult, there is just a process to follow. I have tried to outline the steps in this document to make it easier for you.


2 Decide on a date

Ask around your freediving buddies to find out when they are free.

Check that your competition is not overlapping with school holidays (they tend to make people busy and travel costs increase).

Check that there are no big sporting events (olypmics, world cups, etc), especially if you are expecting records to be broken, this means you are more likely to get media coverage.

Check the pool is available.

If using open water check there are no other events scheduled, eg ironman, triathlon, jet sprints, regatta.

I'd recommend starting this process at least two months before the competition so that everyone can get themselves organised and start training!


3 Read the rules

It's a good idea at this point to have a quick read through the rules to ensure you remember everything!
http://www.aida-international.org/aspportal1/scripts/aida%20regulations%20-%20v12.pdf


4 Book the pool

Consider your timetable and check the pool opening hours.

Remember that you need to allow around 15 mins to get set up at the pool. Allow 15 mins for an official's briefing and another 15 mins for the competitor's briefing. Competitiors need to check in 1 hour prior to their official top time (this should be after their briefing is finished) and need to have pool space for warm ups 45 mins prior to their top. This said, you are probably going to need to be at the pool one hour prior to warm ups so check the pool is open 1 hour before your booking. Also try to get people there early to avoid delays.

Consider how many divers you will have. I like to allow around 10-12 mins each for statics (obviously for some people we need to allow more time, eg if Guy Brew is getting in we'd probably allow at least 14 mins: start up to 30s late, 9 min breath hold, 30s for judges to assess, 1 min for congratulations and to clear the lane, 2 min countdown and a small contingency in case he smashes his record). I allow a minimum of 8 mins for each dynamic and again a little longer for the slow boys: 10-11 mins. Allowing a reasonable amount of time reduces delays through the event and gives everyone time to do their jobs without panicking.

Work out how many sessions you want. In NZ most people only like to dive once a day. If you are having 2 sessions than you might be able to make the second one a little shorter. Give divers plenty of recovery time between their dives to avoid accidents, have time to eat and allow people to perform at their best. I'd suggest a minimum of 5 hours.

Remember that you should give the judges a 10 min break every hour too.

If you have to book open water space, now is the time. Also think through your schedule. Remember it can take a minute or so for the officials to re-set the line to the correct depth after each diver.


5 Invite officials

Send around a official invitation to all the local judges, medics, helpers, etc. Outline the competition: dates, times, no of sessions, etc. Give them a date to respond by. Ask for a list of their credentials: judge level, experience, etc.

Remember that the organiser is obliged cover the costs of the officials. This includes transport, accommodation and meals.


6 Send info to AIDA National

In NZ, the AIDA NZ board does the final selection for judges for competitions. This is to ensure that all judges get to have a go at judging regularly and removes favouritism from organisers. It also ensures that there are no conflicts of interest. We attempt to have 3 judges for our competitions (rules require 2). We also generally announce men's and women's competitions separately so that we can use competing men to judge women, competing women to act as medic for the men, etc.

From the respondents of the invitation collate a list of those who would like to judge, with their credentials and send it through to the board. I would normally offer my recommendation too and any reasons why. Make sure that they get back to you quickly.

Remember that if you are expecting 50% or more international divers (eg non-Kiwis in NZ) the competition will be international as opposed to national and there is a different minimum level imposed on judges.


7 Inform officials of their selection

Confirm that the officials still want to judge, etc.

Check with their schedules and book their transport & accommodation.

Remember that if you are organising a depth event then the judges need to be available to measure the rope (in daylight) and you will probably need additional time for briefings the night before.


8 Announce the event

All competitions need to be announced to AIDA International.

Send an email to the AIDA International Sport Officer: calendar@aida-international.org

The following information should be included:
Name of competition
Competition type (eg national, world record status)
Date of competition
Place of competition
Names of judges and their levels
Organiser name and contact details
Events that will be held (eg STA, DYN, CWT)
Length of pool
Performance restrictions (eg depths limited to 90m)

The email needs to be received by the AIDA International Sport Officer at least 2 weeks prior to the event. In NZ we aim for 6 weeks.


9 Advertise the event

Let all the local club and AIDA national members know that the competition will be occurring. Send them an email or invite them on facebook. Add the event to your website. Don't forget your sponsors!


10 Ensure you have enough helpers

Check you have:
Judges
Medic and in water safety divers (remember your warm up lane/rope)
Videographer(s)
Boatsmen, time keepers, photographers, etc

Remember to cover their costs.


11 Prepare a budget

Consider your expenses:
Pool hire & entry fees
Boats (hire, fuel, etc)
Officials’ & helpers’ transport, accommodation and meal allowances
Oxygen bottle refill
AIDA International fees (2€/competition dive)
Purchase of any additional equipment (tape measure, rope, tape, tags, video cassettes, etc)
Phone calls
Insurance (if applicable)

I normally also factor in a bag of snacks for the officials (to keep them alert) and a lunch for everyone (competitors, officials and supporters) once the competition is over.

Consider how many divers you feel you can be guaranteed to participate and divide the costs, minus any sponsorship by the number of divers to find out your entry fee.


12 Prepare forms

The following should be prepared so everyone knows what to expect and to make it easy for you as the organiser on competition day:

Competition information:
Name of competition
Competition type (eg national, world record status)
Date of competition
Place of competition (include address and directions if necessary)
Any sponsors
Names of judges and their levels
Organiser name and contact details
Name of medic and their contact details
Events that will be held (eg STA, DYN, CWT) and when/where
Description of pool: length, depth, temperature, etc
Description of open water: visibility, temperature, currents, link to weather forecasts, etc
Performance restrictions (eg depths limited to 90m)
Description of any fun events outside the competition
Competition fees
Any AIDA National fees that might also be due
Link to competition rules
Schedule: Closing date for entries/payments
Times & locations for briefings/event committees (officials & competitors)
For each session: Closing times for announced performances, how & where
First check in time & where
Warm up times
First top time
Estimated finish time
Recretional events
Times & locations of social events, meetings, etc

Also include forms for participants to return:
Entry form: Name, contact details, sex, nationality
Emergency contact with relationship and contact details
Events they want to enter into
Costs involved (ie to be able to keep this form as a receipt)
Where to send forms & fees, & closing date
What to include: Medical statement & medical certificate
Liability release form
Copy of passport (if necessary)
Statement to allow club and AIDA National to utilise video/images from the event at their discretion.

Medical statement (from AIDA International website)
Liability release form

Also prepare a safety/evacuation plan. The plan will identify potential risks and how to deal with them at the specific locations involved.


13 Checklist

Write a check list for everyone and delegate tasks so everyone knows exactly what is expected of them. Follow everything up in the week prior to the competition. Re-read the competition rules to check you have not missed anything.
My checklist from a previous indoor competition looked like this:
Joy medic & media contact
alert local hospitals & pool staff: provide with safety plan
issue press releases
help set up pool during warm ups (measure, lane markers, etc) – optional
bring: t-shirt, stopwatch, tags, medical bag

Tracy head judge & jury
help set up pool during warm ups (measure, lane markers, etc)
bring: t-shirt, stopwatch, tags

John judge & jury
help set up pool during warm ups (measure, lane markers, etc)
bring: t-shirt, stopwatch, tags

Phil judge & jury (women only)
help set up pool during warm ups (measure, lane markers, etc)
bring: t-shirt, stopwatch, tag

Braedon judge & jury (men only)
help set up pool during warm ups (measure, lane markers, etc)
videographer – women, dynamic events only
bring: t-shirt, stopwatch, tags

Tammy in water safety
bring: wetsuits, fins, mask, snorkel

Sat STA
in water safety Tammy & coaches
videography Gavin

Sat DYN
in water safety Tammy
Videography Paul (men) & Braedon (women)

Sunday
in water safety Tammy
Videography ? (men) & Braedon (women)

Chris post comp draws & results on LSFC website comp page when they're ready

Jude shop for Sunday lunch & host it

Gavin bring: video camera incl cords & housing

Kathryn LSFC rep (organiser)
receive entry forms, liability releases, med certs, money
confirm pool bookings
Pick up and bring extra O2 bottle from Air Liquide, Seaview
Shopping officials’ snacks
receive nominations
compile comp draws & results
bring: O2 kit & first aid & masks
rope (starts)
lane markers & tape measure
sticky tape
rules (incl NZ)
protest forms
calculator
comp draw
competitors' forms
pens, paper & clipboard for judges
refreshments for officials
petrol vouchers for officials
briefing outlines (official time, lane set up, judges/jury, safety plan)
laptop and cords (protests)


14 Receive forms

Make sure you receive all the entry forms and payments well prior to the event so you do not have to chase anything up on the day. You might want to send a reminder email out a couple of days prior to entries closing. Chase up anything that is missing.

Let the AIDA National have a list of entrants to check they have paid their AIDA National fees.

Re-confirm your schedule and make sure you have enough pool time booked for the number of entries.


15 Receive nominations

If you are organising and competing you may need to receive nominations through a neutral party (eg a judge).

Once the closing time has passed set up the competition draw, post it on line and print copies to post at the competition site and give to judges to record results on.

The competition draw can be:
Lowest announcement first / deepest diver first
Lucky draw

The draw should include the following information filled in:
Date, name, nationality, sex, event, AP (announced performance)
There should be empty spaces for the following information to be filled in by the judges:
RP (realised performance), penalties, reason (eg black out, broke surface, late start), points, comments (eg national record, personal best).
Don’t forget your sponsors.

The draw, once filled out can then be used as the results list.


16 Competition

If you’ve done everything as noted above the competition should run pretty smoothly.

Ensure the lifeguards and the local emergency services know what you are doing and have a copy of your safety/evacuation plan, plus some understanding of the dangers of the sport.

Brief the officials, medic & helpers first to confirm they are happy with the way things will run, then brief the competitors. The briefings should at least include the following:

Thank your sponsors
Introducing the officials, organising and outlining their roles & ensuring that they have the appropriate equipment
Showing the competition draw
Where/when divers need to check in
Where/when boats will leave
Locations for warm up zones & competition zone and who is allowed to be where and when
Where photographers & supporters may and may not be
Where coaches may and may not be
Safety plan
Official time
Protest procedure
Outline of basic rules (optional)


17 End of competition

Tally up the points and have a prize giving if you have prizes.

Thank your sponsors.

Thank the officials/helpers and give them any thank you gifts, vouchers to cover costs, etc that you feel are appropriate.

Return original copies of medical certificates to the divers if you required them.

Post the results on your website/Facebook page/Deeper Blue.

Send out press releases if required.

Rest and recover!


18 Competition results

File the official competition footage somewhere safe and provide the AIDA National with a copy if they require it.

Send a copy of the results to the AIDA Nationals of all divers who broke national records.

Within two weeks of the competition ending you are required to do the following:

Send results list through to the AIDA International Sport Officer: calendar@aida-international.org

Ensure that if the judges changed from the initial competition announcement, that the correct judges are listed with the results, so that they have the competition credited to them.

Pay the AIDA international fee of 2€ per competition dive.

World Champs, Bahamas

After three and a half months of travelling I arrived back in the Bahamas for the third time. Everything here is so familiar now: the tiny airplanes, the blue hole (the dark, weedy, full of current version), the narrow winding, pop-hole ridden roads, the left hand steer cars (they drive on the left, doesn't make for great visibility), the friendly people, the fact that I have to ask myself over and over if the locals are actually speaking English (yeah man, dey are, but it aint pwerfic), the need to disregard how much everything costs (or you'll have a nervous breakdown), the menu at Rowdy boys (the waitress remembered my name – can I just ask for the usual?), not having to lock anything, endless white sand beaches, turquoise water, slow internet, extreme boredom (not so bad this time because I've come from Dahab and am used to filling in time with very little). We managed to luck into a house on the hill in Turtle Cove. It's big and has a stunning view out to the sea. It doesn't have windows in the living area, just bug mesh so it's cool and breezy, and occasionally it rains inside, but even that is a bit refreshing after Dahab. The great thing is that I can see the sea from my bed. When I wake up in the morning I don't even have to sit up to be able to glance out and see what we expect of the day ahead. There are three rooms so I'm sharing with Chris (NZ) and Junko (Japan).

view

Fortunately Dean's blue hole was just going through it's morning high tide phase while we were training and conditions have improved immensely for the competition. I arrived a little over two weeks ahead of the world champs to ensure some time to adjust to the hole and recover from jet lag. My training was going pretty well. Initially I felt some fatigue during dives, which was to be expected, but I was still going fairly deep without squeezing or packing. I had a few issues getting my head around using my monofin, but managed to get back to my personal best after a couple of attempts. I was diving happily and not squeezing.

Kiwi team

Dean's Blue hole set up for the World Champs

Three days before the world champs I did a deep monofin dive and it went well. I did not squeeze, black out or suffer from much lactic. I did feel a bit of pressure on my chest and trachea, but it all seemed fine and nothing out of the ordinary. The next day I did what I thought was a conservative no fins dive that was meant to be a confidence dive. I had a small squeeze and a bit of a shake on the surface. The next day I rested and nominated a little less (51m) for the no fins heats the following day, thinking that was an easy dive and that a day of rest would make everything fine, since I'm always much stronger in my dives after a rest day. Then I got the sore throat. I tried to ignore it and hoped it would go away. I slept particularly well. On the morning of my dive it was very sore. I did a little negative warm up dive that hurt a lot, but must have loosened thing up a bit as a second one was much better so I decided to go for it and just try to keep my chin well tucked in. I managed to suffer a fairly sizable lung squeeze and then a small black out on the surface. The rest of the dive was fine apart from the fact that the safety were really deep and I started trying to glide up to the surface a bit early. It was still only about 2:05 dive time. I was pretty disappointed. The sore throat got worse and now I have no voice, plus I feel the mucous is starting to form. I'm hoping it stays in the throat and does not spread to the sinuses or chest. I managed to not get sick in Egypt so it's pretty annoying to have problems here. It's quite reminiscent of the cold I had in Arhus earlier this year, however in the pool I do not need to equalise so can get away with a bit more. I'll see what tomorrow brings as it will affect my constant weight announcement for the following day. I really hoped that I would not get squeezed here and was planning nice clean conservative dives, but once it starts it just seems to get worse and it doesn't seem to matter how much I pull back, I really need a week off to repair. I don't even feel like I did anything stupid to deserve it this time...

Update from following day:

after three days of sore throat I lost my voice and it's turned into intense amounts of mucous. I'm not sure if I'll even be getting in the water tomorrow.

Freediving in Egypt

Training in Dahab has been a bit average to date. I've had a lot of issues with equipment but have managed to replace, find or repair everything, so it's not the end of the world. I've been slowly working through my panic at depth issues and finally it all seems to be coming together. I've had further problems with small squeezes, not necessarily coughing blood, but just feeling like there is a little fluid in my lungs. I think I might have always had this but wasn't aware of it as I am now. I'm very flexible through my chest but it's the panic that makes me tense up. I've started setting my dive alarm at a “safe” depth so if I'm having trouble relaxing that's about when I should turn back, but I still get a decent dive in, if I'm relaxed I continue onward. It's improving gradually and I've had some very nice relaxed constant no fins dives between 45 and 50m and down around 60 with my monofin. The large contractions are now subsiding too which is a relief. Once I've done a few more comfortable ones then I'll start to work on increasing the depth slowly. The Blue Hole is wonderful to dive in. It's a short swim out and so sheltered. I can look at the wall on the way down to distract myself. The dives are becoming more natural and I don't have to focus quite as hard to keep everything together.

I spent 10 days in Sharm el Shiekh diving with the Russians and Bill and living in total luxury in a hotel where I had a whole huge room to myself (first time since I stayed with Elisabeth in Aarhus in early August) and they had buffet meals three times a day so I could just relax and do nothing. I actually got bored when I finished my book.

I messed around with doing warm ups for a week but they really didn't work for me. I didn't get enough time between the dives to reach the total relaxation state I like to achieve before my dives and as I struggle psychologically it is easier to just keep the focus and relaxation of a single dive rather than four. There was a competition at the end and it was a pleasure to witness Natalia doing her very clean new world records in constant weight and free immersion. It was also nice to get to know her a bit better. She is a very shy, creative and intelligent woman who writes her freediving blog in the form of poetry (only in Russian unfortunately), setting some of her poems to music and video to share the beauty of freediving with a wider audience. I think she has struggled with the depths too, though you wouldn't believe it now. I didn't really feel ready for the competition, but managed to do a couple of very relaxed and enjoyable constant weight dives to 52m and 61m (dive time 2:02). It wasn't a personal best, but I had plenty of air left and it was one of the nicest feeling deep dives I've done, which is an achievement in itself as that was one of my main goals for my time in Egypt.

Photos from Egypt 1

Photos from Egypt 2

Triple Depth

Dahab, Egypt

4-7 September 2009

Day one of competition was the static competition. We had to change pools from the scheduled one as it had been used to wash camels which had been relieving themselves in it and was no longer considered sanitary. It suited me as it was closer to my apartment so I didn't have to walk so far in the hot hot sun!

I struggled to get my suit on in the heat and it was great to get into the water. I felt like pulling out the whole way but thought I'd better at least do my announced performance of 5:11. It was a painful dive with first contraction at about 3:10. There was no contrast on the bottom of the pool so I needed to put something down there as I couldn't see if my eyes were fuzzy or not. I guess we live and learn. I aborted at 5:25, which was enough to be the first woman and save some energy for the three days of deep diving. There werre some scientists doing tests on us and the pulse oxymeter was reading 98% again about 1 minute after I completed my dive.

Too many people wimped out of the static even only wanting to participate in depth, and didn't even come and support us in true freediver fashion, so it was a bit of a sad small crowd. A few were sick, so we'll let them off.

I have joined a team with Jana and Alexey. After much brainstorming we came up with a team name that we're very proud of: Sexy flexy mula bandha.

Yesterday was Free Immersion. I announced 58m to set a new national record. The 50m dive I'd done in training a few days before had been really comfortable, and I figured if I was going to announce around the mid 50s anyway I may as well try a little more and set a new record. The dive was relaxed and easy for me. I actually quite enjoyed it! I felt the pressure change a little beyond 50m but could still equalise OK. The hole is beautiful to dive in. The edge is close and you can watch it on the way down. There is light all the way and the temperature is comfortable even without a wetsuit. I haven't seen the arch yet, I think I was facing the wrong way.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself today. It started last night. There was a beautiful full moon shining in the cloudless desert sky over Dahab. I had a really sore stomach from allowing myself to get really hungry due to our late competition meeting, then eating too much too fast. On the way home I was offered a 25 Egyptian pound, one hour, in home massage by the dodgey dairy owner. Patti was a little upset because he offered the same to her a few minutes later for 50 pounds. Then while walking between the dairy and home a car came towards me down the road and blinded me with it's headlights for a moment and I kicked a big rock really hard (there are random rocks on the road everywhere). My left big toe nail cracked about a third of the way down the nail and bled a bit. I washed the dirt off it with nice brown bacteria filled tap water and then put iodine on it and tried to ignore it. It actually wasn't too bad while I was diving in my monofin today – it just put pressure on the top of the broken nail which is still attached. I'd also visualised it not annoying me, so blocked it from my mind. I later caught it on the hem of my pants while dressing, which ripped it open again. Later still, during my shower I narrowly escaped further excruciating pain when the shower rose decided to fall from it's wall bracket to the precise point on the floor that my damaged toe had been located just a split second earlier.

Before my dive I couldn't get my nose clip to close properly and I ended up leaving the surface at the last possible moment and blowing bubbles all the way down, then was starting to have equalisation issues (though essentially everything was still working when I turned). I couldn't relax so pulled out at 56m to avoid damaging myself. It was also only my third time doing any depth work with my monofin – we haven't really adjusted sufficiently as yet. I think my team mates are a bit upset with my yellow card, but they have been pushing me to go deeper than I feel comfortable with at this stage. The new national record yesterday was nice though and pretty easy but I felt some fluid in my lungs after it, however didn't spit any blood. I wonder if I have felt this regularly before and just didn't recognise what was happening. My O2 saturation after was a little lower than normal about half an hour later which would indicate a minor lung squeeze. I definitely need more time to adapt to the depth. I put in my nomination today before the team mates could talk me into going deeper. I'll do a 46m no fins dive tomorrow, which I feel mentally and physically comfortable with despite having only done a couple of no fins duck dives (deepest to 28m) since I arrived. When I completed my dive today I realised that my new D4 dive computer that I just won at the world champs is already stuffed. It thought I was still diving 30 minutes later and that it was 55 degrees celcius. It was hot but not that hot! I was wondering about it the other day when it said that it was 27 degrees on the surface and 19 at 50m. I'm fairly certain I would have noticed an 8 degree temperature change while diving wearing only my togs. Hopefully the other one is not faulty too.

On a better note, I feel very relaxed about this competition. I don't feel any pressure to perform or nervousness about the dives. It feels so trivial after the world champs. It's really just a part of my training as I haven't really done enough depth training to justify competing anyway. I have been sleeping particularly well since the bedroom fan arrived (had a couple of hellishly hot nights with very little sleep thanks to one lazy landlord). Until today I've actually felt very comfortable in all my dives and haven't suffered from the usual level of panic state at depth. The water is warm and I think I've finally fallen into relaxed holiday mode.

The end of the World Champs

Well, the individual indoor world champs is all over for another two years. The Kiwis have taken out one third of the available medals.

Guy Brew managed gold in both static and dynamic after Bjarte Nygard pushed too far and blacked out at about 240m.

Suzy became the second woman in the world to reach 200m and took a silver medal for the dynamic.

I was one of three people who competed in all heats and finals and earned a bronze in both dynamic events and silver in static.

For me exhaustion had set in by my third event in the first 24 hours. I was unaware of how tired I really was until I had started my dynamic without fins final dive. I aborted at 138m due to the immense fatigue. I was pretty disappointed as this is the shortest competition dive I have done in a long time.

I didn't sleep well the next night, had to get up at 6:30am to eat prior to my static and had lactic in my legs from walking to the pool in the morning and in my arms after plaiting my hair. I decided to take some sports supplements to give me energy as I didn't really feel I could rely on my own power any more and they worked for the rest of the competition. The static final was a huge struggle for me. I thought that it was going to be all over when I got my first contraction and mis-heard my coach saying 2:40 – a short time later it was 4 minutes so the first contraction was 3:40. I pushed myself through with pure determination waiting for my coach to tell me when I was in the final three. Eventually Chris let me know that it was just Natalia and I left so I came up some 30s after the bronze medalist Jessica Wilson. I had no idea what the time was, I'd just been focussing on whether my head was still clear or not.

My dynamic heat was 10 hours after my static final, so after the dope test and some lunch I headed back to the hostel for a lie down. The heat was pretty aweful. I was again really tired, but my head was clear. I was in the last heat so had the luxury of knowing exactly what I needed to do. I was told I needed 165m to make the A-final so that's what I did (kind of lucky though that Maria Livjberg didn't do more in the next lane – she was feeling like I had the day before). It was about 10pm before we made it back to the hostel for some steak.

Finally I slept tremendously well and awoke 11 hours later. I was so exhausted. The dynamic final was in the late afternoon so there was no hurry. The nerves had subsided as I was well used to the competition by my sixth event. I approached this dive the same as my other dives in the finals: to do as much as I can with a nice clean exit. I felt stronger again, but it was still a challenge. I didn't realise I was so close to the wall or I might have pushed a little harder...

I'm very pleased to have achieved my goal for the world champs of a medal in each discipline, consistent clean dives throughout and not letting the nerves overpower me.

It was such a relief to be all over!

The after party was good fun, but as usual very messy. I gave up on the wine after about 3 glasses and was pretty sober. Ruth spun out a bit. We didn't eat until about 9:30pm after the prizegiving. The medals were heavy and I won three D4s!!!

My ride to Copenhagen has just arrived!

World Champs day 2

This morning was the Static heats. I had my usual pre-competition poor sleep. At least I was in bed for 9 hours. Just after breakfast I found out that there had been problems at the pool and the start times would all be pushed back one hour. Someone broke in over night and stole all the computers, video cameras and big TV screens. They were asking around for replacements to get the competition moving again. It sounds like all the officials acted in a calm and professional manner and got the situation under control as quickly as possible and the competition only experienced minimal delays in the scheme of things. Everything ran so smoothly for us athletes yesterday. The TVs showed underwater footage during the dives and results within about 10 mins of each heat. It was very disappointing to come in this morning and see it all gone.

There were only three Kiwis competiting in Static apnea this morning: Chris, Guy and me. Chris was first up and did a clean 4:52. I don't know that he really pushed it that hard! I was in the final heat containing women: me and the three medalists from the Maribor World Champs two years ago. My dive was pretty painful but I had plenty of air and did 6:18, which was enough to convincingly make the A final.

Guy's lungs are obviously feeling better which is great because I know he was a bit scared of how they would react to his first proper breath hold since his squeeze. He did something around 7:50 (sorry I should have checked) and made the A final.

We are now waiting around for the dynamic without fins final.

The World Champs has begun

Well, here we are, finally in Aarhus, Denmark, competiting at the AIDA individual indoor freediving world championships. The Kiwi team are mostly staying a little out of town at a backpackers in the woods. It is beautiful, peaceful and quiet and I am sleeping fantastically well. Chris left us yesterday when his father called and asked him where they should meet. Ian decided to pop over and support (and surprise) him. My room is a mix of girls from different nationalities: Ruth from Auckland & Northern Ireland representing Great Britain, Maria from Norway who learned to dive with the Lazy Seals and Jana from Canada who just doesn't have a team. We're doing our best to adopt as many honorary Kiwis as possible.

We had our first competition day of the world champs today with the dynamic without fins heats. There was much excitment with a lot of national records and black outs as people pushed to their limits to try to make finals.

Suzy was one of the early starters and the first girl to do a long enough dive to qualify for the finals. She did a personal best of 132m.

I had nominated pretty high (the highest of all the women) so was in the final heat containing women (the heats are mixed sexes) so knew essentially what I had to do. I had nominated 127m so wanted to do that as a minimum, so just turned at the 125 and came up at 128m. Quite luxurious really. I definitely felt nerves but they weren't dibilitating as they have been in the past. My buoyancy wasn't great in the deep pool, but it wasn't too much of a challenging dive and I qualified 7th out of 8th for the A final. The announcer thought I only did 118m (not sure how he figured that out) and everyone kept asking me afterwards "what happened?"

All our three boys nominated high so were in the last heat and knew exactly what they were required to do to make the final. Will made it through with a very clean and conserrvative looking dive to 162m. Kerian has his first sizeable samba that made him re-submerge his airways at about the same distance as Will and scored him a red card. Chris made it to the surface somewhere around 140m but also blacked out.

The static heats are tomorrow morning. I'm once again in the last heat containing 4 of the world's best women. Hopefully I will have the luxury of not having to push it too hard again. The dynamic without fins finals are in the early evening.

AIDA International individual indoor world championships 2009, Aarhus, Denmark

18-22 August 2009

AIDA NZ has a blog up and running that Kiwi divers attending the world champs in Denmark can post to. My posts regarding the world champs will be both here and there. To see the posts by other divers go to:
http://nzfreediveteamindenmark.blogspot.com/

Nordic Deep, Lysekil, Sweden

freediving competition, 10 – 16 August 2009
25m pool

My results:
Tuesday 6'33” static
Wednesday 154m dynamic without fins, national record (exceeding world record)
Thursday 159m dynamic without fins, national record (exceeding world record)
Friday 6'03” static

We're staying in a scout camp called Lysestrand near Lysekil. It's a beautiful setting in the country side. There are lots of trees and the “beach” (it's sandless) is just a short walk away. You can see the water from the deck. The sun has been shining and I have been catching up on some vitamin D and actually tanned up a bit. There are lots of people speaking foreign Nordic languages, but we have a good contingent of Kiwis and honorary Kiwis here competing while recovering from jet lag. The competition is well organised. There are a lot of people, but plenty of room to find your own space.

I felt a few nerves for my first day of competition. I guess a lot of things were different and I haven't really done a lot of statics in competition recently. I felt a bit like throwing up an unfamiliar breakfast but managed to settle down just in time for the dive. I was very relaxed and my first contraction was at about 4 minutes without even needing to revert to forced relaxation techniques. I struggled to deal with the contractions so will need to mentally prepare myself a bit better for the world champs. It was essentially a fairly easy and clean dive however, with plenty left for next time I hope!

Day two I was still feeling a bit nervous. I guess because it was a new pool (I didn't really test it for dynamics the day before) and different people. The Swedes also seem to like to push people through on their top times as fast as possible with 7 minute intervals, so it feels a bit rushed moving from the warm up zone to the performance zone in time for the countdown, but it wasn't too bad. I was doing dynamic without fins and got a bit late getting into the pool, but the competition was pushed out 4 minutes after Jens' black out, which saved me a bit. There were stairs on the side of the pool that were about 4m wide right where I would normally be thinking about coming up just at the 150m, so I visualised pushing off and coming up just after them. Unfortunately I didn't really think about continuing if I felt good so pretty much just pushed off at 150 and came up right on the corner of the stairs for a new NZ record of 154m. My first couple of lengths were pretty atrocious so I've add a bit of thought about them in my visualisation to make sure they get better.

On day three I repaired the few issues I had the day before and did a nice 159m dynamic without fins without too much trouble.

By day four I was getting pretty tired and had contracted a sore throat from one or both of my room mates. I didn't sleep particularly well while I was there and my static really started to reinforce this. It was a struggle most of the way with my first contraction at 2:45. I pushed through though and reached my minimum of 6 minutes. I was still pretty clear headed but it was hard work.

I managed to win the women's competition on my static and dynamic performances without getting in the sea. Ruth was a close second and Suzy was third.

The cold kicked in a couple of days later and I'm hoping it disappears in time for the World Champs. It is really just in my throat and sinuses so hopefully won't affect my performance beyond perhaps having to equalise once in the pool.

I'd like to thank the organisers of the Nordic Deep for a fun competition and the other competitors for their hospitality. It was sooooo nice to just show up at the pool and not have to do anything other than compete for a change!

Wellington Winter Champs 2009

Indoor freediving competition organised by the Lazy Seal Freediving Club
11-12 July, Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand
25m pool

My results:
152m dynamic without fins, national record (exceeding world record)
191m dynamic, national record

This was the fourth annual Wellington Winter Champs that I've organised with the Lazy Seal Freediving Club. We were able to choose one event per day as it suited us. The competition was fierce with Guy Brew completing a 9:03 static, the biggest breath hold ever in competition, followed closely behind by Dave Mullins' 232m dynamic without fins, exceeding his world record by 19m. Suzy Osler, who some may remember as Suzy Kensington made an exciting come back with a 188m dynamic and briefly held the national record and her world no 2 position again. Ruth Griffin smashed the dynamic British national record with 165m (in her flash new suit and hyperfin – she finally got rid of the tiny little training fins!). I managed a pretty comfortable 152m dynamic without fins exceeding my world record by 1m, and was fairly pleased. I congratulated myself with a dinner of venison, a glass of red wine and some mellowpuffs for dessert, and managed an early-ish night.

Day two I strangely felt less pressure than day one even though Suzy had now set the standard pretty high for dynamics. It was actually a very comfortable dive, and I feel my technique is finally improving. It was definitely time to come up when I did though!