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):

Poor Knights Marine Reserve Trip

In August, Mike Smith from Ocean Hunter took a group of us up to the Poor Knights Marine Reserve for some diving. We had already postposed the trip once due to poor weather (my experience of the Poor Knights is always poor weather) and decided this time it had to go ahead. I seem to have this effect on the Poor Knights. I have attempted four times to spend weekends there and this was just my second day of diving! With the world plotting against us, we arrived in Tutkaka towing the boat only to have to return straight back to Whangarei in search of petrol for the boat.

Mike, who had just returned from a couple of weeks of glorious, warm, abundant spear-fishing in Tahiti decided to just be Captain Mike, a bit afraid of the cold water, diving without a speargun and probably the most convincing excuse was the new tattoo that adorned his upper thigh, incomplete due to the timing of his departing flight from Tahiti. We did manage to catch a glimpse although he became a bit shy about sharing.

My beautiful new Elios suit, that fitted so well and kept me toasty warm over summer let me down a little after the loss of about 6 kg (that’s what training does to me, I guess 10% of your body weight is significant when it comes to wetsuits). I should have known better and worn a vest but it was lost in a box somewhere with all my other worldly possessions. It was frustrating to have to get out and warm up regularly.

The first day, the weather was calm and overcast. The water was flat and the fish life swirled around us in abundance. We followed a rare surprise of a turtle. He came up and look straight into Phil’s lens. Perhaps he saw the reflection and though he’d found a friend. He must have been lost. I’m sure the Poor Knights is not warm enough for turtles.

After lunch and watching some big lively snapper swimming around under the boat, trevally jumping out of the water around us and a King Fish sniffing around, we headed into an enormous cave. There was nothing but us in the water but the light and visibility were spectacular. Poor Mike sat on the boat wondering what was so special down there in the darkness. The water was about 15m deep but you could see the ripples in the sandy bottom from the surface. I did not take my camera from the boat and have yet to see what photos came out of the cave, I’m sure they were pretty spectacular.

As the bad weather started to roll in towards us we found a sheltered area with lots of funs things to play with. There was a little cave that sucked in water and spat out air and another cave to ride through on the waves. We found an eel and nudibranch and the general fish life was still plentiful. The rain started and the water clouded over, and we headed for the shore, a little rougher than we’d started with.
The Bach was great. The outdoor shower was refreshing and we spent the evening in front of the fire, tired after a fun day in the sea. We had a great feast with dessert as Mike had neglected to inform us it was his birthday the day before.
The second day was not great. The weather had completely changed and the sea was stormy. All visibility was lost and the water had turned to soup. The boys had a quick dive on the local coast and managed to shoot one poor tiny fish which provided us each with no more than a couple of bite-sized portions each for lunch, but saw practically nothing. That was the night the snow came and we were all lucky to make it back home in time for work.

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

Taupo Depth Training Camp

29 April - 1 May, Motutere, Lake Taupo I'm collaborating with Ocean Hunter to present a couple of full days of diving: 4x depth sessions and 2x theory sessions with a focus on helping you to freedive deeper. Note that this is NOT aimed at beginners, a certain level of knowledge and experience is required. Please make contact as below (Ocean Hunter, ph 09 377 0896) if you're keen to participate.

Website, coming soon

www.deepsouthfreedivers.co.nz

Orca wetsuits

I just wanted to let you know that there are plenty of the new Orca Breathe freediving wetsuits in stock here in New Zealand. Please make contact if you'd like me to arrange to send you one. The NZ$ is low post the Christchurch earthquake, so you could get a good deal.

Dive Camp 2011 - Wanaka, New Zealand

Dive Camp all started a few years ago with the Lazy Seal Freediving Club. We thought it would be a great idea to have a dive holiday in summer, where all participants contributed by sharing their knowledge and experience and supported each others’ diving, as opposed to a course where one person must take control. Now I have moved from Wellington and the club, and set up Deep South Freedivers in Wanaka, in the “Deep South” of New Zealand’s South Island. I wanted to keep the tradition alive and invited diving friends from around New Zealand and the world to attend Dive Camp 2011, in the height of our summer, in one of New Zealand’s most scenic locations.

Unfortunately the offer was not taken up by the great numbers that I had originally envisioned and the proposed competition to follow a week of Dive Camp had to be cancelled, but we had a great group of four lively young (at heart) women participating. Barbara Jeschke, German Freediving Champion and Cristina Kuemmel, Danish champion joined local novice Jane Hawkey and me for two weeks of freediving training in both the lake and the pool, a bit of tourism and a lot of laughs.

the girls: Cristina, Kathryn, Barbara, Jane

Wanaka turned on the charm with the strong winds finally abating in mid-February, on the weekend the ladies arrived and leaving us with hot settled weather. The lakes were calm, quiet and warm, with no thermoclines felt at all and 16°C recorded at -30m. It was like we had all the lakes to ourselves, with very few boats or even people around. We dived in various locations around Lakes Wanaka and nearby Hawea, where there are steep drop-offs, giving us much more depth than we needed only a short swim from shore. One spot dropped immediately to 20m or more from the shore, giving us one of our darkest diving days as we dived in the shadow of the adjacent cliff and low morning cloud hung around the surrounding mountains, creating an eerie sensation both on the surface and at depth. Not to worry though, we never lost sight of the rope and generally we had pretty good visibility despite rain from the previous week clouding up the water.

Out diving in Lake Wanaka: Jane, Cristina, Kathryn

Barbara

The Wanaka Community Pool was, as always, very accommodating. It is a 25m, warm pool, a little shallower than ideal, but perfect for training.

Cristina practising her DNF

Stretches were done on the pool lawn looking out towards the mountains or on the beach before getting in. Barbara had plenty of funny analogies, such as the “naughty dog” neck stretch or the “lazy secretary” ankle rotations. Jane’s back yard set the scene for our dry apnea sessions, looking out over the idyllic wide, green Clutha River in the evening sunshine.

stretching at the beach: Cristina, Barbara, Jane

The Dive Camp concept worked well again, with even the most novice diver amongst us finding she had valuable knowledge to contribute. Each of the 15 scheduled training sessions had a theme that was mostly followed quite closely, giving us a starting point for discussion, debate and skill sharing then time to try what we had learned.

The participants were all inspirational in different ways. Barbara, aged 56 has done 18 iron man races (now given up for freediving) and looks much younger than her years. Cristina’s sense of adventure led her to jump off Queenstown Hill strapped to a strange man hanging from a paraglider, and trying sashimi and then getting addicted to it. Jane managed to juggle all the workshop sessions, a young family and work as well as preparing some great meals for us all.

As well as all the diving we managed to fit in a few little adventures. A trip to Queenstown included seeing old Cromwell, riding the gondola and the spectacular Shotover jet, and dinner at the old Cardrona Hotel on the return over the Crown range, New Zealand’s highest sealed road. We drift-dived the Clutha River, New Zealand’s largest river, from its source at Lake Wanaka for about an hour through to Albert Town, through some minor rapids and Dean’s Bank, scaring a multitude of trout as we passed. We walked up Mount Iron for a stunning 360° view over the area and went biking around the lake. We perused the sculpture exhibition at Rippon vinyard, one of the oldest vinyards in Central Otago. We took an overnight trip to Lake Tekapo with some disappointing salmon fishing in Lake Pukake on the way (we’re blaming the rain that day and low visibility in the lake!), a midnight visit to Mt John Observatory, where the night sky is a World Heritage Site and offers some of the world’s best star gazing (however up-side-down according to Barbara), had a dip in the hot pools over-looking the light blue coloured glacial Lake Tekapo and visited Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. We joined Scuba Steve for a dive day in Lake Hawea with a picnic on the shore, and we dived at the head of Lake Wanaka followed by some hiking through virgin forest in the Mount Aspiring National Park with a visit to the Blue Pools.

At the summit of Mount Iron with Lake Wanaka in the background: Barbara, Kathryn, Cristina

Cristina at reflective Lake Hayes

Cristina about to jump off a mountain with a strange man

Rippon vinyard sculpture exhibition: Barbara & Cristina

One of the less pleasant New Zealand experiences for the Europeans was the discovery of sandflies and how much they enjoy biting foreigners. Not to worry though, they are not dangerous; they just leave small itchy bites. The ladies also experienced their first large earthquake first hand, but luckily far enough from the Christchurch epicentre to not be destructive or involved (other than emotionally) in the state of emergency that followed.

Dive Camp 2011, Wanaka was a great success with everyone learning from and supporting each other, enjoying the local environment, making new friends in the world-wide freediving family and just having a lot of fun in and out of the water.

Article - performing under pressure

This article was in last week's Listener (New Zealand current affairs magazine). It's about the All Blacks cracking under pressure, but I found the second half of it quite interesting in relation to freediving.

I'm hoping that if you click on these images they will become bigger so you can read them. Otherwise you can try this link.

I think that as freedivers we should know our dives so well that in competition we can just switch off, do our best and enjoy the experience. I've always had a song for statics and I call on it if I'm struggling to just tune out.

Practicing under stress and positive thinking are also beneficial to freedivers.

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

Wanaka Freediver Homestay

I just wanted to let you know that Deep South Freedivers is now offering a freedive homestay. Come and stay in stunning Wanaka, New Zealand, train with me daily (pool or lake - it's warming up now) and I'll coach you, receive full board (meals and basic accomodation) and have a bit of spare time to explore the region. Please comment with your email if you're interested (I won't post it) and I'll send you some more information. As of 1 October I no longer have work so have plenty of time that you could benefit well from.

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.

Facebook

While I've been home for a few months now and haven't yet found a job, I feel like I've been working full-time! The latest initiative is new pages on Facebook:

I have set up a Kathryn McPhee fan page.

You can also become a member of the group "Deep South Freedivers" to keep up to date with what I'm planning here in NZ. Check out the discussion area as I've put up a few things that might be worth you adding your 2 cents.

While you're at it, why don't you join the Lazy Seal Freediving Club group?

Deep South Freedivers, Wanaka, New Zealand

Learn to snorkel or take your snorkelling to a new level with Deep South Freedivers, an exciting new Wanaka based organisation fronted by world record freediver Kathryn McPhee. Kathryn offers one-off courses and regular training and coaching for novice divers in Wanaka and the Queenstown Lakes district, as well as a professional on-line remote coaching service for competitive freedivers from around the world. She also offers an exciting drift dive experience down the Clutha River.

Deep South Freedivers will also soon be offering sales of Orca wetsuits (www.orca.com for more info), streamlined lead weights and freediver's nose clips.

Please contact Kathryn directly if you would like further information about any of these services: Diving Kat Fish @ gmail.com (without the spaces!)


About freediving:

Freediving is often referred to as extreme snorkelling, however is really just the breath-hold part of snorkelling. It is a sport that is accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, as minimal equipment is required; you just need water and a little willpower.

Learning to freedive opens up the underwater world to you for spearfishing, hunting & gathering, photography, and general scenic discovery. It is the best way to view coral reefs on your Pacific island holidays and is excellent for low impact general fitness.

Freediving is also a competitive sport. Competitive freedivers test the limits of their abilities in events based on time and distance in the pool and depth in open water. The world’s best are diving to depths greater than 120m and have static breath holds up to 11 minutes. Competitive freediving is as much a psychological game as it is physical. It is demanding and relaxing, frightening and peaceful. In 2008 New Zealand had four freedivers with world number one rankings!

Freediving can be dangerous. Always ensure adequate training and safety. We recommend participating in a course to test your limits, learn of the dangers, how to stay safe and how to assist your buddy if required. Never dive alone and ensure that your buddy is trained to assist you should you need help.


About Wanaka:

Wanaka is one of the most spectacular locations in an already incredibly beautiful country. The town of Wanaka sits on the edge of Lake Wanaka in Central Otago, a southern region of New Zealand’s South Island. It is surrounded by stunning mountains providing scenic hiking and mountain biking tracks as well as world class ski-fields in winter. The lake is easily accessible providing extremely deep and clear water to dive in.

About Kathryn McPhee:

Kathryn has been freediving since 2004. She has gradually worked her way up from absolute beginner to one of the world’s best. She has held a multitude of New Zealand and Oceanic records in all six competition events. In 2008 and 2009 she set four unofficial and one official world record in the distance based pool event of Dynamic without fins, swimming underwater breaststroke 159m on a single breath. She was published in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records. At the 2009 indoor world championships in Denmark she won medals in all three events. Kathryn was voted “World’s best female freediver of 2008” in the ICARE awards. She has a breath hold of just over 7 minutes and has dived to a depth of 65m.

Kathryn ran the very successful Lazy Seal Freediving Club in Wellington from 2005 to 2009. There she taught most of the new members to dive and helped with coaching of the more serious divers. She has offered her remote coaching service since 2008 and has had successes with all students achieving personal bests and one even winning gold at the world championships in Denmark.

Kathryn is excited about bringing the sport of freediving to Wanaka and encourages you to make contact if you are interested in learning more about the sport, regardless of your background or ability.