Shark Freediving

a Competition for Tag-oholics

It was a fruitful harvest for the participants of the First Annual Thermocline-Free Invitational competition held in Dahab, Egypt from the 5th to the 13th of September this year. Indeed, this competition quickly turned into a contest of who would collect the most tags from record-breaking dives. Truth be told, there were 10 national records (NR) and 2 continental records (CR) broken during that competition. Considering the number of participants – six altogether, three women, three men – that is rather exceptional. Why such a success? Well, other than the fact that all participants are accomplished freedivers, the format of this competition was particularly conducive to record-breaking performances as it will be explained below.

It is no secret that few are the freedivers who actually make a living from their underwater passion. In fact, most of them think twice before attending any competition and carefully tally up the cost that they will have to incur, pending the time off they must get from their busy full-time job. While not all freedivers seek to attend competitions on a regular basis, others would like a chance at improving their performances and rank on the AIDA world ranking list (which annually computes all performances set during AIDA competitions). Even though sponsorship money is around in this sport, it generally fails at providing enough financial back up against the prohibitive cost of traveling and accommodation associated with attending a competition.

Once at a competition, there is no guarantee of actually being able to perform. If you wake up with a chest cold the day of an open-water dive, tough luck. If the weather is bad enough to make it too difficult for the paramedics’ boat or if there is an organisational miss-hap that day, you may not have a chance to dive altogether. The lack of money which also prevails among competition organizers generally prevents the luxury of a contingency day. With any of these scenarios, you just have to go home empty-handed.

These are amongst the reasons why the First Annual Thermocline-Free Dahab Invitational was organized. It was structured to offset as many problems as possible by offering the opportunity to compete about every other day over a time-frame of eight days. Invited competitors were free to choose within the three competitive depth disciplines, constant weight (CWT), constant weight without fins (CNF) and Free Immersion (FIM). They could focus on just one or two disciplines or all three. They were free to not participate to all competitive days therefore managing their availability with rest and training accordingly.

From the first day of competition, the Greek contingent dominated the successful results, sweeping two tags: one at 49 meters (CWT), a national record for Panagiota Balanou and the other at 74 meters (CWT), a personal best and deepest Greek dive this year in this discipline by Stavros Kastrinakis. Over the next days of competition, that team collected another five national-record tags: 48 m (FIM) and 52 meters (CWT) for Panagiota and 52 meters (CNF), 75 meters (FIM) and 55 meters (CNF) for Stavros.

2006 World Championships bronze-winning French team member Christian Maldamé arrived in Dahab from Geneva, Switzerland part-way through the competition, squeezing in a few days off. The sharp contrast of climate (37°C versus 15°C) did not stop him from reaching a record-breaking depth of 60 meters (CNF), less than 3 months after that record was set at 55 meters by fellow World Championships team mate Morgan Bourc’his. Christian also set a personal best at 78 meters (CWT), a twelve-meter improvement on his last competitive dive in that discipline.

There was another national record set, but you had to be in Dahab to know who got it, at what depth and in what discipline. Not everyone enjoys advertisement.

Then came the continental records. With 40 meters (CNF), Helen Garner set a national record for South Africa and the deepest record in this discipline for the African continent. This was a very easy dive for Helen who smiled and gave the ok sign to a diver on a deco stop just before she broke the surface. Look out for when this woman sorts her ears out!

The other national and continental record was set by 2007 Indoor World Championships Canadian bronze-medallist William Winram who reached 76 meters in the discipline of constant weight without fins. Feeling a little behind on the tag contest, he decided he would grab two tags at that depth. Unfortunately for him, after he stuck them in his hood and started his ascent, one of them popped out. He reached for it as it was floating away and clung to it with a clenched fist, making his way back to the surface in a rather compromised manner. (Particularly for this discipline, having to hold a tag can make it difficult for the freediver to optimally use his primary source of propulsion power, the arms. The recent controversy over a world record performed without grabbing a tag at the plate raised an important issue of fairness and safety in this discipline). After a dive of two minutes and forty seconds William reached the surface, tag in hand, which he turned in to the judges after a clean surface protocol. This was his 12th pan-American record, a performance which is also the deepest constant weight without fins dive in competition thus far in the history of AIDA.

The First Annual Thermocline-Free Dahab Invitational was great fun to attend as any of the freedivers who did will tell you. We are looking forward to next year and perhaps an even bigger invite list.

Special thanks to Riccardo Mura and his crew for driving from Sharm-el-Sheik each competition day to judge and help out. Thanks to Lotta Ericson and Freedive Dahab for making this happen.

Text by: Michèle Monico
Photos by: Fred Buyle www.nektos.net, Panagiota Balanou, Stavros Kastrinakis and William Winram