Shark Freediving

(I didn’t receive the photos yet, so they will be added later!) The last two days were once again filled with a good competition in Auckland, New Zealand. Our guest writer Fran Rose reports about the amazing results that were done over there.

Dave Mullins has bagged a hat trick of national records. Fresh from his 100 meter constant weight dive in June he has swum two perfect dives claiming 175 meters in dynamic no fins and 234 meters in dynamics with fins. What an act to follow, this is where Ant Williams found himself preparing for his dynamic with fin swim. Not even his headphones could have drowned out the celebrations when Tracy Russell and John Wright held up the white cards. Ant proved himself to be the quality athlete that he is and finned his way into a competition personal best of 213 meters.

Not to be outdone Kerian Hibbs, Blair Millar and first time competitor Stella Wilson also pulled off competition personal bests of 189 meters, 134 meters & 148 meters. Stella completed her swim with a pair of short blades as did Gavin Gray, 83 meters. Our current National static record holder of 7 minutes 24 seconds Guy Brew collected full points for his 168 meter effort.
Under the watchful and questioning eyes of the NZ Warriors rugby league team Fran Rose and Chris Marshall both claimed 101 metre dives.

As with any competition it is never without its surprises. During the static procedures a red faced life guard told us the pool had to be closed down NOW as there was a floater in the pool. From this day forth our local pool is renamed the 33 and a turd.

To capture all the ecstasy and agony on everyone’s faces were Colin Gans and Pete Mesley. These guys really know how to take great shots and to prove it check out Colin’s images.

On conclusion of our weekend we held an open day for members of the public to come along and try static apnea and dynamics for themselves. These tired and weary athletes happily slipped into coaching roles to the joy of 12 bewildered newcomers, the outcome was plenty of smiles and comments like “I would have never thought I could have held my breath for 1 minute let alone 3 minutes”. We are very fortunate to have athletes who are willing to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with others. Let’s hope our efforts have enlightened and encouraged others to our wonderful sport of competitive freediving.

Results from the weekend:
Stella Wilson STA 5.02, DNF 108 BO, DYN 148
Fran Rose DNF 79, DYN 101
Chris Marshall STA 4.26, DNF 96, DYN 101
Dave Mullins DNF 175, DYN 234
Gavin Gray STA 4.17, DNF 53, DYN 83
Blair Millar STA 4.57, DNF 87, DYN 134
Kerian Hibbs DNF 126 DQ, DYN 189 Penalties
Guy Brew STA DQ BO, DYN 168
Ant Williams STA 7.11, DYN 213
Kyle Hibbs (our upcoming freediver of the future) STA 41 sec, DNF 11, DYN 17

As a side note about the excellent dynamics of Dave Mullins. The competition itself didn’t have world record status so his 234 meter dive will not be accepted as a new world record. Video is on its way.

In the weekend of June 9th New Zealand had a freediving competition going on in Wellington. Considering this was only the second competition for the year, there were some pretty good performances from the guys and gals down under. Kerian Hibbs, who is coached under Ant Williams, topped the comp with 195.8 points. His approach was spot on, pulling off three nice clean dives with still enough left in him to show us he is capable of more.

It was refreshing to see 3 new faces on the scene, their warm up’s were timed to perfection, their smiles after each successful dive spread from ear to ear. Not to take anything away from the competitors but I think the morning updates about Dave Mullins progress in Egypt lifted spirits and drove the nerves away for at least a few minutes.

With the 7 men competing, Kerian Hibbs was the clear winner and did a 169 dynamic with fins, a 101 without fins and a 5:04 min static. That was clearly enough for the first place. Wendy Henry was the winner with the 2 woman competing, beating Kathryn McPhee, the only Kiwi going to the pool world championships in Maribor.

Kathryn didn’t really have a good day. In her own words: “The comp for me didn’t go so well. It was my worst one ever. I miscalculated a few things and ended up falling over after standing up at the end of my DYN event at 102m (done without fins in the 50m pool), and again after my static performance at 5:07s. The first meant that I was unable to compete in “my event”, the dynamics without fins. I’ve spent a lot of time analysing every aspect and I feel there were a number of factors that can pretty much be summarised as: physical & mental fatigue and a poor warm up for both events.” You can watch the video of Kathryn’s dynamic no fins performance below.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

Our next comp is in August and with the ‘big guns’ flying in from Oz everyone will be working hard over the next 8 weeks to give them an unforgettable welcome.

Thanks go to Fran Rose for the report and pictures she send in. This way we get to cover the whole globe.

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