Shark Freediving

This year’s Swiss National Indoor Apnea Championships will take place on April 18 2010 at Grand-Vennes, Lausanne. Some 30 athletes will be competing in static and dynamic apnea disciplines where capacity for breath hold and stress management will be crucial to winning a national title.

Organizing this year’s event is local apnea club Immersion Profonde, helped by the Swiss Subaquatic Sports Federation (FSS) and Lausanne City Sport Services. The competition is open to both Swiss and foreign freedivers who have the possibility of validating their performances just before selection for the world championships in Okinawa. Athletes will also get the chance to improve on their AIDA ranking whilst making a stopover in Geneva before both the worlds and Bizzy Blue Hole.

The competition is open to the public and begins at 9am. For more details and registration contact immersion.profonde@bluewin.ch or visit www.immersion-profonde.ch.

News has just been released about the famous Apnoe Happening event in Hemmoor, Germany. The big German freediving festival will take place from June 25 till June 27 and a lot of activities are already planned.

Stuff to do:

• New attractions along the underwater parcours!
• Learn to freedive while towing a buoy with Werner Moritzen
• Early Morning Dive with Dennis Niermeier
• Freediving for kids with Roy Bungert
• Night Freediving Friday with Curt Teichgräber
• Yoga with Mansur Helwany
• Specialized breathing techniques with Babette Hilke
• Massage and deep diving preparation with Sonja Zinke
• “Atemlos“ the 1st Live Photography Competition of the TLN
• Static apnea in onsite pool & dynamic apnea in the lake
• Apnea *,**,*** theoretical instruction

More information on their website.

AIDA Serbia officially announce 4th Serbian Open Freediving Championship Belgrade 2010. Competition will be organized by RK SEBASTIAN and APNEA CLUB DEEP STAR, and supervised by AIDA Serbia. Official Judges are: Bill Stromberg (SWE), Petar Bojovic (SRB), Darija Subotin (SRB), Aleksandar Karjuk (SRB) and Marko Kleoncic (HR).

Competition will take place in Belgrade on the Tasmajdan pool (50m, 26oC) on 20th February 2010. Disciplines: static apnea (STA) and dynamic apnea without (DNF) and with (DYN) fins (by your choice). The pool is located in Ilije Grasanina street 26-28. For more information please visit www.tasmajdan.rs. Status of the competition: AIDA ranking and WR.

A city map of Belgrade is available on www.planplus.rs. All the information about Belgrade city can be found on a official web presentation www.beograd.org.yu .

Competition is individual, nevertheless there will be prizes for best teams (team must consist of 3 members, one of opposite sex). Maximum number of competitors is 60, minimum is 20.

Registration fee: 2000,00 RSD for AIDA Serbia members, 35 Euro (3500,00 RSD) for non-AS members . T-shirt and dinner after the competiion included! Dinner will be served at club in Svetogorska street 46.

Interested for the competition should apply in the following way:

E-mail to Bačanin Nikola on nikolabac@gmail.com , subject „competition registration“. E-mail must contain: 1) name and surname, 2) country and team you are competing for, 3) contact (phone number, E-mail), 4) announcement for STA-DYN/DNF (please point it out if you want to compete only in one discipline) or Fill in the FORM on AIDA Serbia web site www.aida-serbia.com . Registration deadline: 16th of February 2010, 12:00pm.

Competitors must have medical certificate not older than 1 year. Final registration for competitors will be at the club in Svetogorska street 46 (a dinner after the competition will be at the same place). For athletes arriving on the competition day, registration will be at the pool at 8:00am. Competitors must have a medical certificate on registration, and have to fill in an AIDA Release form.

Contact:

Nikola Bačanin –Technical organization nikolabac@gmail.com, Mob: +381(0)63.493.842

Ivan Novak –Organization Board President ivan.novak@termoinzenjering.com, Mob: +381(0)69.82.65.442

I received the following press release for a good competition in Hungary on February 6th. So take a look and join the comp!

Dear freedivers!

We’re delighted to invite to the Divers’ Day on 06 Feb 2010 organized by Aida Hungary Freedivers’ Association.

The location of the competition is swimming pool V-8 in Szentendre, at Kálvária road 26. It is 5km from Budapest, so it is close. If necessary the tansform is no promlem from the airport or other station. An international freedivers’ competition is taking place, an oxygen-breathed static world record – attempt (above 18min!). There are many small apartments and hotels in Szentendre. If you need i send a list.

Informations about the competition:

• You can register soon at www.aida-hungary.hu or on the competition in the morning
• Maximum number of competitor freedivers: 40
• The registration fee is 35 Euro contains the t-shirt of the event and the dinner, could be paid at the registration desk.
• Diver medical certificate is a must that can not be older than 1 year!
• The competition is organized according to the recently valid Aida Competition Rules (http://www.aida-international.org)

Cathegories:

• Dynamic with fin sor
• Dynamic without fins.
• Static

The program of the competition:

Registration 0800-0900
Briefing 0900-0930
Static apnea:
First warm-up 1000
First Top 1045
End of Static apnea 1430

Oxygen static world-record attempt 1430
Dynamic apnea (with and without fins)
First warm-up 1530
First competitors 1615
End of Dynamic apnea and the competition 1830, interviews afterwards.

There is a 3×3 course buffet-style dinner and an awards ceremony is waiting for every participant at the restaurant of the swimming pool at 19.00. The dinner is free for the competitors and for the organizers!

The website of Aida Hungary: www.aida-hungary.hu

Competition webpage: www.aida-hungary.hu/man4/english.php

The website of the swimming pool: www.v-8.hu

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me:

Horváth Róbert
+36 20 55-986-00

Wishing you safe and nice dives!

Kind regards,

Aida Hungary

Organizer of the famous Mediteranean Freediving Meeting, Stavros Kastrinakis, has announced the third edition of his event for 2010 and it will be bigger then ever. Read the information below!

During the past 2 years the Mediterranean Freediving Meeting has been one of the biggest depth competitions in the AIDA calendar . The Meeting has traditionally been a 15 day event with one week of organized depth training / sled diving / record organising and a week long depth competition with World Record status.

After the success of the last two years we have decided that the Mediterranean Freediving Meeting will be upgraded to a World Cup event for 2010 and will include both an individual and a team event (teams will be national teams of 3) and will again include all 3 depth disciplines. ( A small static competition will also be run during the event).

The 3rd Mediterranean Freediving World Cup will be a 15 day event starting on Monday June 7th and finishing on Sunday June 20th with one week of training and one week of competition in all depth disciplines with Ranking and World Record status. Sled diving will also be available and we will also be able to organise record attempts during the training week and possibly during the competition week.

Besides the training and competition part of the event this year (same as the years before) a series of activities will be arranged in the afternoons/evenings including UW photo exhibitions, talks, UW film screening, visits etc which will allow athletes to do more than “dive-eat-sleap”. These activities will be open to all therefore allowing athletes to make this event a real holiday and the general public to learn more about freediving and the underwater world.

The Mediterranean Freediving World Cup will be hosted by the city of Kalamata in the south of Greece (nearest airport is Kalamata -KLX). The municipality of Kalamata has been very enthusiastic and has given us their full support for the event which will certainly make the 2010 Mediterranean Freediving World Cup an amazing event. Their help will include:

1. Free transfers from Kalamata airport and one free shuttle to take all athletes, wishing to fly in to Athens the day before the start of the event, to our hotel in Kalamata.
2. Opening ceremony and Awards/Closing ceremony & party
3. An exhibition hall will be made available for all our activities – Fred Buyle has agreed to have an open Photo Exhibition for the duration of the event and we will plan many evening activities such as video screenings, presentations etc
4. A 4 star beachside resort hotel will be the base of the World Cup with the assistance of the municipality we are working hard on getting this venue for prices similar to rent-a-rooms.
5. Free guided visit of the site of ancient Olympia – the birthplace of the Olympic games.
6. Free parallel activities for the evening in colaboration with local mountain climbing clubs etc for those of you that feel like exploring the beautiful region near Kalamata.
7. The Mayor’s press office will be actively working with the organisers giving the Mediterranean World Cup a lot more media attention than we see in most competititions.

The webpage is currently under construction waiting for some details to be finalized. More information here. A full webpage will be up very soon.

Preliminary Schedule:

• Sunday 6th June, Late afternoon transfer bus leaving from Athens to transfer all athletes flying into Athens to our hotel in Kalamata
• Monday 7th June, morning – 1st training/test session, evening – Registration & Opening Ceremony organized by the Municipality of Kalamata
• Tuesday 8th June, Opening of Fred Buyle’s U/W Photography Exhibition
• Thursday 10th June, Late afternoon – Guided tour of ancient Olympia organized by the Municipality of Kalamata
• Sunday 13th June, Mediterranean World Cup Event Meeting & Performance Announcements
• Monday 14th June, 1st Competition Day Mediterranean World Cup
• Sunday 20th June, Closing Ceremony & Party Organized by the Municipality of Kalamata
• Sunday 20th June, Late tranfer bus to Athens Airport for all those leaving from Athens

Found the following news in my mailbox. Sounds interesting enough if you’re in the neighborhood. So go check it out!

If you are around Prague during 29th of November come and join the special free diving show. Freedive World team is proud to co-organized this event for public. In Suchdol pool, Kamycka street 1073 will the best czech freedivers show and teach those who interested how to hold their breath, how to swim dynamic with fin or without …. clearly how to freedive.

Do you want to learn the techniques of breath hold? Do you want to try the monofin which uses the best of the bests to swim in the blue depth? The best czech freedivers (national record holders) will coach you during the breathing excercises and if you want during the dynamic attempt.

Freediving is not difficult at all. We all spent first nine months of our lives in water – in mother’s womb. This experience had been engraved in our genes. That’s why newborn babies are able to hold their breath and swim under water. Unfortunately, we tend to forget these skills because we live our lives on land. There is nothing easier than “waking up” our aquatic potential again after only a few days of training.

You don’t need any abnormal physical abilities (huge lungs or trained muscles). Everybody can become a freediver. After a series of breathing relaxation exercises, 90% of people are able to hold their breath for more than two minutes and dive 20 meters deep and all this only short course.
Join us: 29th November, Suchdol swimming pool, Kamycka street 1073, Prague, Czech Republic