Shark Freediving

Kevin Sorensen

Last weekend it was time for the Canadian Western Regional freediving competition, held in horseshoe bay near Vancouver, Canada. The competition was organized by CAFA and included 8 male en 2 female competitors.

Winner with the men was Kevin Sorensen with 132,4 points. He managed to do a 5:01 min static, a 64 meter dynamic and a 40 meter constant weight dive.

With the women it was Jill Yoneda who won the competition with 128,4 points. She did this by doing a 4:02 static, a 100 meter dynamic and 30 meter constant weight dive.

Eric Fattah also competed, but only started with static and managed to do a 6:40 min long breath hold.

Complete results can be found here.

One of the most important and crucial part of any freediving competition are its safety freedivers. Especially with depth competitions, athletes are depending on their safety freedivers big time. They are the ones who will get them up to the surface and keep them there until everything is okay again if something goes wrong.

AIDA Canada has selected a team of freedivers that will be in-water safety team during the world championships in the Bahamas end of this month. So some attention and respect for these guys is surely needed and therefor the AIDA Canada press release about them below!

The upcoming 6th AIDA Individual World Depth Championships will be held on Long Island, Bahamas from November 25 to December 5, 2009. This is promising to be one of the most exciting depth competitions to date.

The competition features fifty-one athletes that are considered among the best in the world and the freediving community is expecting new world records and many exciting dives. For a competition this challenging the organizers wanted to ensure they could offer the most highly trained and competent safety team possible, so they turned to AIDA Canada.

Doug Sitter (Freedive Toronto) developed an in-depth training and testing program to pick the best candidates from across Canada and train them as an elite safety team. Members were selected after a rigorous trial process that included both classroom and in-water testing. Further testing and grading continued over the AIDA Canada 2009 National Depth Championships in Thetford Mines, Quebec, during which the team provided all of the safety requirements.

Since then the members have continued honing their skills and teamwork in preparation for the World Championships in November.

AIDA Canada is proud to be sending the very best team possible to the World Depth Championships. Comprised of members from across the country, here is our safety team:

Doug Sitter (Toronto)

Lars Graefe (Toronto)

Soren Frederiksen (Toronto)

Philippe Beauchamp (Montreal)

Martin Lebrun (Montreal)

Aaorn Wood and Sergei Timoshenko (Toronto)

Matt Townsend (Vancouver)