Shark Freediving

I have some bad news; we have cancelled the Shark Dynamics competition on March 6. With only 5 freedivers shown interest two weeks before the competition, it’s not possible to continue with this competition. The pool costs are too high for that.

Also finding the second additional AIDA judge is still in progress and because of this unknown factor AIDA International didn’t put the competition on the AIDA calendar. And given the history of the last competition, some freedivers stay away of the comp until they know for sure it’s an AIDA ranking comp, which we can’t blaim them for of course.

I’m sure we could have solved the 2nd AIDA judge problem, but due to the fact that it’s not an official ranking comp at the moment, some extra freedivers are staying away and we have to cancel it.

Furthermore, Shark Sports is going to think about their involvement (and investements) in freediving in the coming time. We’re not sure how to continue with some events we had planned this year. We need some time to evaluate and communicate with some parties involved.

For the people on the volunteer list and the freedivers who have shown interest; Thank you! Hopefully we can work this out and return with some intersting events in the near future..

The Pool!

Shark Sports is going to organize another freediving competition in March (and in June, but that will be announced later). March 6, to be precise! It will again be a dynamic only competition in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

This time we need more then 8 athletes to continue with the show! While last time was pretty fun, more people make more fun.

You’ll get again two chances of competing in the dynamic discipline of your choice. And again we will be there with the next version of our video and broadcasting setup. We won’t make any promises, but if it works out it will be pretty good!

Places will be limited so be fast to subscribe. More details below

• Place: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• Date: 6 March
• Pool: 50 meter, 2.20  meter deep, 26 degrees
• Costs: 25 euro for two official starts

Schedule (for now):

• 14:00 Opening
• 15:00 Official Top first competition
• 17:30 Official Top second competition
• 19:00 End of competition
• 20:00 Food / Party / Prizes / Fun

Send me an email to subscribe at jorg.jansen@gmail.com and I’ll reserve you a spot and send you an email as soon as the subscribe page is up.

Maria Hovden - Photo By Daan Verhoeven

So our first competition of the year 2010 is over and it was great! Three national records broken and some happy faces.

While there were some organizing problems with regards to the AIDA ranking and our video project, the core of the competition run well and smooth. Thanks to the help of Susan Kluytmans and Erik Skoda for judging the competition, Mario Verhagen for the general help, Marieke Broeksteeg as medical staff and Sanne Buurma for his safety work and video project help.

The competition started with a total of 18 freedivers, but unfortunately in the last week 10 people cancelled and we had to change the setup somewhat. With only 8 people freediving it would be best to give them the perfect dynamic freediving competition experience and we had the right pool to do it in.

Every freediver got 2 dynamic attempts and we kept a very easy to follow 10 minute starting time for each freediver.

In the end there were some great performances done and some personal records, but of course the 200 meter dynamic with fins done by Eric van Riet Paap was for sure the highlight of the competition. Nanja van den Broek completed this by doing a new national record of 155 meters, only hours after returning from Dahab and still the depth in her legs and using all kind of borrowed material.

And of course we have to mention Daan who set the first national record by doing a 175 meter dynamic with fins. But, poor Daan,  then Eric was let loose in the pool and did his 200 meter dive.

It was great to have Sanne, Nanja, Maria, Judith, Peter, Eric, Daan and Marc in the pool and it was for sure fun to see them dive.

There were the normal strange dives, like Eric his crawl over the bottom giving him a total of -145 points. Or Daan doing his upside down dynamic no fins dive. We ended the competition with a nice meal at the swimming pool restaurant.

Click here for the complete result list

It was fun to organize once again and next time will be bigger and better yet again!

Daan saying Hi to the online viewers

The Videos

We setup some camera’s to capture all the action going on so that we could stream everything. Too bad not everything was a success due to limited bandwidth and some other factors, but nevertheless I think you can enjoy the footage we got from the turning point @ 50/150 meters. Watch it here and see the time codes below to watch each turn.

0:16:40 – Peter – 50m
0:26:40 – Daan – 50m – the first turn of a 175 meter dive
0:27:50 – Daan – 150m – only 25 meters to go
0:36:40 – Eric – 50m – did he know already he was going for 200?
0:38:30 – Eric – 150m – only 50 meters to go for a 200 meter dive!
0:46:40 – Marc – 50m
1:08:10 – Sanne – 50m
1:16:40 – Judtih – 50m
1:36:40 – Nanja – 50m – the first turn of her national record dive
1:38:28 – Nanja – 150m – 5 meters later she comes up for a new dutch record
1:46:40 – Peter – 50m
1:56:40 – Daan – 50m – Daan has a message for the viewers
2:08:54 – Eric – 50m – Watch Eric crawl on the floor
2:16:40 – Marc – 50m
2:26:40 – Maria – 50m

Here is the static cam from the corner of the pool. Unfortunately it’s pretty low quality due to the bandwidth limitation.

Mobile Cam Video’s: Judith 1, Maria 1, Peter 1, Daan 1, Eric 1, Marc 1, Sanne 2, Judtih 2, Nanja 2, Peter 2, Daan 2, Eric 2, Marc 2, Maria 2

The Pool

Shark Sports is going to organize a new freediving competition in January. It will be a dynamic only competition in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and it will be pretty special.

Depending on the number of freedivers attending we will organize two separate dynamic competitions, so that everybody gets a change to do 2 attempts in the dynamic discipline the want to do.

Furthermore we’re setting up a live broadcasting service at this competition that will feature underwater following, judge cam, overview cam, live commentary and results. We’re also going to make use of the very special feature this pool has: virtual training system (watch this video for more info and a look into the pool) So if you want a very high res 100% followed underwater video from your dynamic performance, then join the comp!

Places will be limited so be fast to subscribe. More details below

• Place: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• Date: 23 January
• Pool: 50 meter, 2.20  meter deep, 26 degrees
• Costs: 25 euro for two official starts (including underwater video of your performances)

Schedule (for now):

• 14:00 Opening
• 15:00 Official Top first competition
• 17:30 Official Top second competition
• 19:00 End of competition
• 20:00 Food / Party / Prizes / Fun

More info in the coming week on a special page. If you can’t wait to subscribe and want to make sure you are in, then mail me at jorg.jansen@gmail.com and I’ll reserve you a spot and send you an email as soon as the subscribe page is up.

A week ago Shark Sports organized the first Shark Hot Tub Static competition. Goal of the competition was the start-up our event management capabilities with regards to freediving competition and to have some fun with some freedivers in the pool.

First of all we had decided to have some special rules for this competition. Stuff like no equipment, no warmups, etc (Read more here in the announcement). Second of all this was our testing competition for a bigger dynamic competition we are going to have in January to test out some underwater camera’s which can stream to the internet, live commentary and more.

We had 4 competitors who were willing to be test subject and they all thought this was going to be hard. Statics without warmup, no equipment and water that was around 36 degrees instead of the planned 32. And then take in account all the wires for the underwater equipment we produced by ourselves running in the pool. This could be one hell of an electric competition!

Sanne Buurma started the competition. Besides helping setting up the whole broadcasting station, he decided to jump in the water, do a 2 minute ‘laughing and talking’ warming up and come up with a time of 4:47 minutes.

Daan Verhoeven was next and he secretly wanted to do 6 minutes, but these new condition he knew it would be hard. In the end he managed to do the best time of the day with a 5:03 minute static. Wow, I’ve just witnessed the worst contractions I have ever seen. Contraction that take 10-12 seconds are just crazy to watch.

Then the ladies were up and Nanja van den Broek started with a very relaxed attitude and with no real hopes for a good time. In the end the competitor in here took over and she still managed to do a 4:34 static. Natascha was last and with a personal best of around3:45 in normal conditions everything in the neighbourhood of that time would already be great. In the end she managed to do a new personal best of 4:02 minutes, which is remarkable given the new and strange circumstances she had to do it in.

Lessons learned from this competition were that we need more internet capacity and cabled networks as the wireless reception is not great in the pool. Furthermore we need to equip the camera’s with fish-eye lenses so that we can better and clearer shots. Some stuff to work on in the coming month so that we can make something very nice in January.

You can see the video images from the competition on our live page. High def video’s are still being worked on, something we plan to provide much faster next time. More on that in a separate post next week where the announcement of the dynamic competition will take place.

A big thank you to Erik Skoda for being the judge during this event!

The Hot Tub

On December 11 Shark Sports organizes a small static competition in the “Tongelreep” Eindhoven, The Netherlands. And of course we wouldn’t be Shark if we wouldn’t make it special!

The static competition will take place in a 33 degrees hot tub pool and we’ve got some special rules:

• No masks, goggles or noseclips allowd. Only naturals!
• No wetsuit! If anybody who want this in this kind of water, he’s crazy anyway.
• No warming-up! Who needs a warming up in a 33 degrees pool anyway? When you step in the pool 2 minute countdown starts. When the last person is finished, he gets out and you get in. Simple as that!
• Fins allowed! If it makes you happy to wear your monofin during static… be our guest!

For the rest we follow the  standard AIDA rules. So no strange things with the surface protocol and points.

We have an interesting setup for the competition. The whole competition will be broadcasted live with 2 or 3 camera’s to the internet (also underwater). So that will be fun.

Competition is from 21:00 to 23:00 and besides having fun in the Hot Tub, there will be room for some dynamic  training as well. Price for the competition will be 12 euro and includes pool entrance.

Oh and don’t worry: the bubbles will be off!

As an extra note: this competition is also a test for  our next, somewhat bigger competition, on January 23 when we will organize a dynamic competition.

At the moment I’m finalizing the competition website. I’ll put another news item online as soon as the website is live.

Places are limited to around 10-12 people. So if you want in sent me an email or leave a comment!