Shark Freediving

Today at the 3rd Meditteranea Freediving World Cup, Natalia Molchanova from Russia broke the 7 year old freediving record in the discipline variable weight. She did this by diving to 125 meters depth, while holding her breath and holding onto a weighted sled that went down a line. At 125 meters she went back up again on her own power.

It took her 3:38 minutes to complete the dive. 1:29 minutes to get to 125 meters, which is 1,42 meters per second and 2:09 minutes to get back to the surface (0,98 meters per second). Amazing dive and congrats to Natalia!

The old record was in hands of Tanya Streeter, set on July 19th 2003 with a depth of 122 meters.

The Dutch Freediving Association just announced that Jouke van Riel from the Netherlands will try to beat the current national variable weight and no limits freediving records. He will attempt to break these in Tower Bay, Sharm El Sheikh on June 25-27.

Currently the Dutch variable weight and no limit records are in hands of Pim Vermeulen with depths of 65 meters. These records were set september 2007, so it is good to see that somebody will finally try to break them.

We wish Jouke good luck with the preparation and attempts and especially safe dives.

And there it is; the announcement that Russian super freediver Natalia Molchanova is stepping onto the sled and will try to break the two longest standing AIDA world records, the womens Variable weight and No Limits records! The attempts will take place from June 12t-20 on the Geek island Kalamata.

Her main goal will consists of breaking the almost 7 year old variable weight record set by Tanya Streeter, set on July 19th 2003 with a depth of 122 meters. Natalia has the world record in constant weight with a depth of 101 meters, so the goals of going 22 meters deeper with the help of a sled should be in her reach if she can overcome narcosis and equalization challenges.

If things go easy and no real troubles occur by going deep, Natalia also plans to break the oldest standing record; the almost 8 year old No Limits record. This record stands at 160 meters depth, also set by Tanya Streeter on August 17th 2002.

I wish her good luck and especially safe dives, because in my opinion the sled disciplines are not so much about the athletic performance (which she clearly has), as it is about getting logistics to work and having the luck that every piece falls together at the right time.

Yet unconfirmed, but it seems that Herbert Nitsch has set a new world record in the discipline of variable weight with a dive to 142 meters.

More info when it gets confirmed.

Yasemin Dalkilic’s Team has just announced that the planned record attempt that had to take place in December, will be postponed until end of march/april 2010. So, now we have to wait a little bit longer to see if Yasemin can do an 125 meter variable weight dive.

There were several reasons why they couldn’t continue with the dive. First of all, the city of Bodrum (Turkey) was not the right place. Too much greed and too little sponsorship, so they are going to move the record attempt to Kas.

Also because of the delayed final on the go of the record attempt, the safety and video crew had to take on some other jobs, so they are gone. And finally there were no F.R.E.E. judges available outside from some Turkish ones.

Too bad that they resurrect the F.R.E.E. organization for this purpose and don’t use AIDA for this purpose. I really had hoped that they would return to AIDA. It was the same with Pipin’s organization, IAFD, it always got you thinking if they set up their organization only for themselves to get some ‘easy records’.

Anyway, there is still time to change their minds on this matter. Maybe an important task for the new AIDA board? Good luck to Yasemin and her trainings!