Author: Liv

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Alice Hickson World Champion Freediver, wins Gold & sets 2nd British National Record at Pool World Championships in Belgrade!

Alice Hickson Freediving World Champion HGold Medal

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

On Thursday 25 June in Belgrade, Serbia, at the Individual AIDA Pool World Championships, Alice Hickson won a gold medal and with it the title of World Champion Freediver by swimming a staggering 174m on one breath of air without the aid of fins! Smashing her British national record set just a few days before by 21m.

Alice Hickson, 25, a swim coach and studying Occupational Therapist part-time, has only been freediving for eight months. Earlier this year, in March, Alice made her first impression on the freediving scene by winning the ‘Best Female Newcomer’ at the National Pool championships (The Great Northern) in Liverpool:

In Belgrade at the Championships, just a few days previously, on Sunday 21 June, Alice started getting noticed by swimming 153m in dynamic no fins (DNF) with complete ease, breaking the previous UK national record of 145m, set by Rebecca Coales at The Great Northern on 24 March 2014. The distance also secured her a place in the A Finals of the World Championships and at that time ranked her third in the World.

Of her two dynamic no fins competition dives, both setting national records and the second placing her at first place on the podium at the World Championships, Alice had this to say:

“I was excited to come to the World championships as I thought it would be a great opportunity to see the competitive world of freediving and gain some experience. I’ve only ever done one other completion so I didn’t know what to expect but so far its been amazing and totally overwhelming, in a good way. The day before the competition I started getting really nervous and doubted my ability to compete against some of the best people in the sport. But then I remembered why I was here, for experience and to enjoy it so I told my self just ‘do your best’ and that’s all you can do. So during my first dive I kept that thought and made it into the finals, whist setting a new national record. I was chuffed. Then it was time for the finals, I used the same motto to calm my nerves but at the last minute before official top, I felt my heart racing and the last thing I thought is that whatever happens I’ve come eighth.”

Alice looks set to be a World Class athlete and we are excited to watch her journey as it unfolds.

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Get Snapping this Summer!

BFA Underwater Photo Competition

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

This summer we’re hosting an Underwater Photo Competition with the great prize of a workshop with renowned freediving photographer Daan Verhoeven. The winning image will also be used on next year’s BFA membership e-cards.

So many of you have told us that you’re keen photographers in your membership applications so now’s the time to get snapping!

To enter the competition we ask that you email us your best image by midnight on Saturday 15 August. The address is photo@britishfreediving.org. Your photo should capture the essence of freediving, as you see it.

We’ll then post your photos onto the BFA Facebook page for one week of voting, allowing everyone to give their view on the best shots.

Prize details: The day workshop with Daan can take place in Cornwall or Chepstow NDAC, but not covering any travel or accommodation expenses and must be taken by the end of 2015.

Just a few rules:

  • The competition is only open to current BFA members
  • One entry per person
  • Pictures should be taken on breath-hold

Good luck!

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Dean Chaouche wins silver medal at Suunto Vertical Blue, the Wimbledon of Freediving!

Dean Chaouche wins silver medal at Suunto Vertical Blue

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Suunto Vertical Blue (VB2015), one of the most prestigious and much-anticipated freediving competitions took place at Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island in the Bahamas between 27 April until 7 May. Attracting elite freedivers from around the globe, Vertical Blue has become known as the Wimbledon of Freediving.

Three of the UK’s top Freediving athletes attended the competition: Georgina Miller, Tim Money and Dean Chaouche. The athletes had the opportunity to do nine dives in the three freediving depth disciplines, constant weight (CWT), constant no fins (CNF) and free immersion (FIM), in order to win the coveted championship title.

Dean Chaouche, 25, a former electrician from Swansea, turned professional freediver, is a relative new comer on the competitive freediving scene. Quietly making his way up the ranks, he performed incredibly well, taking home a silver medal in the discipline of CNF, with an impressive dive to 68m and narrowly missing out on third place overall. We caught up with Dean and asked him to share his experience of the competition, what he learned and his plans for the future.

“Running up to the competition my training went really well, physically and mentally I felt strong and confident. Last year was the first year that I could dedicate most of it to freediving so I feel that I’m really getting to know my body and how it works.”

Dean went from strength to strength in the other two disciplines, with an easy 91m CWT dive (a first personal best in a competition and he says his best dive, with more meters in the tank) and 80 FIM. The length of the competition can really test the athletes’ stamina. And as the competition goes on, unexpected obstacles can appear to challenge an athlete’s journey. The conditions, which had been perfect for the first three days, with no wind and amazing visibility, deteriorated when a cold front moved in. Before Dean’s 80 FIM dive, on day 6, he was very cold and close to not starting, but fellow athlete Georgina gave him her Gore-Tex jacket, which he says pretty much saved the dive.

“If I could change anything to what I did in the competition, it would definitely have been how I approached the last third (act of the competition). I could have put some more depth on either CWT or FIM, which may have given me an overall finish. So next competition I will put the CNF dives in the beginning and I will make sure I can always dive on the last day.

Overall I felt the comp went well, I managed to get three good dives in all. The competition itself was amazing I was overwhelmed with the blue hole, finally being there felt very surreal. The set-up is perfect for smashing out big numbers because it gives you a chance to get into the competition and work your nerves out on the earlier dives. The organization and safety are carried out in a very professional manner and that feeds your confidence in knowing that you’re in safe hands.”

Dean is off to Columbia for Nirvana Oceanquest in Columbia, organised by Walid Boudihaf, starting on 6 June. And after that he plans to head back to Australia and teach some freediving courses (email: dean.chaouche@yahoo.com) Looking into the near future, Dean would like to run some training camps and aims to achieve maximum performances:

“I feel now that I have a lot of personal knowledge training for deep diving, and I have a solid structure which really works for me and hopefully for others too.”

Find and follow Dean on Facebook and Instagram as Dean Freediver.

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The BFA are delighted to introduce the UK Team for the 2015 Individual AIDA Pool World Championship in Belgrade, Serbia

Divesangha

www.divesangha.com

 Bounce Balls

www.bouncefoods.com

 Beet It

www.beet-it.com

The BFA are delighted to introduce the UK Team for the 2015 Individual AIDA Pool World Championship in Belgrade, Serbia (www.aidapoolworldchampionships.com).

The competition will run from 21st to 27th June and we are sending a team of 9 athletes, three of whom hold Wild Cards* (which means they ranked top ten in the world for one or more of the three pool competition disciplines), they are: Alice Hickson, Beci Ryan, Georgina Miller, Lucelle Simms, Rebecca Coales and Shirley Turner for the women and Adam Drzazga, Jason Kirkpatrick and Jay Cluskey for the men. The UK Team are all self-funded and to help them perform their very best they are being generously supported by sponsors Divesangha (www.divesangha.com), Bounce Energy Balls (www.bouncefoods.com) and Beet-it (www.beet-it.com).

Divesangha (www.divesangha.com) is made up of designers based in London; they are motivated by passion, uniqueness, innovation and a love for the sea. The word “sangha” means “association” or “community” in Pali and Sanskrit. They design and create basic, easy to wear clothes that give divers a proper identity. They call it “divewear” or “surface gear” and the designs mix fashion and sportswear, using functional fabrics and neutral colours. They manufacture ethically and locally, trade fairly, design wisely and consume responsibly. The divewear clothes are made in the UK as an exclusive, limited edition and they don’t use any plastic bags in their packaging when you buy from the website. This is the first time that Divesangha have sponsored the UK Team, we are delighted to have them on-board and the athletes will be proud to wear their surface gear!

Bounce Energy Balls (www.bouncefoods.com) are an amazingly convenient and tasty way to nourish your body, satisfy your hunger and sustain your energy. Bounce Energy Balls are a special combination of high quality proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and essential fats. After a freediving session, recovery is of great importance and the Bounce Energy Balls have all the necessary ingredients to help our athletes do so. This is the second year running that Bounce have supported our athletes and we are pleased to have them back this year.

Beet-it (www.beet-it.com) uses 100% natural ingredients and the Beet-it Sport shot juice drink delivers a dose of 0.4g dietary nitrates per shot. The beetroot juice shots are now the preferred delivery method used by research teams to boost nitric oxide (NO) levels in the blood. Nutrition is extremely important to freedivers and we are excited to see how the Beet-it Sports range of drinks and bars, boost and prepare our bodies before an apnea session. It is brilliant to have Beet-it back as a sponsor for the team this year.

Would you like to sponsor the UK Team? If so please visit our website for more information, or contact our Sponsorship Officer Jay Cluskey: sponsorship@britishfreediving.org

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Individual AIDA Depth World Championships Limassol 2015 – Team Selection

AIDA 2015 World Depth Championships Cyrpus

UK team Selection

Applications for the UK Team – 2015 AIDA Depth World Championships in Limassol, Cyprus are now open. The competition will take place from 11th-20th September and will include Constant Weight without fins (CNF), Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight with fins (CWT).

We hope to send a full team of 4 men and 4 women per discipline and a Team Captain/Coach (who may or may not be part of the competing team).

Selection will be based on the highest proven performances in the three disciplines. (AIDA world championship team selection will be by AIDA ranked points dated from 18 months prior to 4 months before the competition. In case of candidates wishing to be considered who do not have AIDA ranked points a performance witnessed by an AIDA Judge or AIDA UK Instructor will stand at 80% of the resulting outcome.)

If you are interested in competing for the UK in Cyprus, please let us know by 11th May. Please send an email to competitions@britishfreediving.org listing your highest AIDA ranked performances since November 11th 2013 in Constant Weight without fins (CNF), Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight with fins (CWT) with details of where this ranking was obtained. If you do not have a ranked performance in any or all of these disciplines, please let us know your current best performances in training, and when you anticipate seeing those ratified officially. If you anticipate achieving a higher ranked performance in any of the disciplines in the next few months, please also let us know that in your email. If your geographical location makes it difficult for you to gain a ranked performance, please let us know and we will take this into consideration.

If you are interested in going to Cyprus as Team Captain/Coach, please let us know you are interested by letting us know your experience in this area, and why you think you would be good for the job. Applications for the Team Captain/Coach position will be considered by the team once they have been selected, and appointed within one month of final team selection.

If you make the decision to apply for the 2015 team, you obviously need to be available to be in Cyprus for the dates above. You also need to be sure you can afford your flights and expenses and the entry fee of 160 Euros per discipline and accommodation costs.

In the meantime the BFA will be doing all it can to gather both sponsorship and logistical support for the 2015 team.

All competing athletes must be over 18 years old, UK citizens and members of the BFA at the time of the competition.

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6th BFA Great Northern, British National Records for Georgina Miller & John Moorcroft, Winners Dan Betts (UK), Matej Bergoc (SLO) & Beci Ryan (UK)

George Miller 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record STAPicture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Thursday 26 March 2015; — On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 March, the 6th Great Northern International and the BFA UK National Pool Championships, organised by Steve Millard of www.freedivers.co.uk was held at Lifestyle Fitness Aquatic Centre in Liverpool
(www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles).

The Great Northern never disappoints in terms of Dan Betts 2015 Great Northern BFA UK winnerperformance and this
year was no different. Living up to the International bit of the title, fourteen countries were represented, with one athlete, from team USA, Mandy Sumner flying in from Hawaii the night before the competition! Keeping to tradition, national records were set, this year both British, over the course of the weekend. On day one, John Moorcroft, the first diver of the day, kick started the competition with a record in dynamic no fins of 176m and on day two, Georgina Miller set her record in static with 6 minutes and 33 seconds. John swam just over 7 lengths of a 25m pool on one breath with no fins, smashing his previous record of 167m, set at lJohn Moorcroft 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record DNFast year’s competition. Georgina Miller’s previous record was 6 minutes and 27 seconds set in 2014 at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, and she pushed it a further 6 seconds away.

The UK male winner was Dan Betts with three strong performances, white cards and big smile at the end: 115m DNF, 05:39 STA and 151 DYN. Coming in second for the Brits was Josh Walton of Bristol Freedivers and in third Jason Kirkpatrick from the Glasgow Apneists UK group. In first place for International male Matej Bergoc of Slovenia with incredible holds: 140 DNF, 07:07 STA and 183 DYN, in second Stephan Heiss and in third David Fournier.

The UK female winner was Beci Ryan with 135m DNF, 05:12 STA and 150 DYN, in second Georgina Miller and in third Lucelle Simms. And Masa Sorn also of Slovenia, training with Apneists UK Yorkshire group, came in second place for International female with three strong performances (104 DNF, 04:46 STA, 150 DYN).

The winners of the Newbie Awards were Jason Kirkpatrick (05:17 STA) and Alison Hicks (151 DYN), with already impressively big holds and swims and a lot of promise for the future. Rumour has it that both athletes look set to join the UK Team at the Pool World Championships in Serbia!

The Great Northern is a competition that celebrates achievements across the board, it recognizes that freediving is not always about numbers and times but about personal achievements and obstacles overcome. The sense of atmosphere at this year’s competition spoke volumes, with athletes from clubs all over the UK and indeed the world, coaching, congratulating and celebrating personal bests with genuine enthusiasm.

Thank you to the sponsors for their support with such generous top freediving prizes, the helpers who made it so special, the judges, safety team and the athletes for attending otherwise it couldn’t have happened. The official kit sponsors were: Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com/uk/) and Aqua Lung (www.aqualung.com/uk/), with sponsorship also coming from Fins4u (www.fins4u.com), Tidy Tide (www.free-water.org), and the British Freediving Association (www.britishfreediving.org). For a list of sponsors please visit http://www.freedivingcompetition.com/gn-sponsors-2015.html

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Introducing Freedive-Earth, a brand new resource and community for freedivers worldwide

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Freedive-Earth

Freedive-Earth is a brand new resource and community for freedivers worldwide. Our team is made up of experienced international athletes, instructors and a real life doctor. The site is packed full of training tips, freediving physiology, a no-holds barred Q&A zone, the latest in safety, news and information all with an emphasis on fun. We’re proud to offer you the world’s first online freediving-specific training log, a comprehensive freediving school directory and the facility to connect with other freedivers around the world.

www.freedive-earth.com/

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Individual AIDA Pool World Championships Belgrade 2015

GB TeamUK Team Selection

Applications for the UK Team – 2015 AIDA Indoor World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia are now open. The competition will take place from 19th-28th June and will include Dynamic apnea (without fins), Static Apnea and Dynamic Apnea (with fins).

We hope to send a full team of 4 men and 4 women per discipline and a Team Captain/Coach (who may or may not be part of the competing team).Selection will be based on the highest proven performances in the three disciplines. (AIDA world championship team selection will be by AIDA ranked points dated from 18 months prior to 4 months before the competition. In case of candidates wishing to be considered who do not have AIDA ranked points a performance witnessed by an AIDA Judge or AIDA UK Instructor will stand at 80% of the resulting outcome.)

If you are interested in competing for the UK in Serbia, please let us know by 19th February. Please send an email to competition@britishfreediving.org listing your highest AIDA ranked performances since August 19th 2013 in Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea (with fins) and Dynamic Apnea (without fins) with details of where this ranking was obtained. If you do not have a ranked performance in any or all of these disciplines, please let us know your current best performances in training, and when you anticipate seeing those ratified officially. If you anticipate achieving a higher ranked performance in any of the disciplines in the next few months, please also let us know that in your email. If your geographical location makes it difficult for you to gain a ranked performance, please let us know and we will take this into consideration.If you are interested in going to Serbia as Team Captain/Coach, please let us know you are interested by letting us know your experience in this area, and why you think you would be good for the job. Applications for the Team Captain/Coach position will be considered by the team once they have been selected, and appointed within one month of final team selection.

If you make the decision to apply for the 2015 team, you obviously need to be available to be in Serbia for the dates above. You also need to be sure you can afford your flights and expenses and the entry fee of 525 Euros (which includes 9 days accommodation incl. breakfast, comp entry, training, shuttle bus hotel-pool, ceremonies and an event tshirt.)

In the meantime the BFA will be doing all it can to gather both sponsorship and logistical support for the 2015 team.All competing athletes must be over 18 years old, UK citizens and members of the BFA at the time of the competition.

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Michael Board’s 103m Constant Weight National Record

Mike Board 103m CW National Record& taking 4th place at World Famous Suunto Vertical Blue Competition

Wednesday 9th December 2014; — On the 2nd December, at the prestigious Suunto Vertical Blue competition, Michael Board pushed his national record in Constant Weight deeper still, from 102m to 103m; at this kind of depth, each meter is like a milestone. Michael lives in Indonesia, on the island of Gili Trawangan, where he teaches freediving courses and training at his, and partner Kate Middleton’s school Freedive Gili (www.freedivegili.com).

This latest national record is number 8 for Board and it seems that even at the top of their game, experienced freedivers face challenges, set backs and even knocks in confidence. A former Royal Marine, it is not surprising that Board did not allow any obstacles to stand in his way for long and was gracious enough to talk with us at BFA, at the end of the competition on Long Island (the location of VB2014) to share his experience, not only of the competition but of his year training and diving at depth:

‘I am very happy I dived to 103m and set a new British record in Constant Weight as it has been a challenging year for me in depth diving in general and also a difficult competition here in the Bahamas as well. I struggled to match my performances from last year in both the AIDA Euro Cup in Kalamata and the 2014 AIDA Team World Championships in Sardinia earlier this year, some of this was due to being unaccustomed to the water conditions but I also discovered that it can just be hard work getting back down to these deep depths again.’

Board had done several 100m dives in training before arriving in the Bahamas, and had pushed this up to 103m in training on Long Island just before the competition started. However he suffered a big setback on his first attempt at 103m in the competition:

‘The weather changed drastically with strong winds and cooler water catching a lot of us unprepared on that day in our thin tropical wetsuits. I was shivering 15 minutes before my dive and could not relax properly, but chose to dive anyway, perhaps the wrong decision in hindsight. I managed to reach the bottom but had a lot of narcosis, was slow on the ascent and then suffered a black out just short of the surface after being assisted up by the safety divers.’

His confidence bruised but not broken, Board announced the same depth 3 days later, sensibly giving himself a chance to recover and recuperate for a second attempt, for which he was well rewarded:

‘I knew I could do the dive, I just needed to stay warm so I delayed getting in the water this time until the last moment. The dive went well, I reached the bottom plate relaxed and the narcosis did not hit me too strong this time so I managed to think clearly and tell myself to ascend from depth faster, as it happened maybe a little too fast. A good dive to finish the season with, only 1 meter up on last year, but happy to end the year on a high and moving in the right direction.’

Board came an impressive 4th at the end of the competition, with a Free Immersion (FIM) dive to 95m and a Constant No Fins (CNF) dive to 56m. Also at the competition were top British Freedivers with some impressive results: Chris Crawshaw, also of Freedive Gili who placed 8th (75m CWT, 70m FIM, 68m CNF) and John Moorcroft of Apneists UK who placed 10th (71m CWT, 63m CNF).