Author: Liv

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Michael Board’s journey to 100 meters under the Sea. First Briton to 100m in the discipline of Constant Weight

Earlier this month Michael Board competed at the annual Vertical Blue (VB) competition held at Dean’s Blue hole in the Bahamas, where he became the first Briton to dive, in competition, to over a 100 meters in the discipline of constant weight (CWT).


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

The VB is extremely popular worldwide with freediving athletes and always attracts those at the very top of their game. The attraction of this competition is not just down to its stunning setting, but also because of the meticulous organisation, brilliant safety divers and experienced AIDA judges.

From the start there was a huge amount of pressure on Mike’s shoulders from both himself and other people. All eyes were on him to see if he could make it down to that golden 100 meter mark. All he had to do was swim down vertically, the length of the marked rope, with the aid of his monofin, pick up a tag attached to the bottom plate, and swim back, complete his surface protocol and hey presto, National Record. But of course it is not that simple and a CWT dive to 100 meters is no mean feat. For a start, the dive is done on one breath, lasting approximately 3 minutes; add to that the huge exertion of pressure on the body which builds at depth and the water temperature which gets colder through the thermo cline and then the fading light into darkness. Experience is vital and key.

In Mike’s words “it was a good competition in the end even though I had a shaky start. After my initial attempt at 100 meters CWT on Day 1, where I blacked out on the surface for a few seconds at the end of my dive, all of my other dives were solid with clean surface protocols and no signs of hypoxia, so it really does look like the pressure of the first dive of the competition and the weight of my own and lot of other peoples expectations just got to me. I actually tested my heart rate on the beach before my dive and it was 10-15 beats higher than my normal resting rate, so definitely some pre-dive jitters!”

Being an experienced diver, Mike planned his dives over the next few days with thought and care. His second dive in Free Immersion (FIM) was to a deliberately low (for him), 91 meters. This ensured a relatively easy dive where he felt relaxed and strong, giving him confidence going in to the next 100 meter attempt. There was the added bonus of setting a new National Record in the discipline, adding 8 meters onto his previous record of 83 meters back in 2011.

During the course of the competition, Board deliberately swapped between FIM and CWT to give maximum rest time for his legs between big dives. Going into the 100 meter record attempt on the 13th November, his second go at it this competition, he felt that strength and confidence as hoped. Board says “I pulled off a really nice dive that only took 2 minutes and 54 seconds. I had finally cracked some equalization issues which had plagued me since my first attempt at the 100 meters the year before and which caused me to rupture my ear drum in Greece just 9 weeks ago at the World Championships.” Mike was now on strong form and with equalization to spare at the bottom plate and clean surface protocols he says “I was excited to see how far I could push it. Still I rested my legs for the next dive and chose to do a FIM on the 15th November with a dive to 96 meters in 3 minutes 32 seconds, another National Record.”


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

With the pressure now gone on the remaining two dives, Board decided to do them just for fun. On the 17th November he decided to announce only a 2 meter increase for his next dive and go for 102 meters CWT, “as I was keen to continue coming up clean on the surface rather than just making it. I completed the dive in 3 minutes 1 second and it felt strong, and I again felt I had more in me, which is a good way to feel after a dive!”

However, Mike’s joy at having achieved the dive was short lived. He told me “I stayed in the water to watch Nick Mevoli’s dive and cheer him on and by now everyone knows what unfolded. So it has been a real journey this year with some significant setbacks and injuries, some real lows as well as the recent highs, but I could not have hoped for a better end to my season in terms of personal achievements, but of course it has been tragic end of the season for freediving in general.”

Nick Mevoli lost his life at the end of a competition dive on the 17th November at the Vertical Blue. Nick, an America freediver, was a silver medallist at the 2013 World Championships and Constant Weight National Record holder; he was well known and loved by many of his fellow athletes. The cause of his death is under investigation.

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Another Freediving record falls during Huddersfield competition… this time Dynamic No Fins (DNF)

Rebecca Coales, trained by Steve Millard of the freedivers.co.uk group, managed to extend her own record from 120 metres to 134 metres distance underwater swimming doing just breast stroke. The total dive time took 2 minutes and 52 seconds at the Huddersfield Stadium health and fitness complex run by Kirklees leisure kirkleesactive.co.uk on Sunday the 17th November. It was overseen by internationally qualified judges from the main Freediving agency, AIDA International.

Rebecca is a yoga teacher and uses a wide range of yoga techniques in her training to build physical strength for swimming, mental focus and relaxation. Rebecca said “The competition atmosphere was very relaxed and so focusing on my dive felt easy. My main problem has been shaking off a winter cold in time for my performance. Rebecca prepares for her dives with gentle stretches, music and a deep guided relaxation. She is a founder member of the Bristol Freedivers group and also trains with a local fin swimming club… omdiver.co.uk

A number of athletes from around the UK came to Huddersfield compete in one of three disciplines. Dynamic apnea with Fins (DYN), which is swimming horizontally, as far as one can, wearing a single mono-fin or bi-fins. Dynamic no fins (DNF), swimming as far horizontally as one can with breast stroke. And static apnea (STA), lying stationary holding your breath for as long as you can. Each discipline has a point score, the highest point score wins, simple. We also have depth disciplines but this competition just concentrated on the pool.

Other note-able results were a 152 metre swim from Bart Lubecki of our Liverpool club using a mono-fin. Masa Sorn took the overall second place turning at 150 metres, also mono-fin propelled. And 5 minute 10 second breath hold from relative newcomer Jason Amson-Orth, and a 4 minute 46 second breath hold from Deb Gaskell, who only started freediving in the last few months.

As Freediving grows steadily in the North of England, we have been running professional courses and have had groups operating for well over a decade. Freediving however isn’t just about competition; it is also an enjoyable recreational activity taking us to all parts of the country. freedivers.co.uk started in Manchester but we have clubs in Liverpool, some in Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland and Crewe with people travelling to us from far afield. There are many opportunities for people to start to try Freediving nowadays. It is a great sport for increasing fitness and losing weight, as a confidence builder for Scuba divers, for snorkelers we can give you an improvement in style and ability helping those wanting to explore the reefs on holiday and of course it holds the exciting possibility of records for those who have good swimming style.

Freediving is an extremely personal sport, you do your own dive on the day, but at the same time you never dive alone without someone properly looking after your safety. I think this, in part, is one of the reasons for the strong, welcoming, community spirit within the sport and, all divers encourage the best out of their peers whatever their goal may be.

This competition was also be a good opportunity to make sure every wrinkle is ironed out of the background organisation for the International competition we have on the 22nd/23rd March 2014 in Liverpool. We have some camera testing to do to make it really special. Above is the intro video from this years competition, videos of Huddersfield will go up on the ApneistsUK facebook page in the next couple of days Apneistsukfreedivingcompetitions

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British Team Fly the Flag at the Freediving Depth World Championships in Greece & Liv Philip brings home a Medal!

Sunday 29th September 2013; — Between the 15th and 22nd September the AIDA Individual Depth World Championship took place in the deep waters of the bay of Kalamata, Greece. Around 150 athletes from more than 30 nations took part to challenge themselves and compete for the deepest dive in Constant No Fins (CNF), Constant Weight (CWT), and Free Immersion (FIM). Each discipline stood alone and encouraged specialists in each area to excel.

Great Britain was represented by a team of 10 divers, many of whom have sprung from the busy freediving clubs around the UK. The first competition day was CNF, and athletes awoke early to find a cloudy, chilly day in contrast to the sunshine of previous days. Competition was scheduled to run from deep to shallow for safety reasons allowing the deeper dives to commence early, when conditions are generally better. After a fast transfer boat five minutes from shore, athletes arrived at their allotted time to prepare for their dive in a fantastic set-up provided by Stavros Kastrinakis the Organiser. An incredible crew of safety divers watched over the divers on the warm-up lines, towed them to floating dry areas to relax, and onto one of three competition lines which were manned by teams of AIDA International judges.

The surface water temperature had dropped by two degrees from previous days and was dark and shadowy because the sun was hidden by thick cloud. This did not deter the Brits however as although many of the team had spent some months training in Dahab, a large number had travelled direct from the UK having had limited training in the cold quarries back home. Two such athletes represented Team GB in the challenging CNF event. John Moorcroft completing a valiant 61m dive to be disappointed by a DQ for an unfortunate pull on the line which the rules do not allow in this event. Liv Philip, a London based athlete decided to go for a tactical depth with a dive to 50m: ‘I knew this would be a challenging but safe dive and I had to factor in such things as conditions, and the water had been getting colder by the day’ Liv explained. This paid off as Liv surfaced from a strong dive to get a white card from Californian judge Grant Graves. She beat competitors from Russia and Japan to bring home her first bronze medal from a World Championship. Liv said ‘I’m really happy, getting the medal gives a nod of recognition for all the hard work and dedication of all the UK self funded freedivers, plus I really like bling!’. Natalia Molchanova did it again setting a new World record and winning gold with a dive of 69m, and Morgan Bourchis of France did a beautiful 87m dive to take gold in the men’s competition.

After two days allowing athletes to rest and train, the tension of CWT day built as the announced performances were published. Two men, Dave Mullins (NZ) and Alexey Molchanov (RUS) announced World records of 128m adding to the excitement. The sun came out and the conditions started off calm, but slowly conditions got bumpy, testing the athletes who could best deal with the nature of this ocean competition. There were good dives from London freedivers Gary McGrath 67m, Liv Philip 62m, and Georgina Miller 47m and from John Moorcroft who put a fin on to dive 67m for the northern contingent. The Biritsh divers held their own in rough seas and showed great strength of character. The British athletes were keen to point out that their much liked team mate Mike Board, who looked on-form to be the first British man to 100m in CWT ‘is really strong and we know he will be back to do it next time” after he suffered an ear injury during the pre-comp. The CWT was won by Alexey who set a new World record, and his mum the Russian grandmother, proved unbeatable yet again in the women’s category!

By the final day, many of the athletes nerves had subsided, and the ocean rewarded them by giving them perfect conditions to take part in the final discipline of Free Immersion. Gary McGrath had a beautiful dive to 70m bringing him a white card, an excellent 10th place and a wonderful days diving to remember. John Moorcroft dived to 61m showing what a strong all round athlete he is by completing all three disciplines. Newcomers Richard Bevan and Louisa Collyns both dived to 56m and Chris Laycock to 36m with excellent results in their first World Championship. Liv Philip completed her run of white cards with a PB of 66m bringing her into 7th place in this discipline. The gold medals were taken by William Trubridge and Natalia Molchanova.

All that was left to do was to thank the organisers, judges and safety team, collect the medals and PARTY down on the beach until the small hours under the shadow of the Kalamata mountains and next to the big blue sea that had kept all the divers safe throughout their dives!

The BFA would like to congratulate all the Freedivers who took part and entering into the spirit of this fantastic bi-annual event. We hope they all enjoyed the experience and have a greater understanding of the sea as a result. We would also like to thank Elios wetsuits on behalf of the British Freediving Team for their support (http://www.eliossub.com/index.php/en/).

Full results can be found on the British Freediving Association Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfreediving/).

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AIDA 2013 Individual Depth World Championships, Count Down to the Start of the Competition

Sunday 8 September 2013; The Individual World Championships are less than a week away, so the countdown is on! The World Championships (www.aidaworldchampionships.com) are being organised by Stavros Katrinakis of Freediving Club Greece and are taking place in Kalamata, Greece. The first official competition day is on Monday 16th September starting with Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) followed by Constant Weight (CWT) on Thursday 19th and finishing off with Free Immersion (FIM) on Saturday 21st. Many of the UK team members have already arrived and are taking advantage of the pre-competition training, with some taking part in mini competitions on Monday 9th, Wednesday 11th and Friday 13th September.

The BFA are pleased to announce the UK team members are: Richard Bevan, Mike Board, Louisa Collins, Alison Crawford, Dave Kent, Chris Laycock, Georgina Miller, Gary McGrath, John Moorcroft, Anna Paraiyar, Liv Philip and David Tranfield (Coach).

We wish each and everyone one of our athletes enjoyable and successful dives!

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BBC Science & Environment talk to Adam Drzazga, UK Team Member, about his Breath-holding Secrets!

Adam Drzazga, a member on the British Freediving Team and Blue Water Freediving School, worked together with the BBC on a documentary about oxygen consumption in mammals.

Click on the two links below to find out more about this fascinating project and to hear what Adam has to say:

Man v Seal: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22870944

Freediver Reveals Breath-holding Secrets: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22876741

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British Champion Freediver Liv Philip to appear on newly launched BT Sports panel show!

The show which goes out live between 9:30-11:30am on Saturday 10th August, features Liv in a short piece recorded at Fusion Lifestyles pool in Camberwell, South London. Raising the profile of the sport of Freediving in the UK, Liv gives a quick guide to staying calm under pressure and explains how the lessons she has learnt as a top level freediver can benefit those in other sports and high stress roles. There is also featured video footage by Daan Verhoeven.


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

BTSP (BT Sports Panel) (Saturdays, 9.30am, BT Sport 1) BTSP is today confirmed as the name of the new show broadcast live every Saturday morning by Tim Lovejoy with ex-England rugby international Matt Dawson, and special guests. A show of opinions, prediction, preview, review and laughs, BTSP is an interactive production which involves viewers at home through social media.

Liv Philip www.free-flowH2o.com e: hellofreeflow@gmail.com

Daan Verhoeven www.daanverhoeven.com www.fusion-lifestyle.com

Bt Sports Online

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The UK Female Dynamic No Fins (DNF) Freediving record is broken!

On the 31st July, 2013 at 10.05pm Rebecca Coales broke the current female DNF record at the Total Fitness centre in Walkden, North Manchester. For those new to Freediving, DNF is swimming as far as you can horizontally in a swimming pool without the aid of fins.

The record had previously been held continuously, by Liv Philip, since 2007. Rebecca with a very comfortable dive beat the 116m that was on the board, and pushed the distance to 120m, which is well within her Personal best (PB), in a dive time of 2:24 minutes.

Rebecca is a founder member of the Bristol No Tanx Freedivers group where she trains with friends. She was a relative newcomer to the competition circuit, only starting to explore her potential in the last 6 months starting with a no-fins clinic, and mono fin clinic with Steve Millard of the Apneists UK group learn2freedive , based in the North of the UK. Recently she earned the right to represent her country in the World Freediving Pool Championships and with this new record it has placed her firmly on the map. Rebecca runs the Yoga website and courses which is the perfect cross training for Freedivers.

The video and a short story of the dive can be found here.

Record attempts can be organised for those wishing to gain National records in the UK. Thanks to the dream team who came and supported the event.

Athlete: Rebecca Coales
Organiser: Steve Millard

Judge: Gary Lowe
Judge: David Tranfield

Judges Assistant: Fiona Cahill

Safety Diver: James Cluskey
Safety Diver: Steve Millard

Videographer / Photographer: Sean Peters http://www.sppv.net/

Surface Coach: John Moorcroft

Medic: Dr P. Taylor

Thank you to the management and staff of Total Fitness Walkden for hosting the event and their continued support of UK Freediving athletes and students. Please visit here for more details to join the gym.

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New UK CNF National Record by Dave Kent

Sunday 28th July 2013; — On Saturday 27th July, in Dahab, at the most recent of the Little Blue Hole competitions, arranged by Brian Crossland of Blue Ocean Freedivers, British Freediver Dave Kent smashed his own National Record in the discipline of Constant Weight No Fins by swimming to an amazing depth of 70 meters.

It was only two years ago in September 2011 that Dave competed at his first major competition in Kalamata at the AIDA Depth World Championships, where on the opening day he gained his first National Record in CNF by swimming down to 62m. The following month at Dahab’s Blue Hole no less, he swam down a further 4 meters, increasing the record to 66m.

At the competition on the 27th, Dave had to swim down to the previously announced depth, marked with a weight at the end of a rope, and back without the use of fins, propulsion aids or pulling on the rope to assist him. CNF requires, as well as other things, a high level of technique, coordination, equalisation and buoyancy. Dave said that his training leading up the competition, his first one of the year, had gone well with solid 70m plus dives over the last month.

However in Dave’s own words, like most best laid plans, things didn’t go 100% as they should have done! On the day of the dive, Kent miscalculated his warm-up time and found himself getting cold during the two minute Official Top countdown, which is the countdown the athlete hears just before their competition dive. The cold is not conducive to relaxation and this combined with nerves, resulted in a not so comfortable descent compared to Dave’s training dives. This might have been detrimental to a less experienced diver, however his training and discipline, clearly put him in good stead. He was pleased with his dive time of 2:35, as he had announced 2:40 and the ascent part of the dive was very comfortable and was made in 1:15, it was Dave said the most positive part of the dive. This is also the part of the dive, which is going to give him the confidence in striving towards 80m, which he has his sights set on as his next goal.

Dave is now heading back to the UK for a short break after which he will return to Dahab where he is planning on competing in another competition at the end of August as his final preparation for the Aida Individual Depth World Championships in Kalamata in September. Brain Crossland (organiser of the Little Blue Hole competition), coaches Dave whilst he is in Dahab and has done for the past three years. Dave has also been working with Aharon Solomons through his remote coaching program, and trained with him last October and earlier this year where the main focus was solely on equalization, which Dave says, is arguably the single biggest change in how I dive now compared to 12 months ago.

Currently on a career break from his job in Sussex Police who have allowed him once again to take un-paid leave in preparation for this year’s World Championships, Dave is financing himself from his previous years savings and he says, basically letting go of most, if not all, of his worldly possessions to fund this year’s training. It’s been a huge sacrifice, and a difficult one at times – but one that is paying off when you look at Dave’s results, and he clearly has a lot more in there to give!

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Aida Pool World Championships Belgrade 2013

July 2013; — At the end of June (21st to 30th), the UK team upon arrival in Belgrade, Serbia, walked into a heat wave that was engulfing the city, with temperatures soaring into the 40’s. This year we had a 10 strong team equally divided between men and women and made up of both experienced athletes and some new faces:

 

  • Rebecca Coales
  • Dan Betts
  • Georgina Miller (Captain)
  • Adam De La Mare
  • Liv Philip
  • Adam Drzazga
  • Beci Ryan
  • Marcus Greatwood
  • Lucelle Simms
  • Mark Gooding

 

The excitement from the start was palpable. Day 1 started with the men and women’s Dynamic No Fins (DNF) and the team delivered some solid performances. Liv Philip and Dan Betts each swam a strong and clean 112 m and Rebecca Coales swam a personal best of 109 m. Day 2 was when the Dynamic competitors got to put on their choice of fin (monofin or bifins) to whizz them through the pool. There were some long swims delivered, in particular by Adam Drzazga (149 m), Dan Betts (143 m) and Mark Gooding (136 m) for the men, and Liv Philip (134 m), Lucelle Simms (131 m) and Georgina Miller (130 m) for the women. There were also some good personal performances from team members Marcus Greatwood, Adam De La Mare, Beci Ryan and Rebecca.

On day 3 the temperatures dropped dramatically, something many competitors had not expected. Temperature can be a very tricky thing for freedivers to contend with in any discipline – if the conditions are too hot the dive reflex can be slow to kick in and if it is very cold shivering can commence and once it does it is extremely hard to relax and this can be detrimental for a long breath hold. Despite the conditions two members of the team, Lucelle Simms and Adam Drzazga, battled through and earned themselves a spot in the B finals. Both Lucelle and Adam excelled again second time round in the final, performing personal best times and securing 13th place respectively on the board.

World Championships are never boring and this competition was no exception. Three World Records were broken in the Women’s DNF Finals alone – firstly by Amber Bourke of Australia who a few strokes later was overtaken by Katarina Turcinovic of Croatia, who in turn was bypassed by Natalia Molchanova as she swam further still, stealing the show and the world record at a massive 182 meters. But that wasn’t it for Natalia, she went on to break the Dynamic World Record the following day by swimming 234 meters and then again the day after, she finished it all off with a hat trick by holding her breath in the Static Final for an incredible 9 minutes and 2 seconds, beating the men along the way! The team was also privileged to watch Croatian Goran Colak break the men’s Dynamic World Record with a mammoth 281 meters. There were many National Records broken, too many to mention and suffice to say it was an exciting few days with many memorable performances.

Next up we have the AIDA 2013 Depth World Championship in Kalamata in September to look forward to and we will be sure to keep you all posted!

For more information contact the British Freediving Association at: <href=”mailto:press@britishfreediving.org”>press@britishfreediving.org

All photo credits go to Daan Verhoeven

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The Madchester Challenge Competition 2013, Hosted by Apneists UK. – by Rebecca Ryan

Saturday 11th May was the Madchester Challenge Competition, hosted by Apneists UK. Compared to the annual Great Northern International Pool Championship, also run by Steve Millard of Apneists UK, it was a small competition, but what it lacked in size it made up for in atmosphere and personality and attracted athletes from all over the UK. The whole day had a very relaxed and almost informal feel to it.

The idea of the competition was that the athlete choose one discipline to compete in and the highest point score won, simple (there was an opportunity for people to choose a second discipline if they wished to do so as well). No prizes were up for grabs just Northern love – this was a competition done for the chance to compete and for the sheer fun of it.

The winner of the day was John Moorcroft, an Instructor for Apneists UK ( www.freedivers.co.uk ) and UK Team member, who did a very comfortable and impressive 154 meter DNF swim. John used to hold the DNF record and by his own admission had not done a huge amount of training, making the swim that much more impressive! Coming first out of the Women was Georgina Miller of London Freediving, another UK Team member and National Record Holder who completed a huge static of 6 minutes 15 seconds. George then went on to do a big 104 meter DNF swim, finishing off her day in style. It was great to see George do so well, especially after a freak accident with her toe, which prevented her from competing just moments before her starting time at the Great Northern International earlier in the year.

There were many other notable performances, some from seasoned athletes and some from brand new divers. Please see here for details of performances: Madchester Challenge (the link is here )

The pool was provided by Wright Robinson College and as you would expect with Apneists UK, there was a strong team on hand ensuring the smooth running of the day. We had a fantastic crew of safety divers swimming around looking after the athletes, wonderful judges Mandy Buckley and Gary Lowe watching the Official Tops, as well as photographers and other volunteers. Well done to Steve Millard and Apneists UK for pulling another competition out of the bag and providing athletes across the country to gather, compete, and generally have a lot of fun!