Category: Pool competition

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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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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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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!

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Great Northern International Pool Championships 2013 – a review by Rebecca Ryan

On the weekend of the 9th and 10th March, freedivers from clubs across the country and indeed across the waters flocked to the beautiful Liverpool Aquatic Centre for the Great Northern International Pool Championships. www.freedivingcompetition.com It was like a gathering of the freediving clans and a great opportunity for both new and old faces to meet. Eleven countries in total were represented which was absolutely fantastic: Great Britain, Ireland, France, Denmark, Poland, Canada, Hungary, Holland, Germany, Greece and Latvia.

The Great Northern, now in it’s fourth year, was superbly organised by Steve Millard of Apneists UK (www.freedivers.co.uk). Each year ‘the event’ (as it is also known), has gone from strength to strength, growing year on year. This was my first time competing ‘up north’ and having heard so many good things, I was not left disappointed. The atmosphere created by Steve, the judges David Tranfield and Pim Vermeulen, Mandy and Kate, the safety team, volunteers and all the staff at the Aquatic Centre was phenomenal and ensured that the athletes were instantly put at ease and free to concentrate on what they needed to do.

The weekend was split into two separate competitions. Day one, Saturday, was kick started by the Dynamic No Fin (DNF) competitors. DNF is becoming more and more popular with athletes and this was reflected in the numbers taking part, totalling 35 (25 men and 10 women). And what an exciting day it was! The 50 meter pool was reduced in size to 25 meters to accommodate the no fins divers and with its glass ceiling, looked very blue and inviting indeed. There were some big dives as you would expect from some of the more experienced athletes and some equally big personal achievements from some of the newer initiates into the sport – all were acknowledged which was both generous and brilliant to see. Mateusz Malina from Poland completed an incredible 180 meter dive, making it look blissfully easy and securing first place for the men and Yulia Maryevich from Latvia, did a very elegant and solid 100 meters coming first out of the women and a new national record, one of three National records managed by the wonderful Latvian team.

Day two, Sunday, saw the number of athletes swell to 47 and the buzz around the centre increased too. The first part of the day was dedicated to Static (STA) and we all moved over to the 20 meter pool to register, warm-up and generally prepare for our Official Top start time. Athletes and their coaches congregated around the pool in preparation towels and yoga mats dotted the periphery of the pool for people to stretch, do yoga, lie or sit down, meditate, concentrate on breathing, or listen to music to get into their own competitive zone. There were some big breath holds by some of the men: Mateusz Malina (6:47), Erdhart Torsten (6:19) and British Adam Drzazga (5:58). There were also some strong statics performed by the women, notably the UK’s Liv Philip and Yulia Maryevich.

The second part of day two was finished off with the Dynamic (DYN) with fins element of the competition. As you would expect there were some great performances by Malina and Maryevich who swam a brilliant 201 and 151 meters respectively, gaining the top spot out of the men and women and for Yulia a National Record for her country. We were also very proud to see some great and strong performances by our very own home-grown British talent Liv Philip and Tim Money. Liv took 2nd Place on the podium and Tim Money ranked 1st out of the British Men overall. Liv and Tim regularly represent the UK on the British Freediving Team and are well known and admired athletes. Also it was great to meet some of the Dutch divers, a great video here of Eric by Daan Verhoeven

A lot of work goes into making a competition successful and the sponsors of the Great Northern are deserving of a massive thank you for their generosity: Without a pool we would not have been able to compete: Lifestyle Fitness centres provided a wonderful pool and facilities for us all to enjoy. Sensational prizes were provided by Orca and Fins4U for the winners of the competition. And official Sponsors of the competition were Saka, Blue Orb, Freediving yoga lessons from OM diver and TriBeCa who hosted us in their trendy bar and fed us delicious pizza and safety from Gone swimming. The British Freediving Association has supported and promoted the Great Northern and is well deserving of a mention as are Lifestyles leisure for their excellently run leisure centre. And on a personal note and on behalf of the athletes, I’d like to say huge thank you to Steve Millard and his fantastic team for a truly sensational weekend – well done!

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The Great Northern – UK National (with guests) Pool Competition 2012

Saturday 10th March: DNF competition (with the option to do DYN for ranking only) Sunday 11th March: UK National pool competition in the STA and DYN disciplines (with the option to do DNF in the 50 metre pool for ranking only)

We are extending the dynamic no-fins competition on Saturday 10th March to accommodate more people after the successes of last year. It was an exciting competition which John Moorcroft of Apneists UK winning for the men and Liv Philip (with a National record no less) winning it for the girls. It is again to be held at the Liverpool Aquatics Centre, Wavertree. This has kindly been sponsored by Lifestyle leisure who are also helping us host the main event. We have invited Male and female divers capable of breaking the UK record with that intention and we will open it up to divers from abroad to get their respective NR’s in Dynamic No Fins. Also it will be an opportunity for some elite divers and also newbies to get their AIDA ranking points.

On the Sunday we wish to increase the numbers of those competing in those disciplines too. The Great Northern will provide the ideal opportunity for athletes in the UK and from the continent to gain AIDA ranking to be counted for their National Team selection. It’s also the perfect place to meet other Freedivers and meet some of the personalities in the sport. A compilation of pictures from last years event:

www.youtube.com

Convinced? Please visit our website for your enrolment form www.freedivers.co.uk

Still not convinced? Turn up anyway, there is a free viewing gallery come and cheer the rest on or you can come and help we need around 30 – 40 helpers over the weekend to make it run as smooth as years gone by. This is the pool event of the year, all clubs come to compete, with a friendly relaxed atmosphere it is a great event.

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Liv Philip Wins Riga Freediving Cup

On the weekend of February 11th & 12th 2012 three British athletes set out in the London snow, headed for an even more wintery destination. They were off to the AIDA Riga Freediving Cup 2012 to compete in the biggest indoor competition of the year in Eastern Europe. The competition invites you to take part as an individual and as a team. It was the third time that Riga gathered freedivers from the Baltic nations Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland & Finland, and the three UK athletes put on a good show.

Liv Philip, Tim Money and Gary McGrath who all train with London Freedivers in Richmond www.londonfreediving.org, competed on the first day in static and dynamic no fins. Liv won the static event with the best static she has done in a competition of 5:58. Later in the day Gary did one of his first DNF competition performances swimming a very stylish 82m. Tim swam an easy 111m to put him in 5th place, and Liv won the women’s event and was placed 6th overall in the DNF with an easy 110m swim.

After exploring a frozen lake where fishermen cut holes in ice which creaked underfoot as you walked on it, and your face froze after a few minutes in -10, the three cold Brits decided that freediving in Riga was best done in swimming pools and headed off on day two to the 50m pool complex. A memorial to its former soviet days, the pool had real atmosphere.

The Dynamic competition is always tough when you are amongst Eastern European Freedivers as they have access to great pools and many experienced athletes who train this discipline. The World Champion Goran Colak was at the event and swam a smooth 225m dynamic. Feeling inspired by watching other great divers, Tim did 163m dynamic performance to put him into 5th place in that event, his best competition distance to date and in beautiful style. Gary and Liv put in two solid performances of 115m & 134m respectively.

Liv Philip won the women’s competition overall and Goran Colak topped the men’s ranking both winning new tailor made Elios freediving suits. Tim, Liv and Gary hope to see some of the freedivers they met in Riga at the UK Championships in Liverpool in March.

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Phil Clayton sets new DNF record

On Sunday the 4th September, at the Auckland Freediving Club Deep Obsession competition Phil Clayton beat his standing UK DNF National Record of 138m with a dive of 144m. What makes this achievement remarkable is that the dive was done on exhale (slightly beyond a passive exhale). Phil has been training exhale DNF around one day per week as part of his training regime as it was much easier to train while travelling for business without 4+kg of weights!

As time went by Phil (and his dive buddies) were repeatedly surprised by longer and longer exhale dives with no apparent hypoxia. Following the Wellington Winter Champs in June it became apparent that an attempt on the National Record was possible on exhale.

The first attempt on Sat 3rd was unsuccessful with the dive terminated at 110m, thought to be due to excess CO2. Changing the breathe-up on the Sunday lead to a successful result!

Phil is now keen to get back in the sea and the local lake to start constant weight training after all this ‘exhale craziness’ and is rumoured to be thinking that Nice would be Nice….

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UK National Indoor Championships 2011

The weekend of 11-12 March saw the UK freediving community congregating in Liverpool’s fabulous state of the art Aquatics Centre for the annual indoor national championships.

Saturday saw an unusual dedicated day of no fins diving, with 15 athletes invited to compete. With the movable boom in place to provide the ideal 25m pool, things were all set for the no finners. Newly qualified from the BFA’s sponsorship programme, Dave Tranfield, was joined poolside by the experienced Sue Pugh to judge the day’s events and some hopeful record attempts.

First up were some solid dives by some new freedivers, including many new to no fins an encouraging sign for the growth of this often overlooked discipline. In the men’s event John Moorcroft came out on top with an impressive 130m swim, getting close to a new UK record. In the women’s event, Liv Philip extended her national record by 5m, setting a new mark of 111m.

Day 2 of the event brought the UK Championships proper, with athletes competing in static and dynamic. The dive of the day in the men’s competition was undoubtedly Dave King’s new UK dynamic record of 226m. Dave took the overall men’s championship for the second year running. Runner-up was Chris Crawshaw from the local Northern gang and in third place was Tim Money from London Freedivers in Richmond.

Liv Philip followed up on her DNF record by taking the women’s championship with two solid dives. London Freediver George Miller was second, and third in the UK championship was newbie from Apneist UK, Nikki Bream.

The highlight of the weekend however, was a courageous and successful dynamic from Mandy Buckley of 150m. Mandy has recovered from a serious illness over the last year and to see her back to her best was an inspiration for everyone present. Mandy will be swimming the Great North Swim on June 18 in aid of CLIC Sergeant and the RNLI. You can sponsor her by going to here. Last word of thanks goes to Steve Millard and his team for organising another very successful competition. The facilities at Liverpool are first class, the staff were incredibly helpful and everyone was made to feel very welcome. We look forward to competing in a major international event here soon, and fingers crossed even more sponsors will see the appeal and we will entice some continental divers over 🙂

We thank our current sponsors for helping this happen

Lifestyles Leisure
Sean Peters www.sppv.co.uk
George Stoyle www.earthinfocus.com
Orca wetsuits www.orca.com
Urban Gastropubs
Electrical lighting superstore
No-Tanx
Free divers

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NoTanx 5th Birthday Competition

This year NoTanx is holding its 5th annual Birthday competition on 19th March at Tooting Pool in South West London. It will include static and dynamic events, with a capacity for up to 45 athletes – both seasoned and newbies. The event is open to all freedivers, not just NoTanx divers.

NoTanxCru

NoTanx likes to focus on enjoyment and involvement as well as specific freediving skills and performance. Everyone is encouraged to coach other athletes as well as do their own dives, as buddying is a key aspect of all forms of freediving.

The competition will be held in two pools; it kicks off with the first official top in static at 4pm, followed by dynamics in a 33m pool starting at 7pm. Both pools have spectator areas, so bring your friends and family to watch and cheer you on. Registration is between 2-3pm. £15 for NoTanx members and £25 for non-members.

With two major pool competitions in March, the official British Open ‘ooop norf’ and the NoTanx ‘daaahn saarf’ there are no excuses this year for everyone not joining in the fun!

To register click here. Good luck everybody!