Category: Records

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Liv Breaks Dynamic No Fins Record at Camberwell Pool!

On Saturday 5th November, Fusion Lifestyles’ Camberwell Swimming Pool in South London played host to a Freediving National record attempt. Once the light had faded and the swimmers had gone home, a team of judges, videographers, coaches and safety team congregated at the pool to prepare for UK Freediving Champion Liv Philip to attempt to beat her current record of 111m in Dynamic No Fins.

Over 40 members of the general public attended the event, watching from the upstairs viewing gallery of the beautifully refurbished pool, and were given handouts to introduce them to the sport of competitive freediving.

Watched over by Judges David Tranfield and Sam Kirby, Liv made a swim of 116m breaking the previous record she set at the National Freediving Pool Championships in Liverpool in March 2011 by 5metres. A representative form Fusion Lifestyle said ‘Fusion are thrilled that Liv Broke her record and that she bought it back to her training centre here in Camberwell.

Contact Liv at www.livphilip.com

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British men trash own records at Worlds

Monday 10th October 2011 : – The British men faced their toughest competition for records this year, with three strong athletes fighting for the No Fins title; Dave Tranfield, two-times holder of the title, newcomer Ed Wardle who took the record from Dave this summer at his first event; and Dave Kent, new to competitive freediving, who came through and surprised everyone, including himself.

At the 4th Mediterranean World Cup 1st-14th September athletes gathered from around the world to compete and prepare for the World Championships, taking place from 15th-25th September. Liv Philip shone for the women by taking Silver Medal overall in the women’s with CWT 61m, FIM 62m and CNF 46m.

Liv, who coaches and trains at London Freediving Club in Richmond, said: I’ve been working long hours back home to allow me to compete this summer and it’s been tough to fit training in, so I’m doubly pleased to have got a Silver Medal with so many strong athletes around.

On 14th September, the final day of the first comp, Dave Tranfield, or Tranny as he is affectionately known, although he prefers ‘Sheffield Steel’, and Ed Wardle who had ambitiously announced 65m, went head to head to push Ed’s 55m record deeper. Tranny, due in part to his greater experience, kept his cool and successfully dived to 56m in two minutes 25 seconds, breaking Ed’s former record by one metre.

Dave said: My dive started badly with a poor duck dive due to nerves and then my neck weight nearly knocked off my nose clip which barely hung on during the entire descent. But luckily equalisation went ok to the bottom and as soon as I took the tag I knew I had the dive. Unfortunately Ed didn’t make his dive, having announced 10m deeper than his former record, and making an early turn.

On 19th September, the first comp day of the AIDA Depth World Championships, Dave Kent joined the action, putting further pressure on Tranny and Ed, and the tables turned in Ed’s favour. Tranny made the most conservative announcement with 58m, followed by Ed with 60m and Dave Kent with 62m. Tranny was up first but didn’t make it. Ed completed a 60m dive, claiming his second National Record in two minutes 19 seconds. Ed said: I trained hard this year and it paid off, I managed to focus and it was as close to a perfect dive as I could have wished for, a solid 60m. Ed’s glory was short-lived as minutes later his record was broken by a Dave Kent, who made a clean and easy dive to 62m in two minutes 20 seconds. Kent, at his first ever major comp said: The world’s were awesome, it was great to meet so many athletes that up until then had just been names from hours of watching YouTube footage. My time in Kalamata has only reinforced my desire to attend further championships, and improve as a no fins freediver.

The other disciplines at the event were Free Immersion and Constant Weight. In the Mediterranean Cup on 13th September Mike Board did a 77m FIM to regain the National Record from Dave King who had set it at 73m in June in France. But on the 24th September the final day of the AIDA World Depth Championships, Mike extended this record by a further six metres setting a new record in FIM of 83m in a dive time of two minutes 55 seconds.

Mike said: “It’s been a fantastic month of training and dive performances for me that far exceeded my expectations. Training went well and I felt strong and confident enough to try new depths on the competition days.”

The team was sponsored by Elios wetsuits (www.eliossub.com) who donated the full team a brand new wetsuit each for the Worlds. Thank you, Elios!

Congratulations to all nine British athletes attended these two amazing events.

Dave Tranfield
Sara Campbell
Dave Kent
Liv Philip
Dave King
Georgina Miller
Ed Wardle
Mike Board
Gary McGrath (Med World Cup)

For more information contact press@britishfreediving.org
For images contact Hungry Eye Images: www.hungryeye.co.uk, email – matt.green@hungryeye.co.uk , tel – 07767 848133

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A new British record in constant weight, no fins free diving set by David Kent at Dahab’s Blue Hole

Only twenty days after setting the British Men’s Constant Weight, No Fins Free Diving record at 62 meters (204 ft) at The World Championships in Kalamata, Greece on 19th September, David Kent, 41, broke and reset his own record by comfortably diving an impressive 66 meters (217 ft) in 2.32 minutes in The Blue Hole, Dahab, Egypt, on 9th October.

To set the Constant Weight, No Fins Free Diving record, Kent was required to descend to a pre-announced depth and return to the surface on a single breath of air and present the bottom-tag to the judges to qualify; He did this without incident and looked clear and focused as he resurfaced, a good indication that there’s still deeper depths he can reach over time.

The discipline Kent specialises in (one of the three major competition disciplines) is often referred to as ‘unassisted free diving’, as the athlete swims to their depths and resurfaces without the aid of fins, sleds, airbag, or any other supplement – using only the combined power and discipline of the body and the mind.

41 year old Sussex Police Sergeant David Kent was given a mini career-break to train for and compete in the World Championships this year. He was coached by Brian Crossland of Blue Ocean Free Diving in Dahab, Egypt, leading up to the Worlds, then returned to train up for and carry out his record breaking attempt, organised and overseen by Crossland. He will no doubt be welcomed back to The Force with a huge round of well-deserved applause as the UK Men’s World Record holder.

Kent has now set his sights on competing in the 2013 World Championships to medal-winning standard.

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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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National Record in Free Immersion 3rd May 2011

On the 3rd May 2011 British freediver Mike Board, 40, a former Royal Marine who now lives in Gili Trawangan in Indonesia, reclaimed his National Record in Free Immersion (pulling himself down and up a submerged, weighted rope) with a faultless dive to 72m. The dive, held at the ‘Freedive International’ Minicomp in Dahab’s Blue Hole, took 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Mike was again coached by four-times World Record holder Sara Campbell.


Photo by Jan Windszus

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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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New UK Record – 100m passed!

The British Freediving Association is delighted to be able to announce that it today ratified a new British Record in the No Limits discipline.

Jim Lawless successfully dived to 101m using a sled and lift bag in Sharm El Sheikh on 28 August 2010, with the dive lasting 2 minutes and 7 seconds. Jim’s record exceeds that of Paul Whincup set at 77m back in 2005.

Jim Lawless
The first Brit to outdive his D4 – Photo by Deborah Metcalfe, Blue Eye FX

Jim is the first British Freediver to officially break the 100m mark but others are following swiftly behind. The BFA is looking forward to more 100m+ dives in the next year or so – and with our Constant Weight records for men and women now both in the 90s, it may not be long before someone does it without a sled!

The BFA would like to extend hearty congratulations to Jim and many thanks to the judges Marco Nones, Angela Ambrosi and all at Only One Apnea Centre for making this possible.