Tag: 2009

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British Freediving Association AGM – Sunday 15th November 2009

This years BFA Annual General Meeting is being held at the Kingston & Elmbridge BSAC clubhouse in Tolworth, Surrey, on Sunday 15th November between 14.30 – 17.00hrs.

The Agenda will be published two weeks before the AGM and will be available on this website. If you wish to add items for discussion to the Agenda, please send a brief description of the topic via email to Emedia by Sunday 1st November 2009.

There are ample parking spaces for everyone. The bar will be serving tea, coffee and light refreshments. Warm clothing is usually advised as November can be frosty and the room does not heat up in the time we have to set up.

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Bahamas 2009 AIDA Freediving World Championships

The 2009 AIDA Depth Freediving World Championships, in Constant Weight with and without fins is taking place in Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island in the Bahamas this coming November/December. The official Registration and opening ceremony starts on Wednesday the 25th November and closes on the 5th December.

To enter you have to have achieved the minimum of 30mts CNF , 55mts CTW for women, and CNF 40mts and CWT 75mts for men. These need to be AIDA ranking dives after 27th November 2007.

Only athletes who have qualified as the criterion states above or who have been awarded wild-cards by AIDA International may register for the WC.

If you are interested in competing please send your request to chair@britishfreediving.org as an AIDA requirement states the BFA must ratify the individuals qualifications to the event organiser.

If you wish to apply to AIDA before September 6th a reduced fee of 695 USD will be accepted for the entry fee, thereafter it will cost 800 USD with the deadline date of application closing on October 4th.

To find out more about the competition or how to make payment for the event please view the official document by clicking here.

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New UK record!

The Richmond Freediving Club is pleased to announce a new UK record in the Womens Static Apnea discipline.

On Thursday 20th August 2009, at the AIDA individual indoor World Championships 2009, Aarhus Denmark, Georgina Miller completed a static breath hold of 6 minutes 4 seconds.

The new record beats the previous time of 5:46, set in May 2009, also by Georgina Miller.

Georgina has been competing for 2 years and trains at Pools on the Park Richmond, and at Fusion Leisure, Camberwell.

For more information on freediving visit Richmond Freediving Club

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British team selection for AIDA indoor Freediving World Championship 2009

The BFA is proud to announce the team selection for the indoor Freediving World Championships in Aarhus Denmark 2009. The Male captain for the event is Marcus Greatwood. The female captain is Liv Philip.The team members are:

Female UK Athletes 2009

 

  • Ruth Griffin
  • Liv Philip
  • Georgina Miller

 

Male UK Athletes 2009

 

  • Adrian Hamilton
  • Stuart Bond
  • Alan Barber
  • Martin Ashkenazy-Jones

 

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3 New Womens Freediving National Records in One Day!

The BFA is pleased to announce that 3 new Women’s National Records were set on Sunday 31st May at the 2nd Great Camberwell Breath Hold in Camberwell Pool, Central London. The Freediving pool competition, organised by athlete and UK record holder Liv Philip saw freedivers from all over the UK and the world, compete in static, dynamic and dynamic no-fins disciplines.

In the run up to the World Indoor Freediving Championships in Aarhus in Denmark in August, some of the athletes were using the event for valuable competition experience and rankings. Alongside them were many new athletes who were competing for the first time. Organiser Liv Philip says ‘we wanted to create a competition with a different atmosphere that would be motivating and encouraging for athletes and give the as near perfect an environment as we could to help the atheltes stay relaxed and produce good performances‘. The girls especially took full advantage of the calm atmosphere – reflected by the result of 3 New National records being set during the day.

The first record of the day went to Georgina Miller who did an excellent static breath hold of 5:46 putting, 11 seconds on Livs existing record, well deserved after some months concentrated training on this difficult discipline. The next record went to Mandy Buckley with a wonderful swim of 140m to set a new Dynamic-with-Fin record. Both athletes gaining their first National record and beating there male counterparts by some measure. The final record came right at the end of the day seeing Liv Philip break her own existing record and swim 106m dynamic-no-fins to gain her 8th National record in Freediving. ‘I was very happy to do it as it was tough combining competing and organising – now Im looking forward to going home and sleeping!‘

Three New UK Records
Camberwell Breath Hold 2009 – The three new national record holders

The overall Winners with combined scores from 2 disciplines were Georgina Miller for the Women and Chris Holmes for the men, who was competing for the first time in a national competition, completing a static of 4:51 and a nice dynamic of 133m. Other athletes in the overall placings were Barbara Jeschke from Germany experimenting after swappping onto monofin for the first time and Martin Ashkenazy-Jones with a first rate no-fins dive and PB of 104m taking him into 3rd place overall just behaind Alan Barber who had broken his Dynamic record the day before. There were over 15 pbs in competiton at the event.

Athletes can now try to transfer their pool skills to depth as one of the next ebents on the UK freediving calendar is ‘SaltFree Double Dip’ competition held at NDAC in Chepstow www.saltfreedivers.com . Athletes get to choose 2 freediving depth disciplines over two days.

The event was supported by Fusion Lifestyle, Diving Matrix, Eat Natural Bars and the British Freediving Association.

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AIDA Indoor Freediving World Championship 2009 – Aarhus Denmark

The BFA is happy to announce the next Freediving World Championship. There are 3 disciplines DYN, DNF and STA for male and female athletes, and three places in each discipline – that is 18 places max.

To find out more about the championship you can visit the official website by clicking here.

The BFA will choose athletes on the basis of their performance in competition in the last 12 months. Athletes who wish to compete representing the UK should fill in this form and send it to the Chair by June 1st.

Any statement in the form will be verified, with particular regard to performance in competition that should have been officially recorded.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details, and get filling in the form.

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Camberwell Breath Hold – 31st May 2009

The BFA is excited that for the 2nd year running a Freediving event will be held at the atmospheric Camberwell Pool in London on sunday 31st May. The competition will be an AIDA National with guests organised by Liv Philip who has been working alongside Southwark Council and leisure centre staff.

Camberwell Breath Hold 2008
Camberwell Breath Hold 2008 – Photography by Laura Storm

This year there are over 20 athletes attending the event from as far afield as Germany and South Africa as well as freedivers from all over the UK. Liv wanted to build on the success of the first event last year. “We managed to create an event where athletes had a safe and relaxed environment where they could build on there performance in a competition.” After some fantastic performances, many athletes well exceeded their personal best and demand for a second competition was high.

This year’s event has doubled in size as Freedivers will use Camberwell to help them gain a ranking and try to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in Demark in August. Fusions’ Centre manager Simon Cooke said “Despite competition stakes being high amongst the top athletes, the UK has a great mixture of experience levels and abilities, which makes the event so unique.” Liv agrees: “The Great Camberwell Breath Hold has a fantastic, friendly atmosphere and allows new freedivers to compete alongside some of their heros, so everyone can learn from each other.”

This years event looks set to see many new freedivers in there first competition, and from the more experienced competitors, lookout for some big performances. After last years event, Liv and Dave King went on to set new national records. The UK’s Alan Barber is in training to try to break his massive dynamic with fins record of 186m. Infact the mens Dynamic events look set to be very exciting to watch, and William Trubridge is coming to show us all what Dynamic no fins is meant to look like! There are 9 female athletes attending, nearly matching the boys in numbers. There will be prizes of coaching sessions with experienced uk athletes for best 1st-3rd placed freedivers in their first pool competition to encourage them to develop and allow them to build training contacts within the UK.

The International judges coming to the Competition from Sweden and France are Peter Boivie and Francois Gaultier along with a fantastic team of Safety Divers, Doctor, and Assistants. Camberwell Breath Hold has kindly been supported by ‘Eat Natural Bars’, ‘Matrix Diving’, Fusion Leisure and the BFA.

Spectators are welcome, entrance is free with a £2 optional donation going to ‘Shark Trust’.

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New World Freediving Record

On the 3rd April 2009 at 11.10am local time on Long Island in the Bahamas, British freediver, Sara Campbell, who turned 37 on Monday 30th March, set a new World Record in womens freediving of 96m Constant Weight on just one breath.

The dive took her 3 minutes and 34 seconds, and although light-headed on the surface she successfully completed the surface protocol, securing a white card from the judges.

On completing the dive, Sara said:

“This was by far the toughest World Record I’ve earned. The emotional journey to 96m and back was just a formality, compared to the emotional journey of losing my mum last year, and struggling to dive in the most challenging conditions I’ve ever experienced here. I have completed only 17 training dives since I became World Champion in November 2007. I’m delighted to be back!”

Sara Campbell

For interviews Sara can be contacted on 001 242 337 1247. Please feel free to call or email her at any time (doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night, she’d love to talk!)

Photography and videos can be downloaded from Sara’s FTP server. To gain access to this server please contact e-media and we will send you the details.

Sara Campbell
NEW WORLD RECORD HOLDER -96, CWT
WORLD CHAMPION FREEDIVER
CONSTANT WEIGHT