British Freediving Association
Never dive alone
Free Immersion seems to be popular recently, barely a month has passed since Mike Board reclaimed this record, it has been broken by Dave King. Pulling himself down to 73m in France last weekend where he was diving to acquiring points for the up coming World Championships.
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
Seven British athletes attended the 3rd Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, between 6th and 20th June 2010, hosted in Kalamata Greece by Stavros Kastrinakis. Liv Philip, Georgina Miller, Maria-Teresa Solomons, Sue Pugh, Tim Money, David Tranfield and Mark Harris all competed.
In addition, Long-standing BFA committee member Ben Noble competed, representing Australia.
Photo provided by Laura Storm
A summary of their key achievements follows:
The British men’s Free Immersion freediving record has fallen to a new-comer. Mike Board, training with Sara Campbell at her Discover Your Depths training camp in March, set the new record of 68m with a dive time of two minutes 39 seconds on Monday 22nd March.
Mike, already a freediving instructor, runs his own school near Bali on the idyllic island of Gili Trawangan. He completed the dive on the second day of competition.
Mike said: I didn’t really have any goals when I came to train with Sara in Dahab, simply to improve my own diving and become a better instructor as a result. However, my progress was so fast once she taught me the mouthfill properly, the British FIM record suddenly came into view.
Sara said: Mike trained with me for three weeks and am thrilled by his progress he arrived a 43m diver and leaves with a really impressive National Record, and is more or less touching 70m. He absolutely deserves this result and I look forward to seeing his name at the top of results lists in the future.
At the same event, Sam Still, who became World Champion in static five years ago, made an impressive come-back to the competition circuit after four years out, with two strong dives, racking up a total of 124 points to put him in first place in the competition overall. Mike came a very close second with 121 points after equalisation problems forced him to turn early on his attempt at 70m Constant Weight on day one.
Most of the divers were competing with a hope of qualifying for the British Team going to the World Championships in Okinawa, Japan later this year. However, many were less successful, several competing for the first time ever and learning valuable lessons in terms of the rules for international competition and the surface protocol.
Sara added: Many divers forget that a successful competitive dive is 50 percent the dive, 50 percent technical details and rules, which must be studied and practiced ahead of a competition as much as the actual depth and breathhold training.
To contact Mike please click here
On Sunday 13th July 2008, at the SaltFree Double Dip competition in Chepstow, Mark Harris successfully retrieved his tag hanging 67m deep, setting a new UK record in the Men’s Free Immersion discipline. Not only is this 3m deeper than his previous record set in Egypt in December last year, but it was achieved in the dark and cold waters (similar to supercooled Guinness below -50m) of a quarry lake, during a competition in which many freedivers had to turn early due to the difficult conditions. Mark is a very dedicated member of the BFA Committee, runs a freediving club in Richmond and currently also holds the UK Variable Weight Freediving record.