Tag: Pool

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Rebecca Coales takes Dynamic National Record to 179m

Rebecca Coales Dynamic National record
Picture Credit: Nick Robertson-Brown

10th July 2014; — On the 6th July, 2014 Rebecca Coales took the previous female dynamic with fins (DYN) record to 179m at the Life Leisure, Grand Central 50 metre Pool in Stockport (www.lifeleisure.net/enterprise/grandcentralpools). For those new to freediving, DYN is swimming as far as you can horizontally in a swimming pool with a mono fin or bi-fins on one breath of air. Rebecca already holds the current UK dynamic without fins record (DNF).

The DYN record had previously been held by Ruth Griffin, incredibly since 2009. Rebecca, with a very comfortable dive beat the 175m on the board, surfacing with great control and suggesting she is well within her limits. The whole dive took 2 minutes 36 Seconds.

Previous to the 2009 record, another female freediver, who also trained at Grand Central pools, had held it before Ruth: Mandy ‘ the mermaid ‘ Buckley. Many freediving champions and record holders have been coached there and it is a centre of excellence with the swimmers from Stockport Metro training there.

Rebecca is a founder member of the Bristol Freedivers group (www.bristolfreedive.org.uk), where she trains with friends. She is a relative newcomer to the competition circuit, only starting to explore her potential in the last 18 months, starting with a no-fins clinic, and mono fin clinic with Steve Millard of the Apneists UK group (www.learn2freedive.com), based in the North of the UK. Rebecca runs the Om Diver Yoga website (www.omdiver.co.uk) and runs Yoga courses which seem to be perfect cross training for freedivers. She trains with Bristol Freedivers regularly and is sponsored by Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com), and wears the Aqua Skins suit.

The team who came and supported Rebecca and her coach Steve Millard at the event were:

International Judges: David Tranfield and Gary Lowe

Safety Divers: Matthias Ruttimann and Rebecca Warren

Surface video: Paul Butterworth

Videographer / Photographer: Martin Toole (http://mtoole.co.uk)

Photographers: Frogfish Photography (http://frogfishphotography.com/underwater.html)

Photographer: Dean Martin, Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com)

Medic: Rebecca McCabe

Rebecca would like to thank the management and staff of Life Leisure, Grand Central Pool for their continued support and hosting of this event.

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Dynamic no fins national record of 167m set by John Moorcroft at Manchester Classic Competition


Picture Credit: Sean Peters, Frogfish Photography

Wednesday, 4 June 2014; — John Moorcroft has broken the dynamic no fins (DNF) national record at the 2nd Manchester Classic competition, organised by Steve Millard of Apneists UK (www.freedivingcompetition.com), with a marathon swim of 167m. Chris Crawshaw previously held the record for his 163m swim at the Great Northern competition back in March 2012.

DNF has long been one of Johns strongest freediving disciplines and the only one that he trains regularly in the pool. When Moorcroft started training in 1999 at a 25m pool, there were no long fins were permitted. The world record was held by Frenchman Andy Le Sauce and was 125m, so when John swam 100m he realized he might have a talent for the discipline: “Back then nobody used neck weights or suits, it was purely a speedos and goggles job!”

Before long the world records for DNF got bigger and bigger and John stopped training the discipline as much, but he returned to it in 2009 and came close to a national record with a swim of 140m, but unfortunately blacked out upon surfacing. In 2012 he came back fighting with a 153m swim this time, taking Chris Crawshaws previous record of 150m, which at that stage was just days old, but it was a short lived victory as John explains: “My record lasted even less time, a matter of about an hour as Chris came back with a massive 163m.”

John credits Crawshaws record standing for the past two years despite his attempts on it, the most recent of which at the Great Northern in Liverpool earlier this year, failing due to a technical error in the surface protocol, a silly mistake he says, not caused by hypoxia. Looking back on his training in the run up to this years Great Nothern competition, John openly reflects “I put in a lot of training, something like 70 sessions over 3 months consisting of a combination of pool, hill running, depth and gym. It certainly helped me gain the fitness to be confident in regularly going beyond 150m but with hindsight I think I was over training; recently I’ve not been able to train so much due to work and the distances have if anything been a bit easier. Something to bear in mind.”

John attributes his success to his buddies and sponsors: “None of my freediving achievements would be possible without my regular training buddies in Apneists UK and of course Steve Millard who has coached me and provided great advice and training opportunities not just for me but for everyone up here in the northwest. I would also like to thank Alun George who has always been there to inspire and motivate me. And I am grateful to my two sponsors, Polosub and Carbonio GFT whose products I rely upon with my [other] training.”

John is now setting his sights on the open water and improving his depths in both constant weight disciplines (with fins CWT, and without CNF).

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Three National Records Made at 5th Great Northern International Pool Competition, Liverpool

Rebecca Coales breaks own UK National Record for a third time

 
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

Tuesday 2 April 2014; — The 2014 Great Northern International Pool competition, incorporating the UK BFA National Pool Championships, took place on the weekend of 22 and 23 March, at Lifestyle Fitness Aquatic Centre in Liverpool (www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles). Three national records were broken and there were many impressive performances by experienced and new athletes alike.

This was the competition’s fifth year and organiser Steve Millard of Apneists UK (www.freedivers.co.uk), delivered yet another fantastic competition, catering for 51 athletes representing 15 countries: ‘We had an amazing helper list, with safety divers based all over the UK coming from different clubs to support what is the most inclusive competition in the calendar. The media set was made up of many of the organiser’s favourite photographers and videographers, all highly skilled and each having their own take on shooting good footage.’ The competition was made up of a combined point score over three disciplines: dynamic no fins (DNF) on day one, static (STA), and dynamic with fins (DYN) on day two.

Antonio Del Duca travelled all the way from Venezuela to compete and with three solid performances he secured himself first place out of the men (142m DNF, 209m DYN, 06:11 STA). Second place went to Roman Walczyk of Poland (155m DNF, 205m DYN, 05:24 STA), and third to British Tim Money (117m DNF, 161m DYN, 05:31 STA). And as this was an International and National competition, the UK podium was made up of Tim Money placed first, Gary Lowe second (126m DNF, 167m DYN, 04:30 STA), and Gary McGrath in third place (100m DNF, 150m DYN, 05:20 STA). There were other notable male accomplishments with UK athletes Chris Crawshaw swimming 146m DNF, Nick Uzel 124m DNF, Adam Drzazga completing a hold of just under 7 minutes and Hungary’s Mike Benke and Romania’s Constantin Timosca both swimming themselves into national record territory with a 142m DNF and 146m DYN respectively.

The ladies gave a good show and were no less exciting with three British athletes taking the place on the podium for the International and UK part of the competition. Rebecca Coales delivered three well-executed dives, breaking her own national record for a third time no less, in the discipline of DNF with a mighty swim of 145m! Coales also swam 154m DYN and held her breath for 05:27 for STA. Georgina Miller took second place (105m DNF, 139m DYN, 06:15), and Beci Ryan came in third (129m DNF, 151m DYN, 04:35 STA).

As with previous years, there were a number of newbies taking part with some excellent accomplishments. The award for Best Female Newbie was given to British Claire Ellwood and Best Male Newbie to Jev Maligins from Latvia who both received three well-earned white cards for promising performances.

Steve had a wonderful group of volunteers on hand to help ensure the smooth running of the event. The safety crew as usual were spot on and the judges Pim Vermeulen, David Tranfield, Christina Suck and Kate Jardine were professional, encouraging and welcoming to all. The sponsors support and generosity in supplying fabulous prizes, helped make the competition even more special, they were: the British Freediving Association, Fins 4 U (www.fins4u.com), Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com/uk), GLowe Fluid Goggles (gazza_lowe@hotmail.com), Lifestyles Fitness (www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles), Orca (www.orca.com/gb-en), Apneists UK (www.freedivers.co.uk) and Blue Water Diving School (www.bluewater-freediving.co.uk).

Thank you Steve Millard for putting everything together and making it all possible!

Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZs5eO6Vlp8

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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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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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Winners of UK National Freediving Championship 2012

The BFA would like to congratulate Tim Money and Liv Philip who are the winners of the UK National Freediving Championship 2012!

Each year, the BFA grants a National Championship Award for men and women, to the athlete who has scored highest in STA (static apnea), DYN (dynamic apnea with fins), and CWT (constant weight).


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

Liv and Tim both train at London Freediving in Richmond and Crystal Palace Clubs, where they are extremely popular and respected athletes. Tim and Liv are always approachable to the older and newer members of the clubs, offering training advice when asked and willingly sharing their valuable experiences as freedivers.

Tim, a seasoned, strong athlete continues to push the boundaries of his abilities, gaining an easy personal best in the discipline of constant weight at the AIDA Freediving World Championships in Nice, having taken a short break from the sport which clearly did him no harm!

Liv has a wealth of experience as a freediving competitor and performed at various competitions throughout 2012, including the Red Sea AIDA World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh in September. This is the sixth year in a row that Liv has won the UK National Freediving Championship (2007-2012)! Liv is keen to point out that UK based Georgina Miller and Egypt based Anna Parayair were strong contenders for the top spot this year.

Tim Money
STA: 6:03
DYN: 169m
CWT: 60m

Liv Philip
STA: 5:58
DYN: 142m
CWT: 62m

We are pleased to announce that Tim and Liv plan to compete again next year and have included the UK Pool Championships run by Steve Millard and also the Mediterranean World Cup in Greece run by Stavros Kastrinakis in their plans. We wish them huge success in 2013 and we will be sure to keep you posted on their progress.

Next year, for the first time ever, athletes will be able to win the Championship with the scores accumulated from the best they have done in each of the six competitive disciplines (STA, DYN, DNF, CWT, CNF, FIM). This better reflects the changes in the sport of competitive freediving in the last few years, and for the first time acknowledges the no fins athletes’ performances. The scores are counted between the dates November 1st to October 31st and the awards are announced by the BFA at the annual AGM in November.

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British Indoor Freediving records sent crashing for second time in under two weeks

Friday 16th March 2012: — Three British freediving athletes set incredible new records at the UK Indoor Nationals last weekend on 10th and 11th March; Georgina Miller pushed her own static record even further for the third time with 6 minutes 20; John Moorcroft took Chris Crawshaw’s brand new record with a Dynamic No Fins (DNF) swim of 153m; and to top off the excitement Chris reclaimed his record within the hour with an incredible DNF swim of 163m.

Georgina Miller, or George as she is known, has been training and competing for a few years now, but really found her confidence in 2009 when she made her first mark on the British records, with a static performance of 5 minutes 46 seconds. Since then she has gone from strength to strength, her second record coming just three months later when she became the first woman to break the magical six minute mark with a new records of 6:04. She knocked that record with 6:11 and now tops that with 6:20! George has represented the UK at all recent World Championships and also serves on the British Freediving Association.

She said: I had a great weekend getting a national record in the static of 6:20 and a first overall for the ladies. I would like to thank Daan Verhoeven who was a fantastic coach and has put lots of work into helping me, particularly in static. Thanks also to Orca for the wonderful sponsorship of the comp with a Breathe suit

John Moorcroft is one of British freedivin’s most consistent and persistent athletes and not only did he make a stunning performance with his second British record of 153m DNF (first in 2000 STA 5:05) at this year’s Indoor Nationals, he was also honoured with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the BFA for a decade of service to the freediving community. John’s commitment to competitive freediving goes back to 2000 when he competed in the 3rd ever AIDA World Championships in Ibiza. This weekend he not only took second place in DNF but also came third overall in the men’s competition. He is now in training for the UK Depth Nationals in Chepstow in May where he hopes to be in the mid-50s in Constant No Fins (CNF) and mid-60s in Constant Weight (CWT).

John said: Basically I’m really pleased with my record even if it only lasted an hour. My training is going well, and thanks go to Steve Millard for his coaching. I started snorkeling at the age of nine, and now at 44 my passion for breathhold diving depth and spearfishing mainly is stronger than ever. Thanks to PoloSub (www.polosub.com) for sponsoring me a new suit to keep me warm for my depth training in cold UK quarries over the next few months!

Chris Crawshaw is still cutting his teeth in freediving compared to John, but he is doing it in style. With two National Records in just two weeks, the first one was a beautiful 150m DNF hosted by www.totalfitness.co.uk and the second was a massive 163m in the main competition on the Saturday. This took the DNF record from 144m to a huge 163m, Chris has suddenly become a very compelling prospect for the future of British and possibly World freediving. He already has his first Worlds experience under his belt from the 2011 Indoor Championships in Lignano, Italy and is now setting his sights on even greater things. While he has a long way to go to the current DNF World record of 218m, with progression like this, who knows where he might end up!

Chris said: Thanks go first and foremost to Steve ‘raising the dead’ Millard because, as anyone who watches the video can see, without his coaching on the side it would probably have been a red card. That’s what it took, though, to put distance on John for whom I have so much respect as a diver and as a friend. I’m currently looking at a move out to New Zealand to train and to continue working as a doctor but the long term plan is to leave my job for a year and focus on the depth disciplines, providing I can find support and sponsors. It’s been such an incredible couple of weeks.

Thanks go to Steve Millard of Apneists UK, www.freedivers.co.uk for organising the event and coaching many of the athletes.

Prizes donated by Orca, Polosub, No Tanx and Emma Farrell

Thanks to www.totalfitness.co.uk for hosting the event.

We would like to thank the sponsors of this competition;

www.orca.com
www.polosub.com
liverpool.gov.uk/leisure-parks-and-events/leisure-facilities/
www.britishfreediving.org
www.sppv.co.uk
www.notanx.com
www.emma-freediver.co.uk

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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.