British freedive team perform at the World Championships in Kalamata, Greece

Carl Atkinson - Static at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, KalamataAdam Drzazga - Constant Weight at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, Kalamata
Georgina Miller - Dynamic at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, KalamataTim Money - Static at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, Kalamata

British divers Adam Drzazga, Tim Money and Carl Atkinson, with Adam Mustoe in reserve, formed the men’s team, finishing in 8th place behind winners Czech Republic, second place France and third place Russia.

Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan formed the women’s team, however Beci was unfortunately injured in training and didn’t compete, however she became a valuable team coach and assisted the organisers. Well experienced at top-level competition, Georgina gave three impressive performances including a new personal record in dynamic on the final day.

These World Championships are a team event, and everyone needs to work together to get a good result. The men’s team discussed a strategy and aimed at good, but not reckless, announcements in their depth dives (known as constant weight). Carl Atkinson, at his first World Championships, dived to 80m and Tim Money to 63m. Adam Drzazga reached 55m but unfortunately got a red card due to a technicality. Georgina Miller reached 51m.

This added some pressure on the men to “go big” in the next event, static apnea, which was Adam’s strongest and the team decided to be more aggressive with his performance to try and claw back some points. Carl achieved 4:57, Tim 5:47 and Georgina 6:31 which put her in 4th place for static amongst the ladies. Unfortunately, the men’s team strategy didn’t work, and resulted in a disqualification for Adam, so the team regrouped and ended in the final event dynamics with strong performances and white cards across both teams – 167m for Tim, 141m for Georgina, 130m for Carl and 123m for Adam.

Despite some setbacks, the British team enjoyed the calm, relaxed and inspirational atmosphere at the event. The race for gold in both sexes gave a nail-biting finish. The Japanese women’s team all pushed themselves to personal records to win gold, followed by the Czech Republic in second and Russia in third. Martin Valenta (CZE) swam 250m dynamic to ensure his men’s team won.

The British freediving team was kindly sponsored by Elios, DiveSangha, Saltfree divers and Orbiloc dive lights.

Individual AIDA Depth World Championships Limassol 2015 – Team Selection

AIDA 2015 World Depth Championships Cyrpus

UK team Selection

Applications for the UK Team – 2015 AIDA Depth World Championships in Limassol, Cyprus are now open. The competition will take place from 11th-20th September and will include Constant Weight without fins (CNF), Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight with fins (CWT).

We hope to send a full team of 4 men and 4 women per discipline and a Team Captain/Coach (who may or may not be part of the competing team).

Selection will be based on the highest proven performances in the three disciplines. (AIDA world championship team selection will be by AIDA ranked points dated from 18 months prior to 4 months before the competition. In case of candidates wishing to be considered who do not have AIDA ranked points a performance witnessed by an AIDA Judge or AIDA UK Instructor will stand at 80% of the resulting outcome.)

If you are interested in competing for the UK in Cyprus, please let us know by 11th May. Please send an email to competitions@britishfreediving.org listing your highest AIDA ranked performances since November 11th 2013 in Constant Weight without fins (CNF), Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight with fins (CWT) with details of where this ranking was obtained. If you do not have a ranked performance in any or all of these disciplines, please let us know your current best performances in training, and when you anticipate seeing those ratified officially. If you anticipate achieving a higher ranked performance in any of the disciplines in the next few months, please also let us know that in your email. If your geographical location makes it difficult for you to gain a ranked performance, please let us know and we will take this into consideration.

If you are interested in going to Cyprus as Team Captain/Coach, please let us know you are interested by letting us know your experience in this area, and why you think you would be good for the job. Applications for the Team Captain/Coach position will be considered by the team once they have been selected, and appointed within one month of final team selection.

If you make the decision to apply for the 2015 team, you obviously need to be available to be in Cyprus for the dates above. You also need to be sure you can afford your flights and expenses and the entry fee of 160 Euros per discipline and accommodation costs.

In the meantime the BFA will be doing all it can to gather both sponsorship and logistical support for the 2015 team.

All competing athletes must be over 18 years old, UK citizens and members of the BFA at the time of the competition.

Team GB at 9th AIDA Team World Championships

Team GB at 9th AIDA Team World Championships

Sponsored by Elios Sub, Prawno Apparel, Beet-it and Bounce Foods

Sunday 12 October 2014; — From the 16th to 27th September, the ninth AIDA Team World Championships took place in the Gulf of Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia, organised by Blue World Apnea School (www.blueworldchamp.it).

This year the UK was represented by a team of 3 men and 3 women: Georgina Miller, Liv Philip, Beci Ryan, Mike Board, Tim Money and Adam Drzazga. Jay Cluskey acted as a fantastically organized and supportive coach to all the athletes; attending the daily Event Committee meetings, keeping everyone up to date with competition news and ensuring people had what they needed throughout.

The team had fantastic sponsors in the form of Elios Sub (www.eliossub.com), Prawno Apparel (www.prawnoapparel.co.uk), Beet-it (www.beet-it.com), and Bounce Energy Balls (www.bouncefoods.com).

Team events takes place every other year (alternating with the individual events), and as one of the UK team put it this year, the team event is a very different kind of beast! Being a member of the team requires thought and work both before and during the event – tactics and intentions need to be discussed openly and honestly, for example are individuals aiming for personal bests (therefore increasing the risks of a yellow or red card), or are they open about working together, setting aside their own goals and potentially pulling back their performances in the hope of gaining a place on the podium?

Because of rough weather at sea, the competition started with Static (STA). Ordinarily Constant Weight (CWT) is the first event, followed by STA and ending with Dynamic (DYN). The change in order put everyone on their toes, the athletes because they thought they had plenty of time to practice STA in between the other disciplines and the Organiser because it was uncertain when the CWT would fit in, if at all.

On the evening before the announcements for STA, the team sat down together. Each person was given a chance to talk about their expectations and aspirations of the event; by the end it was agreed that athletes be given the freedom to go out and do own best performance under their own judgment. The idea was to then reconvene after the first performance day had finished and re-evaluate the situation accordingly.

It was a real mixed day for both UK teams as everyone did valiant performances, with some huge holds. Michael Board held his breath for 07:01, Tim Money for 05:55 and Liv Philip and Beci Ryan did competition personal bests (PB) of 06:05 and 04:58 respectively. Georgina Miller did a massive hold of 06:30, however the surface protocol (SP) stood in her way for a very minor error. Adam Drzazga did a brave hold of 07:15 but he too lost out to the SP. I think it’s important to say that both athletes had the full support of their teams for their fantastic efforts.

There is a silver lining in receiving a red card for the teams, in that it allows athletes the option of going all out for personal glory for the rest of the competition. The Brits were not the only team to receive red cards, five other countries also got them – the Italian team got two, both in women’s team for the touch rule (it is forbidden for an athlete to be touched by anyone upon surfacing), which is especially bitter as both athletes did clean performances and nothing wrong, it’s rather like the home goal rule in football.

Next up was CWT and the competition day saw near perfect conditions in the beautiful blue waters of Sardinia. The harbour, a short walk from the hotel, had a host of speedboats scheduled to ferry the athletes to and from the dive site where two competition lines were setup to ensure a slick and speedy day of diving. The competition started with the deepest divers and ended with the shallowest and second up to dive that morning was Michael Board who went down to 95m; Tim Money did a solid swim to 61m and Adam went to 55m and came back with a PB. Liv swam an impressive 70m, another PB for her in the competition, Georgina swam with ease to 50m and Beci to 40m. Everyone received white cards and there were smiles all round.

The third and final competition day was reserved for DYN. This is always an exciting discipline to end on and is often when the goal posts for podium places change, this World Championships was no different. Usually if a team receives a red card at any point in the competition they forfeit the chance of a medal, yet the Russian Men’s team proved an exception to the rule by taking home gold! The UK men’s team put in fantastic efforts with Michael pulling out a big 201m swim, Tim Money a PB of 176m and Adam Drzazga 175m, which is a long way to swim and a lot of turns in a 25m pool! Georgina Miller swam a comfortable and easy 126m, but both Liv and Beci were not so lucky and got red cards. Beci Ryan received her first red card in competition, she swam 168m, which is a big distance, but failed with her recovery breathing upon surfacing.

Overall everyone walked away deservedly pleased with their performances. New boundaries were discovered, lessons learned and training and freediving relationships cemented.

Competition season is not over yet for this year, in fact we are pleased to announce that there are two pool competitions happening in the UK next month: the Apnea Revolution Cup BFA Pool competition (www.apnearevolution.com), in London on Saturday 1st November and the 3rd BFA Madchester Classic (www.freedivingcompetition.com), in Stockport on Saturday 29th. Both competitions have benefited from the BFA’s newly introduced Pool Grant aimed at promoting freediving in the UK.

Liv Philip Wins 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Liv Philip Wins 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup
Picture Credit: Nicholas Kouvaras

Liv Philip (www.livphilip.com), swooped into Crete to win the 7th Mediterranean World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis!

Due to a tight work schedule, Liv only came out for one week and did just a couple of training dives before the competition proper. Despite these disadvantages and it being so early in the season, Liv, who only had one opportunity to perform each of the three disciplines, did three solid dives with the necessary white cards to win: CWT 55m, FIM 50m, CNF 40m.

Liv gave thanks to the organiser, judges, doctor and safety divers, and said it was very special to have sometime in the sea, because of financial limitations and commitments at home, I have had very little time in the water this year, especially compared to many of the other athletes, so I really felt very happy and humbled by being in the ocean again’. Liv is in her element in any type of water, but she has a particular affinity with the sea and with the depth season just beginning these are exciting times for the British Champion, boding well for the coming months.

With 5 competition days on offer (and the possibility of 2 weeks prior training), athletes could compete in the 3 depth disciplines (constant weight, constant weight no fins, free immersion). To win the competition trophy, athletes had to attempt at least one dive in each of the 3 disciplines, and the winners of the Med Cup are the freedivers – man and woman with the highest total score in the three depths disciplines.

A total of 25 freedivers from 13 Nations attended the event for shorter of longer stays and aiming to train, and compete for the title of the 7th Mediterranean World Cup. Other British athletes included Tim Money who came fourth out of the men for the depth competition, missing out on third place by a single point, also there were David Tranfield, Chris Crawshaw and Beci Ryan.

The Med Cup is now in it’s 7th year and going strong. Stavros Kastrinakis has created a wonderful environment for the athletes, with some great accommodation catering for individuals, couples, groups and even freediving families (www.kastromyrtos.gr), just a stones throw from the harbour where the boat departs each morning and a short walk from the tiny village with its delicious bakery, local shops and restaurants.

Introducing the 2014 UK Team, Proud to be sponsored by Elios Sub, Beet-it & Bounce Energy Balls

24.08.14; — The BFA are delighted to introduce the UK Team for the 2014 AIDA Team World Championship in Sardinia (www.blueworldchamp.it, which will run from 16th to 27th September, in the Gulf of Cagliari. The team comprises of 7 athletes: Liv Philip, Georgina Miller, Beci Ryan, Mike Board (Captain), Tim Money, Adam Drzazga and Jay Cluskey (reserve). All of our athletes are self-funded, and we are pleased to announce some fantastic sponsors for this year’s World Championships, helping them to perform to their full potential:
Elios Sub (www.eliossub.com) was established in 1977 and prides itself on its continuous innovation, evolution, improvement and refinement of comfort in its suits. Elios have sponsored the British Team for a number of years and many British Freedivers wear their suits across the UK because of the quality and feel of materials used. We are extremely proud that Elios have offered sponsorship to our UK Team for this year’s World Championships. elios
Prawno Apparel(www.prawnoapparel.co.uk) makes thoughtfully designed clothing for divers, freedivers and water sports enthusiasts. Underwater photographer Lia Barrett creates each design by pulling imagery directly from her underwater shots. Discreetly placed within each design are the location and depth at which the subject was photographed. The Freediver design used for the new BFA Team clothing features Caribbean reef sharks and Elisabeth Mattes, Austrian national freediver, both photographed off Roatan, Honduras, printed onto t-shirts and hoodies made from partially recycled fabrics. prawno
Beet-it (www.beet-it.com) uses 100% natural ingredients and the Beet-it Sport shot juice drink delivers a dose of 0.4g dietary nitrates per shot. The beetroot juice shots are now the preferred delivery method used by research teams to boost nitric oxide (NO) levels in the blood. Nutrition is extremely important to freedivers and we are excited to see how the Beet-it Sports range of drinks and bars, boost and prepare our bodies before an apnea session. Beet It
Bounce Energy Balls (www.bouncefoods.com) are an amazingly convenient and are a tasty way to nourish your body, satisfy your hunger and sustain your energy. Bounce Energy Balls are a special combination of high quality proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and essential fats. After a freediving session, recovery is of great importance and the Bounce Energy Balls have all the necessary ingredients to help our athletes do so. Bounce Balls
And now to meet the Team GB! Keep up to date with the team on our Facebook page by joining as a member:
Tim Money Tim Money

Tim thinks freediving makes the world go round, however his non-freediver friends refer to it as “hold your breath club”! He has been diving for a few years now and first represented the UK in 2006. Since then he has dived all over the place, and one of his favorites has to be Honaunau Bay, Hawaii. Imagine heading out for a dive, walking over the black lava rock beach, getting into the water with a turtle swimming in the coral reef, and then heading out to the deep past a few spinner dolphins to the dive line! He loves any events in freediving, and really enjoys the competitions as you spend a day, weekend or week in the pool, lake, sea or other country with loads of other people who are excited about the same stuff you are! Tim is very grateful to his employer, Saba Software (www.saba.com), for sponsoring him and enabling him to have the time to represent the UK in Sardinia.

Mike Board Mike Board (Team Captain)

Mike is a 7 times National Record holder for team Great Britain, an SSI Freediving Instructor Trainer, and a former Royal Marine Commando. Mike has a strong background in teaching, as a freediver he is an SSI Instructor Trainer and an Apnea Total Master Instructor, but he is also a TDI Technical Diving Instructor and a PADI OW scuba instructor. He has a strong physical approach to his own training, however through Freediving he has discovered that equally important is the balance achieved through activities such as yoga and gaining greater self-awareness and mental focus. Both approaches feature strongly in his teaching style. Mike has dived to 102m in the Constant Weight with Fins (CWF) discipline, has set seven British National records, and is the current British record holder for CWT at 102m and for Free Immersion (FIM) at 96m. He was also a member of the British Freediving Team for the 2011 World Freediving Depth Championships. Mike lives in Indonesia, on the island of Gili Trawangan, where he teaches freediving courses and training (www.freedivegili.com).

Adam Drzazga Adam Drzazga

Adam is an Aida Instructor, Judge and Chairman of the British Freediving Association. He has represented the UK at the World Championships in Belgrade last year and has participated at other international freediving events. He greatly enjoys the recreational side of freediving, diving on shallow reefs and the simple pleasure of being in the water. Adam started freediving as a spearo in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, where he discovered the beauty of the underwater world. After running a spearfishing school for a few years in the UK, he then decided to enter into and concentrate on the pure discipline of Freediving. Freediving changed his life, giving him the right input to discover and enjoy life in a whole new way, through the many amazing techniques and experiences. Adam runs a club called Blue Water Freediving (www.bluewater-freediving.co.uk).

Jay Cluskey Jay Cluskey (Reserve)

Jay has been freediving for many years and is currently training to be an instructor. He runs a club session in the City of Liverpool for Apneists UK (www.freedivingcompetition.com). Jay has always been drawn to the sea and freediving has simply allowed him to grasp what he loves about it. He enjoys the competitive side of Freediving and likes to see people come out of their ‘freediving shells’ and pull out big performances. He also relishes the camaraderie and support of his teammates and fellow competitors alike, there is in his opinion, no sport like it. This will be the second time Jay has represented the UK. He is a ‘pool rat’, ‘depth junkie’ and ‘spearo’ all in one. Jay works on the British Freediving Association committee, dedicating his time to supporting and promoting freediving in the UK.

Georgina Miller Georgina Miller

George has always been interested in the underwater world. She learned to scuba dive in 1998, and is a PADI MSDT instructor since 2005. She has been freediving since 2007 and is an SSI freediving instructor. George is a 5 times British National record holder, currently holding the women’s record of 06:27 in static apnea and competes for the UK; she has been part of the UK team since 2007. She has trained all over the world, including the famous Deans blue hole. George has a strong background in yoga and swimming and believes that mental focus and self-awareness is a crucial part of freediving, but most importantly it has to be fun. Above all freediving is a passion for her and a fantastic community to be a part of. She has recently set up a club called Aquacity Freediving (www.aquacityfreediving.com) along with her partner, photographer Daan Verhoeven. George has also been a committee member of the British Freediving Association as Clubs Officer since 2011, to help to share her love of the sport.

Liv Philip Liv Philip

Liv has represented Great Britain at 7 World Championships. In 2013 she won a bronze medal at the AIDA Individual depth World Championships in her favourite discipline Constant No Fins (CNF). In 2010 she was the World Absolute Freediving Champion with the highest combined international ranking and has been the UK Champion 7 times. This year she was awarded for outstanding contributions to British Freediving. Liv runs the UK’s longest running freediving club London Freediving (www.londonfreediving.org), as well as her own businesses in landscaping and in Freediving Teaching and Coaching (www.livphilip.com). She has body doubled for Halle Berry and taught numerous stars including TV personalities Ant & Dec. As Training and Safety Officer for the British Freediving Association, Liv helps to promote safer freediving in the UK. Based in London, she has collaborated on many arts projects and has recently completed her first soon to be released short film ‘A Place Below’. Liv says ‘over the years freediving has given me a great deal of pleasure and allowed me to meet some wonderful people. I look forward to this 2014 Great Britain Women’s Team pulling together to produce some really solid competitive performances at the Team World Championship in Sardinia in September’.

Beci Ryan Beci Ryan

Beci got into freediving after scuba diving in Thailand in 2012 and was blown away. She came back to the UK wanting to continue her underwater adventures but without all the heavy equipment and found a club in Richmond called London Freediving (www.londonfreediving.org) where she was introduced to an exciting yet tranquil, silent, underwater world, falling in love instantly. That same year she joined the UK Team to compete at the World Championships in Nice, France, her very first competition. Because of the support and encouragement of her fellow teammates and club, she has continued competing and playing under the water. This year Beci came third in the women at the pool National Championships, more commonly and affectionately referred to as the Great Northern (www.freedivingcompetition.com).

Would you like to sponsor the UK Team? If so please visit our website for more information, or contact our Sponsorship Officer Jay Cluskey: sponsorship@britishfreediving.org

New Static National Record for Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Georgina Miller beat her own static national record
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Saturday 28 June 2014; — On the 20th June 2014, Georgina Miller beat her own static national record, holding her breath for an incredible 6 minutes and 27 seconds at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis. The previous record she set was in 2012 of 06:20.

On the morning of the static competition, George, who has been suffering from bouts of competition nerves of late, dealt with them beautifully by she says ‘concentrating on one step at a time, rather than looking at it as a target’. A lot of thought, training and energy goes into a long static performance and George is very positive when talking about the discipline which she genuinely enjoys tackling. Georgina freely offers advice and openly shares her experiences with fellow athletes, genuinely wanting to help them improve and see them succeed. She credits her partner and coach, Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com), with her success: ‘I give enormous thanks to Daan for all of his help, love, advice, incredible pictures and fantastic coaching.’ George also reflects that a calm environment is essential to performing at your best and at such a high level: ‘Stavros Kastrinakis has organized an amazing 7th Med World Cup series, making the athletes feel relaxed and supported. Good performances and records are only possible with the help of friends, coaches, safety and organization. So thanks to my friends at London Freediving too for your support!’ As well as gaining a new national record, Georgina also came 2nd out of the women for the main depth event.

For higher resolution versions of the images attached, or for other official images of Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, please contact Daan Verhoeven at: info@daanverhoeven.com

The official video of Georgina Miller’s static national record is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqJQpkkKbU

Team World Championships 2014

UK Team Selection

Applications for the UK Team – 2014 AIDA Team World Championships in Sardinia, Italy are now open. The competition will take place from 16th September until the 26th and will include Dynamic apnea (with fins), Static Apnea and Constant weight (with fins).

We hope to send a full team of 3 men and 3 women per discipline, plus up to 2 additional athletes of each gender as substitutes, and a Team Captain/Coach (who may or may not be part of the competing team).

Selection will be based on the highest proven performances in the three disciplines. (AIDA world championship team selection will be by AIDA ranked points dated from 18 months prior to 3 months before the competition entry deadline. In case of candidates wishing to be considered who do not have AIDA ranked points a performance witnessed by an AIDA Judge or AIDA UK Instructor will stand at 80% of the resulting outcome.)

If you are interested in competing for the UK in Sardinia, please let us know by the 15th April 2014. Please send an email to competitions@britishfreediving.org listing your highest AIDA ranked performances since the 15th October 2012 in Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea (with fins) and constant weight (with fins) with details of where this ranking was obtained. If you do not have a ranked performance in any or all of these disciplines, please let us know your current best performances in training, and when you anticipate seeing those ratified officially. If you anticipate achieving a higher ranked performance in any of the disciplines in the next few months, please also let us know that in your email. If your geographical location makes it difficult for you to gain a ranked performance, please let us know and we will take this into consideration.

If you are interested in going to Sardinia as Team Captain/Coach, please let us know you are interested by letting us know your experience in this area, and why you think you would be good for the job. Applications for the Team Captain/Coach position will be considered by the team once they have been selected, and appointed within one month of final team selection.

If you make the decision to apply for the 2014 team, you obviously need to be available to be in Sardinia for the dates above. You also need to be sure you can afford your flights and all expenses and the entry fee of 250 Euros (which excludes hotel costs).

In the meantime the BFA will be doing all it can to gather both sponsorship and logistical support for the 2014 team.

All competing athletes must be over 18 years old, UK citizens and members of the BFA at the time of the competition.

British Team Fly the Flag at the Freediving Depth World Championships in Greece & Liv Philip brings home a Medal!

Sunday 29th September 2013; — Between the 15th and 22nd September the AIDA Individual Depth World Championship took place in the deep waters of the bay of Kalamata, Greece. Around 150 athletes from more than 30 nations took part to challenge themselves and compete for the deepest dive in Constant No Fins (CNF), Constant Weight (CWT), and Free Immersion (FIM). Each discipline stood alone and encouraged specialists in each area to excel.

Great Britain was represented by a team of 10 divers, many of whom have sprung from the busy freediving clubs around the UK. The first competition day was CNF, and athletes awoke early to find a cloudy, chilly day in contrast to the sunshine of previous days. Competition was scheduled to run from deep to shallow for safety reasons allowing the deeper dives to commence early, when conditions are generally better. After a fast transfer boat five minutes from shore, athletes arrived at their allotted time to prepare for their dive in a fantastic set-up provided by Stavros Kastrinakis the Organiser. An incredible crew of safety divers watched over the divers on the warm-up lines, towed them to floating dry areas to relax, and onto one of three competition lines which were manned by teams of AIDA International judges.

The surface water temperature had dropped by two degrees from previous days and was dark and shadowy because the sun was hidden by thick cloud. This did not deter the Brits however as although many of the team had spent some months training in Dahab, a large number had travelled direct from the UK having had limited training in the cold quarries back home. Two such athletes represented Team GB in the challenging CNF event. John Moorcroft completing a valiant 61m dive to be disappointed by a DQ for an unfortunate pull on the line which the rules do not allow in this event. Liv Philip, a London based athlete decided to go for a tactical depth with a dive to 50m: ‘I knew this would be a challenging but safe dive and I had to factor in such things as conditions, and the water had been getting colder by the day’ Liv explained. This paid off as Liv surfaced from a strong dive to get a white card from Californian judge Grant Graves. She beat competitors from Russia and Japan to bring home her first bronze medal from a World Championship. Liv said ‘I’m really happy, getting the medal gives a nod of recognition for all the hard work and dedication of all the UK self funded freedivers, plus I really like bling!’. Natalia Molchanova did it again setting a new World record and winning gold with a dive of 69m, and Morgan Bourchis of France did a beautiful 87m dive to take gold in the men’s competition.

After two days allowing athletes to rest and train, the tension of CWT day built as the announced performances were published. Two men, Dave Mullins (NZ) and Alexey Molchanov (RUS) announced World records of 128m adding to the excitement. The sun came out and the conditions started off calm, but slowly conditions got bumpy, testing the athletes who could best deal with the nature of this ocean competition. There were good dives from London freedivers Gary McGrath 67m, Liv Philip 62m, and Georgina Miller 47m and from John Moorcroft who put a fin on to dive 67m for the northern contingent. The Biritsh divers held their own in rough seas and showed great strength of character. The British athletes were keen to point out that their much liked team mate Mike Board, who looked on-form to be the first British man to 100m in CWT ‘is really strong and we know he will be back to do it next time” after he suffered an ear injury during the pre-comp. The CWT was won by Alexey who set a new World record, and his mum the Russian grandmother, proved unbeatable yet again in the women’s category!

By the final day, many of the athletes nerves had subsided, and the ocean rewarded them by giving them perfect conditions to take part in the final discipline of Free Immersion. Gary McGrath had a beautiful dive to 70m bringing him a white card, an excellent 10th place and a wonderful days diving to remember. John Moorcroft dived to 61m showing what a strong all round athlete he is by completing all three disciplines. Newcomers Richard Bevan and Louisa Collyns both dived to 56m and Chris Laycock to 36m with excellent results in their first World Championship. Liv Philip completed her run of white cards with a PB of 66m bringing her into 7th place in this discipline. The gold medals were taken by William Trubridge and Natalia Molchanova.

All that was left to do was to thank the organisers, judges and safety team, collect the medals and PARTY down on the beach until the small hours under the shadow of the Kalamata mountains and next to the big blue sea that had kept all the divers safe throughout their dives!

The BFA would like to congratulate all the Freedivers who took part and entering into the spirit of this fantastic bi-annual event. We hope they all enjoyed the experience and have a greater understanding of the sea as a result. We would also like to thank Elios wetsuits on behalf of the British Freediving Team for their support (http://www.eliossub.com/index.php/en/).

Full results can be found on the British Freediving Association Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfreediving/).

AIDA 2013 Individual Depth World Championships, Count Down to the Start of the Competition

Sunday 8 September 2013; The Individual World Championships are less than a week away, so the countdown is on! The World Championships (www.aidaworldchampionships.com) are being organised by Stavros Katrinakis of Freediving Club Greece and are taking place in Kalamata, Greece. The first official competition day is on Monday 16th September starting with Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) followed by Constant Weight (CWT) on Thursday 19th and finishing off with Free Immersion (FIM) on Saturday 21st. Many of the UK team members have already arrived and are taking advantage of the pre-competition training, with some taking part in mini competitions on Monday 9th, Wednesday 11th and Friday 13th September.

The BFA are pleased to announce the UK team members are: Richard Bevan, Mike Board, Louisa Collins, Alison Crawford, Dave Kent, Chris Laycock, Georgina Miller, Gary McGrath, John Moorcroft, Anna Paraiyar, Liv Philip and David Tranfield (Coach).

We wish each and everyone one of our athletes enjoyable and successful dives!

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