Click here to view the embedded video.

Organizing this year’s event is local apnea club Immersion Profonde, helped by the Swiss Subaquatic Sports Federation (FSS) and Lausanne City Sport Services. The competition is open to both Swiss and foreign freedivers who have the possibility of validating their performances just before selection for the world championships in Okinawa. Athletes will also get the chance to improve on their AIDA ranking whilst making a stopover in Geneva before both the worlds and Bizzy Blue Hole.

The competition is open to the public and begins at 9am. For more details and registration contact immersion.profonde@bluewin.ch or visit www.immersion-profonde.ch.

One of the interesting stuff on the site is the price per athlete to compete, which is set at 690 USD, or 650 if you’re an early-bird. This money if for the whole competition, including trainings, competitions, bus transfers. The price doesn’t include the hotel costs, which I initially thought when seeing this price. For 10 days, in a 2 bedroom room including 2 food vouchers per day, you pay and additional 600 USD. So total will be around 1250 USD, without your flight. I guess some team really will need sponsors this year!

Below the official schedule:

• 30 (June) Opening Party and registration
• 01 (July) Official Training CWT and registration
• 02 Official Training CWT
• 03 CWT day one
• 04 CWT day two
• 05 CWT reserve day
• 06 Official training in pool
• 07 STA day one
• 08 STA day two
• 09 Official training in pool
• 10 DYN -Award Ceremony and Closing party

There is some real developments going on and hopefully the first actions will soon be visible and noticeable to all from the outside as well. Bravo to the new board and the energy they put in. Now, make it real!

• AIDA Executive Meeting – March 1
• AIDA Executive Meeting – February 7

Stuff to do:

• New attractions along the underwater parcours!
• Learn to freedive while towing a buoy with Werner Moritzen
• Early Morning Dive with Dennis Niermeier
• Freediving for kids with Roy Bungert
• Night Freediving Friday with Curt Teichgräber
• Yoga with Mansur Helwany
• Specialized breathing techniques with Babette Hilke
• Massage and deep diving preparation with Sonja Zinke
• “Atemlos“ the 1st Live Photography Competition of the TLN
• Static apnea in onsite pool & dynamic apnea in the lake
• Apnea *,**,*** theoretical instruction

More information on their website.

US National Freediving Championship set for April 22 through 25, 2010 at Freedive Paradise event.

Feb 25, 2010 – The United States Apnea Association (USAA) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the U.S. National Freediving Championships from April 22 through April 25, 2010 in Kona, Hawaii. This competition will consist of six exciting events; Dynamic Apnea, Dynamic Apnea without Fins, Static Apnea, and Constant Weight, Free Immersion and Constant Weight without Fins, The Constant Weight, Free immersion and Constant Weight without Fins event will be held off the coast in the scenic Honaunau Bay, Hawaii.

Event Details are as follows:

• Event Organizers: Freedive Paradise: freediveparadise.com
  • Annabel Edwards: divebel2@yahoo.com 808 756-1372 (h) 808 328-2307
  • Jessica Wilson: nursjessy@aol.com  530 515-7977
  • Hiko Ito: 808 333-1811
• CW, FI, or CNF April 22 & 24, Honaunau Bay, meeting time: 8:30 AM
• Static: April 23, Jack’s Diving Locker, meeting time: 8:30 AM
• Dynamic with and without fins: April 25, Kona Aquatic Center, meeting time: 8:30 AM

USAA will be fielding both Men’s and Women’s Freediving Teams at the AIDA Team Freediving World Championships that will take place at the end of June in Okinawa, Japan.  Competitors who want to try out for these teams are strongly encouraged to participate in the U.S. National Freediving Championship. Additional information on team selection criteria will be released shortly.

The U.S. National Freediving Competition has no minimum performance requirements and is open to anyone wishing to compete. Competitions are an excellent way to learn more about freediving, show support for USAA and fellow freedivers, and to witness performances by some of the country’s top freedivers. USAA is also seeking volunteers to assist in the logistics and safety operations of this competition. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the organizers.

Lung volume is still a secret, but with this gene pool, it will for sure become a very special freediver.

Congratulations from Shark Freediving!

www.aidainternational.org – so the ‘-’ has disappeared.

Have a look around! What do you think about it?

There were some interesting performances during this competition. The big one came from Goran Colak who did a big static of 8:35 minutes.

Winner with the men was Domagoj Jakovac with 129,9 points. He did a6:02 min static and a 100 meter without fins. With the women Magda Milas from Croatia was the strongest with 103,8 points. She did a 4:20 min static and a 100 meter without fins.

7 disqualifications, 7 penalties and 2 blackouts in this competition, which is quite a lot in my opinion. 60 performances and 16 problems make it a percentage of 26%.

Congrats to the winners! Here is the link to the complete result lists.

Clear winner with the women was Elisabeth Kristoffersen from Norway. She did a 6:14 breath-hold and a 136 meters underwater swim with fins. Total of 130,8 points. 2nd place was for Barbara Jeschke from Germany with 119,5 points. She did a 4:35 and a 129 meter performance.

Robert Cetler from Poland was the winner wiith the men. With a strong 7:28 min static and a 189 meter dynamic with fins, he got 184,1 points. Rune Hallum became a close 2nd with 182,1 points. With a 6:53 min static and a 199 meter dynamic with fins, he was close, but not close enough. With 56 performances in the competition there were 3  blackouts and 6 penalties.