A great day of diving today. All competitors had clean dives but two of them turned early due to equalization trouble. Jana Strain, Canada’s only Female competitor did a 54m CWT (Constant WeighT with fins) dive today. She had anounced 62m but turned early. If Jana reached 62m she would have made it to the final. We look forward to seeing her in the finals in the CNF (Constant weight No Fins) catigory.
Good Luck Jana!
William Winram does it again!
William has broken the Canadian CNF (Constant weight No Fins) record this afternoon (Nov 28, 2009). Will push the depth record down to 80m (267 feet). Amazing. Congratulation Will.
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Today the competition started with women’s CNF (Constant Weight No Fins). CNF means that the freediver swims down to a target depth without fins and return to the surface with whatever weight they took down with then. Usually about 4-6 lbs of lead to help overcome the buoyancy of their wetsuit at the surface.
There were 13 women who dove today to depths between 21 m – 55 meters.
The safety team started at 8am today, setting up the bottom plate and camera system, getting the oxygen and training lines ready. We had a great competition, with no accidents and all competitors returned safely to the beach. A few of the athletes attempted personal bests and there was a few black outs, but all athletes started breathing without needing assistance from the doctor.
At 2pm the competition ended, but the safety team stayed around and dove on the line. We used the weight to pull us down, so we don’t have to use our tired legs. We also pulled down the roped and Aaron and Martin both achieved new depth personal bests.
The day ended with safetying a few of the athletes who came out to train. We did this for a few hours and then back to the house for something to eat before the committee meeting where all the athletes, judges and organizers talk about the day. There were no major complaints or concerns today, so the meeting didn’t take to long. Now back to the house for food and recharge our batteries.
Another great day in Bahamas.
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We have posted more pictures on www.enjoyfreediving.com under the Safety Team 2009 sub menu.
Today was the last training day which is nice for the safety team. On the two official training days we spend a lot of time in the water. I had 58 dives yesterday and I know Phil had 78, and the rest of the team had equal amount of dives. Today we were in the water for 7 hours of safetying and one more for testing our safety procedures.
My hands and feet have blisters and we are all sun burnt and tired, but it has been two great days. All the competitors are very friendly and generally seem happy about us being there to make them safe.
We had several impressive dives today and a lot of the competitors make freediving look so easy.
We tested the counter ballast system (safety system) and did a simulated rescue from 25 meters to show the judges that we were able to handle this. Even after a long day it all went as planned.
No pictures posted today, because it is time to go home to eat and then it will be early bedtime tonight. The ladies start diving in the competition.
58 competitors represeting 17 countries attended the opening cermonies this evening. Two films crews, one from Japan and one from The Underwater Channel based in the US recorded the event. Many speaches were made and the overall feeling of the event was great. Our group has been treated so well by the Bahamians. This kind of hospitality is rare.
It looks like each one of us will spend at least 7 hours in the water tomorrow. This looks like it will be the last of the long safety days. During the competition days I think the amount of time we spend in the water will be closer to 4 hours. But there will still be all the other responsiblities including hauling safety equipment, daily reviews as a team a the Event commity meetings. Finally planning for the next day and blogging ;-).
We have posted more pictures on www.enjoyfreediving.com under the Safety Team 2009 sub menu.
We haven’t had internet access until tonight and don’t want to get to bed too late, but wanted to post some of the photos we have taken. Official training starts tomorrow and we will be in the water tomorrow from 8:30 to 15:30 then it will be off to the Opening Cerimonies. We better get some sleep.
This is a picture of Dean’s Blue Hole which show how nice our office is tomorrow:
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We have posted more pictures on www.enjoyfreediving.com under the Safety Team 2009 sub menu.
It all started in Vancouver when Matt had his two 2 lbs dive weights confiscated for being blunt and heavy. Lucky for him Aaron stepped up and hand delivered him two more this morning at Toronto Pearson Airport. Now the latest… I am now with Matt at Pearson Airport and the trend continues. When I went through security they wouldn’t let me take my oxygen regulator through. No tank just the regulator. They took me back to the check in counter with time running out and informed me that because I had already checked in two bags it would cost me $250 to check it…. “not enought time to reteive your bags to put them in there” I was informed. Lucky Matt had only checked one bag. Only problem he had gone on to the boarding lounge and I didn’t have his cell number. Thank you Aaron for your quick phone support. Thank you Matt for rushing back to save the team. So far the point total for rescues:
Aaron 2
Matt 1
Doug 0
Doug
I have been preparing the last few things tonight and started packing for my trip to Bahamas, which is now only a few days away.
I can feel that I am getting very exited about going and I have posted a few videos from Dean’s Blue Hole to show why. If this doesn’t explain why I am looking forward to the trip, I am not sure what will. Enjoy…
Guillaume Néry at Dean’s Blue Hole last week
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William Trubridge -world record in Unassisted Freediving
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The freedive safety team is only one of the safety measures at freediving competitions, and we will cover other safety aspects of competitions in future blogs.
This blog has been started to describe the joys of freediving to people who know little or nothing about this great sport. There will be several freedivers contributing to the blog to bring different view points to life.
I often get asked what the atraction to freediving is? For me it is the feeling I have when I dive, which is difficult to describe, but I hope you will get several answers to this question if you keep reading.
The next question I usually get is about the safety during freediving. We spend considerable time training safety procedures, instructing safety to new members of our local club FreediveToronto and discussing pool and open water safety. I hope that the coming entries will show you that freediving done correctly is a very safe sport.
We just spent more than 6 months training and preparing for being safety divers at the upcoming AIDA Freediving World Championship in Bahamas. Most of the writing for the next 3 weeks will be about the preparation for this event and the event itself.
