Safety Team 2009 – Enjoy Freediving

Very Deep Day Ahead

soren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:43:07 +0000

7 competitors are going to be diving to between 100 and 105 meters tomorrow. This is outstanding because it was in 2004 when Carlos Coste set the world record at 102m breaking through the 100 m mark. Good Luck Everyone!

Glowing Rope

soren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:08:12 +0000

Something new at this competition is the use of a glow in the dark rope for the competition line. Because the blue hole has only has a 20m opening at the surface light fades quickly beyond 50m. So the glowing rope gives the athelete a point of reference. Even though the rope glows for many hours after being recharged we still pull the line up every 1.5 hours to recharge it on the platform.

glorope

Counter Ballest System

soren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:47:25 +0000

We mentioned earlier that we would talk about other safety systems being used here at the world championship. To explain the counter ballest system we first need to explain that in Freedive depth events an athelete swims down to a preanounced depth. At that depth is what we call a bottom plate. Attached to that bottom plate are tags that the freediver is to retrieve. Under the bottom plate is a 20Kg weight, a light and a bottom camera to record the performance. The rope that attaches to the bottom plate is premeasured while wet and under stress. Markers are placed on the rope so that the rope can easily be moved up and down to the announced depth. In this case the rope runs through two blocks at the surface and off the back of the platform. The rope that is off the oposite side of the platform has a 40Kg weight so that if the rope is released from the clam cleats on the platform the heavy 40Kg weight will sink and will pull the bottom plate to the surface. Because the athelete is attached to the competition line with a 1m lanyard the diver will also be pulled to the surface. The setup here is really nice because a lot of rope is exposed to the surface and during our trial activation 4 people helped the rope run in the direction of the counter ballest significantly increasing it’s speed. Briging a diver to the surface at about 1.5 m/s.

Pictures by Igor Liberti

soren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:48:44 +0000

Igor Liberti is the official photographer of the 2009 AIDA World Campioships. He has generously sent me some proofs to share with our readers. If you are interested in his work please check out www.apnea.ch

A Clean Day of Competition

soren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:38:36 +0000

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!

Opening Ceremonies

soren — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:29:15 +0000

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 " target="_self">Safety Team 2009 sub menu.

Official training starts tomorrow

soren — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:28:55 +0000

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:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/m7W-Lcw9U_I&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/n9YxBMnKzwg&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1]

We have posted more pictures on www.enjoyfreediving.com under the " target="_self">Safety Team 2009 sub menu.

Security Problems

soren — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:02:12 +0000

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

2009 AIDA Freediving World Championships – Safety Team

soren — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:03:03 +0000

The safety team has been practicing for the 2009 AIDA Freediving World Depth Championships for more than 10 months and are ready to offer professional safety services to the competing athletes.

The responsibility of the Safety Freediving Team is to make sure the divers competing have someone to help them on the last leg of their journey to the surface, the is the last 30 meters. The main safety freediver at the event will dive down to 25 to 30 meters, wait for the competitor coming up and follow/shadow him or her to the surface. We will be looking for any signs of the diver having serious trouble. If this is the case it is our job to Intervene and bring them to the surface.

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.