[donmoore]

Peter, you have some very good points. Likewise so do you ggarrnett. It maybe unrealistic to ask AIDA to hold other apnea competitions and events, but it sure is sad that we can’t either all be under one roof or at least in complementing organizations! As ggarrnett pointed out so well - AIDA needs the other apnea divers for growth and survival.

The other thing AIDA needs other apnea divers for is fan support. The only people who really care how long, far, or deep a diver can go on a single breath, are those who can relate. Those are people who have held their breath underwater. Only a small minority have the natural ability or will develop the ability to do well in an AIDA competition. But if there are other apnea sports they can do without looking ridiculous, then the may choose to participate and at the very least will be fans of AIDA athletes.

Where I live there are many tasty fish and almost everyone fishes. What potential freedivers usually want to know is with their limited skills (like 20 foot depth limit and 30 second breathhold) can they shoot a good eating fish. Fortunately the answer here is yes and if they go and try they quickly learn that although there are fish to spear within their ability, there are many more just out of their reach. That’s were many start.

I’m sure this is true in many parts of the world and the same desire to learn from pure discipline freedivers probably works for hockey or any apnea water sport.
don