Live from Egypt 2006

[SanSan]

The problem with Eurosport is you can't charge much for such sports and if you get sponsors they won't show them or will charge you for the time they are on tv. It's quite fucked up but otherwise it wouln't be hard to get freediving on eurosport.
We are trying to get the world championships in july next year to be broadcasted on the internet. I hope it will be possible.

Ok enough off topic.. good luck to all compettiors in Hurgada and mostly the Slovenian team .

[jome]

Yeah, I'm just envious because I cannot be there...Of course I'd rather participate than watch it on some pixellated stream

Good luck to all. Man, that 21 degree pool is going to cause some interesting variations in results...I'm sure not all felt necessary to bring a pool suit for egypt And from what I've heard it's 33m in length. Will be very interesting.

In fact, in a way, I feel that this pool sillyness is a positive thing, because it will suffle the deck a little, you know. No telling what will happen...

[Aber]

For us who are disappointed with the updates on championships webpage (there are non so far), I suggest we all send them an email and ask them if something will happen there. Maybe a lot of emails from all over the world will give them a push to to something about it? Their email: wc@apneaegypt.com.

[octopus]

Originally Posted by josedesucre

DeeperBlue SHOULD have a reporter/photographer there! Better to cover the World Championships than the stunts by David Blaine. Dont you think?

Could not agree more!

[Stephan Whelan]

Originally Posted by josedesucre

DeeperBlue SHOULD have a reporter/photographer there! Better to cover the World Championships than the stunts by David Blaine. Dont you think?

This all comes down to money.

We have ZERO budget to cover events (believe it or not we are not rolling around in cash) and need to work with the organisers to ensure that we can cover an event well in advance.

The Blaine organisers worked with us to get good coverage, Kirk works with us for Cayman (or the Worlds in 2004), DEMA work with us for the trade show coverage, and so on...

Despite many attempts to communicate with the organisers of the Worlds this year we couldn't get an arrangement in place in time hence why we have no coverage of the event.

It is actually a regular problem for us with AIDA competitions where they do not consider having us come in and cover the events. Often we have to rely on athletes to provide snippets of info to us to be able to provide any news at all.

[Waterysmile]

What's the problem in the world of freediving? (I'm ignorant here). Ego, inertia, lack of money, disorganisation?

[larsemil]

the organisation here is not the best, always lots of delays with freedivers standing on the beach waiting for boats to come. official training lines that is not the depth the organisers say, yesterday an athlete asked and got the answer that the line was 50 something, when the athlete turned without seeing the bottomplate the suunto said 60+.
today the athletes are announcing their performances and all the teams have meetings where they decide wich athletes are competing and how deep they are going.
yesterday one athlete got a blackout at 25m depth, the athlete is now up walking and smiling again thanks to deep freediving safety.

it is getting interesting!

[adax]

I am not quite sure if the TV coverage would help the sport itself, of course more sponsors, but also more weird people wanting to try it... I haven't even started with freediving, but what I like about it is that it is such a "niche" sport.

On the other hand the fact that there are no news from the organisers and even the AIDA International site is not working during the WC is quite ridiculous.

[spaghetti]

Last time I saw a freediving comp live on tv it was in the 70's and I was just a kid. It was the era of the Mayol-Maiorca challenge, record after record, an unforgettable duel which made the history, pardon, which started the history of modern freediving. Our national hero in Italy was Enzo Maiorca, of course, and his dives were broadcast live by the State official tv on our black and white tv sets.
Well, what happened in that last tv event? Enzo was near to his goal when he suddenly found a camera man on his trajectory, a total moron who put himself in the wrong place in the wrong moment: CROCK! Enzo hit him with a terrible head-to head clash and surfaced quickly, angry as an angry pitbull dog can be. It was live on tv and Enzo's staff "complaints" went on air. Words I'm reluctant to report for respect to those who believe in God. All live on tv. Last time ever.

[glennv]

Like Jome said, we are just very jealous at all the athletes there because WE can not be there.

The first news does not sound too good. Chaotic organisation (was to be expected in egypt, lets be real here), funny 33m pool (interesting to say the least), very cold static pool (we had that in lausanne as wel but after lots of complaning they turned up the heat in time), unknown line depths and long waiting times for athletes (probably in the baking hot sun, dehydration etc ).
Lets hope for all competitors these are just startup hickups and the competition itself runs flawless.
Nothing more dramatic then a failed atempt at a world championship, which you trained very long and hard for , because of bad organisation.

[Kars]

Well I consider that athletes who belong to the top take into account that some things may go wrong, and have their bottles with salted water with them when they need to wait. Wet T-shirts would not only be worn by the girls but also would help the men in tight(s) rubber to stay cool

In the mean time I would like encourage athletes to keep posting their small stories here and on their personal sites! A bunch of pictures would also help to convay the atmosphere to those who would just love to be there, but just couldn't.

Many thanks for the reporting!


Kars

[Marwan]

Originally Posted by glennv

Like Jome said, we are just very jealous at all the athletes there because WE can not be there.

The first news does not sound too good. Chaotic organisation (was to be expected in egypt, lets be real here), .

dude you really need to take care of your comments, i think youre being very rude making generalizations about egypt like that and it is offensive. Imagine someone making such generalizations about netherlands that youre just a bunch of potheads hanging around the windmill. If you have a problem with how the world championship is being handled,you should take it up with AIDA, im sure they have certain standards that organizers must meet, and if such standards dont agree with you, thats tough! just keep your manners around here and keep your criticism constructive and respectable...

[Mikha]

Originally Posted by glennv

Like Jome said, we are just very jealous at all the athletes there because WE can not be there.

The first news does not sound too good. Chaotic organisation (was to be expected in egypt, lets be real here), funny 33m pool (interesting to say the least), very cold static pool (we had that in lausanne as wel but after lots of complaning they turned up the heat in time), unknown line depths and long waiting times for athletes (probably in the baking hot sun, dehydration etc ).
Lets hope for all competitors these are just startup hickups and the competition itself runs flawless.
Nothing more dramatic then a failed atempt at a world championship, which you trained very long and hard for , because of bad organisation.

Dear glennv couldn't help but read your comment which i think is extremely out of context and uncivilised (expected from an uneducated person). just for me to know and understand better how come you know so much about Egypt?? (what? did u watch it over discovery channel?) please reply because i am extremely curious of your sources on Egypt!!!

[glennv]

Guys chill,

Ok I take back my comments and appologise if it has been taken offensive.

Probably a leftover from some bad experiences in Egypt where I was robbed , ripped of and mistreated a couple of times. I should not have generalised it but just because of my personal experience. Some things sound very different when put in writing without the sublety of spoken word.
And yes lots of the Dutch are also bastards

Now lets go back to the Athletes please and hope they have a great time whatever the circumstances.

[Mikha]

Dear Glennv

It takes a lot of courage to admit ones fault and i respect that. Please next time don't let personel experiences affect your general manners as this offends people that had no relation to your personnel experiences e.g i myself got mugged and ripped off in the netherlands, spain and the UK. However i still have freinds there and never allowed these bad experiences
make me loose my manners!

Thank you again for your apology.