The PERFECT freediving pool(s)

[Sergiu]

Following Maribor AIDA WC 2007 competition, I gave quite a bit of thoughts on how the perfect-for-freediving pool would look like, be it for regular training or competitions. The H2O Team did a fantastic job organising the WC with the resources available and the do have one cool swimming pool with a view!

Now, imagine Bill Gates is calling you on the mobile day and night... "Please take my cash and build the perfect freediving pool, no matter how much it would cost, please, please, please"!

How would it look like and what would be best equipment to have in place? This is purely a brainstorming exercise until we find a mysterious tycoon to chip in the cash!

So, i give it the first shot:

The perfect freediving-pool would be...3 pools!
1 - Dynamic Pool
- Olympic size, 50m by 25m
- 3.8 m to 1.8m depth from lane 1 (deepest) to lane 10 (shallowest). Or 4-5 lanes in gradual depths between 3 and 1.5m while the remaining lanes all at 1.8m (for competition or tandem swimming)
- glass walls at least on the deepest side of the pool, with seating area for the public UNDER and ABOVE the water level - wouldn’t that be sweet?
- built-in video photo/video system along the walls that can move from one end of the pool to the other along with the athlete.
- intelligent BO detection system deploying moving sensors that would start an alarm if a moving body is, well, not moving for more than 1 minute. Of course, no statics allowed in the Dynamic Pool!!!
- instead of the usual plastic round lines dividing lanes to have strong (when landing on them) yet rubber/neoprene coated material, in elliptic/flat shape, for easy grip on exit.

2 Static pool
- Size 10 by 20m
- Depth 0.7m to 1.4m
- Water level up to the edge of the pool
- 8 squares marked by underwater lanes that can also be separated by lines when needed, each with a floor based underwater camera!

3 Deep pool
- 35-40m depth (to exceed most of divers' RV even when diving on full lungs)
- tubular shape with big clear depth marks all around and possibly some underwater viewing point/glass, not necessarily for spectators but mostly for training purposes.
- a safety system in place all the way to the bottom to which a diver can be clipped and pulled up fast, if needed
- intelligent BO detection system, alarm to sound if a body is not moving for more than 1-2m (okay, here we have to work it out if you want to do a hang at 35m!)
- of course cameras all over the place to record technique, style and the odd samba/BO!

Well, bring it on, add to the...pools!

Serge

[BennyB]

Built in TV's in the static pool... I get bored easily

[Jorg]

Well if money is not an issue... let's make a 120 meter deep swimming pool! Good for sled training and even world records...

Btw... 35 meter pool is available in Brussel
40 meter pool is being build 150 km west of Barcelona as we speak.

[Sergiu]

Originally Posted by Jorg

Well if money is not an issue... let's make a 120 meter deep swimming pool! Good for sled training and even world records...

Btw... 35 meter pool is available in Brussel
40 meter pool is being build 150 km west of Barcelona as we speak.

Indeed, Nemo33, i hope we'll see it next year on the roadtrip! I took a bit of inspiration from there. A 120m deep tubular "pool" i wonder if it's technically possible to build, probably yes, like a metal/beton heavy coating to withstand the enormous pressure at the bottom.

[Mullins]

Why stop at 50m for the dynamics pool? 250m+, then nobody needs to worry about turns for a while

[deep thinker]

Hmm, how cool would something like this be.
What about the following,
A 200m long pool with aquirium style viewing panels in the side so spectators can get a view of the athlete in action, thereafter youll have time lapse cameras with motion activated operation and angle adjustment to give the judges and spectators extra views on the competitor.
Static is done in a "pond" about 1.1m deep throughout with demarcated areas for athletes to compete also with video surveilance equipment angled toward the athlete for direct transmission to judges screens and big screen.
The deep pool can be a partially submerged silo style construction with the top 10m exposed and the bottom 70m dug into the excavated site. This area will be equiped with lighting and camera equipment taking both stills and video footage and the top 10m will be a concrete class construction.

All this will then be housed in a arena with a roof structure that can either be opened or closed depending on weather and the basic design of the building and interior will be inspired by flow and free feeling when in the water...

Hows that sound with that we could spend something like 10mil odd

[trux]

Check out also this thread - http://forums.deeperblue.net/static-...zed-pools.html - some of the pools or basins are already quite interesting too.

[wet]

Nobody mentioned animal life? My fantasy pools would have octopi, multitudes of rainbow fishes, oysters galore, gold dubloons, corals, sea otters, dolphins and everything else I could stuff in there (did I forget a harem of mermaids?).

What the heck good is an "empty" pool??

[Paul Kotik]

Congratulations !

You've just invented...the OCEAN!

[deep thinker]

Originally Posted by Paul Kotik

Congratulations !

You've just invented...the OCEAN!

in a contained environment ofcoarse...

[Jee]

Originally Posted by Paul Kotik

Congratulations !

You've just invented...the OCEAN!

Paul, can you tell me the location of the above mentioned harem in the ocean?

Well, if invention, then it would be better to have good teleportation sysetm, and then we could build a DYF/DNF "pool" in a nice part of the ocean, with wave barriers, walls to turn (how is it in the rules? I think the max length of the pool is 50m, hmm?). We could make a nice static site as well. I think a well chosen island would be appropriate for the facility.

Then the competitors just step in the teleport and step out at the competition area (of course with an underwater hotel to stay ).

Or am I a bit too far from the real world? (was it a bit too much the static yesterday? no I don't think so.)

Seriously: in a dynamic pool it would not be good to have animals and plants - but the walls and the bottom of the pool could look very nice with some figures and nice colours - not disturbing the line marker strips! If I want to go a bit further, the bottom of the pool could be a big screen, where you can choose what to see. (it is something like Benny suggested for static).

Beside the dynamic pool, there could be another one wit óh the sea life in it.

[shoutatthesky]

If I want to go a bit further, the bottom of the pool could be a big screen

Imagine watching the sharks, whales, dolphins, etc swimming below you on the giant screen. Virtual reality.
I think what Paul is trying to say is that nothing beats swimming in the real ocean.

[Jee]

For dynamic the ideal circumstances are regulated, controlled (i.e. no waves, no streams), and usually that is not the case in the ocean. Or put a big glass pool in the ocean.

Earlier there was dynamic competition in the sea (lake) also with a help line floating in a given depth, as I remember.

[shoutatthesky]

This pool is fairly large.
Can you see the waves? How huge they are? This is a photo of some of the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Obviously from quite a way up.

[f3dive]

check this out and it is just a jump over the ditch for us here although I suspect we will never actually get to host a comp unless Wal or someone runs for MP.
High-tech pool