8th Coupe des Dauphines

[trux]

This week there was an AIDA competition in Geneva. I was inscribed too, but unfortunately had to give it up because I was ill and did not train for almost 2 months. Colleagues from my club who went, had very positive impressions about the organization.

They spoke about an interesting competitor they saw there. He participated only in STA. No DYN and no DNF. They called him "extraterrestrial" because he behaved in a very unconventional way, where everyone thought he'd bail out very quickly - he wore just a short wetsuit, and warmed up in it during an hour and half in the relatively cold pool; he did not stop moving before and during the apnea; he did not take any deep breath before leaving (and no packing of course); during the breath-hold he allegedly stood on his feet all the time, and practically dancing - moving there and back, and to the sides all the time; kept the pool side with contracted arms all the time; and they told he looked like being in deep LMC already at around 4 minutes into the apnea. However, he finished with the time 8:36 (!!!), and although not being exceptionally clean, he did the protocol easily, but unfortunately as he stood on his feet, (instead of using the pool side to support himself) and did not stop moving (or losing balance), he touched one of the safety divers and was disqualified.

I hope someone will post the video, I'd love to see it. It looks like the guy has a big potential, though there are rumors he can't swim, but I think it is just slander of those who are jealous they can't make similar performance

[B-J]

Do you know any other results, Trux?

[martin_gk]

You can find the result lists here:

Ranking by Disciplin :: Freedive Central

[sgnips]

i read about him in another forum: they say he's from italy, and went went angry not because of disqualifying, but because the time he did was very low.....

[Rob]

I think hi is David Merlini.

http://www.merlini.com

Rob

[trux]

Originally Posted by Rob

I think hi is David Merlini.

http://www.merlini.com

Rob

Ah, another magician! Thanks for that! And welcome in DB, by the way!

[trux]

I just see he claims he holds the Guinness Record with the time 20:39, although he was rescued in a dramatic way, by breaking the glass tank he was in (and injuring him in the same time):

YouTube - David Merlini WORLD RECORD

Interestingly, you do not see him breathing oxygen immediately before the immersion, so likely he was on it only for a certain time before (Tom Sietas did it in some of his O2 stunts in this way too). I hope he was carefully watched before the Dauphins competition

[martin_gk]

Originally Posted by Rob

I think hi is David Merlini.

http://www.merlini.com

Rob

Yep, thats him.

He did not prepare in the water, though. He was preparing mostley outside in a yoga position.

He got disqualifyed because his coach kept holding his hand assisting him while surfacing.

Incredible talent, though... hope he is coming back.

[BennyB]

So when was that Youtube record performed? And if he did 20 minutes and has the Guinness World Record certificate, what did Tom do on Oprah?

Looked a bit odd him blowing his air out all the time too.

I'm confused all round...

[trux]

Originally Posted by BennyB

So when was that Youtube record performed? And if he did 20 minutes and has the Guinness World Record certificate, what did Tom do on Oprah?

Looked a bit odd him blowing his air out all the time too.

I'm confused all round...

Yes, me too. He tells it was in October 2008. So either the record was not approved by Guinness because of the rescue (though he claims it was indeed a Guinness record), or Guinness officials forgot about it when approving Tom's record, or David did it without oxygen and hence it is another discipline

[Rob]

I think it was a show/magic not an official world record attempt, but not shure. He is illusionist at first. David spend lot of time in Budapest and called Jee to train but i heard "only" 6min from him.

[martin_gk]

Originally Posted by BennyB

I'm confused all round...

I'm sorry for that, Benny. I am not following the O2/Guinness records and seeing the youtube video reminds me of exactley why... it's just a show...

I can only tell you a bit about what happened in Geneva. He was clearley visible throughout his warm-up. Apparently he chose the Coupe des Dauohins because it had WR status and that was also the reason why Marchello and I where judging the performance together.

He did blow out a lot of air in the end there too which was why we asked the coach for a sign and it became apperent that he had no idea what we where talking about... sign? What sign?

Funny to see a magican go for the real record. So far we have only seen the opposit.

[trux]

Originally Posted by Rob

I think it was a show/magic not an official world record attempt, but not shure. He is illusionist at first. David spend lot of time in Budapest and called Jee to train but i heard "only" 6min from him.

He writes this on his website at News:

Cannes, October 13th 2008. Merlini breaks World Record for holding his breath for 20:39 in a transparent watertank at the Grand opening of Mipcom.

The amazing achievment was registered and approved by judges of Guinnes World Records, estabilishing the new World Record of the Millennium.

[trux]

Ah, I see he is was born in Hungary (with Italian father), that's probably why he chose to be trained by Jee. Being trained by an experienced freediver, I wonder though why he seemed not to know anything about the way STA is done in competitions, and apparently did many mistakes that probably cost him many precious seconds (or even minutes) and led to the disqualification too.

Some more facts about him in Wiki: David_Merlini

[Jee]

Well, I talked to David earlier, but then at last he didn't appear at the pool on our training. He told me, it's a pity, because otherwise it wouldn't have been a DQ, perhaps.

I don't know anything about the 6 min, I will ask Robi about it.

I'm really curious, how that over 8 static was done.