As an event it was excellent. Well organized, very nice to see so many divers from so many backgrounds come together...
As far as the science goes, well, I'll have to say that there was very little actually new information. It was good basic stuff for beginner to medium level, but some of the stuff was just not very ground breaking. It is important to understand tough, that not every presentation was there for the reason of being ground breaking, but some are more or less "honorary", just to give the event some publicity and credibility. I guess the most talked about was Dr. Balestras presentation - and also maybe the most misunderstood since it contained that magic word "EPO" and that sparks peoples emotions usually into a bit too high gear. What he actually suggested IMO was more or less just an observation from a group of freedivers and explanation to what might cause it - not encouraging people to dope. But some choose interpret it that way anyway. Unfortunately he ran out of time before getting to the (to me) more interesting part about narcosis and I really didn't catch what he was suggesting, except if I understood correctly he was of the opinnion that narcosis for freediving is a bit misunderstood and much of the subjective feeling of narcosis could be relieved via sinus/ear flooding. But it is better I don't pretend to know more about that than I do, because these ideas are quite advanced and I would think dangerous if taken out of context - better the interested parties read that them selves.
There was a lot of presentations about specific training regimens, but I just found that a little overwhelming to follow. Countless tables, plans, microcycles, macrocycles, graphs - and in the end the message was pretty much "no one really knows how to train properly". Or as I translated it "how to train is pretty much dependant on what ever the current maturity and status of the individual athlete is" - which is something that I already knew. But I did pick up a few good ideas that might be useful.
For me the best parts were the presentation from the athletes. They were all excellent. Martin's was good, but I already heard the same thing in the summer pretty much so for me not much new, but I hope those who didn't already know that were listening. Herbert was of course good and created a lot of discussion...
But what I really, REALLY enjoyed was Patrick Musimu and Carlos Coste. They both talked a lot about psychological things, maturing as a diver, personal experiences and even touching on morality and ethics. Both were very inspiring. Patricks story really makes sense when he puts it that way and in personal perspective. If you just focus on the tidbits in the internet and numbers (like I have), it is a completely different thing. My respect for him just went through the roof. His video also got the biggest applause in the crowd and I think for good reasons. I was very emotional to watch. Of course that will depend a lot on the person watching, but at least for me most of the things resonated well. Others might find some even cheesy, but it depends a lot on your personal value systems etc and for me it made lots of sense in my current life situation. Maybe a few years ago, I would've thought different...
Incidentally, he did mention a few interesting remarks:
-He's done chasing world records (and seemed to be at great peace with him self and with that decision)
-His personal best in delaying the first contraction in static is over 6:30 (which is something he is currently researching) and over 8:30 in total time. Should be interesting what ever he finds out.
-He might be running clinics next year to teach the "air cavity flooding" technique he used in his record - if they decide it is "ethical" - which they still have to research a bit more. But it was interesting to hear that the researches and physicians were all quite surprised to NOT find any problems in terms of infections. They were really expecting him to have problems, but there was no signs of contamination. But they did stress that this might be an individual property and should not be taken as proof that the technique is safe for anyone (ie. some people are more prone to catch a cold than others - and could be more prone to infections with sinusflooding than others)
Food was excellent and there was plenty of it - my kind of conference
Oh, and C4 had brought on display a weird monofin, which was more or less 2 mustangs fused together (mustang footpockets and a long and narrow blade). I was only able to try it for a short time, but there was no immidiate "wow" effect. It does carry you forward, but nothing revolutional. Although I feel that it is unfair to judge it with such short trial - probably the thing needs a completely different technique than what we're used to with traditional monofins to be efficient.