Australia's First Ever AIDA Competition

[BennyB]

This weekend will see the first ever AIDA freedive competition held in Australia. The Trans Tasman Freedive Competition will be held in Sydney at the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre over Saturday and Sunday. The competition has World Record status and we are expecting some great performances from the many of the best that Australia and NZ have to offer. Besides having Aussies and Kiwis, to show our truly international flavour down under we also have representatives from France, Great Britain, and in homage to all our mates in Denmark for the World Championships, we found a token Dane to bring along (a Diving Dane, if you will.. hint hint).

Athletes will do 2 performances, choosing from Static, Dynamic or Dynamic No Fins. The names and Nationality are as follows:

NAME .....................NATIONALITY
John Pengelly...........Bruce
Bjorn Nielson............Great Dane
Ant Williams.............Baaaa
Guy Skillen...............Bruce
Louise Dixon.............Sheila
Michael Cheesman.....Bruce
Wayne Judge............Former Baaaa, now Bruce
Michaela Droppova.....New Sheila
Tim Money...............Geezer
Dave Mullins.............Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (larger lunged Baaa)
Mike Wells...............Bruce
Jasmine Bastow........Sheila
Chris Harding............Young Bruce
Tanguy Crusson........J'adore le fromage
Joy Cottle................Lady Baaaa Baaaa

Also, Wal Steyn will be doing an exhibition record attempt dive at the beginning of each day, this is separate from the competition.

We will try and bring results at the end of each day, although no guarantees will be made as the pool is perilously close to Star City Casino.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[bite ya]

Ben, thats a great line up mate! Look forward to hearing the results. I'm sure there will be some huge numbers coming up with Ant & Dave. Great to see our very own Tim is there and wish everyone the best of luck.

If your planning another one I'm in Oz next year so you never know?

 

[apneaboy]

Good luck with that, hope for white cards all around.

Go on Geezer, you show em how its done

 

[fpernett]

That's very Nice!
I'm sure there will be a lot of looooooong numbers and even a WR

Good job!

 

[Dennis77]

Yeah, Michael Cheesman, my buddy from two stages in Egypt. Great guy, and one of the friendliest persons I´ve ever met.

 

[Will]

Video - news.com.au

I didn't realise Monty Panesar had taken up freediving...

 

[Mullins]

Call me Mullahnz...

 

[BennyB]

What an awesome weekend, we had some fantastic performances and some real surprises from some of the newer crew. I'll post the results when I get back home, but in the meantime congrats to Wal Steyn for his new Dynamic record (216m I think) and Jasmine Bastow for her new Dynamic (116'ish) and Dynamic No Fins (103m) records.

Nice video, luckily not many clean dives got in the way of all our blackouts :head


Sent from my iPhone

 

[Jacblue]

Sounds like an amazing weekend Congrats to all.

 

[Mullins]

Was a great comp, looking forward to heading back over to Aus for the next one.

 

[azapa]

Nice video, luckily not many clean dives got in the way of all our blackouts :head


Sent from my iPhone

HAHAH Video was great Benny, you gave the media what they like too see: a bit of drama. I'm guessing this was part of the press tactics agreed at the caps. meeting beforehand? Nice strategy

Seriously though: great event, well done. I guess it helps having so many cool athletes (not to mention medics. judges etc) 'round the corner'

 

[f3dive]

Thanks for not forgetting the judges & the lovely medic in that comment Simon:inlove
Erez and Wal were a pleasure to work with and accepted my brashness with enthusiasm every step of the way...(Grant's taught me well)

The comp wouldn't have existed without the very fine Ant Williams (whom swum a very controlled 240m only to BO after that first breath.)
And of course AFA whom finally did it along with the help of Sydney Freedivers - those guys spent hours in the water which was the place to be given the heat in the complex.

Thanks Mike for the prizes - I'll wear my rashie with pride before the locals try to steal it off my back.

Dave - the beard grew on me over the weekend..I reckon you and LJ could be brothers. Jess and Dylan say hi.

And to all the athletes - wow what a great show. The girls competition had drama all the way. Congrat to Jasmine for her new NR's.

When's the next one Benny.....

 

[DivingDane]

Yep great experience! cant remember the last time a met such a great group of people all addicted to the sport, everything went smoothly and some mid blowing swims! my first comp and 2 white cards so happy days!

just want to say thinks to all the judges, saftey divers and the medic along with the organisional crew for putting together an unforgettable first comp.... mind you i WILL blame all of you when i find myself broke from travelling all around the place for these addictive comps

DD

count on me being at the next one!

DD

 

[f3dive]

Hey DD, glad to hear you made it safely home. I look forward to round 2 and more clean performances from you.

If you ever need a trainer LOL ...


P.S you can get your mag subscription at New Zealand Spearo
P.P.S love the business card BTW

 

[Walrus]

Was a great comp, went really well specially considering it was the first AIDA comp in Australia. It took a lot of combined effort from AFA, Sydney freedivers and all the organisers, judges, safety team, medic, video/camera people and the freedivers themselves, well done everyone !
Was good that we had the experience to draw on from some of the old salts from across the pond like Fran. Some really great results too from some of the new divers, much more to come from downunder that's for sure. For example one young spearo by the name of John Pengelly swam a 172m dynamic with only a few months training under his belt, not a bad effort at all.

I have to say the Judging on day 2 got challenging with 2 lanes going at once, and the length of the pool was 24.73m !
Dave swum 8 laps, umm how far was that ? .... hang on gotta grab the calculator. :head

Cheers,
Wal

 

[timm]

It was a top weekend, had a blast and got 2 white cards, normally I go for a rainbox affect so this was a bonus.

Thanks to all for the org and effort, AFA, Sydney Freedivers, Judges, Ant and divers

Hope to go to lots more down here.

Tim

 

[TimoP]

Call me Mullahnz...

A turban style huge blue swimming cap would match nicely that Mullah beard

And yes, more signatures of top Kiwi freedivers would have room on that turban cap! And finally enought place to your medals.

Think that psychological master advantage you would have, when you would appear like this to competitions with all your medals hanging on the front of your turban in the height of 2-2,5 meters! :king

The ritual sword is for those Kiwi freedivers who won't make it in competitions, just for the case if the ritual monofin is not sharp enough. Some Kiwis try to "forget" their neckweight to their neck when it's time for decapitation, so the ritual monofin use to get some damages time to time. http://forums.deeperblue.com/777209-post85.html

For open waters: just put a tyre inside and there is a great buoy, ofcource with plenty of room for rope and accessories.

Waiting to see islamic women with special freediving suits in competitions - they will be stylish, I guess. I hope they are allowed to use neoprene. Fortunally black happens to be it's standard color.
____
Edit:
In the pic there is prob a sikh man, but anyway a impressive grand master turban suitable for a big Mullahnz who's done multiple World Records. Isn't it?

Maybe also The AIDA President shoud be allowed to use this kind with the AIDA-logo, but just in big ceremonies or when he/(she?) represents AIDA in major negotiations. But for safety reasons: without a sword. It should be mentioned in the new AIDA Statues document

This next fact means - as far as I understand - that it's good for a freediver trying to avoid BO, or for a President in ceremonies or in hard negotiations:
"For Sikhs the headgear is seen as Guru Nanak's gift, a crown marking them out as dedicated to their higher consciousness."
I guess: The bigger is the turban, the higher is consciousness!

 

[rxcnc2]

Waiting to see islamic women with special freediving suits in competitions - would be stylish, I guess.

Not allowed at least in Paris.

Say, what about hiding a big O2 bottle under that turban?

 

[BennyB]

Result list

 

[TimoP]

Say, what about hiding a big O2 bottle under that turban?

It's vitally important and crucial to note, especially in Denmark, that it's better not to talk, write - or the worst thing to do: draw - any speculations what might be hidden inside a turban...:naughty
(Edit: maybe it's not know there, but here was a major conflict between Europe and Islamic world because of a Danish comic drawing in a newspaper, showing that there is a bomb inside the Holy Man's turban. This is not a joke).

Turbans seems to be in the web, too: RATE my TURBAN What do you think of Abkpom's turban? | Rate My Turban :king Abkpom's turban style would be cool for freedivers, just some modification needed.
1160 total turbans 2,181,193 ratings