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Competion rules??

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Lochmonster

New Member
Jul 17, 2002
14
0
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I have a question regarding point scoring in freediving competition. According to AIDAUSA's website a meter of SALT water scores you 1 point, while a metre of FRESH water nets you 1.16 points (this is stated in section 1.12 of their rules, available here: http://www.aidausa.org/forms/rules.html ). My question is why?

Why is one more or less than the other and why is fresh more than salt? I asked them through their website and was told they would look into it, that was 2 months ago.

Just wondering...
 
??

That thread has to do with altitude and freediving in fresh water. I am simply wondering why fresh water depth has a higher score than salt. I would think it would be the reverse since saltwater is denser.

Still wondering.
 
I beleive that it's because saltwater IS more dense. Hence you are more bouyant in salt water which makes it easier and less bouyant in freshwater which makes it harder.

That's my understanding.

DSV
 
ok, but

ok at the surface and maybe the first 30 feet or so you are more bouyant. In competition it would seem you are going down to depths well in excess of 100 feet. That means when you are halfway through your dive you have a large column of desnser fluid above you on your ascent in salt water.

Wouldn't that be more difficult?

Getting down is easy, getting back, and back safe is the trick right?
 
Several conditions

Hi all,
There are several conditions that make freediving at altitude more hard, thats why the score point was different:
-Altitude: Less barometric pressure, less amount of oxygen
-Temp: Usually colder water (not always a problem)
-Vis: Usually low visibilty (psychological stress)
-Depth: Because fresh water is less dense and less heavy than salt water, to reach 2 atms in saltwater you have to swim down 10 meters in fresh water you have to swim 10.3, the depth meters measure changes in pressure, not distance. So you have to swim more in fresh water than in salt water to reach the same equivalent depth
 
- Altitude, yes it's less oxygen, but you also have more red blodcells after a while.. I wonder if it's enough?
- Temp.. well, we can't have different rules for everyone. Eric Fattah set his record in cold water. We here in Scandinavia always dive in cold water.
- Vis. The vis here suck too.. not everyone has reefs and 30 meters of vis. Just face it. I close my eyes all the way down anyway :)
- Depth. I don't think the difference in fresh water is that big. You don't need as much weight in fresh water as in saltwater though. That's good. On competition and in records, you shouldn't rely on the depth meter, you should have marked out the depht on the line. Anyway, there are depth meters that are accurat in freshwater too.
 
Yes and no

Yes, I agree in some with you
-Cold water (Hypotermic Diving system), low metabolism, low O2 comsumption, but it has it's limits. Try to break a record in north pole will be very hard.
-Vis:I toll you that is a psychological factor if you face it already, and if low vis is familiar to you, that's not a problem. In a recent thread about the place that Nitsche choose for his record (A lake) I said that it was better for him, because thats the place where he trains and is familiar with that enviroment
-Altitude: This the main factor, You have to stay some time for the red blood cells to increase. I don't know if you are aware of the Intermitent Hypoxic Training, they use to take an athlete to sleep in altitude and train at sea level. It takes time and anyway always is better to have more oxigen, try to freedive in a lake at 5000 meter over sea level and you know what I mean.
Depth:believe it or not there is difference, and ALL depth meters calculate the depth from pressure. The ones that you call accurate in fresh water are accurate because they use the actual barometric pressure, so you don't have to calculate the real depth, but measuring meters is a matter of pressure.
-finally it doesn't matter because AIDA don't use now a different score for freshwater performances. It's the same Fresh or Salt for them
 
- cold water - shure, it has it limits, but it's hard to make rules that compensate for this..
- low vis - yes, therefore it's hard to make new rules for this too.
- altitude - shure, I've been competing in skiing my hole life.. I know about it..
- depth - of course there is a difference, but it's very little, and I don't think it's harder to dive in fresh water. Easier maybe, because you need less weights.
And of course messuring meters with depth meters is a matter of pressure, I haven't said anything else. I just pointed out that there are depth meters that are accurate in freshwater too. I don't see the problem here??

Yes, AIDAs rules are based on the records. And because the record in lake was not as deep as in ocean a while ago. Lake was considered harder. That's the reason.
 
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