Dammit!

[Chefkoch]

I was always thinking freediving is all about freedom, peace, qietness....untill today!
This is really beginning to piss me off!:rcard

Today I read nearly all posts of the IAFD forum(http://www.iafdusa.com/forum.htm), and I couldn't trust my eyes. There is a whole lot of aggression, attacks, people seem to bite each other like crazy dogs. Others misuse this sport in order to get rich or famous, or just to boost their EGO.

Then I read about the cancelled IAFD records of Herbert Nitsch (http://www.iafdusa.com/news1.htm): even more s**t coming around! Not to mention the problems the different organizations are having with each other.

This is all making me sad and disappointed
Why aren't people able to discuss things on a normal way, without the hurting?
Why can't the freediving organizations find a consensus on the rules? I mean we are all freedivers, (and I don't belong to any organization), so why to hell should we split up in different parties and fight each other? Just for fun?:head

DAMMIT, am I just too naive or are my feelings about this completely out of fashion?
Remember what Mayol said?


" The ego, always the ego! While breath-hold diving should be a strictly personal endeavour, yet paradoxically based on forgetting about oneself, to better blend in with the "deep blue sea", it instead becomes the triumph of the ego, under a competitive form. "


Yeah, even more: it becomes a business, an industry!
DAMMIT: amongst my personal reasons for freediving is the quietness, the escape from this materiallistic world, from advertisement, from aggression and competition.
I try to find myself down there, to surrender myself to the ocean.
I'm searching for the simple, pure feeling of life flowing through my body and mind.
Someone (Einstein?) said that perfection is reached when things are reduced to the essential, and not complicated to maximum.
So why are people trying to complicate things, and why are they damaging the immage of freediving - by searching for records and money and by spitting at each other - when there is so much more to discover down there?

Am I the only one feeling sad about this?

 

[basco]

Yeah, I've also read all that shit.. and all those records. Oh my.. a new category every week. Why cant we all just shut up and dive? We are all freedivers, there is no need to fight.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Chefkoch,

It is a shame but the whole Freediving industry is plagued with politics. The main debate tends to be between the IAFD and AIDA. Very much like the Scuba World and the BSAC vs. PADI debate, one is commerically orientated (IAFD) and one if non-profit (AIDA). Another big difference is the Samba Rule which causes a lot of friction and nasty posts on various mailing lists.

Saying all that, it tends to be a small number of Freedivers who make 90% of the noise. The vast majority of divers just get out there and do what they love - dive!

Don't get hung up on what goes on in the politics - it will all be worked out in the end. Just go out and Freedive...

 

[Chefkoch]

You're right guys, that's just what I do: I go out, shut my mouth and dive.
It's just that I don't want other people throwing shame on our hobby (which for me has become so much more than a hobby, being my way of living).
Many Germans already think of freedivers as of freaks going completely nuts over records, times and depths.
I'll be underwater today, so my angryness will be soon washed away
Safe diving!

 

[Erik]

I'm with you, Chefkoch.....but the people that don't deserve the respect usually let it be known with their mouths. I hope you had some good diving to help you forget others' problems...remember that we all see the world the way we want to, so keep seeing it the positive way (the way you do now), not through the eyes of egotistical and sad politicians.
Warmly,

Erik Y.

 

[fpernett]

old times

Yeah guys, agree with you
I can see a lot of bad feelings around our sport. I think the problem is about selfish, nobody has the whole truth. I think that if we forget about or egos and just enjoy the sea while freediving the things will change. As Pelizzari said: "the apneist find him self".
We should stop to criticize, and start to construct, is all we can do. We can't changes others mind.
Another image to forget the bad things

 

[Ender]

I just rolled into freediving...I was just going down a little bit with a snorkel to see what it was like...

I liked it.

And for a long time that was the sole reaon I did it. Because somehow it appealed to me and I felt good doing it.

And then I got the 'numbers-bug'

Go deeper, stay longer, PUSH PUSH PUSH
And flowing from that I was always very conscious of my buddy watching me...And how he was doing. Whenever I 'performed' worse than him I felt a little pissed off.

It took me a little while to forget about all that and get the feeling I had in the beginning back. I did my PB of 30m and haven't even tried to go deeper since then. I just don't really care that much anymore...
I used not even want to go to places that where shallower than 20meters because it 'wasn't worth it'...

I guess some people just get stuck in the 'ego-period' or whatever you wanna call it.

 

[Pekka]

Free!!! in all ways possible, free from politics, free from money..well as much as I can, free..
I totally agree with you Chefkoch! But you know there are many who think the same way and just dive!
Safe and FREE diving!
PEkka

 

[M-2]

I had seen that stuff a while ago. I used to look at it every once in a while and get upset too. I choose not to look to the negative anymore. This forum has been the complete opposite for me. A group of people coming together from all corners of the world with a common interest. Good karma to all of you db'ers out there! Just remember that line from The Big Blue, "It's much better down there".

One of my favorite quotes is from T.S. Eliot. "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring will be to reach the beginning and know that place for the first time." Afterall most of us are exploring the ocean, but we're also exploring ourselves. It's the connection with the water and the exploration of our inner being that is the true beauty of freediving.

I'll stop with the 'deep thoughts', but if any audience would understand that, this one would.

Cheers,

Mike