do state competitions exist?

[Lil Dragonfly]

If not, I think they should. If state records exist in swimming, why not in freediving too?

 

[trux]

What do you mean by state competitions and records exactly? Do you mean competitions and record attempts organized by a governemental organization? Or subvenced by the state? Or do you speak anout national records? Or national ranking? Or ranking of nations (comparing each to other)? Or something else?

 

[freedivinmike]

I think she is referring to the separate states within the USA. There are none that I know of, only national records. It would be cool if each state had a competition but there are not enough divers around for that and you would need an organizing committee and all of that. If there were state records I know who would own the Ohio depth records as I dive the deepest body of water in the state that is available. That is something kind of cool to think about at least!

 

[osusim]

I don't think any of the continental United States gonna organize freediving competition at own territory. So, no state's, county's or other village's records :t

 

[trux]

Yes, that's right. I spoke about this topic with Jessica at the WC last year, and she told me that everyone is afraid of the legal responsibilities, so that practically only foreigners such as Kirk Krack or Martin Stepanek sometimes organize smaller competitions, and then there use to be some competitions on Hawaii (more or less among friends). But that's all. The problem is certainly not the number of freedivers - from my statistics I see that, after France, the USA is the second country with most of them. The problem seems to be the legal and insurance system that would probably ruin any organizer in case of an accident.

 

[JennyWren]

Heh, even if we had regional records I'd still be out of the running. It's hard living in the same continent/country/province/city as Mandy-Rae! JK, she's great, so glad I've been able to train with her and Kirk.

 

[haughki]

It's tough, but things are moving along. I don't think it will be _too_ long before we start have more official/regular competitions in the US. Especially the southern, coastal US has loads of freedivers, although most of them are doing more spearing than competative or recreational freediving. In terms of insurance, people are working on it.

I think the real hurdle will be getting pools to open up. But again, it's just a matter of time, patience, dedication. As more people get interested in the sport, things will come along, I think.

Hawkeye Parker
San Francisco, CA

 

[nostres]

State competition Good one!

US is 300mil. country with handful of competitive freedivers. I currently have problem finding ONE training partner, used to have two but they're too busy now. I live in 3rd US city by population - Chicagoland is home to 9mil. people, that's how popular our sport is.

Top American freedivers live in Hawaii, on Big Island to be exact plus Honolulu and Maui. They compete every year, You can contact Freedive Paradise/Anabel Edwards.
If Hawaii is too far for You, there is FII/Martin Stepanek in Ft.Lauderdale.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Naw I'm not going to compete, I suck. I just wanted to know for the sake of curiosity.

 

[haughki]

Aside from Martin, there's also Performance Freediving which does a lot of training in the US (full discloser: I work for PFI). There are also growing freediving communities in the Monterey-San Francisco-LA-San Diego areas. Around here, we do fairly regular training. I agree that it can be hard and frustrating to find partners and pools, but things are changing, growing, coming along.

And, Dragonfly: don't sell yourself short. I bet you'd be surprised what a little instruction and training could do. Whether or not you wanted to compete, it would almost certainly be great for your freediving, all around.

Hawkeye Parker
San Francisco, CA