Ego

[Erik]

Hi people, I just looked at the Austrian website www.apneaworld.com . This is a great website with lots of good info and pictures of great divers of the Austrian Team who I admire very much. It has been updated very recently, so there is no excuse for not publishing all the facts, so why are Pipin, David Lee, and Yasemin not listed there? I am not singling out his site: I see this in so many websites, and I have to say it upsets me. What is stopping someone from putting all the facts on a site that is supposedly to convey truth? Is it because of some personal argument that they have had with another organisation, or divers from that organisation? IAFD and FREE websites are as guilty of this as the AIDA sites. It's another example of how the politicians let their egos convince them to forget the "small" person in the equation, the people that look up to them and support them. In this case the "small" people are the divers....the divers who bust their asses to set new records. How does David Lee feel when he looks at such a website, completely ignored? I'm sure David Lee worked very hard to acomplish what he has, and deserves some mention. And most people simply ignore the fact that Pipin has descended to 163 metres.
I suggest that if you host a website, you have a responsibility to tell the truth! If you truly don't believe that these people did the things they say they did, then at least acknowledge that they say they did it, then tell us why you believe that they are lying or don't deserve the title.
I admire anyone who pursues a lofty goal. I admire anyone who achieves a lofty goal. I don't care about petty squabbles between AIDA,IAFD, or FREE, or the next organisation to come around the bend.
Put aside your egos, and pay respect to the DIVERS, not the organisations.
Sincerely,
Erik Young

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Well Said

Erik,

Well said!

There is a lot of "ego" in the industry, and that mainly comes out of it's competive past and the fragmentation caused by the multiple agencies who don't seem to really like each other, in fact seem to go out of their way to try to be different from each other yet compete in the same space.

Something I worked with Cliff on in the latter part of 2001 was approaching each of the agencies (AIDA, IAFD and FREE) and making sure that they understood that Deeper Blue was a common ground for everyone, and that we want to report news and facts on all freedivers, not just one angle.

I was pleased to hear that all the main people in the three agencies agreed to use Deeper Blue as a central information point and keep the right facts coming out about everyone.

I hope to expand our "profile" series of articles this year to include a large number of "big names" as well as "minor names" in the sport. In fact next week I am interviewing Steve Truglia (UK), Fred Buyle (Belgium) and Loic LeFerme (France) when I am in Nice to see some no-limits training being done.

If anyone has a member of the sport who they think should be covered do put us in touch with them or let us know via email/IM as it is important (as Erik says) to cover all areas.

I give great respect to everyone on this forum, in competitions, setting records, practicing with buddies or just having fun...your all champions no matter what your level(although please don't expect us to interview ALL of you ).

 

[thin_air]

i hate to see freediving go this way.

this happened to mountainbiking a while back. there were the 3 main organiztions that all had the same kind of races yet different rules and they didnt respect any of the other organizations races or winners.

after a while people just stopped caring and all organizations suffered badly.

any bing important people of the freediving world should take note of this and watchout

oh well que sera sera