Finnish national DNF record broken in television

[MikkoP]

Freediving got some media coverage here in Finland as Jonérik Ekström and Mikko Pöntinen tried to break the Finnish national DNF record of 131 meters in a television program called Ennätystehdas (translates as Record Factory).

Ennätystehdas is a series where people try to break different kind of records. It's pretty similar to Guinness World Record TV shows as a concept, but the records broken in this program are usually just Finnish national records and don't have anything to do with the Guinness World Records brand. Some of the records are made more as a joke, but there are some pretty impressive ones too.


So, we organized a competition where we tried to break the record and TV cameras recorded the whole event. Our attempt was successful, Jonérik surfaced at 140 meters breaking the record first and I came up at 155 meters a couple of seconds later. Both received white cards.

The episode aired on January 10th in Finland and you can watch it on the website of the series, but I don't know how long they are going to keep it online. But anyway, here it is, at least at the moment.

http://www.mtv3nettitv.fi/?progId=2753&itemId=313

EDIT: It's now on youtube too:

In the interview we are talking about different kinds on freediving disciplines and about the equipment we use. Some words about safety too.

 

[Kars]

Hi Mikko, thanks for the heads 'up and the great record breaking!
It seems like 150 DNF is the popular thing to do these days.

I tried to download it, but it didn't work. Maybe someone has some other recording to post? Youtube / google video?

Did they do a good job on commenting on your swim ?
Maybe you could tell us about you personal feelings of your swim?

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[MikkoP]

Thanks Kars!

Weird, the video works fine for me.

Okay, here is a description of my dive:

This dive wasn't my best ones, but it was pretty good considering the circumstances. I don't do any warm-up, so I just did some pack stretching and relaxed for 10-15 minutes before the official top. The pool was 2 meters deep, so I had to hang on the rope and the edge of the pool and therefore I wasn't able to relax quite as well as in training where I can just stand on the bottom. My pulse was a bit higher than normally, but I knew I could break the record even if something went slightly wrong.

Before the start I took three slow and deep breaths, packed and started diving as soon as I heard the official top. My contractions started around 40-50 meters and after a while I started getting some lactic acids, so everything was going normally. I didn't feel as comfortable as sometimes in max attempts in training, where I can just enjoy the feelings of the dive reflex, listening to my heart beating slowly and strongly, and the blood rushing in my head, but it wasn't too bad either.

At turns I took some glances to see where Jonérik was going. He had started a couple of seconds after me, but he was swimming faster and at some point I saw that he had passed me. After the 125 m turn I saw him surfacing at 140 meters, so I just kept on going. After the 150 m turn I decided to come up, because I didn't want to take it too close to the limit on television. I did a couple of hook breaths and the surface protocol without any problems and after the 30 seconds had passed I received a white card.

The dive was clean but pretty tight, at least tighter than I had planned. It was probably because it was harder to relax before the dive and, of course, there was some pressure also, TV cameras and all. Competition dives are always different from training dives, so I was happy with my result, although I had done over 20 meters more in training...

 

[rxcnc2]

I could see the video no problem with Firefox, congratulations for both of you
for your excellent swims!!! Pity that the video shows only bits and pieces and
never a continuous sequence, were you doing 3 or 4 strokes per lap?
As a very very minor comment, if this had been an AIDA comp they would have
deducted at least 1 meter because of the turns below the step.

 

[Kimmo]

Sorry but not whole one meter less / lap but maybe about 15 cm / laps, depending on how long the pool was = about 5-6 times 15 cm = 75 cm - 90 cm total, if almost all of the wall touches was done bellow the step

- kimmo

 

[rxcnc2]

For clarification about the AIDA accounting of the distance in case
you touch an underwater step (and sorry I don't mean to take anything
away from the wonderful performance!!!):
One meter is deducted regardless of how many laps you do, until the sum of
the steps is one meter. Above that, two meters are deducted, and so on.
Remember it's always rounded down to the nearest meter.

So at least one meter, because I have seen that at least on some occasion
they touched below the step.

 

[MikkoP]

Thanks for your comments, rxcnc2!

Yes, the video was for some reason edited like that, probably to shorten it. I was doing 3 strokes per lap throughout the dive.

Concerning the below the step turns: I understand your point and I have heard it before, and at some level I agree. This was, in fact, an AIDA competition, but we didn't get penalized because there is no official rule concerning the step issue. Or if there is, could you tell me where it is in the AIDA competition regulations v11.2?

I was able to find these rules concerning the turn, but they don't say anything about turning below the step:
5.24.2
A part of the body must touch the wall at each turn, if the athlete fails to do so a penalty is applied.
7.8.1
If no part of the athlete‘s body touches the wall during the start and/or at the turn in the dynamic disciplines, a penalty of 5 POINTS per occasion is applied. If the athlete does not come within one meter from the wall, he/she will be disqualified.

The only way to get the turn-below-the-step rule from those is to argue that the part below the step isn't somehow a part of the wall at all. Which doesn't make much sense to me. And even that way, you would lose 5 points (10 meters) per turn, not those 15 cm.

Of course, if you always turn below the step, you can get a small advantage, because then you're not diving 25 m laps, you're doing more like 24,8 m laps, but they are still counted as 25 m. So something is clearly wrong here.

So, if people think it's a problem, then there should be a clear rule about it. But as long as it's not clearly stated in the competition regulations, it shouldn't be penalized. Nobody should be allowed to invent their own rules, even if they think it is reasonable. There should be open discussion instead, leading (or not) to an official rule which is then same for everybody.

 

[Kimmo]

I´m afraid that I have to agree with Mikko. So I would also like to know where the rules says something about stairs that I would learn to be a better judge in a future. Although I have seen these kind of discussions before where athletes have developed best practices to use the rules. But the rules has to be read, learned and used for helping the athletes, not against the athletes. What the rules does not say it does excist there, I guess
Mikko you learned your lessons during your judge course in Sharms quite well I see

 

[trux]

I am not expert for AIDA rules, but Dave Mullin's record in Egypt was also reduced a meter, because the pool was not full 25 m. I'd thell the same then applies for pools which are not full 25 m under water, although the surface wall-to-wall distance is 25 m. If you took just the surface distance as decisive, you could easily make a record in a pool which is 25 m on surface, but has a huge step on each side, making it half a meter, meter or even two smaller underwater. 25 meters are 25 meters, and not 24.90 m.

Otherwise, it was marvelous peerformance of course, and I am sure Mikko can make easily more (and in a regular pool, or above the step)

 

[Kimmo]

Trux you are right. Pool was a bit less than 25m but we did not reduce 1 meter for each lap, only true centimeters / lap as it was

 

[rxcnc2]

Hey guys, I didn't mean to start a fuss about this! As I said, the performances were just great!

But about the steps, you don't need a rule, only arithmetics, and remember that
you always round down to the nearest meter.
Suppose you pool has 25m on the surface, but 24.80 below because of the step.
Suppose you always touch below the step. Here it is:
1 lap = 24.80m = 24m = 1 meter less
2 laps = 49.60m = 49m= 1 meter less
3 laps = 74.4 = 74m= 1 meter less
4 laps = 99.2 = 99m = 1 meter less
5 laps = 124.0 = 124m = 1 meter less
6 laps = 148.8 = 148 = 2 meter less
7 laps = 173.6 = 173 = 2 meter less
and so forth.

Of course the judge needs to look carefully, because sometimes the
competitor might touch above and sometimes below.

 

[Kimmo]

Looks quite correct to me. Actually one of the reasons that I commented this topic was that this is quite unclear for some of the athletes as well as judges and I guess there are different kind of practices to handle this issue. I also hope that this topic is covered better in the becoming rules

- kimmo

 

[MikkoP]

Yes, I agree.

The problem for me now is that there is not any rule about this. Now it depends totally on the judges and competition.

I mean, if there are 9 rules about official cameras in the regulations, there should definitely be a rule of how the performances, which are the whole point of those rules, are measured. Even if it's only arithmetics.

 

[Tony Babowicz]

Very nice dive, Congratulations. How long was your dive time?

 

[yugyug]

well done Mikko!

 

[osusim]

I guess the rule was publicly announced at WC in Maribor 2007. But one is still requirement from competition organizers and judges not from AIDA self. Never the less I try to follow this rule in any situation. If you look at many last year Scandinavians coms video's you can find a lot of such cases (because of good video presentation compare to other comps) :t.
Should new AIDA rules specify this issue?

Congratulation Mikko! Next WC qualification will be really tough

 

[shoutatthesky]

It is one thing to swim 150 metres DNF, but the fact you did it whilst being filmed for a TV show is very impressive! Well done

P.S. I hate having steps at the end of the pool!

 

[Jouskari]

I´ll add my comment to this discussion.

The pool that the record was made in has quite an interesting profile (I know as I was the other diver). The starting end has a normal ~10 cm step, but in the other end of the pool the step is negative i.e. there´s a ~ 10 cm "drop" in the wall roughly 1 m under the surface. Don´t know why it´s like it, but it makes turning quite interesting.

Anyhow, so according to some posts here, one lap in this pool could actually also be 25,20 m if you turn above the step in one end and bellow it in the other. I think this discussion is a good sign that clearly defined rules are needed on how measuring the dive distance.

 

[picasso]

It is very good performance and speculating about steps is just rediculous. Pure envy of those who are not able to do so...

 

[pehtran]

Maybe it is not just envy.... It would be nice to resolve this issue via official decision of AIDA board.... I have been penalized several times for this very same reason. Once the deduction was 10 meters even. The deduction of one meter seems reasonable to me.
Miha