Italy banned freediving competitions!

[spaghetti]

These news will make a BANG: the italian federation of underwater sports (Fipsas) has SUSPENDED freediving competitions.
It's a BAN, that won't be lifted until a medical commission will complete its investigations about possible risks for the health related to freediving!:rcard
I have no words: in the country of Enzo Maiorca and Umberto Pelizzari a thing like this will make much noise.
http://www.apneamagazine.com/articolo.php/1480

 

[Spaniard]

Well they would have to apply the same reasoning to spearfishing competitions and they don't appear to have done ??????

 

[spaghetti]

Well they would have to apply the same reasoning to spearfishing competitions and they don't appear to have done ??????

Jeez Spaniard, that would be the end of my life: if they ban spearo competitions because unhealthy and dangerous, then recreational spearing too will be in danger. Bad news on my birthday!!
However, what Fipsas say is that there have been too many BO's in FD competitions recently ("syncopal and pre-syncopal episodes"). A bad blow was last month, when the dynamic national champion Omar Leuci (a young talented promise) blacked out during a qualification trial. So, officially, they want to investigate how to change the rules of the game to make it safer...
PS: I think there's no problem for Aida, since Fipsas is a Cmas affiliated fed. And this brings us back to an old controversy...

 

[naiad]

!?!?! How can they do that?

Applying the same logic, we should ban other dangerous activities such as most sports, eating unhealthy food, crossing the road...

I hope that they lift the ban soon.

I will always freedive, no matter what happens.

Lucia

 

[Billextreme]

Well...

FIPSAS come with new ideas all the time... They don't even follow the international guidelines of CMAS anymore.

Now there is a lot of Italian freediver’s that are "kind of tired" of this.. and will join AIDA instead.

AIDA Italia will have nice teams for the AIDA World Championship in December. ...and this will be a big... BIG thing for the real freediver’s in Italy.

/B

 

[sickbugs]

why dont they ban walking down the road? or driving down the road? lot more dangerous than freediving

stupid people... world is full of em, and they generally do things like this to make themselves known.

 

[Erik]

I think if you investigate the number of people killed by Doctors, they would all be banned too rofl
Hope that BS clears up. Euro-land certainly has a Big Brother looking over your shoulders!
Erik Y.

 

[Ricochet]

What the hell.. how stupid is that?
I bet the amount of sport related injuries amongst soccer players is like 100 times higher! But of course noone would think about banning soccer.
If I where a competitive freediver I could live with a ban of static competitions, though. They always throw a bad light at the sport.

 

[naiad]

It's Health & Safety madness. In the last few years, safety rules and Risk Assessment have threatened people's freedom to do many sports and hobbies.

I don't think static competitions are a bad thing. If people don't like them, they don't have to go to them.

I also don't think a sport should have to justify itself and try to make a good impression. Nobody has to participate in any sport, even as a spectator, so even if there are 20 blackouts in a freediving competition, that is only the concern of the people involved.

It's a matter of personal freedom. If responsible adults are not allowed to do things because they might be dangerous, it's a Big Brother state.

An example of how people can fight back:
Legal victory for the right to unsupervised swimming

Lucia

 

[Erik]

There's a good point in that article Lucia: many laws are created because idiots hurt themsleves then decide that someone else is responsible for their stupidity! The lawsuits are flung and the taxpayer inevitably pays someone's bills over it. Good to see a sensible decision over there in the UK.
Erik Y.

 

[Adrian]

Spaghetti,
Do you know in what conditions the blackouts were ocurring, was it with the Jump Blue?

 

[naiad]

There's a good point in that article Lucia: many laws are created because idiots hurt themsleves then decide that someone else is responsible for their stupidity! The lawsuits are flung and the taxpayer inevitably pays someone's bills over it.

That's true. I don't think it is fair that I am not allowed to do something because someone once did something stupid. Also, what I do should not affect the rights of others. If I have an accident, it is my problem and I don't want others to pay for it with punishing safety rules.

The 'Health & Safety madness' situation also seems to take away common sense. People think that since everything is safe, they don't have to bother with being careful.

The 'Jump Blue' thing is another example of safety nonsense.
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=49994"]The situation in Italy[/ame]

Lucia

 

[octopus]

I don't think it is fair that I am not allowed to do something because someone once did something stupid.

I am under impression that this is not ban under criminal law, but certain federation (Fipsas) just wants to examine its competition rules and regulations.
As far as I understand, anyone can organise competitions, apart from Fipsas - as they opted out.

 

[turtle]

hi all,

i wouldn't be surprised if fipsas was the only organisation legally allowed to hold comps in italian waters, therefore if fipsas bans competitions, it's as good as a nationwide ban.

I'll find out more when i arrive in Italy for the summer this monday...

could be entirely wrong though - maybe someone from Apnea Academy would be able to add something useful to this discussion unless it's too delicate a matter.

best,

fred

ps. how are you doing octopus?

 

[spaghetti]

For Adrian: the mentioned accidents occured in dynamics comps and "wet" statics. About Jump Blue, we could debate until tomorrow about pors and cons...
For everything else:
Curiously, the national freediving community made positive comments on the suspension of EVERY competition until the medical report will outcome: guys say that repeated accidents caused too many rumors and put FD in a bad shadow, so it's a good thing if a valued medical commission makes an inquiry to state if the game is dangerous or not, and - if dangerous - how to make it safer (I'm just reporting the comments going on).
Federation says the medical commission will end the inquiry by the end of July. By now, every comp is suspended and the national championship is cancelled.
My comment (worth my 2 euro cents): the members of the medical commission are the most competent italian specialists of UW related pathologies, but I wonder how will they, in 2 months, discover how to eliminate BO's in freediving practice and how to prevent long term desease (taravana, etc.), which are mainly an unknown terrain for medicine. Mah...

 

[pkotik]

The only thing that surprises me about this development in Italy is that it took this long to happen.

All of you people who have (quiet correctly) asked why logical consistency would not require bans of other activities may well find your rhetorical questions anwered with the flourish of some clerk's pen, be it in Rome, London or Brussels. The logic that underlies this hideous little swipe at freediving is on the march in Europe, and elsewhere.

As more than one forum participant has noted, the deep issue is that of personal responsibility. Deep it is. Let us wonder how many of us cry foul when this or that ban impinges on our freedoms, but are at the same time content to be relieved of responsibility for our education, medical care and other goods.

Let's not be astonished when the other shoe falls. Look for more of the same.

 

[Erik]

Let us wonder how many of us cry foul when this or that ban impinges on our freedoms, but are at the same time content to be relieved of responsibility for our education, medical care and other goods.

.

Libertarians unite! :martial
Erik Y.

 

[Jee]

I agree with Spaghetti, and doubt, that they will find a solution for the BO problem. (Why not inspecting the effect of a BO of this kind on the health instead?)

I think, that this ban strengthen the position of AIDA in Italy - which is not bad IMO.

If we think of the spirit of the great freedivers of Italy, then we could see, that the real depth disciplines are the (essential) part of that. And AIDA supports these disciplines, comparing to other organization, which don't.

 

[naiad]

My comment (worth my 2 euro cents): the members of the medical commission are the most competent italian specialists of UW related pathologies, but I wonder how will they, in 2 months, discover how to eliminate BO's in freediving practice and how to prevent long term desease (taravana, etc.), which are mainly an unknown terrain for medicine. Mah...

How to eliminate BO's in freediving practice? Maybe we could have a maximum allowed static time of 1 minute, a dynamic distance of 20m and a depth of 3m. That way, I'm sure there won't be any accidents of any kind ever again.

Seriously, if they are trying to eliminate all BO's, I don't think that is possible, as long as we have people pushing the limits and trying new techniques. I agree that it is almost impossible that they will find a solution in 2 months.

Safety nonsense brings out the rebel in me... :vangry :martial

 

[trullalla]

octopus,
only fipsas is legally allowed to organize freediving competition in italy. if somebody else do it, and the fipsas people get to know it (and they will get to know!) they send the police over, close everything up and send everybody at home. it happened already last year in andora.

aida can't do anything about it, since it's legally a non-existent freediving organization. aida italy can organize comps in france, or any other country other than italy... that's why for italian freedivers it's hard to pass to aida: they know they have to start travel abroad and pay their own expenses if they want to compete. so they stay in fipsas and everything paid for...but if now they ban competitions....there's no reason for them to stay in there any longer.

hey fred, how you doing?? too bad you're not here. there's a bunch of very nice people around!