Live from Egypt 2006

were can i find some photos from the wc 2006?

Here's a couple:
1) Opening Ceremony scramble (10 points if you can spot Team Australia )
2) Herbert static training... nice view hey?
3) Crowd watching the big guys do their static
4) Ninja Apnea
5) Will Winram after his national record dynamic 174m

Cheers,
Ben

WOW!!! thanx... nice photos... like to see more...
hugs...

The best team overall - Sweden

kimc said:

Who was the head Team Coach for each team at WC?

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I doubt that any country has a long term organized training with someone in charge of the whole team effort. Freedivers are very individualistic persons (often) and there are no resources for these kind of things (generally). The coach at the competition site might not be the one training the athlete (if there is a trainer). But I would say that the coach on site is very important, even part of the performance, especially in static. Primarily taking a close-to-the edge-athlete through the SP, and secondly protect the athlete for the hassle and buzz that is going on around. And stop the athlete from going to far or inspiring them to give that little extra.

In the swedish mens team Per (our best point collector) is very much a lonewolf. He would be happy to perform without a present coach. I coached him in static and my main objective was to stop him from going to far (the swedish record was very close . Bill, as far as I know takes care of his own training and is a very stable guy in competition, he rarely fails (no red cards). Weine, the third man trains in a group in Stockholm that calls themselves team Olympia (or similar). These are probably the hardest training poolgroup in Sweden (now joined by Tobias who was our alternate). Weine wants no coach, but we forced one upon him. Emil was one of our coaches.

The silver ladies was very close to not having a team. In the last minute we managed to get Isabelle joining the team. (Her PB were about 20 meters in depth and 115 in DYN and 5 min static). We knew that if we could get her to perform the ladies could maybe get a 4th or even third place. I train in the same club as her and spend the last 2 months advicing her in training (and she does not shy away from training . The depth was her "akilles-heal" so alot of pre-depth excercises had to be done. In the WC she did 41, Bill wisely took of more meters than planned in the last minute. During training with me she had gotten down to 50 meters but her willpower was sometimes stronger than her oxygen levels, so to speak. Bill coached her during the comp and we got the most out of her (128 in DYN) and she managed two SP's with traces of LMC (a close call). Lotta as far as I know takes care of her own training which she does often with Linda P (both residing in Dahab). Annelie is not a team player and likes pushing herself - so as her coach I was very worried. One year ago Annelie and I sat down and made a long term training plan for the both of us (training/inspiring each other) so far I have been the better trainer of us. In her last DYN all she had to do was 107 meters to take home the silver, she did 126 (she was happier than me about those extra meters).

Sweden has taken part in five WC (including some inofficial early ones) our rankings have been: 5,4,3,2 (mixed team), 5 and now our first ladies team Silvermedal. All white cards.

Sebastian
"proud"

kimc said:

All freediver’s have there own training or trainer, but in a WC there is usually one person with the final word in every team. Who was person this in the France and in the Swedish team? I suppose that Kirk was the one in Team Canada.

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In the swedish team; Bill. A lot of credit to our non competing members aswell...

kimc said:

in a WC there is usually one person with the final word in every team.

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This is normally the team captain. Top 2 countries' captains ( in country alphabetic order ) were Ben Noble for Australia, and Herbert Nitsch for Austria. Easy, huh. For Great Britain, we tried to sneak in two - Matt Kitchen and myself. ( I thought that was OK, as I was representing the Men and Matt the women's team. ) Anyway, we weren't allowed to do that, so Matt was the main captain, and I was deputy.

Shoutout to DSV!!

Senor Verbeck! I'm trying to contact you but the email address you have here is kaput. PM me please.

Sven

Finally got some photos up on Flick, feel free to have a look.

2006 Freedive World Championships - a photoset on Flickr

Cheerio,
Ben

Sven,

It's deronverbeck67@hotmail.com

Talk at you soon.

DSV

WOW someone broke their Kerschow monofin?

How did this happen?

Benny,

Thanks for sharing the photos!

Highlights for me:
-Seeing that Kaz has his hair back!
-The owner of the nice Brazilian caboose
-The broken fin photo (the horror, the horror!)
-All the smiling faces of old friends

Thanks!

Pete

The fin went on the 5th lap in the original dynamic pool. I'd been using it for constant training with back to back PB's for about 5 days so I was pretty happy with it thus far. But when we went to the pool the edge was very slopey (you couldn't stand up at the pool end), the water was cloudy and you couldn't see the end of the pool. When I did a longer dynamic, on my second turn I couldn't see the end and ended up in a bad position and the fin was pressed against the wall and was bent to the slope of the wall. When I kicked off the wall the pressure was too much and it snapped. Several hundred euro up the spout in a second :vangry If Elisabeth Kristoffersen and a couple of other girls hadn't had been there I probably would have burst out in tears, but I managed to keep myself together

I sent the photos off to Kershkov and he's pretty sure it's irrepairable. Problem is that I have this fin sitting in my bedroom now and I haven't got a clue what to do with it. The footpockets are outstanding, i'd love to try and put them on another fin. Trouble is, i'm an accountant and not really knowledgeable in those sorts of things

Pete - agree with you on nearly all those points. Now that i've been to a few comps this side of the planet i'm starting to meet some familiar faces - it's great to see these guys more than once.

Cheerio,
Ben

In the UK on Sunday (tomorrow) morning Transworld Sport will have a segment on the World Championship. Program starts at 7am on Channel 4, not sure how much will be on though, probably just a minute or 2.

For others outside of the UK you might be able to see it here:
channel4.com - TV Listings
There's some sort of internet viewing facility there.

Cheerio,
Ben

Look, the aida international page has been updated with a picture from the WC. I have a feeling that anytime soon we might even see a result list below the first three teams.

http://www.aida-international.org/

Sebastian

Ok.... so they had turkish wrestling, elephant polo but no freediving. Figures.... :head

drhesham1 said:

but as word of truth everyone has to be honest with himself
and the others
we ve to admit that this competetion was really very successfully and organization was great
this is the first aida championship to be filmed live from under the water
\this is the first aida to be televised live for 2 channels and rec for 8 channels and many of you knewed that reuters was filming there
and the athletes themselves felt like stars being filmed even under the water for 100 meters or more which hasnt happen before in the history of aida competetions .....
then the assholes who did nothing but pointing with finger of blame to yehia
did nothing like this before and many of them were wishing to take the competetion to organize it themselves or let their girl friend organize it and we all know the story
this is also the first competetion as the athletes themselves say that the ceremoney that was done in the begining and the end was never done before
also the certificates for athletes that will be written in gold and sent to them
ve never been made before
NO BLACKOUTS was caused by the organizer fault (medical point of view)
and on the other hand the delay and also the cancel of the trial on the day after the competetion i saw it and i was there the judge cancel because the rope has 3 meters cut from the begining and simply the judges could have made the trial starting with the robe from 10 metres it is the same especially if u know that the line has 40 meteres longer than the number the athlete was intending to go for .so why the judges esp grante was doing like this
also i saw myself dirty RACISM toward the ariterian team when the judge grant was intending to disqualify before the official top because the team was in the water not the warm line before there warming could ve been started but the rest of judges brotest him as they said this will look very fool from him ....
maaaaaaaaany things i could tell you i saw by myself that the championship was really very good and never done like this before and many hidden hands tried to ruin this especially the ones who tried to organize it or let their girlfriends organize of course u understand me
everyone who has been to previous AIDA told us this was the first time also to ve great hotel like this one FORT ARABESQUE and how they were suffering in the previous competetions from the bad hotels and they couldnt train or sleep or eat ...
also whereelse in the world u can find sunny days in december ???
or u can find 200 mteres depth and more just next to the beach where u can go to your room quickly after the dive or we can clear any emergency as far as 1 minute ...???
everything was choosen perfectly everything was organised like was not done ever before as everyone says
and i want to say to those idiots who only blame ...
THIS WAS THE BEST AIDA EVER
and if not try to answer the questions above
and also look what ve they done or anyone in the world before has done what has been done succesfully here in hurghada ...
dont blame like fools give the people their rights especialy who made the effort to help them
i m not defending yehia or attacking them i only say what i saw by myself and what everyone feels here
THANKS YEHIA AGAIN FOR THIS GREAT EVENT
dr-hesham

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dr-hesham I am sad to see you level an accusation at me about being a racist. I find it amazing that you speak of things that you have absolutely no knowledge of and are so ignorant about. You clearly have neither knowledge of the regulations nor any idea what happened that day. Such language, at least in the US, is very inflammatory.

I have to say this is the first time I have ever been accused of being racist. I am sure my many black friends will be surprised to find out I have such flaws. The race of the athlete you speak of has nothing to do with why he was DQed. He and his coach entered the water an hour prior to his official top. That is in violation of the regulation. Frankly, we should have prevented him from performing at all. We wanted to give him the opportunity to possibly set a new national record to help grow the sport in his country. If we had been acting, as we should have, he never would have performed at all. If you had any clue at all you would understand that another very white athlete was DQed for the exact same thing that same day.

I would suggest you restrict your comments to things you have direct knowledge of. If you believe I have the power to dictate to the whole of the jury what is done you are crazy.

I actually liked you very much. I thought your character was better than this. I have no idea why you feel the need to post such clearly ignorant comments about things you have no direct knowledge of. I take this type of liable as a serious attack on my character. I suggest in the future you address such concerns about my character with me face to face. I am happy to address any concerns directly with you in person any time. If you feel the need the next time you see me you are welcome to address any problem you have with me in person instead of throwing out libelous things that only clearly paints your complete ignorance of AIDA regulations and the events of a competition you were supposed to be the event doctor at.

There was no racism or prejudice in any of the decisions made at Worlds. In fact, if anything the work of the judges was only hampered by the efforts of the organizer. I do not know what perspective you were looking from, but I can say with zero reservations that this was the single worst organized event in any context I have ever been around. The sad thing is that it never got any better. The best thing that the organizer did was sleep through most of the static competition. So, if you wish to be constructive why don’t you provide actual events and information that actually occurred? The fabrications and lies you tell are only harming your standing as a doctor and in the freediving community.

It may have been televised but it was only televised in Egypt. He did nothing to provide video press releases or daily press conferences. No updates on the website and nothing to promote freediving to the wider global audience. So, was the television for freediving or for the ego and family standing of his family in Egypt only? International sponsors will have nothing to do with freediving after this because there simply was no press or promotion happening outside of Egypt. The sad thing is even if he manages to sell some footage now it is very much late.

I can assure you 100% that if outside people did not step in to save the event from the organizer this event would have been canceled several times over. I do not think anyone understands just how close and how many times every single day this event was almost completely canceled.

So, if you want to try to blame me for having a character flaw I would suggest you attack me not protecting my ability to judge with a clear head because I was doing almost everything else on top of being a judge.

If you want to comment on the cutting of the rope, which you were not even in the area for, you should get your facts straight. The lines were a problem because they were never pulled from the barge in spite of being asked to be pulled after the completion of the worlds event. Gee, then the line got caught up on the bottom with the full weight of the barge pulling on them. This stretched the line an additional two meters. I asked for the lines to be pulled again. Never happened. Then they got hung up again. The lines were cut to get them off the barge. Should I have stood there at the site to make sure the organizer pulled the lines each time. Hum, I should not have to. Oh wait we had to get back in to handle the results which the organizer could not manage to do himself. His job and it was not prepared for in any way.

I asked Yehia the night before Wil’s last attempt day if everything was ready to go and told him if he could not get it ready that we just cancel the day that night. He said everything was fine. He had to know the line had been cut. He is supposed to be a judge. I showed up to checkout the lines and such and the line had not been cut at two or three meters it had been cut ten meters above the bottom plate. So, it is not a simple matter of just going a few meters deeper, it means no 1.5 meter zone, no official plate or area for it plus having to come up with more line to tie in the camera. There were no proper bottom plates because the two that Kirk donated were lost. So, how at the last minute am I supposed to create a line that fulfills the regulations and is properly stretched and measured with all the appropriate markings in ten minutes when Wil wants to begin to dive? This process takes hours.

The only person at fault for the loss of Wil’s last attempt is Yehia. If you had even the most basic understanding of the regulation you would understand why this had to be canceled.

So, I suggest you get a clue before you show your ignorance in such profound ways. I look forward to the time when you can discuss your concerns with me in person face to face as someone with class and integrity would have done in the first place.


Grant W. Graves

cebaztian said:

I have a feeling that anytime soon we might even see a result list below the first three teams.

Sebastian

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Hi Seb,

A full .xls results list has been online for quite a while.

You find it at Aida International --> Menu 'World Championships' --> Menu 'Team Champions' --> Bottom of this page.

Direct link:
http://www.hotweb.se/aspportal1/scripts/hurghada 2006 results.xls

Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen

Any news on when the overall ranking lists for 2006 will appear?

Sorry if that's a bit off-topic. Here is a report ( diary-esque from one GB team member ) about the WC:

British Freediving Association - Competitions: 2006: Team World Championships

The latest copy of Diver ( Feb edition ) will have a news article as well...due out in a day or two.

nice article Mark - makes you feel just like you're there - only without wanting to crack a certain person over the head with your extra heavy weight belt!

Looking at that photo of the broken bottomplate in the BFA article, I realise now that it wasn't a broken plate at all...... it wasn't a plate at all...... Pacman had attacked the rope!!!!!