Monster new Kiwi records

[shoutatthesky]

Well done everyone:friday Spectacular job! I'll get there one day.

 

[Walrus]

Wow some big efforts there!
Congrats Guy, didn't think would be long before you broke 9min in comp, and 226m DYN !!!
Congrats Dave, how the flying fox did you do 232m without a fin !
Congrats Kathryn & Suzy some big dynamics there, and congrats to everyone there, some really top results. I'm dissapointed I wasn't there to watch it, sounded like an amazing comp.

Cheers,
Wal

 

[Mullins]

Its a pity Dave does not come to Denmark

I would Trux, but a trip to Denmark is a bit more than I can afford at the moment.

Funny somebody mentioned Marmite - it's about as close as I come to a dietary supplement these days. Heaps of iron

how the flying fox did you do 232m without a fin

Slowly. Very slowly.... had some difficulty remembering which lap I was on.


About Bevan Dewar's 150m DNF: I've seen the video but I'm pretty sure he never did it officially.

 

[pehtran]

Dave Mullins's result in DNF just impresses me SO much!.... So congratulations!
And to all the others as well!
Miha

 

[rxcnc2]

Funny somebody mentioned Marmite - it's about as close as I come to a dietary supplement these days. Heaps of iron

I mentioned it... I don't know about iron, but according to Wikipedia the NZ version of marmite has high levels of potassium. mmm bring on the potassium doping kit ...

 

[rxcnc2]

I would Trux, but a trip to Denmark is a bit more than I can afford at the moment.

Pity considering you could have travelled easy without need to pack a monofin....

Seriously, it's really a shame that this cannot be fixed. Doesn't AIDA have some funds or some sponsors to cover at least partially the expenses of the best DNF/DYN athlete in the world? Are the sponsors blind?

 

[Jouskari]

Slowly. Very slowly.... had some difficulty remembering which lap I was on.

No wonder, thats like nine turns...

 

[trux]

Slowly. Very slowly.... had some difficulty remembering which lap I was on.

Ouch, that must be horrible! Just imagine if you really mistook, and got out at 307m !!

 

[Kars]

Personally I like it when I loose count of what lane I'm doing, from than on it's just doing lanes At each turn it's like: "shall I do another one? - yeah I think I can do another one"

I think Alexey's DNF is at least 50m less than yours, so I'm wondering how your DYN is going?

And like previously suggested, with your National TV appearance etc, isn't there a sponsorship for you possible? When you don't like selling yourself you may can get in touch with some agents that can help you get a sponsorship? And if he/she has some media qualities he could also record a cool video report, maintain a website, and build a hype of your attempt to reach some incredible new record; such as 250m DNF* To many 1 lane is already impressive, but 10 is like euh Olympic!

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

* 234 -> 250 is just 2 or 3 strokes more...

 

[Mullins]

I have investigated that a bit with somebody who has a fair amount of experience in that field and the outlook wasn't very positive. There are just no people here who do that kind of work, and as a tiny sport with little coverage we'd have been at the bottom of their lists anyway. Even olympic athletes are largely self-funded, check this out:

Kiwi opens brothel to fund campaign - Sport - NZ Herald News

For me, the most sustainable approach is still to work a regular job, train cheaply in the pool and save for occasional trips to do CWT in warmer water

 

[picasso]

I have investigated that a bit with somebody who has a fair amount of experience in that field and the outlook wasn't very positive. There are just no people here who do that kind of work, and as a tiny sport with little coverage we'd have been at the bottom of their lists anyway. Even olympic athletes are largely self-funded, check this out:

Kiwi opens brothel to fund campaign - Sport - NZ Herald News

For me, the most sustainable approach is still to work a regular job, train cheaply in the pool and save for occasional trips to do CWT in warmer water

it is sad example :-(

 

[chrismar]

it is sad example :-(

Unfortunately, we also need to consider what the sponsors get out of it too. We're a small sport with little exposure, something that's not likely to change any time soon. SPARC (the high-performance sports org in NZ) has no interest in giving to such a small sport either. End result is that except in some very special cases, none of which seem likely to occur in NZ, even the top freedivers will never recieve enough sponsorship to dive full time. It's a little easier in Europe where diving and spearfishing are a bigger deal, but even over there I imagine most sponsorship is free gear rather than free money.

 

[rxcnc2]

even the top freedivers will never recieve enough sponsorship to dive full time

True, but to pay for one round trip is an entirely different issue, and one or two zeroes less. I am still surprised that it is not possible to find a butchery or furniture shop or TV show (ask Kars) willing to put their logo on Dave's fin and wetsuit. Maybe in a set with a flight to Bahamas...

 

[mccordia]

Im not active in freediving that long, but have been busy in the world of skydiving for a number of years and aquired a lot of sponsors (though like freediving, most are gear related). The biggest key in finding sponsors is not so much advertising yourself and the actual records, but mostly trying to find a 'hook' in terms of how you'll be able to get your sponsor the biggest amount of exposure possible.

Usually these things involve 'whoring yourself out' for a lot of silly things. Trying to come up with weird bets for TV shows. Anything that gets you exposure, and thus also puts your sponsor in the spotlights.
But seeing how small freediving is, and how low the general media attention (and much like skydiving and basejumping, usually more aimed at 'look at those freaks do dangerous stuff'), it is a tough one.

But all the more respect for these top performances, and being able to realise those in terms of travel and training, all next to a dayjob!

 

[Narsil]

From conversations with Dave, Kathryn and others, there are certainly interested sponsors - several of the kiwi crew including Kerian have ongoing sponsorship relationships. While freediving is relatively small, I'd say we have a disproportionate profile and amount of TV & press coverage compared to sports with a similar membership base.

The sponsorship opportunities do tend to be gear rather than cash/ travel support focused though. Getting a couple of wetsuits a year doesn't really make a significant difference, if you are trying to find the money (and time) to compete internationally.

If I keep competing for a few more years, I might approach Grey Power New Zealand - representing the over 50s for sponsorship!! :crutch

Re the recent event, thanks for your comments - it was a good bash. I was pleased that I could push out a couple more PBs (I only seem to be able to do them in competition). It felt good to break the 9 minute barrier, but I was happier with my 226 DYN swim, quite a big improvement.

Wal - apologies for missing the Aussy comp that you are organising with Ant, would have loved to come over and support it given the number of times you've crossed the ditch.

Cheers,
Guy

 

[Mullins]

To add to what Guy said - there are some interested businesses and I've had a couple of offers which were nice to receive; but accepting them would have made things harder for me rather than easier. They would have committed me to attend more overseas comps but only covered a fraction of the cost. It's not a big deal, it's just a sport/hobby and we can't expect other people to pay for us! My only current sponsor is Cressi NZ, who give me spearfishing and freediving gear which is pretty cool.

Big improvement all right Guy, that was a great swim. Do you know what the dive time was?

 

[chrismar]

To add to what Guy said - there are some interested businesses and I've had a couple of offers which were nice to receive; but accepting them would have made things harder for me rather than easier. They would have committed me to attend more overseas comps but only covered a fraction of the cost. It's not a big deal, it's just a sport/hobby and we can't expect other people to pay for us! My only current sponsor is Cressi NZ, who give me spearfishing and freediving gear which is pretty cool.

Big improvement all right Guy, that was a great swim. Do you know what the dive time was?

Pretty sure he was dead on 4.

Yes, when the sponsor requirements outweigh the financial outlay for them, we have a problem. Not helped by being so far away from any deep diving locations. I guess if you live & work in Nice or Dahab you at least don't have to pay for plane tickets, which helps a bit.

 

[Narsil]

Pretty sure he was dead on 4.

I wasn't dead on 4, I just looked somewhat zombified :blackeye

Not sure actually - will get an idea when we get videos of the various dives.

Guy

 

[titan]

Well it is not only that poor dude, but here in Portugal the only sport that pratically exist is football everything else is almost non existant we the country in the world that praises the sport the most even more than england although we an huge amount of expetactors we only have limited number of people who actually do it in a regular basis

nowdays the information war is open media is everything,get the media get the sponsors and even fhm girl will date you just to appear more on tv this actually happens at portuguese and brazilian football players

Here even the silver medalist of the 100m had serious problems with sponsors but the media made a dram of it an voilla nike came up to give a litle help

Another path for FD is to follow as milionare sport made just to the elite like golf
who doesn't want to realize his youth dream to go underwater with sea monsters?!?