thoughts about alternative competitions

[HJ]

Hey Guys,

Been pondering an idea. Just early thoughts; testing the waters...

Would you come to a private, multi-day, multi-event competition for select water sports? Not mainstream stuff like swimming but alternative/action in- or under-water. Like what people here do. Prize-money, sponsors, a hosting resort/location, and a TV deal. Probably in North America to start. I'm thinking of a big pool with some depth; maybe at a resort. Make it TV and spectator-friendly. Make Breaching one of the events but include others as well. Dynamic, static, maybe others. Invent a few more. Give the whole thing a unique name.

I'm a marketing guy and entrepreneur who helped promote the sport of Triathlon in its early days (including its first move toward the Olympics), so it wouldn't be that hard to put this together if all the pieces can be aligned. Just takes time and other passionate people to get involved.

If anyone is interested, post reply here or send me a private message.

Haraldo

P.S. Do AIDA or other orgs have rules for competing in "non-sanctioned" events?

 

[James Jay]

Hi Haraldo

I do not have the talent for such an event. However, I would love to watch this on tv.

What kind of prize money are you talking about. I might start practicing if the price is right.:t

 

[HJ]

Hi Jim... thanks for reply. I was wondering why no one was saying a peep.

Your interest in watching it on TV is a good sign. TV would be a key component.

Prize-money is to-be-determined, of course, but for a first-time event, how does $50K - $100K USD total purse sound? This would be split up among the different events. The recent Maloof Money Cup (for skateboarding) had $450K purse with $100K going to the winner of the main event. It was their second year (Orange County, Calif, USA), and I watched it on TV. Of course, skateboarding is a much larger market for "youth-market action sports", but it's one model to use.

I'm still wondering about what the current orgs (AIDA, CMAS) would think of a private professional event, and if they'd have issues with athletes competing in something not sanctioned by them (although I would ask them if they wanted to sanction it first). Anyone have insight into how these organizations would react?

In other sports there are sometimes special "tournaments" that fall outside the governing body's scope. The sport of Triathlon actually developed in combination with prize-money events and simultaneous amateur events. And currently, there are both professional triathlon events and international amateur events (e.g., Olympics).

Any other thoughts?

H

 

[chrismar]

Sounds a bit like the CMAS games: freediving, underwater hockey, underwater rugby, UW target shooting, finswimming, etc.

CMAS tried, CMAS failed. It's a nice idea, but getting funding is nigh impossible.

 

[HJ]

Hey chrismar,

Thanks for the lead to CMAS games. Yeah, something like that but done "American style". Not being disrespectful to existing groups, but I've dealt with international sports governing bodies before, and -- how shall I say this tactfully -- there is a certain amount of inertia and/or cumbersome bureaucracy that tends to slow down nimbleness and out-of-the-box thinking for creative and innovative ideas.

I don't consider CMAS's "failure" an obstacle. Funding is always there if you know how to get it and understand the market forces at work to bring willing stakeholders together.

So I'll keep blue-skying this idea and turning it around in my head. If anyone has further thoughts, please chime in.

And chrismar, I see that you're in NZ, but if there were to be such an event in the U.S. with a lot of hoopla, would you come and participate? What would be the deciding factors for you to do it?

Thanks.

H

 

[chrismar]

Don't let me put you off by any means. If such a thing existed, I would be keen as mustard I can assure you.

As for deciding factors, a lot of it comes down to time and money. Getting to Aarhus for the pool WCs is costing me US$3000 in flights alone, while the Bahamas for the depth WCs is setting me back a more reasonable US$2200 (special deals; I was lucky). Once you add in food and accomodation for a decent stay, the finances start to take a bit of a battering. More of an issue is time though. I'm a contractor, so all leave is unpaid and if you factor in lost income, I'd probably have a bit of a cry to myself.

Basically, if you could build up a good structure and get some interest in it, I'm there. The time & money argument isn't really your problem, but with some genuine coverage, sponsorship possibilities open up. Ideally it should be depth and pool events, but that really makes location a bit of a mare...

 

[HJ]

Keen as mustard... must be a Kiwi saying, eh?

Time and money -- isn't it always! So let me get this right: the Pool and Depth World Championships (AIDA?) are in different locations at different times? Didn't realize that, although upon reflection it makes sense as the requirements are very different, as you point out.

I wonder if a compromise of Depth and Distance/Time could be met at one facility/location?

Hmmm....

 

[DivingDane]

add in:

- underwater target shooting
- undeerwater obsticle course, person with the fastest time wins, you can only continue the obsticle course submerged, when you have to breath you must stop come to the surface breath up and submerge again before continuing.
- moving something along the bottom on breath hold, team event similar to what was in that coast guard movie, someone must be in contact with the object at all times but can only be moved when both are in contact with the weight.
- underwater tricks, judged similar to platform diving.

just a couple of thoughts, it could be run similar to the extreme games series which would leave plenty of opportunity for major sponsors, i think it would make for great Saturday afternoon or sunday TV

Keen as Mustard is a southern thing i think we use it here in OZ as well!

DD

 

[HJ]

Now we're talking!

Obstacle course is a natural. Time trial style, as you describe. Except maybe when you come up to breathe, you're out. Or time penalty. FYI: obstacle course TV shows are popular in U.S. right now. "Wipeout" is a current one. It includes water but only when competitors are falling in it! Plus all the obstacle courses they do on "Survivor".

Moving something along the bottom sounds familar. I know that surfers in Hawaii do it for training. Could be interesting, especially if it's a race with multiple teams at once.

Not sure about "tricks", except Breaching, which I guess is the opposite of springboard or platform diving. And I'm not sure "rhythmic gymastics" would work underwater. But who knows? Ribbons, hoops, balls, ... can't you see it?!

The extreme games idea is right on the money. And now we have at least two TV viewers lined up. Only need a few million more.

Good ideas.

H

 

[Jouskari]

Here is my view of things.

Been thinking about how making UW/Apnea games more crowdpleasing as well. My experience (helped organize a AIDA national comp once) is that if the crowd knows the competitors and their previous performances the current pool dishiplines are quite exciting for the spectator. One problem is how to make the Depth dishiplines more attractive. Getting a videofeed from the bottom isn´t enough as it doesn´t relay any of the effort put into a deep depth perfomance. I think that the way to go here is to get depth, heart rate, SpO2, decent/acent speed and previous competitors perfomances on the screen (tv or Inet stream) to give the viewer a better view of what is happening during the dive. Think about how cool it would be to see a diver acend from the depths while his SP02 rate diclines rapidly as the surface is coming closer. Will he/she make it?

I realize that this requires technology that doesn´t even excist, but just some ideas.... we´re painting the sky yes?

As for the obstacle course. Put one of these in the hands of the competitor in a pool course and we´ll have speed and dangerous situations for a adrenaline crawing audience: CAYAGO LUXURY SEATOYS


In the end it´s all about marketing and getting enough momentum (current problem with non-profit organization comps). Think about it... even chessplayers have sponsors and tv-coverage.

 

[mortenkv]

This is getting interesting... Im there watching as TV-viewer no. 3

 

[HJ]

I realize that this requires technology that doesn´t even excist, but just some ideas.... we´re painting the sky yes?

Sky painting from the water. Yes.

And wow, that SeaBob is something else! Did you see the two almost run into each other? Spills and chills. How fast do those things go?
CAYAGO LUXURY SEATOYS

 

[HJ]

This is getting interesting... Im there watching as TV-viewer no. 3

So we already have TV viewers in U.S., Australia, and Denmark. I'll just add a few zeroes after the numbers.

 

[Haydn]

Best belly flop. Highest human tower (base man submerged). Apnea distance hand stand walking. Most underwater tumble turn rotations. Longest one hand dangle off the end of a diving board. Fastest 100m sprint in a 5 metre length pool. Swimmers attached to end of fishing rod, they must be reeled in by a fisherman. Longest underwater time with one standard air tank. Static apnea maths test. Oh, my favorite.....No Limits Dynamic Apnea, underwater distance whilst towed by a speedboat, 30 mph and two minutes underwater will get you one mile. Swimming races whilst towing a speedboat. Longest apnea whilst holding a water polo ball underwater, you lose when you let the ball go or any part of you reaches the surface. Ducking each other.....you treadwater face to face with your opponent and place one hand on each others head, first person to be ducked loses. Underwater strip fight, ladys in pairs, wear standard speedos, first to get stripped, loses. Oh! now I'm getting carried away...............

 

[HJ]

Well, we are getting silly now, aren't we? But sometimes out of sillyness comes genius.

Underwater somersaults competition is already being done. Here's a fun old video of it:
[ame=http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2849799/most_consecutive_underwater_somersaults]Most Consecutive Underwater Somersaults - Video[/ame]
Check out the glass "pool" and live audience! Do not attempt this at home! (if you were to build a glass underwater box) Much better than David Blaine's hokey Las Vegas breathold stunt. And this one in the water sphere for one week:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikCKDSCINtE]YouTube - David Blaine Under Water at the Lincoln Center - NY May 2006[/ame]

Maybe the underwater pyramid should be inverted! Keep adding people and pushing the first person down. As soon as she gives up, it's over.

I like the ducking one. Close contact. Sort of like arm-wrestling in the water. And underwater strip fight is a natural. I was already thinking about Underwater Fighting, but you've taken it to a new level!

We may have reached the extreme conclusion of this thread! But I know people are thinking about all this. Sebastian in Sweden has already organized "alternative multi-events" with his BizzyBlueHole and NordicDeep coming up. I think he's in the right direction (for expanding the appeal of subaquatic sports to more people).

Some fun thoughts. I'll keep pondering, and let's keep this thread alive as long as you want!

H

 

[Haydn]

I dont get it, the girl has a blackout and still gets the world record?