WC in Egypt - Poll men's team

[cebaztian]

WOLLE - sorry not to see you in Hurghada, but I admire your "principle stance". And you act according to your opinion, Warms my heart.

For this money you get 11 nights at a very nice hotel, incl food, all training, all transports, opening and closing ceremonies, the whole competition with three different disciplines, full security from police and military, Judges and Doping tests.... and prizes for the podium team's.

And all this, Bill, I believe is more than people want to pay for (does the police charge?) A lot of people said very early that this is too much for them.

Where is the budget alternative?

Ibiza 2001 is the biggest WC so far. Hawaii was smaller. Vancouver even smaller. Hurgada is bigger than Vancouver, but smaller than Ibiza (over 30 countries, over 40 teams in Ibiza). A WC without everybody is not a WC. And it does not help to say. "It´s cheap". People vote with their feet.

And off course 470 euro is a good price (I pay it and will enjoy my 4 star bed), but it depends on what you compare with. We all know that prices are low in Egypt outside the touristareas (I had a big breakfast in Cairo for less than a euro .
And as Wolle says: what about the sponsors we see on the webpage? I personally believe there are not much money coming from those "sponsors" - I think many are there just as a show of respect. But if there is an-all-exclusive TV right that brings in money - will any of it find its way to the actual athletes?

AND then you meet all the best freedivers in the world :friday

What is the exact fee for this? . And is there any reduction for the un-presence of the x3 world record holder in the pooldisciplines, Tom Sietas?

IF you can cover Dahab, Lysekil and Nice for 470 euro next year, please let me know how you do this so I can copy.

Nice=30euro=3 disciplines. Nordic Deep last year=170 euro=6 disciplines+a bed for 5 days.

Sebastian
... on his way to the killer whales

 

[pehtran]

Viva Lysekil!!!

(I know: out of topic but I just couldn't help myself. See you there!)

 

[Billextreme]

Hi again,

Yep... 470 euro is a lot of money. I found a trip to Thailand for less money than that. And yep again, to see all this "sponsors" on the WC website you start to thinking about what kind of sponsors this is? Well, I've been in Cairo for some weeks ago to see and help a little for this upcoming championship, and 98% of this sponsors are not IN with money at all, they are on the list just because they let Yehia run this competition in there country, and in some case they help him with document that say that he have all rights to do what he is doing (no competition without this documents!). Normally an organizer in Egypt has to pay money to many different people/ministry or government/federations to arrange something like this (!). Security from police and military are not free... I don't know what it cost, but they are heavy in to this competition in many different levels. They are simply not give anything a chance to happen ...and to put a price on this is not easy when you KNOW what could, and had, happened in the past in this region of the world.

I understand that everybody wants to freedive and compete for free, but to have all this fixed for you, I don't think it's that bad at all. 470 euro is less than WC in Vancouver ($650US) and now you dive in blue water and the plane ticket is half price than Canada.

Hopefully we will find more "money-in sponsors" in the future.

Lysekil is a VERY good competition, and I hope we will see more athletes there 2007. Nice is also a nice competition, but how much is it for food and hotel in Nice? It's 30 euro + how much more? The Dahab Triple Depht competition is a perfect competition, but I really hope that competition will be cheaper next year, I paid way to much money totally for this event this year :-(

/B

 

[wolleneugebauer]

It is not only a “principle of conditions”. I dont have enough money for it. I have to decide which competition I can afford.

I find it unfair that the wc so expensively calculated is. Remember the big words in cyprus...
And yes, Vancouver was expensiv. But the hotels and the food supply are a lot cheaper in Hurghada. 500 euro! They require the double of the otherwise usual rooms prices (dont believe the roomprice-list inside the hotel). And if you book as an organizer, the costs are even 50% from the costs for a endconsumer.

But I have to accept this is obvious a busines. In the future we can offer our wc to professional sport organizers. Then we have competition and in the end probably again more favorable starting fees (?)

I waited until today, because I did not want to endanger the wc. But a discussion over such ask is nevertheless necessary...

 

[Monkey Matt]

I agree totally with Bill. Until you understand what happens in the back ground it is hard to imagine all the permits, insurances etc that you need to run even a national event. Egypt is very cheap but it also has some unusual business arrangements where certain people require "gifts" to stamp a piece of essential paper. If you have ever dealt with an Egyptian baggage handler you will understand!
This is only a small part of the logistics involved in the event. In the UK Football Clubs have to pay for Police at their grounds so I am not surprised that the security is costing the Organisors.
For those that paid early, 470 euros provides accomodation, most food and a chance to dive with some of the best in the world. I have contacted the actual hotel that I believe the event is based at and the best rate is 35 euro per person per night. Makadi Bay is some distance from Hurghada (25km) so you would need to add daily travel costs to any cheap hotels in Hurghada.
Over all I think it represents a fair price and any one who can provide the same for less can always actually do something about it by offering to organise the next World Champioship.
With the above in mind I totally respect any one that thinks it is too much and their decision not to go.

 

[OceanMan]

Normally an organizer in Egypt has to pay money to many different people/ministry or government/federations to arrange something like this (!). Security from police and military are not free... I don't know what it cost, but they are heavy in to this competition in many different levels. They are simply not give anything a chance to happen ...and to put a price on this is not easy when you KNOW what could, and had, happened in the past in this region of the world.

... well maybe (and I say MAYBE) egypt was not quite the right place for a WC then (I don't mean to offend anyone there) ... but I really don't know all the implications involved. And I respect the job done by the guys who do the job

I am new to this kind of problems so I have a basic question (but I guess I am not the only one who ignores this and wants to know) : How does AIDA select the country which will host the freediving WC? What are the criteria?

Thanks

MC

 

[Billextreme]

How does AIDA select the country which will host the freediving WC?

First the AIDA Board sending out a request 2 years before, this is done to all AIDA National Members. Then we receive all requests for hosting the event. Then all countries that fulfills our WC Event Criteria’s* are then out to the AIDA Assembly for a vote. The one with most votes will be the host...

For this year we had ONE request to host the WC, a very good one, and this WC will be fabulous.

2007
Next year we will have a indoor Individual WC in Maribor, Slovenia. Static - Dynamic - Dynamic without fins. July 4th - 7th.

And in late October - November we will have a Individual WC in Constant and Constant without fins. Probably in Sharm El Sheikh, (Egypt again

Have a nice weekend
/B

(* you find most of our criteria's in our rules v11.2)

 

[OceanMan]

Thank you Bill for this complete answer.

I am sure this year's WC will be great.

I wish I could be there in 2007 .... need to go on training

 

[wolleneugebauer]

And in late October - November we will have a Individual WC in Constant and Constant without fins. Probably in Sharm El Sheikh, (Egypt again

phantastic!

I hope that we have a solution for lanyard in cnf by then (?)

 

[pat fish]

And in late October - November we will have a Individual WC in Constant and Constant without fins. Probably in Sharm El Sheikh, (Egypt again

(* you find most of our criteria's in our rules v11.2)

Fantastic, right! End of October is CLOSE TO PERFECT as a season. Who will host it? Yehia and Jenny again, no, Umberto?

 

[Monkey Matt]

Is it just me, or is the lack of updates on the Egypt 2006, www.apneaegypt.com web site making any one else nervous?
Maybe they have changed the address again but I can't see any updates since late Septemeber.
Does any one know any thing?

 

[perow1]

Maybe nervous isn´t the right word...
....frustrated is more like it. But that is maybe just my patience. I get frustrated when pages i regularly visit do not get updated every single day. Perhaps I am too eager all the time.

 

[Billextreme]

I guess we have 26 countries in now....

/B

 

[Walrus]

I don't know how any of you guys from Europe can complain about the cost of freediving competitions, you have it easy !
One of the main reasons Australia (I think New Zealand too?) can't get a whole team to go to the WC is it's very expensive for us. The flights are probably tripple the cost comparing someone traveling from Europe. The Australian dollar into Euro is nearly 2:1, as soon as we go overseas everything is expensive. This one trip would cost most of us probably about 1 months wages of someone with a reasonably good job.

You have so many competitions you can go to in Europe and travel by train or car, we don't have that option. I'm very proud to see quite a few Aussie and Kiwi freedivers make the top 10 lists in different events this year. If the costs weren't so prohibitive you would see even better results.

Cheers,
Wal

 

[Mullins]

Yup, cost has pretty much ruled out the Kiwis. As far as I know there is only 1 female competitor going from NZ, Niki Roderick. It's a pity because both men's and women's teams could have been very strong.

I will have to ration myself to one overseas comp per year. This year's WC was going to be it, but I had to pull out because it was getting too expensive. If I compete at the individual WC next year I'll need to choose between pool & CW events, can't do both.

Maybe NZ should put in a bid to host the next WCs in Lake Taupo. Hey, we got the Rugby World Cup and we don't even have a stadium for it yet

 

[efattah]

I thought I would let people know that for the Vancouver 2004 Worlds, even with the $650 USD registration fee, the competition lost money and CAFA had to pay the extra bills.

 

[Mullins]

The entry fee isn't all that bad, at least from where I stand. I'd be happy enough paying 475 Euros (or whatever it is) for a comp like that given that safety divers, accommodation, drug tests etc are included. It's the airfares that are stopping us.

 

[cebaztian]

One week to go and not much talk about the WC.

I have som interesting news for you.
The 5th Aida world cup will see the first "real" africans participating. I mean real black guys born and bred in Africa. And from a very small country.

Eritrea (located on the horn of Africa) will send a mixed team of three.

More information can be found here:
http://www.fridykning.org/eritrea/

Sebastian

 

[Evita]

Well done - congratulations on succeeding with this project! Greetings to Rahel, see you in less than a week...

 

[BennyB]

It's very quiet considering how close we are....haven't even seen a list of competitors!

Team Australia (me) is flying out with half of team UK tomorrow morning. Looking forward to getting wet again - it's been 2 months since my last quarry dive and May was my last ocean dive!!

Cheers,
Ben