The first AIDA competition in
Thailand.
On 8-9 february
2008 the Lanta Freedive competition
was held with 17 athletes from 6
countries taking part in five
disciplines. An event by:
Blue
Planet Freediving -
Freedivcentral -
Apnea Total
- Langham Place and Freediving.biz
Strange that a
diving friendly country like
Thailand has had no Aida
competitions until now. The Freedive
school Apnea Total arranged a non
affiliated competition a few years
back on their base in Koh Tao.
Monica and Eusebio joined the Lanta
competition as safetydivers this
time, bringing a long half a doussin
of their master students. Eusebio
and Monica runs Apnea Total were
originally educated by the
organization FREE (that has totally
disappeared from the scene of
freediving). Apnea total has had
over 1500 students since they
started, more than aidas all
instructors together I believe.
In the competition we saw the first
appearance of Thai freedivers in a
competition: Pichit (a sports
psychologist from Bangkok) and
Nippon (a female freediver with a
history in many other sports). They
had done courses with the aida
instructor Francois Gautier and
proved to be very cautious divers
getting white cards in all
disciplines giving them 5th and 6th
position. There were some young guns
and first time competitors that
added many meters to their PB's and
did not get away with it.
Rules and fun
Only 5
athletes where applying for Aida
ranking - the others just competed
for the fun of it. Unfortunately
parts of the Aida rules are not
suited for beginner competitions and
some frustration was seen when red
cards had to be delivered for
apparently strong dives.
The overall
results of Lanta Freedive comp, seen
further down, are based on more lose
Aida rules - why spoil a happy
personal best without any hypoxi
with talk about an OK sign delivered
slightly after the verbal ok - and
why bother to (for the sake of
"education"), disqualify a strong
dive just because the guy surfaces
away from the line and the lips
touch the water? Now everybody had a
good day and might associate the
word AIDA with something positive:
like safety and knowledge.
The set up
The
competition was initiated by
Francois Gautier and Sebastian
Naslund meeting at the world
Championship in Egypt and both
arriving in Thailand with fresh
national records. With the help of
Langham Place Hotel: offering a 40
meter pool, and renting of the Blue
Planet dive boat based in Koh Lanta
the competition was possible.
Laurent Alexandre and his Blue Planet team
found 50 meters of depth and the
deep comp was run from a small
rubber dingy, moored behind a big
audience friendly boat were music
and food and drinks where served.
Some five cameramen followed the
competition. Thanks to lots of volonteers the five disciplines only
cost the athletes less than 35
euros.
The hotel proved
to be an exclusive set-up for a pool
competition with Static breathholds
and dynamic swimming - all to the
amusement of guests and freediver
friends. Music, BBQ and fires by the
pool gave it an exotic touch in the
warm winds and view of the andaman
sea.
The Pool
Brittish David T proved to be the
strongest in the pool, being awarded
a prize of three nights free stay at
the luxurious hotel. In the pool we
were also impressed by american
Walters 5.45 breath hold that
stumbled at the end and got a red
card, much to the surprise of Walter
who had been doing over 20 breath
holds over 6 minutes the last month.
French Tristan did a strong swim of
95 meters without fins, but was too
tired to deliver the SP in time and
was disqualified.
Aida instructor
Loic from France did a hell of a job
setting up the rope along the
bottom of the 40 meter curving pool.
Swedish Jesper swimming without
goggles followed that curve and
headed for a spotlight under water
and surfaced 20 meter away from his
lane. The judges argued some time if
there even was a lane in this pool.
The sea
The
Blue planet boat headed out into the
Andaman sea early the next day
aiming for the dive site Koh Haa,
five islands. The skipper found some
60 meter depth, but the organization
only offered 48 meters as max depth,
due to safety reasons and (yes we
admit) lack of longer rope. The
deepest dive of the day was 45
meters FIM - pull yourself down -
made by brittish Tom. The athletes
got three dives during the day but
the last deep competition at the end
of the day only attracted 6
athletes. A maximum dive close to
ones PB is more exhausting than one
thinks.
Totally the comp
saw three LMC and a short blackout
at the surface by Ai trying for a 30
meter japaneese FIM record.
Australian Christina made two
attempts at a national record in FIM
but turned early twice. Some of the
failures can be blamed at the strong
current giving the lines a curvy
look (a theme that might have been
picked up from the pool). The wind
died down and a wonderfully calm day
emerged as the last dives where
made, and the safety divers and
judges couldn’t help themselves from
delaying the departure with some of
their own experimental noseclip
dives – Eusebio the safetydiver
releasing air and dropping down to
below 40 meter. Eusebio seems to
have the astounding breath hold
capabilities at depth as guys like
Carlos and Herbert.
Louise made a
record in FIM as the first
australian woman pulling herself
down to 30 meters in a comp. In the
overall results diveinstructor Tom
(only failing in one discipline)
gathered the most points, closely
followed by Scottish filmer Ed and
Brittish David S normally sweating
it out as chef on cruisliners. David
S was just a small mouth dip away
from claiming the winnertitle.
Lanta Freedive
Competition -
Results from the
comp can also be read on the
Freedivecentral.
|
Name…… |
Nation |
STA
ap/rp |
pts |
DYN ap/rp |
pts |
FIM (ap) |
CWT
(ap) |
CNF
(ap) |
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
Tom
Whittal |
UK |
3/5.01 |
60.2 |
50/DSQ89 |
0 |
45 |
40 |
30 |
175 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
depth |
winner |
2 |
Ed Wardle |
Scotland |
4/4.38 |
55,6 |
50/62 |
31 |
20 |
30 |
18 |
154 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
David
Sayer |
UK |
3/5.06 |
61.2 |
30/50dnf |
25 |
35 |
45DSQ |
25 |
146 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
Jamie Rayner |
UK |
3/3.01 |
36,2 |
50/82 |
41 |
30 |
(30)25-6 |
18 |
145 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 |
Nippon Mukdasathien |
Thailand |
3/3.07 |
37,4 |
50/68 |
34 |
18cwt |
20 |
- |
109 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
Pichit Muangnapoe |
Thailand |
2/2,41 |
32,2 |
50/60 |
30 |
18cwt |
22 |
- |
102 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 |
David Tranfield |
UK |
4.30/4.07 |
49,4-4,6= 44,8 |
60/81 |
40,5 |
- |
- |
- |
85 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
pool |
winner |
8 |
Pelle Svingen |
Sweden |
3/5,06 |
61,2 |
1/41 |
20,5 |
- |
- |
- |
81 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 |
Jesper Agdur |
Sweden |
2.30/3.38 |
43,6 |
60/75DQ |
0 |
40/18DQ |
30 |
18-18 |
73 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
Louise
Dixon |
Australia |
- |
- |
- |
- |
(35)27-9 |
(32)27-6fim |
30fim |
69 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 |
Ai
Futaki |
Japan |
- |
- |
50/64dnf |
32 |
30 |
32BOfim |
- |
62 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 |
Matthew Smyth |
Irish |
- |
|
- |
- |
20 |
(35)32-4 |
- |
48 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13 |
Jon
R.D Argandova |
Spain |
- |
- |
- |
- |
40 |
DSQ35 |
- |
40 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 |
Walter Lyman |
USA |
6/5.45DSQ |
0 |
50/56 |
28 |
- |
- |
- |
28 |
15 |
Maddalena |
Italy |
2.39/1,50 |
0 |
40/DSQ71 |
0 |
(30)21-10 |
(30)22-9 |
15 |
39 |
16 |
Christina
Nicholas |
Australia |
- |
- |
- |
- |
(40)29-12 |
(40)25-16fim |
- |
26 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 |
Tristan Bayle |
France |
- |
- |
50/95DSQ |
0 |
40 |
- |
- |
23 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These results are
not Aida results. Aida rules where
basically followed, but only LMC/BO,
late SP and clear mouth dips gave
disqualifications.
5 athletes
fulfilled criteria for Aida ranking,
was judged by Aida rules to the full
extent and will be ranked on the
Aida webpage.