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.