Australian Freediving News                                          

26 July 2009

SUUNTO Trans Tasman competition

Australia's first ever freedive competition Host: Ant Williams Type: Sports - Tournament Network: Global Start Time: Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 8:00am End Time: Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 3:00pm Location: Ian Thorpe Pool Street: Ultimo City/Town: City of Sydney, Australia

This World Ranking pool event is being held in Sydney as a National with Guests. The competitor list is short, around 12 athletes with 2 wild card entries. The event will feature two days of competition over the weekend of 15, 16 August at the Ian Thorpe 50m pool in Ultimo, Sydney. It will be the first ever AIDA Australia competition and President Ben Noble will be attending as a competitor. Sydney Freedivers are joining as an event partner, and one or two of their athletes will be vying to set National records. Presiding judges will be Fran Rose (B), Walter Steyn (E), Andy Ross (E). Reserve judges include Ben Noble (E), Ant Williams (E), Jasmine Bastow (E) and the medic will be Joy Cottle. Event managers are Ant Williams & Ben Noble, event organiser is Jochen Werner.


27 April 2009

New Australian Free Immersion record

THE Australian Freediving Association is pleased to announce that Seamus Murray of Sydney, NSW has claimed another record in the Free Immersion discipline, by diving to a depth of 52m. The dive took place on 26 April 2009 as part of the Bizzy Blue Hole competition in Dahab, Egypt. Murray’s dive has beaten the previous record by 1m, set by Ben Noble in the Triple Depth competition in June 2008, also in the Blue Hole in Dahab. Free Immersion requires the freediver to pull themselves down a rope and back up again without the assistance of any propulsion methods such as fins.

Murray’s dive did not go without incident - afterwards he said that he could not equalise after 44m so had to navigate a 180 degree flip turn, a technique sometimes used to aid equalisation. This manoeuvre, whilst successfully allowed him to equalise to the bottom, almost became his undoing when a device on the rope, designed to stop the diver’s safety lanyard 1m above the bottom plate, effectively stopped Murray early as his safety lanyard was attached to his ankle. A number of twists and turns allowed Murray to reach the bottom and start his ascent to the surface, upon where his final surprise lay when the organisation boat drifted too close to the competition rope and Murray struck the boat with his head on surfacing. Luckily the bump on the head did not affect his ability to perform the required surface protocol and the dive was validated as successful by AIDA judges present.

This is the second time Sydneysider Murray has held the Free Immersion Australian Record, in October 2007 he set the first record at 45m. It is also the 7th Australian record to fall this month, making April 2009 officially the busiest month for freediving records in Australian history.



25 April 2009

New Australian Static Apnea record

ANT Judge, a member of Sydney Freedivers Club, has set a new Australian National Record in Static Apnea with a breath hold of 7 minutes and 7 seconds. This performance surpasses the previous record of 7 minutes and 2 seconds held by Walter Steyn set on the 15th of Sept, 2006 at the USAA Nationals in Kona, Hawaii. Judge's performance was realized during a record attempt at Harbord on the Northern Beaches, Sydney on Friday 24th April, 2009. Present at the attempt were AIDA International Judges Jasmine Bastow (AUS) and Ant Williams (NZD); Ant commenting afterwards "it was a strong performance."

"It was a tough one with my heart rate out the roof from all the attention," Judge later commented, "but I knew I just had to do it". He wanted to thank the judges, Ant Williams and Jasmine Bastow, his training partner and coach for the attempt Chris Harding and the other Sydney Freedivers members who helped during training over the last few months. He plans to increase this record over the next few days before he heads off to Hawaii to work on his depth training next week.  



11 April 2009

Australian Steyn becomes 10TH person to reach 100M

The Australian Freediving Association is proud to announce that Walter Steyn has become the 10th person in history to have swum completely self powered to a depth of 100m and back on a single breath of air, in the Constant Weight competitive freediving discipline. On April 10, 2009 Steyn, 36, dived to the depth during the Vertical Blue freedive competition held at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas. The dive took 3 minutes and 12 seconds to complete, and was validated by AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea) International Judges Grant Graves and Linden Wolbert. The Constant Weight discipline requires a freediver to hold their breath and dive to a nominated depth using a set of fins or a monofin. Once the freediver has reached the depth they must retrieve a tag and swim back to the surface, upon which they must complete a surface protocol within 15 seconds of them surfacing. Constant Weight is one of the most respected and contested disciplines in the sport.

Steyn set his latest record on the 8th day of competition, he had previously held the record at 77m but has broken it 5 times during Vertical Blue, including a 98m dive the previous day which left him fatigued and suffering from severe narcosis, a condition where the extreme pressure at depth causes intoxication and can leave a freediver mentally impaired whilst at depth. Steyn admitted that during his 98m dive he was "narked as a skunk" which made the dive much more difficult.

Steyn is also a Committee member and co-founder of the Australian Freediving Association, the Australian representative of AIDA International. On behalf of the Committee and its members we would like to congratulate Walter on his amazing accomplishments in the Bahamas.