The second annual Andaman Freediving Challenge has been a great success. Thank you for the support of the 2 judges, Francois Gauthier and Patrick Bouillon and also to our guest of honor, Guillaume Nery. But most of all, thank you to all the athletes that has joined this challenge. We hope to see you all next year.
We also would like to thanks TAT Krabi (Tourism Authority of Thailand) which without them, the competition would have never occured. Mares, represented by Matthias Dorsch has been great sponsor as they offered all the prizes to all the winners of this competition along with Rawi Warin Resort and Spa.
On the 10th of February 2009, we had the opening ceremony at Rawi Warin Resort's pool and Laurent Pinci, the organizer along with the judges have explained the AIDA rules to every athletes. Then, all the athletes had the time to train and get familiar with the pool layout. As I recall, everyone enjoyed this day of preparation.
On the 11th, the first day of competition. The deep sea disciplines. Constant weight with fins and without plus Free immersion was on the planning. We went to Koh Haa. An amazing dive site with a huge variety of marine life including cavern and a stunning lagoon. However, to find the depth, we had to go outside of this zone where we had 55m depth on the line. Once the boat has moored up. We prepared the official zone and the warm up lines. Monica Ganame, Marc Guerrin, Karl Marchant and Dave Summerfield was the safety diver. Please note that we didn't have any black out or samba, this day.
As the athletes went on one by one and performed well with the maximum depth of 52m hold by Lionel Lavabre, from France. Ao Nang Princess boat arrived on our side with the press and Thai official such as the gouvernor of Krabi and TAT officials. They all seem interested in what was going on and told us later on that they were really happy of the event.
Guillaume Nery has also participated at the challenge and touched of course the bottom but once in the Andaman water, he felt something that he hasn't felt for a long time...the joy to dive in a warm sea with great diving condition !!
Sebastien Naslung has joined us as well and participate with 2 dives. Free immersion and Constant weight without fins. I recall that Sebastien Naslung is from Sweden and recognised as one of the best Freediver in his country.
The day finished around 4.30 pm and came back to Lanta to end up in a very nice restaurant eating delicisous Thai food. Then everyone went to bed...exausted.
On the 12th of February, the pool competition. Held in Rawi Warin Resort with 41m lenght. The perfect spot ! Really...We started with static with a best of 5'25'' from Michael Board, UK.
But before going with the dynamic, I would like to mention that 2 woman athletes were with us and scored a national record for their country. Louise Dixon, from Australia did 33m in Free immersion and Ingela Karlsson from Finland did 41m in constant weight with fins, 17m with no fins and 37m in Free immersion. That makes her the best in deep disciplines in all over Finland !!
As for the dynamic, we had lots of suprises !! With 13 athletes, we had 3 beginners and one person that hasn't trained for years and guess what ? One of them ended up first in the man categorie with 90m with no fins and 96m with fins. His name is Julian Van Heerden from South Africa. To mention the others has they performed brillantly without failing to the surface protocol ; James Valentine and Jay Davidson for their first time earned lots of respect by particpating.
You are welcome to visit our website to see all the results of this 2nd competition: http://blueplanetdivers.net/freediving.htm
For further more informations or interested to join for our 3rd annual competition 2010, you can contact us at: blueplanetdivers@gmail.com
We also would like to thanks TAT Krabi (Tourism Authority of Thailand) which without them, the competition would have never occured. Mares, represented by Matthias Dorsch has been great sponsor as they offered all the prizes to all the winners of this competition along with Rawi Warin Resort and Spa.
On the 10th of February 2009, we had the opening ceremony at Rawi Warin Resort's pool and Laurent Pinci, the organizer along with the judges have explained the AIDA rules to every athletes. Then, all the athletes had the time to train and get familiar with the pool layout. As I recall, everyone enjoyed this day of preparation.
On the 11th, the first day of competition. The deep sea disciplines. Constant weight with fins and without plus Free immersion was on the planning. We went to Koh Haa. An amazing dive site with a huge variety of marine life including cavern and a stunning lagoon. However, to find the depth, we had to go outside of this zone where we had 55m depth on the line. Once the boat has moored up. We prepared the official zone and the warm up lines. Monica Ganame, Marc Guerrin, Karl Marchant and Dave Summerfield was the safety diver. Please note that we didn't have any black out or samba, this day.
As the athletes went on one by one and performed well with the maximum depth of 52m hold by Lionel Lavabre, from France. Ao Nang Princess boat arrived on our side with the press and Thai official such as the gouvernor of Krabi and TAT officials. They all seem interested in what was going on and told us later on that they were really happy of the event.
Guillaume Nery has also participated at the challenge and touched of course the bottom but once in the Andaman water, he felt something that he hasn't felt for a long time...the joy to dive in a warm sea with great diving condition !!
Sebastien Naslung has joined us as well and participate with 2 dives. Free immersion and Constant weight without fins. I recall that Sebastien Naslung is from Sweden and recognised as one of the best Freediver in his country.
The day finished around 4.30 pm and came back to Lanta to end up in a very nice restaurant eating delicisous Thai food. Then everyone went to bed...exausted.
On the 12th of February, the pool competition. Held in Rawi Warin Resort with 41m lenght. The perfect spot ! Really...We started with static with a best of 5'25'' from Michael Board, UK.
But before going with the dynamic, I would like to mention that 2 woman athletes were with us and scored a national record for their country. Louise Dixon, from Australia did 33m in Free immersion and Ingela Karlsson from Finland did 41m in constant weight with fins, 17m with no fins and 37m in Free immersion. That makes her the best in deep disciplines in all over Finland !!
As for the dynamic, we had lots of suprises !! With 13 athletes, we had 3 beginners and one person that hasn't trained for years and guess what ? One of them ended up first in the man categorie with 90m with no fins and 96m with fins. His name is Julian Van Heerden from South Africa. To mention the others has they performed brillantly without failing to the surface protocol ; James Valentine and Jay Davidson for their first time earned lots of respect by particpating.
You are welcome to visit our website to see all the results of this 2nd competition: http://blueplanetdivers.net/freediving.htm
For further more informations or interested to join for our 3rd annual competition 2010, you can contact us at: blueplanetdivers@gmail.com
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