bests

Rudi

http://www.yasemindalkilic.com/en/blog-news/about-freediving-organizations-and-verification-policies.html

Besides some minor procedures I disagree with, there are 3 major issues with AIDA rules that are unacceptable to me and I don’t feel like they are going to change. Since when we were very active years ago and had all the energy and motivation to fight about these things I did nothing but waste our time, so I don’t have much confidence that things now will be different.

1- The fact that there are no safety divers required. I disagree about this putting the safety divers in danger, there are a lot of very good divers out there that can perform a safety job safely. I think that there are way too many parameters that need to be perfect for the counter ballast system to work properly and I don’t believe it’s a reliable safety system. And particularly with the variable ballast categories due to the sled on the line, the huge amount of weight required to keep the line straight. The sled, the weight of sled, thick line and the bottom weight making it close to impossible for counter ballast to work.

2- The fact that there is no bottom judge or a camera required to observe what the freediver does midwater. Bottom camera sees only a few meters from the bottom at best. With no disrespect to any of the freedivers that may or may not have done world records before, nobody knows during unassisted or constant ballast dives if this diver was at any point pulling on the line or violating any rules in mid water.

3- The fact that the surface procedures are subective. I do agree that the organizations should not promote this sport being done with sambas. But there has to be a very clear line drawn between a good or a bad performance without that being left for the judges to be decided on how many nods the freediver did or some big wave hitting the freedivers face that can be mistaken for the freediver sinking the head below the surface. With these procedures or with those of FREE or CMAS the freedivers will push themselves same amount, some having sambas, some blacking out and some not. Years ago we used to discuss how this is similar to pole vault, that the athlete can hit the bar, it can bounce around but if it doesn’t fall the performance is good. It has to be crisp clear what the freediver has to do on surfacing no matter how, and as long as the task is done the performance has to be good. Otherwise i believe that it’s unfair that different judges may make different decisions on performances and I’ve witnessed too many cases where these procedures caused unfair decisions.

Lastly, there are nice suunto watches out there down to 100 meters and Eric Fattah’s excellent computer that goes beyond that, that gives beautiful graphs of the whole dive. Why don’t all athletes that set records provide this. This has nothing to do with rules/procedures, but several times I’ve demanded to see graphs of dives from freedivers either there is no such thing, they refuse or even sent a graph from a different dive once, calling it an “honest mistake” but never sent the right graph anyway.

It’s a shame that I’ll go to a depth deeper than any record done before and not have it verified by AIDA as well, but I’ve fought a tough war for 10 years for my principles, for what I believe is right for freediving, nothing made any difference and I’m gonna have to keep doing what I do. We’ll be using Eric’s watch to get several different graphs of the dive, I’ll have videos covering all depths, reputable judges and be in peace with myself that I promoted the sport I love in the way I believe is right.

Safe dives,

Yasemin Dalkilic

On the AIDA issue, maybe your problems were due to some of the people in the organisation, or some of the policies, regulations or some other. But though there is still a lot of things to be improved, you may now find friendly ears, willing to help you out, and adopt some of your ideas. – I love to learn what your and Rudie’s philosophy is on freediving, competition, education and organisation.

On the other hand a working, living, growing F.R.E.E. competing, offering an alternative to CMAS and AIDA, AA, is also very healthy for the sport we all so love and has given us so much.

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

First of all , good luck with your worldrecord attempt after fighting and surviving such a hirrible desease. Amazing respect !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second , I have been to Kas and loved the place and the enormous kindness of the people there and great example of real Turkish hospitality, so i can only be happy for your decision to move to Kas instead of the tourist invested and corrupted Bodrum .

Third and final, I hope you follow Ivo’s recommendation to get AIDA involved in your record attempt. This way you will get the respect and recognition you deserve from the complete freediving community, which has grown very large and active over the last years. I myself am Apnea Academy Instructor but also Apnea Academy (in itself a gigantic although mainly Italian based organisation) has by now a very good relation and cooperation with AIDA in the area of organizing competitions or even hosting AIDA competitions. The freediving world is not big enough for lots of subdevisions and cooperation only brings positive thins to our beoved sport.

Good luck and greeting from the Netherlands and please say hi to Belma and Altug from Kas Explorers dive center from me.

Well, I’d prefer sending this text privately, but did not find any contact form or email address anywhere here on the website. Feel free to remove the rest of the comment if you feel it inappropriate for the website.

One thing surprises me (although I have to admit I expected it) – that you are going to have the record sanctioned by F.R.E.E. Frankly told in the community, or in world press we never hear about F.R.E.E., and when asked in the community (for example on the forum at http://DeeperBlue.com), people thought it was abandoned. The original domain name divefree.com died too (though I found that a new name divingfree.org was later used for it). No new records were under F.R.E.E. since 2004. No competitions organized. No international network of national federations. And apparently not a lot of judges remaining from the old times, so you have trouble to get some. And even if those remaining did not sanction any record since many years, so in every other sport they would already have lost their qualification for a world ranked event in the meantime.

OK, the CMAS cannot be taken seriously in freediving either – the only discipline the International CMAS recognizes is dynamic with fins (DYN – or EAHI under FREE), and the controversary and dangerous “cube”. International CMAS recognizes no depth disciplines, no statics, and no no-fins (unassisted) disciplines. Some national branches of CMAS do, but that’s not sufficient for organizing a world record.

I suppose that your relations with AIDA were not that good, but you should know that in the years you were away from freediving, the organization really evolved. There are several thousands of freediving competitors organized in under over 40 of national AIDA branches. There are hundreds of instructors and judges. AIDA organizes each year many tens of competitions, and there is each year at least one World Championship. Sometimes two separate ones for pool and depth disciplines, like it was this year – Indoor WCh in Aarhus with over 120 competitors, and the depth WCh that just runs now in Dean’s Blue Hole in Bahamas. Each year AIDA sanctions numerous world records, and countless national records. Since the founding of AIDA, it sanctioned certainly far over hundreds world records (perhaps even several hundreds).

The rules, safety procedures, and technical protocols for competitions and records evolved too, so I am not so sure that you claim that the F.R.E.E. rules are the strictest ones, can be still taken seriously. AIDA cares not only about just and equal conditions for athletes, about their safety, and technical aspects of the attempts, it also tries keeping the sport clean by performing anti-doping testing, which I do not see mandatory under F.R.E.E. rules.

So from this point of view doing such an amazing performance like you plan to do, without having it sanctioned by the only federation that organizes world record attempts seriously in these days, and not having so your F.R.E.E. record listed in the tables of AIDA, is a big mistake. Although you may not like it, I am afraid that F.R.E.E. is no more any reference in the freediving world. Every media report will refer to AIDA record tables, no one will look after those of F.R.E.E. that did not change since 2004. Your sponsors would get much stronger exposure if you were listed in the record table of AIDA, than just being recognized by F.R.E.E. (equal to Rudi). This in no way critics of F.R.E.E. – in its time it was indeed superior in several ways. Unfortunately, F.R.E.E. missed the train of the development of the sport, just hibernated and did not evolve. Although AIDA is not perfect, it is today the only association that organizes education, safety, competitions, and records seriously. By ignoring them, you shoot yourself (and especially your sponsors) in the feet.