In other news; the Board is focusing on the Okinawa World Championship competition. The judges have been selected and Grant Graves is working with the organizers to obtain the doping kits. A general Assembly meeting will take place in Okinawa. Please bring your ideas for the future of Aida to the meeting !

The Disciplinary guideline has been completed and is ready for Assembly vote. It will be an appendix to the Aida Statutes 2010. The Technical committee is finalizing the minor updates for the current Aida competition rules and it will soon be published. The competition guidelines document (checklist) is in the planning stage and if you are interested in helping with this project please contact Greg Piazzola or Ute Gessman. The Educational committee is looking for workgroup members. If you are an experienced instructor with good English and social skills please contact Stavros.

Pim is updating the competition calendar and supporting organizers. The migration to the new site (Aida IT Simo Kurra) is ready for launching as soon as the text has been created. Pim is seeking help with an IT task to find an online form functionality for instructors and printing  assistance for Aida education cards. Please contact him for more information regarding these necessary projects.

Aida needs a new treasurer (deadline May 12) and secretary (deadline May 19). These are important Board positions. Anyone with good English and social skills is urged to send an application to the Board.  There is also a need for writers and those with IT skills to help with the new website and ongoing projects.

Following the World Championships and the summer approaching; many will be going on vacation. The Board will be slowing down a bit from the fast pace of the last few months but will be working on the 2011 World Championship candidate selections and finding a publicist for Aida in addition to the other ongoing projects.

Again, anyone interested in helping in any of the areas or if you have topics you wish to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact a Board member.

Although the Executive Board noted that no questions were raised relating to the athlete’s integrity or her ability to achieve the performances in question, significant conflict of interest issues relating to the presiding judge prevent AIDA from maintaining the validity of those performances (CWT 101m and FIM 90m) as world records. The Executive Board, noting Natalia’s extraordinary achievements in the sport of freediving, expect that she will soon put this matter behind her by meeting or exceeding those performances at a valid world record status event.

Herbert Nitsch made a 120 meters dive in the Free Immersion discipline (pull yourself down and up along a rope). Herbert has moved the record eight meters deeper than his old record from last year. The dive time was: 4′28″. The Austrian veteran coolly pulled down the line into his freefall, then sank to 120 meters, and returned with a tag from the bottom plate, claiming his 31st world record.
He failed in a first attempt where he turned at 102 meters, and then set the record to 114 meters, briefly loosing it to William Trubridge at 116 meters, failed at a 118 meter attempt only to return and do a successful dive to 120 meter.
In the competition in Deans Blue hole, Long island on sunny Bahamas the FIM record was challenged also by Asian champion Ryuzo Shinomiya turning at 105 meters.
William Trubridge set an amazing depth record swimming with out fins to 92 meters depth (330 feet) only to continue five days later with a 95 meters Constant Weight without fins dive, 5 meters deeper than his old world record from 2009. The dive time: 3′45″. An amazing dive without fins – on only one breath.
His dives are executed with precision, taking 7 breast strokes down to the sink phase (where his lungs have compressed and lost their buoyancy). After a free fall down to 95 meters focusing on relaxation and equalization, he returns using 27-28 arm strokes.
William Winram (Canada) made an attempt for the same record but turned at 76 meters.

Herbert Nitsch that recently took the prestigious Constant Weight record (monofin down and up) from Czech Martin Stepanek, added another meter to his own record, putting it to a depth of 124 meters. From the organizers web site:

“Powering off the bottom at 1.4m/s his legs started to fail 35 meters from the surface, and he began his trademark arm stroke-legkick alternations. At 3:57 he surfaced, but on the wrong side of the rope, hitting his head on the underneath of the boom. For most freedivers this would tip them over the edge on a difficult dive, but although Herbert’s neck and chin dipped under, the waterline stopped just below his mouth as he struggled back to the line, saving himself from disqualification (athletes must keep their airways above the water after surfacing). Herbert admitted to still being a little dazed from narcosis or fatigue, even after finishing decompression 10 minutes later. This was the 30th world record for the Austrian, and the deepest self-powered freedive of all time.”

William Trubride 92 CNF
Herbert Nitsch 114 FIM
William Trubride116 FIM
William Trubride 95 CNF
Herbert Nitsch 120 FIM
Herbert Nitsch 124 CWT

Herbert did 114 meters in the Free Immersion discipline (pull yourself down and up along a rope). Herbert moved the record two meters deeper than his old record from last year. The dive time was: 4′09″. The Austrian veteran coolly pulled down the line into his freefall, then sank to 114 meters returning with two tags for good measure, and his 29th World record. He failed at a first attempt where he turned at 102 meters.
In the ongoing competition on sunny Bahamas the FIM record was challenged also by Asian champion Ryuzo Shinomiya turning at 105 meters, and William Trubridge turning at 102 meters.
William followed up on the third day of the Suunto Vertical Blue Dive off with a 92 meters (300ft) Constant Weight without fins dive, 2 meters deeper than his old world record from 2009. Dive time: 3′45″. An amazing dive without fins – on only one breath. His dives are executed with precision, taking 7 breaststrokes down to the sink phase (where his lungs have compressed and lost their buoyancy). After a freefall down to 92 meters focusing on relaxation and equalization, he returns using 27-28 strokes.
William Winram (Canada) made an attempt for the same record but turned at 76 meters.

More from this competition that have a couple of more days to go, you find on: http://www.verticalblue.net/news/

The Technical Committee, led by Greg Piazzola, is finalizing the minority updates (critical corrections only) for the current Aida competition rules. An Aida freediving safety guide document is pending along with a general competition guideline. If you are interested in participating in a workgroup in this area; please contact Greg. Greg, Pim, and Sebastian are working with organizers in Okinawa for the Team World Championship. The website is up and running and the medals have been ordered. The Assembly is reminded to please register their teams for the competition as soon as possible!

Dr. Fitz-Clarke, with the Medical Science Committee, is continuing their agenda for 2010. The committee list includes: seeking international scientists for an advisory panel, developing freediving information packets for physicians, establishing a data base for black out incidents in competitions, and developing a working paper on medical clearance. Additionally, Fred Le Maitre has circulated a research questionnaire for freedivers.

The Disciplinary Committee will present a vote to the Assembly for the Team World competition judges followed by a vote on the DC guidelines, which have now been reviewed. An eventual restructuring of the DC committee is under consideration.

Media Officer Sebastian Näslund, in addition to working on new templates for media releases, has been busy overseeing the aspects of the IT project. A preliminary version of the ranking system has been implemented and the new site navigation system is ready. Volunteer writers are needed to expand the content in the new site.

Pim Vermeulen Sports officer is evaluating and updating the competition calendar and supporting organizers with their competitions. The updated calendar is ready for migration to the new Aida site. He is working with Grant W Graves (Vice President) on judging issues and the new rules corrections. Grant is also responsible for record keeping on judge levels. Please submit competition judging experience to Grant to update your level. Aida cards printing is growing at a fast pace and Aida is seeking help from printing companies. Please inform Pim if you have a source for reasonable printing.

Secretary Pia Jerabek finalized a report on the general Aida finances with extensive help and exemplary cooperation from former treasurer, Sebastian Näslund.

Important Reminder! Aida payments are being processed with the account information and addresses, which can be found at this site (FAQ section).

Please remember to include the following information:

- Who is making the payment
- What the payment is for

Aida organizations; please check your payment status for the current year (150 Euros) as soon as possible so your country has membership and voting privileges. There remain some unclear Paypal payments from 2009, so please contact Pia to confirm your payment status.

The Aida Assembly email list (Yahoo groups) is now overseen by Pia. Assembly members are requested to check the list to ensure correct contact information so Kimmo can update the list.

The Aida competition rules update will be finalized by Grant and Greg. The judge database will be migrated from the old site to the new following the completion of the vote for the 2010 Championship judges. Project manager, Robert King, assisted by Petar Bojovic, Christan Ernest and Sebastian Näslund, have the Aida statutes version 2010 ready for Board review. After the accounting review is submitted to the Assembly, the Board will arrange for a vote for an official Aida Treasurer.

The next Aida Board meeting is scheduled for May 4, 2010.

If you have any topics that should be discussed by the Board or you would like to volunteer your services to any of the Aida projects – please do not hesitate to contact any of the Board members.

This ten day event starting 30th June will be held of the Maede cape in Okinawa in waters with up to 30 meters visibility. The competition consist of performances in three disciplines: depth, distance and time. Each of the three team athletes perform in all three disciplines and the nine results are added in to total points.

Last years winners was France (men) and Russia (women).

Registration is now open for the for the 40 member countries of AIDA international.
http://aida2010.net/english

Attendance fee: 650 dollars + about 50 dollars/ night accommodation

If you can not form a team of three men or three women you may register a mixed team (that will compete in the mens category).

Welcome

AIDA World Championship history

1st – Bay of Villefranche, France 1996
Winner: ITALY

2nd – Sardinia, Italy 1998
Winner: ITALY

3rd – Ibiza, Spain 2001
Winner men: ITALY
Winner women: CANADA

4th – Vancouver, Canada 2004
Winner men: GERMANY
Winner women: CANADA

5th – Hurghada, Egypt 2006
From now on with three disciplines
Winner men: DENMARK
Winner women: RUSSIA

6th – Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt 2008
Winner men: FRANCE
Second Place: Czech Republic
Third Place: Finland

Winner women: RUSSIA
Second Place: USA
Third Place: Japan

Let us not forget that in order for a competition to appear on the calendar, an individual must take the initiative and shoulder the overall responsibility. When orchestrating big competitions we are talking about a considerable sacrifice of free time, family and work time. When it comes to organizing an international competition, such as a world championship, there are additional pressures added.
- The 1st AIDA World Championship was held in Nice in October 1996 by initiative of Claude Chapuis. It was a competition for national teams featuring Constant Weight and Static Apnea, with 35 participants.
- Umberto Pelizzari hosted the 2nd AIDA World Championship in Sardinia in 1998. Now with 28 countries attending.
- In 2001, with the support of Club Med, Olivier Herrera, a young Spaniard, organized the 3rd AIDA Team World Championship in Ibiza.
- In 2003 and 2004 Howard Jones offered the BIOS Open competition with around a 100 participants flying to Cyprus to dive from a barge.
- A major media event in 2005 was the IWC World Static Apnea Contest, held in Monaco in July and organized by Pierre Frolla.

These names that take on these ventures and fill AIDA with activity should be remembered. Names such as Kirk Krack, Sebastien Nagel, Francois Gautier, Sandi Bitenc, Kurt Lykke Larsen, William Trubridge, among others. For the upcoming Team World Championship top-level freediver Ryozo Shimoniya has taken on the challenge to make it happen.

In between all these major events we see hundreds upon hundreds of competitions being organized on a national level. In pools, in lakes, in green water, in blue water, in sink holes, in tanks, under ice, from boats, from platforms. Over the years some hundred organizers has made it possible for over 20.000 performances to be made in the name of AIDA.

Upcoming events
This spring, AIDA has two major competition events in the calendar. Stavros Kastrinakis organizes a 5 day event in June with 45 freedivers from the higher ranking. It takes place in the Mediterranean, in the city of Kalamata.

Before the Mediterranean meeting, Bahamas is again seeking our attention with a small, but truly amazing starting field of freedivers; Vertical Blue in April 2010.
This is an event for those that are interested in seeing what the best freedivers of the world can perform side by side under the stress in a competition; for those who want to know who the deepest competition freediver is right now; to see who would be the best of the top five if they fought it out side by side in all three deep dive disciplines.

Herbert Nitsch (Austria) against Martin Stepanek (Czeck) in the CWT discipline where they for years have fought over the world record and pushed it down to 123 meters. To add to the drama we can also witness William Trubridge (New Zealand) and Guillaume Néry (France), both fresh world champion medalists with an overall competence in all three disciplines. From Japan we will see Ryuzo Shinomiya, one of the some 10 freedivers in the world that has made it to 100 meters and beyond with a monofin. William Winram has his eyes set on the no fins record, and is training specifically for a 91 meter dive. Dave Mullins (New Zealand) will add a special flavor to the show, as he challenged Nitsch for the CWT world record in the 2007 world championships, and has been doing amazing dives in the pool. Here is a master with or without fins that we rarely see outside New Zealand.
Using a monofin (CWT) to 115 meter and more, and pulling themselves on a rope (FIM) close to world record level at 110 meters, and without fins breast stroking (CNF) themselves down to depths of 80 meters and beyond. Clash of the titans indeed. That is the Vertical Blue Suunto dive-off in April in Bahamas.

All results can be seen on the new AIDA ranking page:
http://www.aidainternational.org/ranking

Mikko Pontinen and Jonerik Ekstrom (selected for the finish WC team for Okinawa) did their best to challenge team mate Antero Joki, but both failed in Static, where Antero did a strong 7.17.
Saana Partinen was the best woman with overall strong results. Sofia Tapani (Sweden) came second place due to a weak static (4.03). Finnish newcomer Vera Lopez Lehto did three strong dives with a total of 183 points and claimed the third position.
In the overall Viking pool challenge Antero collected 223 points followed by Jens Schou (Sweden) 195 points with Eemili Nurminen (Finland) on third with 188 points. Weine Gustavson (DYN 4th in WC Denmark) has not been training and could not make it to a medal.
The competition saw three attempts on national records of which only one was successful. Christian Ernest (6th position DNF WC Denmark) swam 157 meters DNF and one meter short of the Swedish record (By Jens Schou from GAS Sweden).

Ulf Lindberg (left) from the same club equaled the Swedish record in dynamic after a dive to 212 meters, but grabbed the edge before surfacing a got a 10 meter penalty. Sofia Tapani (GAS) added 7 meters to her previous national records (WC Denmark) when she swam 137 meters.

On site was also apnea scientist Erika Schagatay with assistant Harald doing lactat measurements before and after the dives. Erika held an appreciated lecture on the subject of  “known factors of freediving performance”.
As usual the VPC ended with a short dip in the ice, sauna and water slide.

ATHLETE (women)
TOTAL POINTS DYN+DNF+STA

Saana Partinen 198.3

Sofia Tapani197.1

Veera López-Lehto 183.9

Klara Hansson 167.5

Fanny Ehrenberg 160.8

Barbara Jeschke 124.4

Cristina Kümmel 116.5

Fanny Schagatay 115.2

Eva Enkrans 94.2

Ingela Karlsson 56.4

ATHLETE (men)
TOTAL POINTS

Antero Joki 223.9

Jens Schou 195.1

Eemeli Nurminen 188.4

Anders Larsson174.4

Mikko Pöntinen 167.5

Weine Gustavsson 167.2

Jonérik Ekström 154.5

Erik Milles 148.8

Christian Ernest 144.3

Johan Dahlström 141.6

Timo Pöntinen 135.7

Kaj Toivola 132.2

Christofer Andersson 124.4

Mikko Niemeläinen 124

Staffan Sonntag 118.7

Joacim Nilsson 108.2

Ulf Lindberg 101

Mattias Fredriksson 80.5

Peter Boivie 58

Johan Blomqvist 0

Committees are being formed to address issues within categories including; medical, safety, technical, education, media and, competitions. Tasks are being outlined and prioritized with the intent of completion in a timely manner.

The Education Committee will be divided into two sub-groups; an advisory board comprised of master and senior instructors/ trainers  to advise on major issues and disciplinary actions and a work group to develop the Aida education system.

The Medical Committee is re-evaluating the medical release form, physician’s information package, medical clearance issues, and in-water rescue procedures. They are also concerned with health related freediving occurrences such as chest squeeze.

The Technical Committee is reviewing competition and record rules. The minor text/interpretive errors will be corrected soon but major rule alterations will not occur prior to 2011. A set of general safety guidelines will be established.

The Media/PR Committee continues to improve the website and is working on promoting Aida through it’s top freedivers , competitions, and record attempts ,thus expanding visibility and sponsorship opportunities.

Treasurer The payment system is now functional. Aida payments for National organizations and instructors may be sent to these addresses:

Postal address: PayPal Account
Aida International bank @aida-international.org
Case postale 5078
1002 Lausanne
Switzerland

Aida Bank Account
Union Bank of Switzerland  (UBS)
Place Saint-Francois 1,1002 Lausane,Switzerlannd
Account no.0243-330094.40Q
IBAN CH30 0024 3243 3300 9440 Q
Swift ID UBSWCHZ 10A
Bank Postal Account 80-2-2
Website www.ubs.com

Please include the following information with your payment;
1) who is making the payment ( new registration for freediver or club)
2) designation of payment ( annual fee, registration, competition fee, etc.)

AIDA Executive Board The Aida Statutes are being updated with the assistance of an attorney. A team is aiding the organizers of   the Aida Team World Championship in Okinawa and the Judges vote is out. The competition site is; http//aida2010.net/

General The purpose of the Board meetings is to exchange information regarding the progress of the committees on designated tas ks and projects and thus to keep the Assembly apprised of all pertinent developments. It is the desire of the Board to create value and services for Aida members. The next Board meeting is scheduled for 06 April,2010.

Please do not hesitate to contact any board member with topics you would like to be discussed.

Aida Executive Board

There will be an Executive Board meeting the first Sunday or Monday every month. In the new ambitions of transparancy and accountability a report will be delivered to the Assembly after each meeting. This first time the AIDA Executive Board will show this report to not only the assembly, but also here, to the wider freediving community.

During the first Executive Board meeting Kimmo L (President) outlined his vision of how the Executive board should work. He spoke about a lot of autonomy for the commissions. The Executive Board is already talking about new working groups (possible commissions) such as science/medical, media/PR and an IT work group.

The Information Technology Work group, (possible future commission), was formed by the president on the day he was elected. Sebastian Nasland, the media/PR officer is the Executive Board representative on the ITC. So far, the ITC has seen a lot of activity from Jonas D, Simo K, Ivo T, Eric v P, also in the group, Paulo N and Peter S.
Mainly Jonas A and Peter S have been working on a new modern web page with many new community functions.
Paulo N and Francois G has donated the Freedivecentral database system. Eric v P has been evaluating the FC code. Simo K and mainly Ivo T has searched for and “cleaned” lost competition results. The IT work group will soon give a suggestion for a new ranking system that at first will focus on loading competition data and in a second stage displays it for the freediving world.

Pia (secretary) supported by Kimmo are working on making AIDA’s financial situation clear. Pia will also be updating contact details of people important for AIDA. Thus, we will soon be looking through the assembly members database.

A working group aimed at producing a fourth draft of the statutes has been formed. Robert King (attorney from USA) is leading this. Also in this group is Grant Graves (vice president), Christian Ernest (Aida Sweden), Petar Bojovic (attorney), Sebastian Naslund with some other people involved in reviewing the work.

Before the Executive Board meeting Dr. John Fitz-Clarke, Science/Medical Officer, proposed to investigate if AIDA can setup an AIDA FREEDIVER medical form that can guide doctors when they do medical exams specific to freediving. Dr. Fitz-Clarke would like organizers to report any situation where freedivers with medical problems have slipped through the screening process.

Dr. John Fitz-Clarke has also noticed that competitions have different standards when it comes to the safety freediver’s routines and would like to do an inventory of these procedures, aiming for some common standard. Gregory Piazzola, the technical officer, has similar concerns and will work with the science/medical commission on this to produce a new “general safety guideline”.

There is also a desire to discuss what is really needed in a competition when it comes to medical competence. Setting the standard too high and we make competitions complicated, too low and we are putting our freedivers at risk. Old procedures will have to be evaluated, since our understanding of blackout, DCS and squeeze has increased recently. We will base our decisions not only on experience, but also on the scientific data available.

Stavros Kastrinakis, Education Officer, and the Education Commission will be involved with these issues as well.  Kastrinakis has suggested to give certain dedicated freediving schools the status of  “AIDA training center”.

In any safety discussion there is also the question of liability and the problem of being a global federation with activities in different countries. Robert King, leading the Statutes work group, will address this.

The Science Commission will be building connections with active apnea researchers. There is a lack of communication between scientists due to a potential “competition situation”, perhaps AIDA can bridge this gap in some cases and build a “community feeling”.

Kimmo Lahtinen, President, has ideas about building bridges between AIDA and DAN. Pim Vermeulen, Sport Officer, has already taken initiatives to building closer connections between AIDA and WADA (the doping agency).

Gregory Piazzola, Technical Officer, has already chosen three members for the Technical Commission (TC): Grant Graves (Judge A Instructor), Pim Vermeulen (Judge A), and Florent Pascal (national judge/lawyer). Several experts will be linked to this commission. One issue that the TC will address is how to help judges, organizers, athletes facing «out of rules» situations and report these situations to others judges. Gregory wants to see debate on how to reduce BO during the individual championships.

The TC, the Sport Officer, and the Media/PR Commission will be working with the organizers of the Team WC 2010 in Okinawa with the aim of making it a big and successful event. The technical officer has had an informal meeting in Japan with one of the organizers.

Two applications for the 2011 individual AIDA world championships have been sent to the board. Bahamas and Greece.

The Media/PR Commission is looking for volunteers with a background in journalism, graphic design, and video/photography. Igor Liberti, Anneli Pompe, Chris Marshall, and Christian Engelbrecht have offered their services. Peter S. and the ITC will be in close co-operation. The Vice President Grant Graves is a consultant for the PR/media working group.

The Sport Officer will as always be working with all competitions, records related subjects, requirements for being in the AIDA Calendar, and result-list checking, etc.

Together with the Responsible for Judges (Grant Graves), the Sport Officer will work on judge education and development. Comments on the rules by the judges will be processed by the Sport Officer and the TC for possible development. The Sport Officer and the Responsible for Judges will be in charge of Jury selection for WR attempts.

The Sport Officer will also be working with many outside contacts like doping, insurance, partnerships etc.

Any competitions should be announced to the Sport Officer through calendar@aida-international.org, results can be send to pim.vermeulen@aida-international.org

In March the AIDA executive board may be able to present each commissions plan for 2010 in front of the assembly.

AIDA EXECUTIVE BOARD