As Freediving grows steadily in the North of England, Apneists UK ( www.learn2freedive.com ) has had groups running all over the North West, starting in Manchester and Liverpool, and in Yorkshire for well over a decade. In Yorkshire, Sheffield and Huddersfield currently have clubs, as does Leeds on a less regular frequency. In order to facilitate the ability of Freedivers to regularly train and increase the number of sessions, we are going to promote the sport in the area with its first AIDA Freediving competition on the 17th November 2013, and we have picked our club in Huddersfield to host the event.

A number of athletes from around the UK will compete in one of three disciplines. Dynamic Apnea, swimming horizontally as far as one can. Dynamic no fins, swimming as far horizontally as one can with… (yes you guessed it). And Static Apnea, lying stationary holding your breath for as long as you can. The highest point score wins, so you can pick your favourite event to try and win it. It is like the mini version of the International competition we have run every year now for five years, which is attempting all three disciplines and total point score decides the winner.

Some details here of location and timing: http://www.freedivingcompetition.com/huddersfield-2013.html 

The competition holds something for the whole club, and for those travelling. Some athletes are in almost full time training trying to get National records and win the event, some athletes are there to get one step closer to that goal and simply be the best they can be, and some are there for their first taste of competition to see if they like it. In any case its a good reason to get fit and healthy both physically and mentally. Freediving is an extremely personal sport; you do your own dive on the day, but at the same time you never dive alone without someone properly looking after your safety. I think this, in part, is one of the reasons for the strong community spirit within the sport and, despite it being a competition, all athletes encourage the best out of their peers.

An event on the horizon is a good reason to train; an extra impetus to improve yourself and diving in some way. You don’t need to start the sport looking like an Olympian, but if you want a sport that will improve your health and fitness this certainly is a good one to take up. Improvements come over time with regular diving.

This competition will also be a good opportunity to make sure every wrinkle is ironed out of the background organisation for the International competition we have on the 22nd/23rd March 2014. We have some camera testing to do to make it really special. Here is the intro video from last year’s competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgHwawzYE0 . A good opportunity to make the next competition better than the last, we always try and improve. Just before the International will have an opportunity for those wishing to judge in the future to do the AIDA International judges course with an experienced Judge trainer.

http://www.freedivingcompetition.com/2014-competition.html

Please feel free to come along and see the event. And if you are a Freediver, enter or help out if you want.