Cairns holds its breath...cont

At the close of Day One of the DiversWorld Australian FreeDive Championships - Cairns 2010 the scoreboard is looking like Monday morning peak hour at the Monaco Grand Prix as our top divers tally their scores, reassess strategies and catch their collective breaths after a full day at in the pool at Woree.
 
Organised by Freediving Biz Australia and proudly sponsored by DiversWorld; 1 Breath; Aeris and Capture Advertising, the DiversWorld Australian Freedive Championships received a massive promotional boost during this weeks Cairns Show when Championship organiser Rahel Zemio found herself perched snugly inside the DiversWorld and local radio station SEAFM's dinghy giving Cairns show goers an introduction to the world of competitive FreeDiving.

With newspaper features, additional local and ABC radio interviews with current Australian depth record holder, Queenslander Ben Noble and more local TV
coverage promised for the second day of competition - the championship not only brings together Australia's leading national and international freedivers but establishes Cairns, Queensland as a major host and destination for world-class recreational and competitive FreeDiving.

Cairns' Woree Pool was the venue of Day One's competition as divers psyched themselves up for the Men's & Women's Static (STA) section where divers sought their 'relaxation zone' in an attempt to maximise their breath holding endurance and then float face down amongst a sea of stop watches, safety divers and judges as they attempted to set new breath holding records and personal bests.

The next stage of competition saw divers compete in the submerged distance event of the Men's & Women's Dynamic - a true of test of breath holding endurance and body streamlining.

With safety divers following closely in water and judges and crew keeping pace above, the Freediver's powerful monofin propelled them up and down the pool in what were some amazing distance firsts and personal bests.   Sanctioned by the Australian Freediving Association (AFA) - the Australian representative of AIDA International, the worldwide governing body for freediving; it's hoped that this competition will be the first of many leading up to the hosting of an international event in our waters.

While relatively new to International FreeDiving competition, Australia has succeeded in producing some of the world's leading athletes since our first national team competed at the World FreeDiving Championships, Sardinia in 1998. Australia again put together a strong team for the 2002 Pacific World Cup, which stunned the long-established international competitive freedive world when our men placed 5th and women 4th, in the overall competition.

Since then we've seen the emergence of Australia's greatest freediver, Walter Steyn who, despite living in landlocked Canberra has managed to win every competition pool and depth Australian record. This remarkable achievement has just recently been followed by Queensland's very own Ben Noble, who set a new Australian Depth Record at the 2010 Mediterranean Championships.

Freediving in both its competitive and recreational forms is enjoying a significant surge in interest across Australia, as our leading divers compete overseas in Europe and Egypt and more and more recreational and scuba divers rediscover the liberating freedom of being completely one with their underwater surroundings.

Here are just a quick collection of images from Day One. For a report and results of Day 2 READ MORE

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