Talk:Freediving

>you shoudl talk about pipin and audrey and how she died doing free-diving. >sports illustrated did an amazing story on these two.

Why sensationalise the subject over a single high profile accident? Very few free divers subject themselves to the risks of record-breaking no-limits diving.

There is a lot of exciting competitive freediving going on around the world, in the disciplines of constant weight, dynamic apnea and static apnea. It is rare for a competition to take place without some national or world record being broken. The advances in endurance are quite phenomenal.

At the same time, the governing organisations ( such as AIDA ) take the safety of these events very seriously, and to date no fatalaties have occurred in competition. ( Which is why no-limits freediving is banned in competition. )

If freediving is to advance as a sport, then this is where the focus should be. I am sure Audrey Maestre would not have wanted her death to be the one thing the world associates freediving with, and even more sure that Pipin is of that opinion too.

Wikipedia isn't about advancing sports; it's about describing facts. If a sport's leading female record-holder dies in pursuit of a new world record, that's definitely noteable. As for Audrey and Pipin's wishes, they are immaterial; I'm sure Richard Nixon's ghost would rather his Wikipedia entry left out the stuff about Watergate, too. -Ashley Pomeroy 14:58, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Ex nihil 06:19, 6 February 2006 (UTC) I'm not sure how they died. I think Audrey just drowned following a problem with her ascending gear. Don't know if Pipin was a hyperventilation victim. Regarding the stress of record-breaking, my experience with regular freediving is that many people push themselves to the absolut limit just for bottom time, I know I did. I'm a bit more conservative now.

Mammalian Diving Reflex

The Mammalian diving reflex article linked to from within this article mentions three factors as part of the reflex. The Free-diving article mentions a fourth, Splenic contraction: Releasing red blood cells carrying oxygen. Should splenic contraction be added to Mammalian diving reflex, or should it be removed from free-diving?

Proposal

The initial description and extended description doesn’t completely match. While I do favor the Claude Chapuis kind of freediving, I do think that it is too far fetched to classify it as a type and leave other sub species out of the discription. The following text is an proposal to improve the initial description and the extended description. Comments and a critical look to the grammar is highly appreciated.

Description

Freediving refers to a technique that is used with various aquatic activities. While in general all aquatic activities that include breath-hold diving might be classified as a part of freediving, some sports are more accepted than others. Examples of recognised freediving activities are (non-)competitive freediving, (non-) competive spearfishing, freedive photography and mermaid shows. Less recognised examples of freediving include, but is not limited too, synchronised swimming, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater hunting other than spearfishing and snorkeling.

The discussion remains if freediving is only a synonym for breath-hold diving or it does describes a specific group of underwater activities. Freediving is often strongly associated with compettive breath hold diving or *Competitive Apnea*. It is considered being an extreme sport where divers atempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath and without the assistance of breathing apparatus like SCUBA. The following remainder of this article will only discuss competitive freediving as an athletic sport.

Competitive Freediving

Competitive freediving is currently governed by two world associations AIDA International and CMAS. Most types of competitive freediving have in common that it is an individual sport based on the best individual achievement. Exceptions on this rule is the bi-annually World Championschip for Teams, held by AIDA International, where the combined score of the team members makes up the teams total points.

There are currently nine disciplines used by official governing body’s and a dozen disciplines that are only practiced locally. In this article, the recognised disciplines of AIDA International and CMAS will be described. All disciplines can be done by both men as woman and while done outdoor, no differences in the environment between records is recognised any longer. The disciplines of {{AIDA International]] can be done both in competition as in an record attempt with the exception of Variable Weight and No limits who are both only done as record attempts. Following official disciplines are recognised by (AIDA), (CMAS) or both.

Pool Disciplines

• Static Apnea is timed breath holding and is usually attempted in a pool. (AIDA)

• Dynamic Apnea with fins. This is underwater swimming for in a pool for distance. For this discipline the athlethe can choose if he uses bi-vins or the monovin. (AIDA), (CMAS)

• Dynamic Apnea without fins. This is underwater swimming for in a pool for distance without any swimming aids like fins. (AIDA)

Depth Disciplines

The depth of the athlethe is for all AIDA disciplines announced before the dive. This is accepted practice for both competitions as record attempts.

• Constant Weight with fins. The athlete has to dive to the depth following a guideline he or she is not allowed to actively use during the dive. The ‘constant weight’ (“poid constant”) refers to the fact that the athlete is not allowed to drop the weights during the dive. Both bi-vin as mono-vin can be used during this discipline (AIDA).

• Constant Weight without fins follows the identical rules as Constant Weight with fins, except no swimming aids as fins are allowed. This discipline is the youngest discipline within competitive freediving and is recognised by AIDA International since 2003.(AIDA)

• Free Immersion is the discipline where the athlete uses the guideline to pull him or herself down to depth and back to the surface. It is known for its ease compared with the Constant Weight disciplines, while it is still not allowed to release weights (AIDA).

• Variable Weight is a record discipline that uses a weighted sled for descent. Athlethe returns to the surface by pulling themselves up along a line or swim while using their fins (AIDA).

• No Limits is a record discipline that allows the atlethe to use any means of breath-hold diving to depth and return to the surface as long as an guideline is used to measure the distance. Most divers use an weighted sled to dive down and use an air filled bag to return to the surface (AIDA).

• "The Cube" is also known as "Jump Blue" and is a discipline where an athlethe has to descend to 15 meters and have to swim as far as possible in a cubic form of 15 x 15 meters. (CMAS)

Each organisation has it's own rules on recognising an attempt. These can be found on the website from the respective organisations.

Comment

Comment on the records and Audrey Mestre case. I recognise the importance to give the reader information about the records and the tragic incident that claimed Audrey’s death. However I do feel that it is best to add another section titled ‘current records’ and ‘history’ to keep things readable. --Apneist 14:57, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Free-diving in Fiction

As there is only one item on the list, is this section necessary? Should it be deleted, or does someone have something more to add to it?--Dani 01:30, 2 September 2006 (UTC)