AIDA Hellas Comp, Athens Greece

[BennyB]

Well, i'm off in the morning to the AIDA Hellas comp in Athens. This comp has a reputation of being very well run and attracts some of the best divers around (like myself? ). The comp will be static, DYN and DNF.

Was looking forward to it until the throat infection came this week.... i've managed to avoid every bug under the sun since i've been in England but scored this one at the worst possible time. Tried some packing this morning and it felt like razors in my throat. Ah well, at least it'll be an experience and i'll get a couple of days to see Athens!

I'll post some photos when I get back on Tuesday.

Cheers,
Ben

[Watts]

Good luck big fella all the best for the comp.

[Watts]

Good effort mate. Must be tuff jetsetting around the world attending freedive comps.

[Wal]

Yeh well done Ben !
Are you going to put your results up or do I have to...   

[BennyB]

Thanks guys 

Dang, i've literally been home for 10 minutes! Couple of hours ago I was running around the Acropolis.... tough life indeed? Though spent the last half hour stuck on the plane cause the dude who drives the bit that attaches to the door crashed it into the plane, hence being stuck on the plane?

Yeah, quick update cause i've got to get some rest plus ring Mum and tell her i'm alive. Comp was good and bad from my point of view. Happy to say I kept true to my word and didn't come last? .

I completely screwed my dynamic and did 83m (8th from 20). Was a long list of contributing factors, some external but most just me screwing up?
Static was good with 4.47 which put me in 9th spot out of 20. Was my best in comp and gradually creeping up to that mystical 5 min mark again.

Dynamic No fins was pretty good - once again 83m, which I think puts me as the first freediver ever to equal their DNY and DNF? Let's just say I got the monsters out of my head and had settled down a bit. 83m put me equal 3rd, but because the other 83m guy announced higher than me he got the 3rd place and the medal. That's ok, I was pretty close to my baggage allowance anyway.

All in all it was a fantastic comp, really well run, professional but fun at the same time - great bunch of people. Some impressive performances, a few BO's and quite a few people became victims of the surface protocol and in particular the new rules coming in (but were in effect in the comp) that reduce the surface protocol from 20sec to 15sec. This rule in fact claimed a national record in dynamic when one of the guys did 171m but took 16.5 seconds to do the SP and was red carded. Gut wrenching to watch.

Full results on http://www.aidahellas.gr/winter2006/en/results.html

I'll stick some photos up and a more detailed write up over the next couple of days. Sleep now.

Cheers,
Ben

[BennyB]

The comp was chiefly organised by Panos Lianos, the VP of AIDA Europe. Panos gave us a detailed review of the new rules in the meeting the day before, the main change being reducing the surface protocol from 20 seconds to 15. Since i'd not practised the new protocol I was a bit worried about it but in the end only one person was disqualifed in the entire comp, for finishing the SP in 16.5 seconds. Unfortunately that person had done a 171m dynamic which would have been a Greek National record. Though to be fair, he had a slight samba so you could argue that the new rules work very well in achieving the goal of ensuring people who aren't capable of controlling themselves in a set time period do not get through.

My throat had been pretty bad during the week but had eased up by Saturday. Given that i'd done virtually no static training (in fact the last wet static was in Germany in January) I was pretty happy with 4:47, my second best static ever, and best in comp. Some other noteable statics were Stavros Kastrinakis with 6:05 and Alex Tzanerakis the winner with 7:15, just 3 seconds shy of the Greek National record.

[BennyB]

A couple of hours later and my Official Top was nearing for DYF. For some reason my nerves came back and my heart rate was up a bit. With 8 minutes to OT I went to do a passive exhale static and started my watch. Thanks to the reliability of the old D3 it reset itself, so I spent a precious couple of minutes getting worked up and trying to get someone to synchranise with. I ended up hyperventilating too early and too much, so I had to spend the last minute letting my CO2 build up a little. Wasn't a good prep at all. In the dive itself I think I was going too slow, I got contractions at about 40m which a bit too early for me. By the time I hit 75m I was feeling like i'd done 100m, I turned and had a couple of strokes and that was all I could muster. I was pretty shirty after that, seeing as i'd managed to do 90m when I was sick the Monday earlier, and i'd done 100m in the German comp. But 83m wasn't the end of the world so I went back to the stands for a quick sulk then went and watched the other competitors. There were a couple over 100m, one guy did 111m I think, came up clean, gave the surface protocol perfectly, except he left his noseclip on the whole time. When he realised he swore and ripped it off and did the SP again but it was too late by that stage. That was painful to watch. Panos ended up winning the dynamic with an impressive 139m.

Dynamic No-fins was the final event. By this stage i'd calmed down and was back to my normal self. I had a good breath up, packed and took off. My style has slowed somewhat in the last 3 months, with more focus on the glide. My first lap I ended up doing 3 strokes, then 4 strokes for the others. I came up, did the SP got my white card and received a loud applause from the audience - it was pretty weird feeling to get applauded! ???At that stage I was equal first, and remained so until the last 2 competitors, Panos and Markos Timplalexis. Markos did 84m and Panos did 106. I shared equal third but was ranked 4th as i'd announced lower than the other guy.

[BennyB]

Afterwards we had a small presentation followed by a brilliant meal at a local restaurant with tonnes of fantastic traditional Greek food.

All in all this was a fantastic comp. Very professionally run, smooth throughout the day with everything running on time. They even had music playing throughout the day. A lot of the songs were ones i've used on a chill out album I listen to before my training sessions... though the song on during my static probably wouldn't have been my first choice (Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U? ).? The Greeks were a fantastic bunch. Many were spearfishermen so the stories were coming thick and fast at the restaurant. Word on the street is that the AIDA Hellas Summer Games will be on in early July just off Athens in the magnificent Mediterranean... could be marking a spot in the Calendar for that one!

Cheers,
Ben

[Wal]

Great story Ben !
You are fast becoming Australia's veteran of European freediving competitions. 

P.S. Ben and anyone else reading this could you please keep photo sizes in pixels to no more then 640x480 max on this forum.

[BennyB]

Oops?

Didn't realise they were so big... i'll have a crack at reducing them tonight

[BennyB]

Ok, photos sorted now. Let me know if they're still weird looking (size, not content  )

[Wal]

Good stuff, they actually fit on the screen now when you expand them, also look better too, don't need as much lossy jpeg compression. 

[BennyB]

Sweet. I had to use the Canon software and click on the email photos option. It then gives you the option of reducing the size, then it saves them into a temp directory, then you cancel the email. Pretty laborious job, there must be another way than that! 

So... when are we going to see some of the NZ photos?

[Wal]

I was a bit busy at the time....? ? so didn't take many photo's maybe only 5 or 6 with my little camera. I forgot I even had any, will have to try and dig them up, won't be anything great either. Andy has got a lot of it on video. Just remembered he has posted a couple under the General section. http://ozfreediving.com/forum/index.php?topic=92.0