My best competition ever ?
Competitions :: 2006-06-05 12:59:29
Have you ever wondered which competition would be the best you had ever experienced? Maybe it is the one you don’t compete in! I found the answer just a few days ago, in Nice, the south of France……
Have you ever wondered which competition would be the best you had ever experienced? Maybe it is the one you don’t compete in! I found the answer just a few days ago, in Nice, the south of
France
…… Already in May 2005 (when I competed in the same competition in Nice) I was planning on doing the same this year, but a small medical examination made this impossible at the last moment. Although my training had been focused on the Nice AIDA Open and a week later Dortdive (the Netherlands), this medical “problem” forced me to change my plans…….my doctor told me not to go in the water (pool, sea, lake, bath) for 3 weeks which meant: no freediving! Or at least not in Nice: change of plans!!
 Since I had set my mind on going anyway (I needed to be there!) I decided to offer my help and wednesday evening we (“judge Pim” and myself) drove to Nice. 13 hours later at 9:00 in the morning I felt like being at home again, the sun was shining in Nice as I walked to the (soon to be finished) new home of CIPA. This year the boats for the first training had left right on time at 8:00 leaving some people behind that did not count on this punctuality: Herbert and Karsten. Herbert used the time to do some warm-up “for a change”, Karsten just walked around chatting here and there. Soon the boat returned with the first group, under which a lot of friends I had not spoken to in a long while. Soon I noticed that I had to tell a lot of people I could not compete and it made me feel a little disappointed: here in Nice conditions are always excellent for training and competing and since in the Netherlands we have little good (blue, warm, clear) lakes to dive in, I was missing out on what could have been a challenging competition for me.
After about 5 minutes Yamina got of the boat and came up to me to greet me and spoke some “magic words”: “Maybe if you don’t compete, this will be your best competition EVER……” Without noticing the meaning of these words, I continued greeting my freediving friends.
I learned that the weather had been really bad in the past few days, to such an extend that Francois and Cedric were thinking about cancelling the Constant Weight competition. Luckily when we arrived the weather had changed from stormy to sunny and the forecasts predicted beautiful weather. In the afternoon we went to the pool to train and in the evening we had “the best pasta in the world” prepared for us in our place.
The next day I went on the boat and attended a training.
As usual the François had a tight schedule and as soon as we “anchored” in the
bay
of
Villefranche
he had the plan ready for the dives, within an hour all freedivers in the boat had done a serious training dive and we returned again to the harbour. We had some time to have lunch at one of the many nice restaurants and I had a nice glass of wine, not competing does have a lot of advantages if you are in
France
! In the evening I attended the event committee where Pim and Francois explained the most important rules and rule changes in English and French. With the latest changes, this proved to be very wise, since for example the new surface protocol  needed some explanation.
Time for announcing the performances which was exiting to watch with a few “big” names of Stig, Herbert, Peter, Timo, Guillaume, Theo etc…. I was hoping Herbert was planning on going deep and he did; he announced a depth of 109 meters which meant a new world record could be broken!
 The evening I assisted in measuring the ropes and since I was up until now only familiar with organising a pool competition, this was a whole new thing to me. First the rope needs to be wet and stretched to the complete length: 109 meters! I can tell you a secret: without somebody strong like Cedric, this would have taken 2 cars to do the job. Together with judges Christoph and Pim we marked the 2 competition ropes, at 23:00 we were finished and left for some sleep.
On saturday morning I heard Francois his alarm clock go off at 5:00 and he must have left not long after that. We got up an hour later and met at CIPA at 6:45 to take a boat 10 minutes later. Because it was kind of busy in the boat I was the only one that took the first boat, the judges took a later boat. I was asked by the organisation to be the speaker in the boat and at the pool so I had to start my job at around 7:15 (first warm up). Arriving at the competition boat the whole crew was still unbelievably busy, imagine having to make sure there are ropes, boats, cameras, schedules, boats coming and going. Since I did not know how I could help I sat down and watched the guys to their jobs.
In the meantime Pierre Frolla had arrived with his boat to enable training and warm up for the athletes. Soon we found out we  had to delay the schedule by 30 minutes and within 10 minutes I had a busy job: calling  athletes to start their warm-up, calling them to the competition zone and perform the countdown for the deepest diver of the competition. Herbert started his dive at 8:30 and on the video we watched the bottom plate, it seemed like minutes had passed before he took the tag and turned……pfff he made the 109….. another minute passed before he was in sight of the safetydivers again and soon he arrived at the surface, trying to grab for the rope. Unfortunately he blacked out at the surface. Still, an amazing depth and an amazing dive to watch!
 Soon I found myself co-ordinating the competition on the boat and I felt like I had done this already for a few years: calling the athletes, making sure the ropes are pulled up, tags are brought down, countdowns are done: I enjoyed every minute. The CIPA crew is so well organised that all of them set a few steps more to make this competition a great experience. All the safety divers were in the water for hours in a row, judges worked 6,5 hours with only a few small breaks but the result was outstanding: the athletes performed the best they could and did not notice what an incredible amount of work this is. A small problem occurred with Weine as he surfaced and could not get enough oxygen into his lungs/system and the organisation showed to all that you are in the best hands when you are diving in
France
: they reacted the only right way: professionally with only the safety of the athlete in mind. Weine was rushed to a hospital with great care and speed (great work guys!) and although they still had to compete themselves Stig and Yamina went along with the boat and Yamina even went with him to the hospital.
In the meantime, in the middle of all of this and with a boat rushing for the shore, another diver was preparing for his dive. Timo Kinunnen did hear everything and his coach Johanna was nearly in tears but Timo still prepared and performed his dive, he really deserves my respect for being so cool and continue with the dive! Soon the message arrived that Weine was in the hospital but doing OK and all continued as usual. The rest of the competition still had a 30 minute delay but everybody worked to make a great competition and the athletes accepted the delay. Amazing to see were all the French freedivers that offered  to do safety for the athletes that still had to compete and some stayed in the water for hours. The CIPA team really proved to be a team!
 At the end of the day we got of the boat at 15:00 and went home for a shower. At 19:00 we all gathered at the Club Nautique to enjoy a dinner offered by the city of
Nice
. Loic had prepared a speech and media had a chance to takes some photo’s. The rest of the evening we spent trying to get rid of the feeling of being on a boat. Until I closed my eyes to sleep I had the feeling of being on the boat coping with the waves and doing countdowns………
On Sunday morning we gathered in the pool for the static and dynamic competition. No rocking boats, no ships passing by, no ropes to pull up, just “pure freediving”: static apnea. A few personal records got beat and some gave up early, the final heat had 3 BIG guys in static: Stig, Herbert and Timo……..
 
 Herbert won this one with an  amazing static breathhold of 7:24, followed by Timo who did 7:15. In dynamic Stig was the winner with a distance of
200 meters
, followed by Peter Pedersen. And to conclude the competition: Peter Pedersen was the overall winner, followed by Stig and Timo Kinunnen. 3 great athletes and thus great winners!
 In the old city of
Nice
we evaluated the past few days eating kebab and being among great freedivers and great friends. Although this was a competition it felt like being “a team” again and I enjoyed every second. Not being able to
compete was not in my plans, but making myself useful and having tine to speak to almost all athletes really mad this competition my best competition ever.
And it has already been said a 100 times: the CIPA team did an incredible job organizing this. I know in his head Francois thinks this is the last one. I am convinced I will be in Nice for this competition next year again. Thanks to all judges, safetydivers, organisers, volunteers and especially all my friends who share the passion of freediving. See you soon!
Text by Susan Kluytmans ( Immersion )
Photos by : JV.Pelletier / W. Mena / F. Gautier
There is 3 comment(s) about this article.
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 Name: Walter Mena with IP: 90.4.145.145 in 2006-06-17 14:57:21/23408
 Comment: On the first picture you are mad at me ... i can see it in your eyes, but still a nice picture of you ! It was a great experience for me too ... i really enjoy my first competition behind the scene and on the scene... thanx Franciso por poner mis fotos en el articulo, eso me estimula a seguir con la fotografia y talvez algun dia hacer algo con ello bajo el agua asi como tu lo haces tan bien !! gracias ced y fran por organizar el CIRCO AZUL ! BUENA ONDA BICHOS LOCOS !!!
Name: Ben Noble with IP: 64.236.216.23 in 2006-06-09 07:47:29/23407
Comment: Fantastic article Susan, just when i'd stopped longing for Nice, it's all started again!
I met loads of wonderful people, I hope to see them all again in the near future. Francois, Cedric and others - thanks for putting on a brilliant comp, we appreciate your hard work!
Cheers,
Ben
Name: Sam Kirby with IP: 82.33.193.188 in 2006-06-08 11:44:05/23406
Comment: Hey Susan
Thanks for a great article that really gave the feel of being there
Francois!what???? you HAVE to do it again next year! I couldn't make it this year.. next time PLEASE don't clash with the grand prix and the film fest so we can afford a flight!
lots of love
Sam x
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