Freediving Events
iHound Pool Challenge
On the 22nd of August 2010, Freedive Cape Town in conjunction with iHound.co.za organised and ran the iHound Pool Challenge at the newly renovated Strand pool outside of Cape Town. The competition format was a mix of disciplines which included Dynamic with Fins (DYN) and Dynamic without Fins (DNF).
The group of competitors was relatively small with just six athletes, but included big names like former world record holder, Trevor Hutton, well-known freediver and water sport journalist, Paul Winter; newbie freediver, Chris Edgar; underwater photographer and Freedive Cape Town slave, Jacques de Vos; spearo slash freediver slash IT genius Reece Botes; and tall pale guy, John Daines.
Husband and wife duo Mark van Coller and Sophia van Coller provided much appreciated support as underwater videographer (Mark) and safety diver (Sophia). Linda Paganelli and Hanli Prinsloo were the official judges.
Both disciplines provided excitement with the competitors producing very close results.
Jacques was first up in DNF and set a new personal best of 79m, but was penalised for breaking the surface with a body part which set him back 5 points giving him a total of 74. Reece was up for the challenge and swam 75m which would have given him first place, but unfortunately he dipped his head under the water after surfacing which got him disqualified for incorrect surface protocol. Winner: Jacques.
The DYN discipline was even closer with John electing to dive first and setting a new SA record at a distance of 153m with his Spierre Pure Carbon monofin. Both Trevor and Chris put in good dives, but Paul who went last provided the greatest excitement. Wearing a pair of plastic Cressi Garas, Paul slowly worked his way to the 150m mark, turned and surfaced at 153m to equal John’s distance. However, Paul was disqualified for incorrect surface protocol due to a black out.
The final result was John first with a new SA record. Paul was presented with a pair of Spierre fiberglass Ocean Camo blades by Pierre Liebenberg (Spierre) and iHound for his gutsy performance. Jacques was rewarded for his first place in the DNF with an unpaid trip to Dahab where he is currently sweeping camel crap off Linda’s driveway.
The next Freedive Cape Town competition will be scheduled for early 2011. If you are interested in competing, please contact us.
From left: Pierre Liebenberg from Spierre, Paul winter and John Daines.
Photo by Mark van Coller.