Share the underwater fly with me

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Vendredi 30 octobre 2009

EQUIPE DE FRANCE/FRENCH NATIONAL TEAM 2009 CWT/CNF

PHOTO JEROME VIGOUREUX-PELTIER

Communiqué AIDA france

Les 4 meilleurs français tous sexes confondus seraient qualifiés, tel était le voeu du sélectionneur. Les Championnats du monde de profondeur AIDA débuteront le 25 Novembre 2009, ils accueilleront Christian Maldamé (Wild card CWT & CNF), Guillaume Nery (Wild card CWT et qualifié en CNF), Morgan Bourc'His (qualifié en CWT & CNF) et Patrick Poggi (qualifié en CWT). Ces 4 athlètes représenteront AIDA France et marqueront le début de la collaboration entre Sony-Ericsson et AIDA France.

Ils seront tous présents sur place une dizaine de jours avant le début des épreuves afin de peaufiner leurs réglages et être à même de donner le meilleur d'eux-mêmes lors des épreuves officielles.

Frédéric Lemaître, sera lui aussi présent à double titre, effectuer le suivi photo des athlètes pour le compte de Sony-Ericsson et effectuer des mesures in-situ afin de mieux comprendre la physiologie en apnée et les situations conduisant à des accidents de décompression.

Souhaitons leur bonne chance.
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I will be in The bahamas from the 15th of November till the 6th of December.

You can follow the event :

On this blog
On Guillaume Nery's blog : http://guillaumenery.over-blog.com/
On the official competition web site : http://www.verticalblue.net/events/

Stay tuned !

Par Christian Maldamé - Publié dans : competition - Communauté : apnée
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Mardi 27 octobre 2009

The ARCH with fins

I am in the Blue hole again this monday 26th of October. This day again, the conditions are so fine that it pushes me to try something.

After a big week of full training, I would like to go to funniest dives, and not dive only for depth...

Each sport as its legendary spot :

In alpinism it can be 'the Eiger's north face', in sailing 'the Horn Cape', in freeclimbing 'the Nose' in Yosemite park In surfing 'teahopu' ...

Being part of this sport tribe, at the top, implies, that one day, you will face this incredible challenge surrounding this legendary spot.

In freediving we have ............ 'THE ARCH'

The blue hole is were 'THE ARCH' takes place. This 'ARCH' consists of a gigantic tunnel of 30m length, at 55m depth. This is the underwater aperture between the 'bluehole' and the open red sea.

Doing the ARCH on a single breath is an incredible challenge. you have to go as deep as 55m at least, swimm 30m horizontally, and swimm back a minimum of 55m to the surface. This all, avoiding the coral reef.

After a certain point, you have no possibility to come back, no safety can be provided down there, and the surface safety on the exit is very hard to organize, as nobody knows where you are going to swimm up !

This is now a Mythic dive for freedivers. Only a few freedivers in the world have done it, and a very few have done it with no other help than their own msucles (some have done it with an helping variable weight for

the descending phase).

This day I decided to do it, with the help of my monofin only...

Scuba diver in the arch

I am the first native french to have succesfully performed 'THE ARCH'

This dive was great and amazing.

After a slow descent, a quiet freefall phase, I slowly entered the ARCH between 45 and 56m, I swam horizontally quietly within the ARCH.

At that time a school of huge Trevally fishes were just under me crossing the ARCH too, I was crossing schools of fishes and reached the end of the 'tunnel'.

Reaching this end, I left the dark glowing blue of the ARCH to reach the open red sea and began to swam up. Unfortunately at that time, I was not able to locate the line that my friends had set-up, to guide me for the ascending phase and to help them easily safety me. After a while I saw this line, and joined it for the last meters of the ascent !

Coming out to the surface, I yelled a big 'Yesss', so happy to have done it....

This dive was great.

I am now appreciating the incredible pleasure of having achieved such a challenge.

I still keep in my head this incredible vision of this underwater ARCH.

This dive would not have been possible without the care of top safety buddies.

I really thank warmly Patrick, Akim and Per that helped me to achieve this dive... Thanks guys !

Pics by W. Timmermans and myself

Par Christian Maldamé - Publié dans : fun freediving - Communauté : apnée
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Lundi 26 octobre 2009

-90m in CWT and competition winner

Egypt - Dahab - Blue hole. This sunday 25th of october, the sea is perfectly flat and calm, everything is quiet.
That is the perfect moment for this depth competition, organized by Lotta Ericson, for the freedivers present in Dahab.

On my side, for this important test before the world championships, I decided to announce -90m in CWT. I felt well the previous days of training and I really want to check if I will be able to achieve this depth before putting additional meters to the line...

And here are the results :

On the men side

Per Westin turns at -71m after a -74m attempt in CWT
Victor ? sets-up a new national record for Ukraine at -60m in CWT
A new national record is also set-up for Lituania with -45m in CWT

On the women side

Ingela does a succesful 45m dive
Wendy Timmermans turns at -61m for a -64m FIM announce
And Kathreen Mac Fee fails in a -54m CNF dive

With a successful CWT dive at -90m, I finally win this competition.

My feelings were extremely good, and I clearly feel enough well to increase my nexts perfomances. Time will tell...

Thanks to the organisation and safety for their good jobs.

Further results can be found on deeperblue.net
All pictures above were shooted by Wendy Timmermans

Par Christian Maldamé - Publié dans : competition - Communauté : apnée
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Vendredi 23 octobre 2009

Training in Dahab with Blue immersion

I am now in Dahab training and preparing myself for the depth world championships that will come soon.

This is the occasion for me to train with Patrick Bouillon and Akim Adhari, the owners of the Blue Immersion freediving school.

They very gently invited me to train with them and share their appartment in Dahab.

We all go almost daily to the blue hole and train there.

Once again for me it is time to go back to basic training. My training break this summer makes it hard for me

to equalize deep. I then need to work the equalizing technic to automatize it. On the other hand I feel very good regarding apnea time, and feel that I am now ready to do some very long dives, in CNF or in CWT.

Patrick is now providing a 4 star AIDA course to Annah, a scottish freediver that shows good abities to freedive and hold her breath. On the other hand he is working on his no fins dives and is now between 40 and 50m deep.

Akim, his teammate his doing very well. Real newcomer of the year, he is already doing dives over 100m in CWT.

Good spearfisherman, having french and tunisian nationalities and still not competing. He will probably come soon on the competition circuit and hit hard in the rankings...

Both of them are leaving in Dahab all year round and are providing courses and trainings via their 'Blue imersion' school a good school with great instructors that can teach you seriously and efficiently freediving.

http://www.blue-immersion.com

Par Christian Maldamé - Publié dans : fun freediving - Communauté : apnée
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Vendredi 9 octobre 2009

Deep down on the shipwrecks of south of France

Enjoy this video filmed by Guillaume Nery and myself, edited by Fred Monnot.

Par Christian Maldamé - Publié dans : fun freediving - Communauté : apnée
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Mercredi 23 septembre 2009

Nice Abyss contest

Organized by the CIPA in Nice, this world class depth competition was including CNF and CWT disciplins on a 2 day basis.

Annoucements were free for each day, which means that you could do 2 tries on a single disciplin or both disciplins if wanted.

Guillaume Nery managed to organize this competition under an ecological sign. A bio buffet with recycable material was set-up. A minimum of boat shuttle were done to lower done the carbon dioxide impact,...

The weather for this week-end was not so good, with rain and waves disturbing slightly the athletes. But this Villefranche bay spot is so nice and well protected that there was no significant impact on the athletes.

The first day, the athletes were quite surprised by a strong freezing thermocline at 45m depth. Some lost their mouthfills and tensed themselves, leading to missed dive, but in the overal the conditions were fine.

In CWT :

For the men, François Gautier does a strong dive to 80m and wins the contest, followed by a newcomer Nicolas Girardin with 70m, on the third place Jean-Michel Pradon does a very nice come-back to competition wih 67m.

On my side, with an announcement of 78m, I miss my equalization, due to a lack of focus, and have to turn earlier. Grrr, I will surely play it differently next time, as this dive was supposed to be very manageable for me.

For the women, Brigitte Banegas wins the competition with a nice 47m, followed by a newcomer cipaist, Vanessa Macdonald that went to 45m, Mia Risner follows close.

In CNF :

Morgan Bourc'his, does a secured 63m dive, after a missed attempt to 70m the previous day (early turn due to the thermocline). I do a nice and cool 60m dive, giving me a nice second place on the podium. Feelings were great and I really appreciated a long free-fall phase down to 60m.

On the 3rd place, we find Fred Sessa that does an easy 50m dive, good result for a first depth attempt, well done guy !

For this comeback to competition after a 4 months break, I was happy to take this second place, behind my teammate Morgan. My heavy training phase is at its beginning, and I still have 2 months to prepare myself for the Bahamas depth world championships...

On the women side, Brigitte Banegas wins the comp with a new french national record at 35m, well done Brigitte !