It has to stop NOW ! this obscene slaughter of Pilot Whales in the Faroes. There are endless stories of pilots guiding mariners to safety. These are miraculous creatures about whom too little is known. These are creatures of great intelligence. What are the reasons for this disgusting spectacle? These are sub human sadists conducting this stupid massacre. Danes are you proud of your countrymen ? Is this what you are ? Eli Weisel a holocaust survivor said he could understand the sadists in the camps but never the blank silent stares of those that watched the trains go by . Where are your voices?

Where are the voices of the Danish freedivers who pretend to love the sea and its creatures ? Are you all so busy selling leashes and books ? Or do you not want the responsibility of standing up and saying what needs to be said and maybe becoming unpopular in certain circles . Perhaps take an example from Continued…

Concerning the by now famous tatoo of the french swimmer Fabien Gilot (I am nothing without them) If this was indeed a tribute to the Israeli victims of the Munich massacre of 1972 . This , like the Italian team’s minute of silence outside the Israeli team quarters was an act of extreme nobility in the most profound spiirit of the Olympics . In ancient Greece, Olympia and the games were a sacred place of peace . This was the first principle of the Olympics ,that the city states of Greece very often involved in vicious civil wars could come together in peace and regardless of differences,their athletes could look each other in the eye and recognise for a brief moment a common humanity and a cause and a principle greater than their differences, and if everything else is corrupted this should be remembered, it is symbolised in the Olympic flame and the honour given to the Greek athletes to lead the parade of athletes . Thus the athletes of Italy and France earn my profound respect and gratitude that they have up held this tradition .

I will be explaining the methodology of this yoga technique, called, Uddiyana Bandha, (Definition: Abdominal lock. The second of the three interior body “locks” used in asana and pranayama practice to control the flow of energy),and several others, with Pranayama breath control exercises as part of the advanced courses and Instructor courses.

I have 15yrs of experience in yoga and meditation awareness techniques and have seen the growth of Apnea as a sport before AIDA was even a formal concept, and certainly before the mainstream realised the importance of some of the aspects of the 8-limbs of yoga. The yoga exercises shown here and several more used in the context of freediving, have been adopted over the years, I’d hazard a guess to say, by almost ALL FREEDIVING SCHOOLS. You don’t have to be a wild yogi, Continued…

Maria Teresa Solomons, with years of freediving experience behind her will be running the 1st AIDA Instructor Course in Mexico. The Sea of Cortez where la Paz is situated, was acclaimed to be the Aquarium of the world by Jaques Cousteau, although as with many once were underwater paradises, it has become the seat of several NGO’s fighting to rescue and recover the natural beauty that it is. Espiritu Santo which is a Marine Protected Area is a natural reserve of astounding beauty still, with probably the greatest number of whale species in the world passing through, Whale Sharks are common to the waters here and it is the home of a huge sealiion colony on the northern most part of the island and many wild birds.

During and after the course there will be opportunities to visit some of the best dive locations around the islands to explore the wrecks, reefs and swim with the seals and whale sharks- if we have reported sightings over those days.

GUARANTEED FUN with PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT!

We have just finished our 2nd Instructors Course. Aharon was the instructor Trainer and Alina helped with all the photography and administration and translation plus her own perspective. The students were Manuel Gonzalez from Mexico known to his friends as Manolo, Eden Detooker and Yuval Ohev.

Manolo had been coached by Aharon in Mexico to take all the Mexican National Records, he has a superb style in No Fins and is a leading competitor in that discipline.

Eden had also previously been training with Aharon as well. Yuval had previously trained with Alon and had achieved 65mts in FIM. As expected none of them had any difficulties with the 40 mt bi-fins dive, Manolo was the only one that had no difficulty with the repetitive 25 mt dive. This was new in the instructors course it requires a diver to descend to 25mts on surfacing he gets 1 min recovery then holds 1:15 static then 1 min recovery and dives to 25mts, he repeats this all together 3 times without additional rest. Eventually all succeded. The 4 mins static everyone succeeded on their first attempt. Yuval struggled a bit ,not having done any static in a long time.

The course was in English which was nobody’s first language and this presented some difficulties, particularly for Eden.

Continued…

The Freedivers together with Mor Sherf organised a 2 day AIDA Israeli National pool competition . The first day was static in a pool in Kfar Shemariahu and the second day was Dynamic in Wingate.

The purpose of the competition was primarily to afford a chance for athletes wishing to accumulate points for selection for the national team competing in Nice at the international team competition in September. Also to afford a chance for comparative beginners to experience an AIDA competition.

Aharon and Mor were the organisers , Mor and Alon Rivkin were the judges , Alina Tsivkin did all the official videoing and kept the charts up to date. Under water videoing and photos were handled by Tom Peled , who produced superb images.

The results are as follows – Continued…

An opportunity for all with the AIDA prerequisites to deepen their knowledge of freediving, sharpen their teaching skills and enjoy the beautiful Red Sea.

This is a chance to develop your freediving knowledge to a high level, to learn teaching and communication skills.
Applicants must be current holder of an AIDA**** certification, or the equivalent from another AIDA recognized organization.
The course carries full international certification.
Email: aharon@freedivers.net
phone: +972-52-7381684

An opportunity for all with the AIDA prerequisites to deepen their knowledge of freediving ,sharpen their teaching skills and enjoy the beautiful Red Sea

In my last post about the suit, I explained the importance of the suit and why this should be one’s first priority in choosing equipment for either freediving or spearfishing. Now here are my ideas on choosing what kind of suit, and some tips that might help.

The first consideration is fit, this is so little understood. I have met many even quite experienced divers who claimed that their suits fit perfectly when they very obviously didn’t. The proof is usually that they are shivering with cold when others with the same thickness of suit are still comfortable. A suit has to fit skin tight, restriction of movement should not be a problem as a good suit, unlike a scuba suit should be very flexible.

The point is it should fit everywhere with no “pockets” under the arm pits, and a good fit at the wrists and ankles, the hood should be snug at the neck and around the fac  ,without being over tight there.

The suit may seem over tight when it is dry particularly if it has material (like nylon) on the outside, but should feel like a second skin when it is wet .

It is nearly impossible to find the kind of fit I am talking about in a ready made suit. A ready made suit will always fit more or less, and you will get colder more or less.

There is at least one Italian suit maker, whom I know well, whose tailor made suits are virtually the same price as corresponding ready made suits by leading manufacturers. Their cut is superb, they give you an excellent choice of material, and of camouflage if you are a spearo, and their fit is perfect. They have a very good explanatory video of how exactly to measure yourself . You can order your suit from the internet and you should allow about 6 weeks to get it.

Now for the important question of type of suit and material. Except for the warmest of water (28°C and above) a suit should be 2 piece with hood attached. Spearos prefer the long john – pants configuration, this is where the trousers have shoulder straps. For the freediver who may do free immersion or use a monofin in CWT, this would be too restrictive.

The suit must have no zips for easy entry, it should be elastic enough for entry, with soap (soapless soap) without this.

As for the material the best compromise by far is material on the outside and open cell without a coating on the inside. The open cell adheres to the skin and gives fantastic insulation, and the material on the outside protects the suit and gives it its robustness.

Ultra performance freedive suits are slick rubber on the outside and open cell on the inside. This gives the ultimate in flexibility, warmth and slippage through the water. But this is all at the expensive of robustness, these suits are extremely delicate, their main enemy are finger nails when putting them on or off! These are not a good choice for spearos.

A good choice of neoprene is medium density, high density means minimal variation in buoyancy, a good choice for the deep freediver, low density means slightly more comfort, flexibility and warmth but the downside is a big penalty for the deep diver it requires a lot of weights to go down and when the suit compresses at depth you need to pull all that weight back to the surface.

Something else worth mentioning is the vest, slick on the outside and open cell on the inside of 1.5 mm, this can extend your season by a lot, this winter I have been using, without any discomfort, a 3mm suit slick and open cell in 21 degree water, spending 2hrs + in the water and my tolerance to cold is poor.

The last on the list are specialist suits, I just want to mention them but they are outside the scope of this article. There are hi–tec suits in the overall configuration for the No Fins disciplines. The overall in different thicknesses, with or without a hood is a good choice for No Limits as this stops water flushing under the jacket of a normal suit when descending feet first.

New Zealand has always been internationally know for the beauty of its natural heritage and the common decency of its people, two things sadly vanishing in the modern world. The case of Hectors Dolphin bears witness to this, the present Government of New Zealand is dismally failing in its obligation as the trustee of this Heritage, any benefit from the commercial imperative will soon disappear and if this species is allowed to vanish something of inestimable value will be lost for ever.

MESSAGE TO THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND

WITH REGARD TO YOUR FAILURE TO PROTECT HECTORS DOLPHIN YOU HAVE FAILED AS THE TRUSTEE OF YOUR COUNTRY TO PROTECT ITS TREASURES AND GIVEN EXCUSE FOR GRAVE CONCERN .WHAT EXACTLY IS NOT FOR SALE ? WHERE WILL YOU DRAW THE LINE ? YOU ALSO HAVE, IN UNDERTAKING THE ROLE OF LEADERS OF YOUR NATION ,A SACRED OBLIGATION TO PROTECT

AND PRESERVE THE NATURAL BEAUTY AND RICHNESS OF YOUR ISLANDS ,WILL YOU AUTOMATICALLY CRAVENLY BOW TO THE COMMERCIAL IMPERATIVE ?

THIS SMALL CREATURE IS AN INTRINSIC PART OF THE VERY BEAUTIFULL BODY OF YOUR COUNTRY THAT MAKES IT UNIQUE IN THE WORLD .WE HAVE A TERM FOR PEOPLE THAT SELL THEIR BODIES,

IS THIS THE WAY YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO DEFINE YOU AND THE WORLD TO PERCEIVE YOU ?

AHARON SOLOMONS