NEWS

Update April 20, 2008

Performance Freediving International's "LIQUIFICATION" competition set to kick off, April 21-27, 2008.

It's that time of year again for Performance Freediving International's third annual competition in the beautiful clear blue Caribbean waters of Grand Cayman. Last year's event saw one world record and 11 national records set. How many will fall this year? Scheduled events are five depth days and five pool days. Recently the visibility was clear enough to still see the bottom plate at -60 meters when being lowered. Visit our webiste to learn more about the Liquification event, to see the In List of athletes and to read the daily updates and results immediately following each day's events.

Scooters, scooters, scooters...

This year the PFI Team brought four Silent Submersion Scooters or Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPV) to Grand Cayman with them. Performance Freediving's founder Kirk Krack scootered down deeper than -100 meters, which exceeded the depth rating and sampling ability of the Suunto D4 dive computer that he was wearing. Due to the dangers associated with deep scooter diving a strict surface interval was observed between dives as well as trained safety divers equipped with scooters waiting for him at -50 meters and -25 meters to render assistance if needed.

Choose a card, any card.

Magician David Blaine flew down from New York City to join the Performance Freediving International Team for a little scooter freediving and for some target dives. Is David planning on competing in organized freediving competitions? No one knows but he is a man definitely full of surprises, not to mention a breath hold ability that ranks up there with world class freedivers of today.

Special Guest Speakers

Legendary Freediver Robert "Bob" Croft and Julie Riffe will be the special guest speakers this year at Performance Freediving International's "Liquification" award ceremony scheduled for the evening of April 27, 2008 at the Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman.

Bob Croft is considered the father of American freediving. He was the first American to break world records in the early days of the sport. The characters portrayed in the movie "The Big Blue" were based on real life competitors that challenged Bob for his records.

Bob is the first medically documented case where the occurrence of blood shunting or the blood shift was observed. Blood shunting is a part of the mammalian dive reflex. It is essentially the body's ability to restrict blood flow from extremities and preserve that blood for more critical in the body that require oxygen while freediving. Bob Croft was the first known person to use a technique called glossopharyngeal insufflation or "packing, a technique he developed as a child. Packing is technique of pumping more air into the lungs than can normally be taken with a normal breath. The technique of packing is widely used today in the competitive freediving community to enable freedivers to go deeper and stay down under water longer.

Julie Riffe is a world record competitive spearfisher and part of Riffe International, Inc. which manufactures freediving and spearfishing equipment. Julie has been competitive a competitive spearfisher since the mid nineties and featured in many spearfishing magazines around the world.

Medical Research of Human Physiology Associated with Freediving

Dr. Ralph Potkin, Medical Director of the Beverly Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine located in Beverly Hills, California flew down to Grand Cayman to continue his study of the cardiac, pulmonary and neurologic effects of freediving on the human body.

Guardian Angels of the Deep

The guardians are dedicated group of highly skilled technical divers who lend their time and expertise to ensure that the extreme sport of freediving is kept as safe as possible. A majority of the divers now use Closed Circuit Rebreather Technology, which have a number of advantages to both the safety team and Freediving competitors. First of all the safety team has reduced decompression obligations for the extreme depths at which they operate and secondly rebreathers produce no bubbles therefore no additional noise and distractions for competitors during their attempts.

Team Leader Bill Coltart, has worked with Performance Freediving since 2004 to developed and refine safety standards. During this time Coltart, a Paramedic in British Columbia, has coordinated safety at various events including the 2004 Freediving World Championships hosted in Vancouver, Canada,various National events, Performance Freediving World Record Attempts.

Check back every afternoon from April 21-27 for daily updates on the competition alone with resluts.

[ TOP ]

[ Back to "In List"]