Over 50 divers from 17 countries took part in an opening ceremony on November 25 and spent two days training at the dive location before competition began with the women’s CNF heat on Friday November 27. The men’s heat took place the next day.

Athletes must nominate their intended dive depth before the event begins, and then complete the dive by retrieving a Velcro tag fixed at the bottom of a weighted cable and then return to the surface without blacking out.

Results just in from Denmark, Kathryn McPhee and Guy Brew have sailed into the A finals for the Static event, Will Trubridge has made the A final for DNF, and Kathryn McPhee along with “comeback queen” Suzy Osler have made the womens DNF finals.

Outstanding results from Kathryn in what has to be a tough day at the office, competing in 2 events in one day, and pulling off very respectable performances!

DYN heats are still to come.

With a little under a week to go until the Indoor world champs kick off in Aarhus, Denmark, Kiwis Kathryn McPhee, Suzy Osler, William Trubridge, Kerian Hibbs, Guy Brew and Chris Marshall have arrived in Denmark to a sensational Fan base of international divers, who want to know what the secrets are to being amongst the top ranked freedivers in the world.

Results will be posted both here and on our blog as they become available

In the lead up to the World Champs being held in Denmark from the 18th August, Kathryn Mcphee set 2 NZ records in Dynamic no fins, of 154m and then extended it to 159m at The Nordic Deep competition Both of these are in excess of the current world record of 151m, however Nordic Deep was not a World Ranking event – Well done Kathryn!

Freewc09.dk will be an event that houses two world championships. Both CMAS and AIDA will carry out their individual pool world championships at the event. Practically this means that AIDA and CMAS athletes will be competing by the rules stipulated by each organization at the same event, but not at the same time.

In what has to be one of NZ’s more sensational competions this weekend, some amazing performances were witnessed by a larger than normal crowd at this weekends Wellington Winter Champs hosted by Lazy Seals Freediving Club at Porirua Aquatic Centre.

It is with great pleasure that we confirm the following athletes with both wildcard and qualifying performances who are able to represent New Zealand at the respective Freediving World Championship Events for 2009.

The NZ mens Static record just got pushed further out by a very clean and clear 8:47 performance at the Apneists Challenge, hosted by Lazy Seals at Porirua pool this weekend.

Guy – showed us all what a rock solid Static looks like – congrats Guy!!!!

At 11:20am in Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas,  New Zealand freediver William Trubridge broke the world record in unassisted freediving, descending 88 meters (288 feet) and returning to the surface on a single breath of air and without the use of any weight or propulsive assistance.

Following the publication of criteria by AIDA international, AIDA NZ are please to formally announce the details of each of the world champs being held in Denmark and The Bahamas, and the selection criteria that will be applied by the board for individuals who do not qualify for automatic entry to these events.

From April 1-11, 2009 Vertical Blue will once again hold its annual invitational Freediving competition in Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas.

A Special congratulations to the following New Zealand Freedivers for finishing the year in the World Top 20 rankings list:

New Zealand freedivers have dominated the world rankings list for 2008, with 4 divers holding 6 of the 12 available number one spots between them.