CAFA Western Regional
Posted By Peter Scott on 12 May 2003
The Canadian Assocation of Freediving and Apnea (CAFA) held its 7th Western Regional freediving competition on May 2-4th, 2003. The buzz preceeding the competition focused on Mandy-Rae Cruickshank’s intention to set world records in the competition and a new safety system for constant weight.
CAFA had asked Doug Peterson, an AIDA USA international judge, to officiate the competition with Kirk Krack, also an AIDA judge. This meant that any world records achieved in the competition would be ratified by AIDA once the video and drug tests were accepted.
Mandy-Rae Cruickshank was to make an attempt on Nathalie Desreac’s 150m dynamic apnea record. This record had not been touched for years—not since 1998. As the date approached, and time for Mandy to achieve her training targets ran out, I could detect a drop in enthusiasm for this record attempt, replaced with a newfound interest in the no-fins constant weight discipline, for which there is no official AIDA record on the books. When the announced performances were in, Mandy was set to attempt –41m without fins, a salute to Yasemin Dalkilic’s –40m F.R.E.E. world record.
Kirk Krack, CAFA president and the competition organizer, made a presentation several weeks earlier about the options for constant weight safety he was considering for the Regionals. AIDA declared on April 1st that lanyards would be mandatory at all AIDA sanctioned competitions. Kirk devised a triple-redundant system built around the lanyard-diver connection that incorporated a cabled bottom video linked to a surface monitor to make sure competitors reach their tags and made a safe ascent; and a pair of safety scuba divers stationed at -30m with sufficient gas to inflate lift bags designed fasten to the line to either catch a diver blacking out above them or to lift the whole line to the surface if there was a problem below them. To top it all off, the other end of the competition line was attached to a counterweight with 60kg, ready to be released in order to bring up the line at a moment’s notice. With the deepest announced depth at -45m, it seemed like the perfect occasion to use the appartus without worrying about the kind of depths the best Canadian freedivers usually announce.
Friday: Dynamic Apnea
Friday’s dynamic apnea was held at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. Mandy announced 75m, and when she made the turn at 100m, her longblade carbon fins gently swishing back and forth, she pulled up early and easily at 110m, well short of the wall at which she had originally hoped to turn. She quickly smiled and shrugged it off. A lot more confident about her no-fins constant weight attempt, Mandy seemed in good spirits despite the failed attempt.
But there was more excitement. Brent Pascall decided to do his dynamic without fins, as did Tom Lightfoot and Eric Fattah. Brent’s long arms propelled him at one metre per second and he reached the 100m wall and pulled up and began his recovery. Suddenly, Kirk Krack, one of the judges, told a safety diver to grab his chin. Immediately, Brent looked up, confused. They claimed he was not in control of his airway and it was slipping under the water. Nevertheless, 100m is the farthest distance ever reached in no-fins by a Canadian freediver, clean or not, since Greg Fee set the record last fall at 80m. Jade Leutenegger, originally a freediver from the new club in Toronto, broke Mandy’s old record for no-fins dynamic with a new mark of 56m in her first ever competition. A new competitor, Goh Iromoto, breathed up with his hands clasped together like a Shaolin monk and made a solid 100m with air to spare.
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