SaltFree Championships 2004
Posted By Sam Kirby on 2 August 2004
Sitting in a portakabin at the National Diving Centre last October, someone raised the idea that the British Freedive Association's National Championships should really take place in British waters. Add to this the fact that we needed to select a team capable of diving in the murky green off Vancouver and I was moved to stick up my hand and volunteer to organise it in saltFree's home lake in Chepstow. It seemed like a mighty fine idea.
Hundreds of pounds, miles of duck tape, several pulled shoulder muscles and a couple of boyfriends later.. We were suddenly at the Prize Giving Ceremony. How did we get there? Now my brain has stopped fizzing from all the plans, I thought it might help others to put something down (and remind me of what I need to do for next year).
After agreeing to host the Championships, the first thing was to make sure some people entered. This was made substantially easier by the BFA agreeing to use the event to select the British Team. Anyone interested in going to Vancouver would have to come in the top four in their species at this competition. No discussion. This seemed a much clearer and more sensible selection method than the committee meetings, votes and "give him a place, he's a good egg" attititude of previous years - and it helped my entry list.
Next thing to do was to tell people about it. SaltFree had recently acquired a website so a day or two's work was in order to add the competition details. At this stage, much of the information was vague.
We knew where we could do the constant weight dives, we knew of a man with a hog roast who could come along for the party and we had chosen a date. That was about it. The Static would be at "a pool nearby". The prizes were "exciting - watch this space" and goodness only knew who the competitors would be.
Setting ing the entry fee was almost entirely random. At this point I had no idea how much the pool would cost, how many we would need on the scuba team, and as for how much rope we would need - well, how long is a piece of string? I consulted Howard as to how much he charged in recent years. I made a list of all the people I thought would enter and came up with a figure of around 30 divers to break even.
The next step was to ask a few people how much they would pay and somehow came up with the figure of £45. As it happened, we ended up with 28 entries and broke even almost exactly. Thank God for T shirt sales is all I can say!
In the first week of January, having spent the whole Christmas holiday making lists and panicking, I had my first full on meeting with the National Diving Centre. From that day on, they were nothing but helpful, to the max. These guys spent hours poring over my drawings of the perfect dive platform and over the course of a couple of months had built it. By late March, we had a luxury 12m square raft carrying not only our "performing rope" (as they call it, as if we were some kind of seal) but also 3 sets of warm up lines, a reference rope for the scuba team, a full deco trapeze, a heavy duty fin ladder and a picnic table. Special thanks are due to Stuart, Kieron, Mike "The Ferryman" and the boys for endless hours of work and their continued support for our mad little sport.
From January on, there was an endless list of things to organise. By this time I was on my second boyfriend since starting the planning and, to stop the middle of the night panics and scribbled bits of paper around the house, he made me go out and buy a white board. Items listed on the board included: Doctor, Insurance, Tags, Ropes, Lifejackets, Judges, Rules and Prizes. One by one they gradually got wiped off - and replaced by other needs.
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