Tag: Georgina Miller

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Bristol Blue 2018 BFA National Championship

This weekend, Bristol Freedivers hosted their 3rd Bristol Blue Freediving competition, which this year incorporated the British Freediving Association’s National Freediving Championships.  The event took place across two days, with the dynamic (with fins) taking place at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre on Saturday 24 March and the dynamic no fins and static at Horfield Leisture Centre on Sunday 25.

33 athletes gathered in Bristol from all across the UK and from across the water too – 9 nationalities in total were represented.  The level of experience varied vastly, from world champions and national record holders to 7 people competing at their first competition. Testament to a fantastically well run event, twenty-seven new personal bests were set.

The winners of the National Freediving championships were Adam Drzazga and Beci Ryan and the overall male and female winners of the competition were Stig Pryds and Camilla Salling Olsen, true to their Viking roots they came and conquered! The gold medalists for the static element were Georgina Miller (06:28) and Adam Drzazga (06:13), for dynamics it was Camilla Salling Olsen (184m) and Stig Pryds (192m) and for dynamic no fins Beci Ryan (149m) and Stig Pryds (150m).  The standard of newbie performances this year was so high, with Rosie Williams (04:32 STA, 111m DYN, 100m DNF) and Mik Bjorkenstam (05:30 STA, 109m DYN, 117m DNF) crowned the winners.  Newbies David Mellor and Alex Atkins also deserve a mention, the competition for this newbie spot was unusually high and their performance were impressive with a lot more clearly still to give.

Freediving is an incredibly wonderful and strange sport where at one moment athletes are trying their utmost in the water to give their best performance and at the next, coaching someone else to reach their peak performance, even if it means they outrank you or beat you to a place on the podium.  Bristol Blue’s 3rd competition was no exception to this rule, the organisers managed to create a calm, relaxed atmosphere, belying the incredibly hard work and effort that had clearly gone on well in advance of the event and behind the scenes on the day – from training and arranging the super slick safety team,  organising the AIDA judges and assistant judges, securing (top) sponsors and managing an enthusiastic and friendly team of volunteers.  Keeping control a bunch of nervous freedivers attempting to get into their zone of zen isn’t always easy and they did a wonderful job!

Last and not least, huge thanks to the amazing sponsors who provided fanstasic prizes and support – MARES – just add water, Finisterre, British Freediving Association, Freedive Ibiza and Saltfree Divers.

Words by Beci Ryan, Photography by Daan Verhoeven.

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2017 UK National Champions announced

Georgina Miller

The BFA is delighted to announce that Michael Board and Georgina Miller are the 2017 UK National Champions.

The selection is based on UK and international competition results across all major pool and open water disciplines. Competitive freediving requires an exceptional level of commitment to training as well as travelling across the world to participate in the leading depth competitions.Georgina and Michael have a long history of competitive freediving for Great Britain in individual and team championship events. Each of these talented divers have broken multiple national records and have competed at some of the world’s most prestigious freediving championships. Georgina is a six-times national record holder, with a personal best of just over seven minutes in the Static Apnea discipline. Michael has set sixteen British National records and is the current British record holder in two depth disciplines for Constant Weight at 108m and for Free Immersion at 100m.

Georgina said: “I’m really pleased to get this award. It is pretty challenging to get competition points across all six disciplines, which were gained at just two events, one pool and one depth competition. Fitting in time to train around work teaching free diving is always a tricky balance, but it’s fun to try to practice all the disciplines! The cold waters of the UK are not always the easiest, but it does help to be able to dive as much as we can in the summer. We have a wonderful community of free divers to help motivate and support us and meet some incredible, inspirational people, so I feel very lucky to be able to do this. I would really like to thank Daan Verhoeven for all of his knowledge and endless support, Porthkerris Divers for the space to practice and teach, and my mum for the dog sitting while we are away.”

Georgina and Daan Verhoeven run Aquacity Freediving (www.aquacityfreediving.com) at Porthkerris in Cornwall.

Michael said: “I am so happy to be named UK Champion for 2017, and to have got the final points needed at the Bristol Blue competition in October. Last season was a difficult one for me, after an injury early in the season, I failed to achieve any good results in the rest of that year, I really felt that my performances had plateaued and it left me with many doubts when starting to train for this 2017 season. However, I decided to make some big changes, took on a new coach, and started training at a level that I had not previously managed. It’s been hard work, with many early morning sessions but the results speak for themselves – it has probably been my most successful year since starting to compete eight years ago. The high point for me was coming 3rd place at Vertical Blue earlier this year in the Monofin category, increasing the British depth record to 108m, and ranking 5th in the world for 2017, and then also setting another new British depth record of a 100m in Free Immersion. Being awarded UK champion is a great way to top off this great year. Thank you to all my training partners, especially Kate Middleton and the instructors at Freedive Gili in Gili Trawangan, and to coach Goran Colak for his training and advice.”

Michael Board runs Freedive Gili, a Freediving School in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia (www.freedivegili.com) and is on Instagram @mikefreediver.

Congratulations to Georgina and Michael for their outstanding freediving achievements and we wish them every future success!

Michael Board

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

 

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UK team for the 2017 AIDA Depth World Championships

Former Royal Marine Michael Board extends his British national freediving record. Michael Board and freediver Dean Chaouche set additional national records in two other freediving disciplines.

The British Freediving Association (BFA) is delighted to announce that three new UK national freediving records have been set at the annual Vertical Blue international freediving competition held in the Bahamas which ended on 10 May 2017. The records have now been officially confirmed by the international freediving association, AIDA. Three British freedivers competed at the nine-day competition: Michael Board, Dean Chaouche and Georgina Miller. Key freediving disciplines in the Vertical Blue competition are: CWT = constant weight; a dive with fins or monofin; CNF = constant no fins; a dive with no fins; and FIM = free immersion – the freediver uses a rope to descend and ascend without fins. All three athletes performed exceptionally well during the course of the competition, achieving the following final results in their chosen disciplines:

Michael Board: CWT: 108m (new British national record); FIM: 100m (new British national record)

Dean Chaouche: CNF: 80m (new British national record)

Georgina Miller: CWT: 54m CNF: 33m FIM: 44m (Georgina placed sixth overall at the competition amongst a strong field.)

Michael Board, a former Royal Marine Commando, was the first British man to freedive to 100m in 2013. He owns and runs a freediving school and yoga center in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia called Freedive Gili and Gili Yoga. With his performance, Dean Chaouche is one of the top 10 deepest divers in the world in the CNF discipline. He is a freediving instructor at Team Vertical Blue in the Bahamas. Georgina runs Aquacity Freediving in Cornwall and is a six-time UK national freediving record holder. Commenting on his performance, Michael Board said: “After two years of struggling to find the way to dive deeper, this year seems to be a breakthrough year for me. Vertical Blue was a tough competition this year with so many good deep freedivers from around the world really pushing hard and trying to dive deeper than ever. However, I trained well for this competition. After rupturing my eardrum last year just before the competition started and not being able to compete I was really motivated to come back strong. My training this time focused a lot on being in good physical shape as you would expect, but equally on being mentally prepared with a strong emphasis on meditation. ”

“I started the competition well on the first day (30 April) with a dive to 104m in the constant weight discipline, which was one meter deeper than my British record of 103m from 2014. However, I got a penalty point for losing the tag on the swim up and so it did not qualify as a new record. This was disappointing but gave me confidence as I had achieved the depth and knew I could dive deeper. On the second day of the competition fellow British freediver, Dean Chaouche, dived to 98m in Free Immersion (diving by pulling up and down the rope) breaking my own national record in this discipline by one meter. This threw down the gauntlet and I knew I would have to try and dive deeper to regain it later in the competition. On the 4 May, Day 4 of the competition, I did a dive to 106m in Constant weight in a dive time of just 2’59. This bettered my last British record which was a dive to 103m in December 2014. After the success of this dive I decided to have a crack at taking back the British free immersion record on Day 5. So on 5 May, I did a dive to 100m, adding two meters on the record set by Dean Chaouche just 5 days before on Day 1. Finally, on Day 9 of the competition, the last day, I decided to try for an even bigger dive in constant weight and dived to 108m, also in 2’59, adding a further two meters to the British record I had set a few days before. This also put me in the third place position with a bronze medal in the constant weight discipline – my first podium finish after five years of competing at Vertical Blue!”

Michael Board and Dean Chaouche will be competing again as part of the mixed, six-strong UK freediving team at the AIDA Freediving World Championships in Roatán, Honduras. This competition will take place from 22 August to 2 September 2017.

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British freedive team perform at the World Championships in Kalamata, Greece

Carl Atkinson - Static at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, KalamataAdam Drzazga - Constant Weight at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, Kalamata
Georgina Miller - Dynamic at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, KalamataTim Money - Static at the 2016 AIDA World Championships, Kalamata

British divers Adam Drzazga, Tim Money and Carl Atkinson, with Adam Mustoe in reserve, formed the men’s team, finishing in 8th place behind winners Czech Republic, second place France and third place Russia.

Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan formed the women’s team, however Beci was unfortunately injured in training and didn’t compete, however she became a valuable team coach and assisted the organisers. Well experienced at top-level competition, Georgina gave three impressive performances including a new personal record in dynamic on the final day.

These World Championships are a team event, and everyone needs to work together to get a good result. The men’s team discussed a strategy and aimed at good, but not reckless, announcements in their depth dives (known as constant weight). Carl Atkinson, at his first World Championships, dived to 80m and Tim Money to 63m. Adam Drzazga reached 55m but unfortunately got a red card due to a technicality. Georgina Miller reached 51m.

This added some pressure on the men to “go big” in the next event, static apnea, which was Adam’s strongest and the team decided to be more aggressive with his performance to try and claw back some points. Carl achieved 4:57, Tim 5:47 and Georgina 6:31 which put her in 4th place for static amongst the ladies. Unfortunately, the men’s team strategy didn’t work, and resulted in a disqualification for Adam, so the team regrouped and ended in the final event dynamics with strong performances and white cards across both teams – 167m for Tim, 141m for Georgina, 130m for Carl and 123m for Adam.

Despite some setbacks, the British team enjoyed the calm, relaxed and inspirational atmosphere at the event. The race for gold in both sexes gave a nail-biting finish. The Japanese women’s team all pushed themselves to personal records to win gold, followed by the Czech Republic in second and Russia in third. Martin Valenta (CZE) swam 250m dynamic to ensure his men’s team won.

The British freediving team was kindly sponsored by Elios, DiveSangha, Saltfree divers and Orbiloc dive lights.

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British freedivers excel at Vertical Blue freediving depth competition

Dean Chaouche National Records 74m CNF

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

British freediver Dean Chaouche set a new UK Record in Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) of 74m on the opening day of the Vertical Blue depth competition in the Bahamas. Since 22 April, the world’s top divers have been challenging each other to dive deeper, some further than anyone has been before. Three World Records were also set at what has become the premier freediving competition in the world.

Two days later (24 April), Dean then became the second British man to reach 100m in Constant Weight (CWT). Dean said on Twitter that “It’s been very hard to get here, there have been many hiccups, but I’m glad I made it!” Dean has been living on Long Island by Dean’s Blue Hole, where the competition is held. Although not named after him, it’s fitting given he’s become so comfortable diving here regularly.

Dean put his success down to working hard on swimming technique, diving regularly and training his body and mind to be more tolerant to carbon dioxide. His National Record feels all the better for the frustration he felt missing an opportunity to set the record in 2015. His persistence has paid off – along with the CNF national record he came 3rd overall in the competition and 2nd in the CNF discipline.

Fellow Brits Liv Phillip and Georgina Miller also found success at Vertical Blue, ranking 6th and 8th respectively. Despite ill health during her stay on Long Island, Liv achieved a 63m Free Immersion (FIM) dive which gave her 4th place in that discipline and Georgina performed a personal best.

The competition closed with not one, but two World Records by British-born, New Zealand freediver William Trubridge in Free Immersion to 122 and then 124m. That followed an impressive CNF World Record of 72m set by Japanese freediver Sayuri Kinoshita. The events kept us all on the edge of our seats for almost two weeks!

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Alice Hickson wins Gold & Bronze at AIDA Individual World Championships & Breaks two national records in DNF & STA

Four other Team Members also qualify for A & B Finals

UK Freediving Team Pool World Championships 2015

Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

The Individual AIDA Pool World Championships ran from 21st to 27th June in the city of Belgrade in Serbia, with 122 athletes from 27 countries in attendance. A team of eight British athletes made the trip to represent the UK and fly the flag: Adam Drzazga, Alice Hickson, Beci Ryan, Georgina Miller, Jason Kirkpatrick, Lucelle Simms, Rebecca Coales and Shirley Turner.

The team was made up of seasoned and novice athletes alike. Despite it being an individual event the athletes worked together as a team, offering competition advice and coaching one another’s performances. All the athletes on the team are self funded and this year they were grateful to receive sponsorship from Divesangha, Bounce Energy Balls and Beet-it shots.

From the onset the team looked strong, with three athletes, Rebecca Coales, Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan holding wild cards (meaning they ranked top ten in the world for one or more discipline), and Jason Kirkpatrick and Alice Hickson having won best newcomer at the National Pool championships in March at the Great Northern.

But no one could have predicted that a 25-year-old, Swim Coach and Occupational Therapist, who had been freediving 8 months and this just her second competition, would break three national records, win a gold and bronze medal and become a World Champion! But this is exactly what Alice Hickson did with ease, grace and humbleness.

On day one Alice came out and performed like a professional, breaking the UK national record in dynamic no fins (DNF) by swimming 153m (the previous record was 145m set by Rebecca Coales) and securing herself a place in the A-Finals. In the A-Finals Alice continued to impress by adding almost an entire length onto her previous performance, 21m to be exact, and coming up clean and strong at 174m; winning her a second national record, a gold medal and the title World Champion.

It was in static (STA) that Alice went on to win her bronze medal. In the qualifying heats, despite the challenging cold conditions, which put a number of other athletes off, she held her breath for 05:58. In the finals she increased her time to 06:58 and broke her third national record. Georgina Miller had set the previous static national record at 06:33 at the Great Northern on 22 March this year.

There were some strong performances from other members of Team GB, with Georgina Miller qualifying for the STA A-Finals and now ranking number 7 in the World. Shirley Turner and Adam Drzazga made the STA B-Finals and rank number 10 and 11 in the World. Beci Ryan qualified for the DNF and STA B-Finals. Lucelle Simms narrowly missed out on the DYN finals with a solid 166m swim. Jason Kirkpatrick at his first World Championships and his second ever competition did brilliantly, his performance in DYN was impressive, swimming 124m in bi-fins, not an easy feat.

With the Pool World Championship over, we now look forward to the AIDA Depth World Championships in Limassol, Cyprus. The UK Team and sponsors will be announced very soon, so watch this space!

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6th BFA Great Northern, British National Records for Georgina Miller & John Moorcroft, Winners Dan Betts (UK), Matej Bergoc (SLO) & Beci Ryan (UK)

George Miller 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record STAPicture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Thursday 26 March 2015; — On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 March, the 6th Great Northern International and the BFA UK National Pool Championships, organised by Steve Millard of www.freedivers.co.uk was held at Lifestyle Fitness Aquatic Centre in Liverpool
(www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles).

The Great Northern never disappoints in terms of Dan Betts 2015 Great Northern BFA UK winnerperformance and this
year was no different. Living up to the International bit of the title, fourteen countries were represented, with one athlete, from team USA, Mandy Sumner flying in from Hawaii the night before the competition! Keeping to tradition, national records were set, this year both British, over the course of the weekend. On day one, John Moorcroft, the first diver of the day, kick started the competition with a record in dynamic no fins of 176m and on day two, Georgina Miller set her record in static with 6 minutes and 33 seconds. John swam just over 7 lengths of a 25m pool on one breath with no fins, smashing his previous record of 167m, set at lJohn Moorcroft 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record DNFast year’s competition. Georgina Miller’s previous record was 6 minutes and 27 seconds set in 2014 at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, and she pushed it a further 6 seconds away.

The UK male winner was Dan Betts with three strong performances, white cards and big smile at the end: 115m DNF, 05:39 STA and 151 DYN. Coming in second for the Brits was Josh Walton of Bristol Freedivers and in third Jason Kirkpatrick from the Glasgow Apneists UK group. In first place for International male Matej Bergoc of Slovenia with incredible holds: 140 DNF, 07:07 STA and 183 DYN, in second Stephan Heiss and in third David Fournier.

The UK female winner was Beci Ryan with 135m DNF, 05:12 STA and 150 DYN, in second Georgina Miller and in third Lucelle Simms. And Masa Sorn also of Slovenia, training with Apneists UK Yorkshire group, came in second place for International female with three strong performances (104 DNF, 04:46 STA, 150 DYN).

The winners of the Newbie Awards were Jason Kirkpatrick (05:17 STA) and Alison Hicks (151 DYN), with already impressively big holds and swims and a lot of promise for the future. Rumour has it that both athletes look set to join the UK Team at the Pool World Championships in Serbia!

The Great Northern is a competition that celebrates achievements across the board, it recognizes that freediving is not always about numbers and times but about personal achievements and obstacles overcome. The sense of atmosphere at this year’s competition spoke volumes, with athletes from clubs all over the UK and indeed the world, coaching, congratulating and celebrating personal bests with genuine enthusiasm.

Thank you to the sponsors for their support with such generous top freediving prizes, the helpers who made it so special, the judges, safety team and the athletes for attending otherwise it couldn’t have happened. The official kit sponsors were: Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com/uk/) and Aqua Lung (www.aqualung.com/uk/), with sponsorship also coming from Fins4u (www.fins4u.com), Tidy Tide (www.free-water.org), and the British Freediving Association (www.britishfreediving.org). For a list of sponsors please visit http://www.freedivingcompetition.com/gn-sponsors-2015.html

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Liv Philip Wins 2014 Euro Cup

Michael Board and Georgina Miller take 2nd Places

Liv Philips wins AIDA Freediving World Cup Curcuit 2014 Georgina Miller 2nd place AIDA Freediving World Cup Curcuit 2014 Mike Board 2nd place AIDA Freediving World Cup Curcuit 2014
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

10 Sept 2014; — Liv Philip wins the 2014 Freediving Cup Circuit and AIDA Euro Cup!

Liv Philip has done it again and taken first place at the AIDA Euro Cup in Kalamata, with strong, confident dives across all the competition depth disciplines and even managing to pop in a personal best at the end with a big Constant Weight (CWT) swim of 67m, showing that Liv has not yet reached her limit.

For those who are not familiar with the freediving depth disciplines, CWT is when a freediver swims down a rope, to a pre-agreed depth with the use of a monofin, without pulling on the rope and without changing weight.

British athletes Georgina Miller and Michael Board took second place on the podium for the women and men. George competed in all of the depth disciplines, even putting in a competition personal best to 51m in CWT. Mike Board is on form with dives in the 90’s in CWT, one to an impressive 95m. With the World Championships in Sardinia a mere week away, and Liv, Mike and Georgina making up half of the team, these are exciting times for the British athletes!

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New Static National Record for Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Georgina Miller beat her own static national record
Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Saturday 28 June 2014; — On the 20th June 2014, Georgina Miller beat her own static national record, holding her breath for an incredible 6 minutes and 27 seconds at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis. The previous record she set was in 2012 of 06:20.

On the morning of the static competition, George, who has been suffering from bouts of competition nerves of late, dealt with them beautifully by she says ‘concentrating on one step at a time, rather than looking at it as a target’. A lot of thought, training and energy goes into a long static performance and George is very positive when talking about the discipline which she genuinely enjoys tackling. Georgina freely offers advice and openly shares her experiences with fellow athletes, genuinely wanting to help them improve and see them succeed. She credits her partner and coach, Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com), with her success: ‘I give enormous thanks to Daan for all of his help, love, advice, incredible pictures and fantastic coaching.’ George also reflects that a calm environment is essential to performing at your best and at such a high level: ‘Stavros Kastrinakis has organized an amazing 7th Med World Cup series, making the athletes feel relaxed and supported. Good performances and records are only possible with the help of friends, coaches, safety and organization. So thanks to my friends at London Freediving too for your support!’ As well as gaining a new national record, Georgina also came 2nd out of the women for the main depth event.

For higher resolution versions of the images attached, or for other official images of Georgina Miller at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, please contact Daan Verhoeven at: info@daanverhoeven.com

The official video of Georgina Miller’s static national record is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqJQpkkKbU

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The Madchester Challenge Competition 2013, Hosted by Apneists UK. – by Rebecca Ryan

Saturday 11th May was the Madchester Challenge Competition, hosted by Apneists UK. Compared to the annual Great Northern International Pool Championship, also run by Steve Millard of Apneists UK, it was a small competition, but what it lacked in size it made up for in atmosphere and personality and attracted athletes from all over the UK. The whole day had a very relaxed and almost informal feel to it.

The idea of the competition was that the athlete choose one discipline to compete in and the highest point score won, simple (there was an opportunity for people to choose a second discipline if they wished to do so as well). No prizes were up for grabs just Northern love – this was a competition done for the chance to compete and for the sheer fun of it.

The winner of the day was John Moorcroft, an Instructor for Apneists UK ( www.freedivers.co.uk ) and UK Team member, who did a very comfortable and impressive 154 meter DNF swim. John used to hold the DNF record and by his own admission had not done a huge amount of training, making the swim that much more impressive! Coming first out of the Women was Georgina Miller of London Freediving, another UK Team member and National Record Holder who completed a huge static of 6 minutes 15 seconds. George then went on to do a big 104 meter DNF swim, finishing off her day in style. It was great to see George do so well, especially after a freak accident with her toe, which prevented her from competing just moments before her starting time at the Great Northern International earlier in the year.

There were many other notable performances, some from seasoned athletes and some from brand new divers. Please see here for details of performances: Madchester Challenge (the link is here )

The pool was provided by Wright Robinson College and as you would expect with Apneists UK, there was a strong team on hand ensuring the smooth running of the day. We had a fantastic crew of safety divers swimming around looking after the athletes, wonderful judges Mandy Buckley and Gary Lowe watching the Official Tops, as well as photographers and other volunteers. Well done to Steve Millard and Apneists UK for pulling another competition out of the bag and providing athletes across the country to gather, compete, and generally have a lot of fun!