UK Freedivers Smash National Records

Every year, the BFA selects the male and female National Champion based on competition results across all disciplines in the pool and open water. For UK divers this means training year-round and often having to travel abroad to reach the depths needed to excel on the world stage.The 2016 champions are Tim Money and Liv Phillip. Both athletes are cornerstones of British freediving; they are not only consistent high performing athletes on the pool circuit, but they rank at a high level in depth disciplines as well. The BFA would like to congratulate them both and wish them every success in 2017!

Liv Phillip commented: “It’s a real pleasure to receive the British Championship award again this year. It’s the 10th consecutive year I’ve won the British Championship, and every year has been very different as my freediving and my goals have developed. In the beginning I just wanted to hit the water with any excuse to do so, which is where my desire to do all the pool and depth disciplines came from. Now I’m a very experienced diver, things of course change, and I find new reasons to continue competition freediving. One thing that does not change is the freedom I feel from being in the water, and specifically in the sea. I made a competition personal best this year in constant weight with a dive to 75m, and the challenge in doing this was having very limited training time and resources, and very few training days doing depth in the sea. What I fall back on is a real joy of the water and the friends I get to share the challenges with along the way. I’d like to thank all the people who have supported me this year, and I’m looking forward to the 2017 Depth World Championship in Roatan in August.”

Tim Money commented: I love this award and am really chuffed to get it. It’s really challenging to get points on all disciplines, and almost see it as the pentathlon of freediving, as it’s very hard to train and do well across the board. My head says I should be more specific and concentrate on one event to progress, however the excitement factor throws that out the window and I have a go at everything, which is great fun. My main challenge is with time between teaching, family and work – I just don’t get to do enough diving or events. I managed to get to two events this year, so only just got points in all disciplines, and hope to do more in the future. I would really like to thank my family who let me run away to these adventures, and my employer (www.saba.com), as they help me with time to get to the World Championships.”

For more information, please contact Louise Nelson, Press Officer, British Freediving Association at press@britishfreediving.org.

2016 National Champions

Tim MoneyTim Money

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

Every year, the BFA selects the male and female National Champion based on competition results across all disciplines in the pool and open water. For UK divers this means training year-round and often having to travel abroad to reach the depths needed to excel on the world stage.

The 2016 champions are Tim Money and Liv Phillip.

Both athletes are cornerstones of British freediving; they are not only consistent high performing athletes on the pool circuit, but they rank at a high level in depth disciplines as well. The BFA would like to congratulate them both and wish them every success in 2017.

Liv Phillip commented: “It’s a real pleasure to receive the British Championship award again this year. It’s the 10th consecutive year I’ve won the British Championship, and every year has been very different as my freediving and my goals have developed. In the beginning I just wanted to hit the water with any excuse to do so, which is where my desire to do all the pool and depth disciplines came from. Now I’m a very experienced diver, things of course change, and I find new reasons to continue competition freediving. One thing that does not change is the freedom I feel from being in the water, and specifically in the sea. I made a competition personal best this year in constant weight with a dive to 75m, and the challenge in doing this was having very limited training time and resources, and very few training days doing depth in the sea. What I fall back on is a real joy of the water and the friends I get to share the challenges with along the way. I’d like to thank all the people who have supported me this year, and I’m looking forward to the 2017 Depth World Championship in Roatan in August.”

Tim Money commented: “I love this award and am really chuffed to get it. It’s really challenging to get points on all disciplines, and almost see it as the pentathlon of freediving, as it’s very hard to train and do well across the board. My head says I should be more specific and concentrate on one event to progress, however the excitement factor throws that out the window and I have a go at everything, which is great fun. My main challenge is with time between teaching, family and work – I just don’t get to do enough diving or events. I managed to get to two events this year, so only just got points in all disciplines, and hope to do more in the future. I would really like to thank my family who let me run away to these adventures, and my employer (www.saba.com), as they help me with time to get to the World Championships.”

For more information, please contact Louise Nelson, Press Officer, British Freediving Association at press@britishfreediving.org.

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!

Mens & Women’s British Freediving Champions 2015

Mens British Freediving Champions 2015 - Tim Money Women's British Freediving Champions 2015 - Liv Philip

Every year, the BFA selects the male and female National Champion based on competition results across all disciplines in the pool and open water. For UK divers this means training year-round and often having to travel abroad to reach the depths needed to excel on the World stage.

Meet 2015’s UK Champions Liv Phillip and Tim Money, who have trained together for many years in London. This is Liv’s 9th consecutive year as Champion, and Tim’s 3rd. Both are AIDA Instructors, representing the UK regularly at team and individual championships and both volunteer their precious time to assist in running the BFA. Liv and Tim spoke to each other about their freediving year, challenges overcome, achievements and how they’ve kept on top of their game for 10 years.

Liv Phillip (LP): “Tim, I met you on a cold winter’s day on the Saltfree platform in 2006. You were doing some sort of strange leg stretch in your wetsuit. Why are you still going strong in freediving ten years later?”
Tim Money (TM): “Freediving is great escapism from conventional life, which of course I value with my job and family, but it gives me a chance to have some adventures. Plus, the community is special. At events there is a common shared love and understanding of freediving despite differences in race, culture and lifestyle and I think that is pretty unique. Our sport is competitive, but because of the intensity of our sport, camaraderie shines through”.

TM: “Liv, you like all the competitive disciplines and this is the 9th consecutive year you have been the British Women’s Champion, what was your freediving all about in 2015?”
LP: “2015 was totally about looking after my family and not about freediving. I took two trips to deep dive this year and the training time was minimal, but it provided some much needed time away from responsibilities back in the UK. Family illness and difficult circumstances meant it wasn’t possible to make the sort of selfish decisions necessary to be a top athlete, but made it very clear how much I love diving in the sea. The challenges I’ve faced this year outside of freediving have been very important to me to put into the perspective how unimportant competition results are in the grand scheme of things. Having said that, as soon as I was in the water, I valued every moment and I think that explains winning the British Champion title. I ended up with a personal best in Free Immersion with a 4th place dive of 68m at the Depth World Championship in Cyprus. The nice thing is that my mum is my biggest fan and this really cheered her up”.

LP: “What about you? How were you looking at your freediving in 2015?”
TM: “I got some more time in deep water this year which let me concentrate on some things. I did more UK diving, which I enjoy and keeps me from getting so rusty, and I was able to get away to the Cyprus Depth World Individual Championships. I did a Constant Weight dive to 67m there, but I think for me the real achievement was the experience of learning how to do that. I went to the Bahamas earlier in the year for the Vertical Blue Championship and my family came along, but I found my little girl won my attention hands down and so I just dived for fun”.

LP: “Are you still as excited about freediving 10 years on?”
TM: “I question this every winter, and I’ve decided I will continue in whatever way as long as I am enjoying it. That may be recreational, within my club, teaching, or competitively”.
TM: “And how about you?”
LP: “Yes, I still love what I’m doing and I am quite adept at changing things so I don’t get bored. Anyway someone has to beat you and give you something to aim at!”
TM: “Haha! I think having a training partner who I can have healthy competition with gives us both a kick to make an effort”
LP: “I agree you need a training partner who’s going to be honest with you and know when to tell you the truth however much you might not want to hear it. When it all goes right, or wrong, you want your best friends to be there to share it with, or really what is the point of it all?”

Liv would like to thank Fusion Lifestyle, Powerfins & Elios Wetsuits for their support in 2015.

Tim would like to thank Powerfins and his employer Saba for their support in 2015.

Team GB at 9th AIDA Team World Championships

Team GB at 9th AIDA Team World Championships

Sponsored by Elios Sub, Prawno Apparel, Beet-it and Bounce Foods

Sunday 12 October 2014; — From the 16th to 27th September, the ninth AIDA Team World Championships took place in the Gulf of Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia, organised by Blue World Apnea School (www.blueworldchamp.it).

This year the UK was represented by a team of 3 men and 3 women: Georgina Miller, Liv Philip, Beci Ryan, Mike Board, Tim Money and Adam Drzazga. Jay Cluskey acted as a fantastically organized and supportive coach to all the athletes; attending the daily Event Committee meetings, keeping everyone up to date with competition news and ensuring people had what they needed throughout.

The team had fantastic sponsors in the form of Elios Sub (www.eliossub.com), Prawno Apparel (www.prawnoapparel.co.uk), Beet-it (www.beet-it.com), and Bounce Energy Balls (www.bouncefoods.com).

Team events takes place every other year (alternating with the individual events), and as one of the UK team put it this year, the team event is a very different kind of beast! Being a member of the team requires thought and work both before and during the event – tactics and intentions need to be discussed openly and honestly, for example are individuals aiming for personal bests (therefore increasing the risks of a yellow or red card), or are they open about working together, setting aside their own goals and potentially pulling back their performances in the hope of gaining a place on the podium?

Because of rough weather at sea, the competition started with Static (STA). Ordinarily Constant Weight (CWT) is the first event, followed by STA and ending with Dynamic (DYN). The change in order put everyone on their toes, the athletes because they thought they had plenty of time to practice STA in between the other disciplines and the Organiser because it was uncertain when the CWT would fit in, if at all.

On the evening before the announcements for STA, the team sat down together. Each person was given a chance to talk about their expectations and aspirations of the event; by the end it was agreed that athletes be given the freedom to go out and do own best performance under their own judgment. The idea was to then reconvene after the first performance day had finished and re-evaluate the situation accordingly.

It was a real mixed day for both UK teams as everyone did valiant performances, with some huge holds. Michael Board held his breath for 07:01, Tim Money for 05:55 and Liv Philip and Beci Ryan did competition personal bests (PB) of 06:05 and 04:58 respectively. Georgina Miller did a massive hold of 06:30, however the surface protocol (SP) stood in her way for a very minor error. Adam Drzazga did a brave hold of 07:15 but he too lost out to the SP. I think it’s important to say that both athletes had the full support of their teams for their fantastic efforts.

There is a silver lining in receiving a red card for the teams, in that it allows athletes the option of going all out for personal glory for the rest of the competition. The Brits were not the only team to receive red cards, five other countries also got them – the Italian team got two, both in women’s team for the touch rule (it is forbidden for an athlete to be touched by anyone upon surfacing), which is especially bitter as both athletes did clean performances and nothing wrong, it’s rather like the home goal rule in football.

Next up was CWT and the competition day saw near perfect conditions in the beautiful blue waters of Sardinia. The harbour, a short walk from the hotel, had a host of speedboats scheduled to ferry the athletes to and from the dive site where two competition lines were setup to ensure a slick and speedy day of diving. The competition started with the deepest divers and ended with the shallowest and second up to dive that morning was Michael Board who went down to 95m; Tim Money did a solid swim to 61m and Adam went to 55m and came back with a PB. Liv swam an impressive 70m, another PB for her in the competition, Georgina swam with ease to 50m and Beci to 40m. Everyone received white cards and there were smiles all round.

The third and final competition day was reserved for DYN. This is always an exciting discipline to end on and is often when the goal posts for podium places change, this World Championships was no different. Usually if a team receives a red card at any point in the competition they forfeit the chance of a medal, yet the Russian Men’s team proved an exception to the rule by taking home gold! The UK men’s team put in fantastic efforts with Michael pulling out a big 201m swim, Tim Money a PB of 176m and Adam Drzazga 175m, which is a long way to swim and a lot of turns in a 25m pool! Georgina Miller swam a comfortable and easy 126m, but both Liv and Beci were not so lucky and got red cards. Beci Ryan received her first red card in competition, she swam 168m, which is a big distance, but failed with her recovery breathing upon surfacing.

Overall everyone walked away deservedly pleased with their performances. New boundaries were discovered, lessons learned and training and freediving relationships cemented.

Competition season is not over yet for this year, in fact we are pleased to announce that there are two pool competitions happening in the UK next month: the Apnea Revolution Cup BFA Pool competition (www.apnearevolution.com), in London on Saturday 1st November and the 3rd BFA Madchester Classic (www.freedivingcompetition.com), in Stockport on Saturday 29th. Both competitions have benefited from the BFA’s newly introduced Pool Grant aimed at promoting freediving in the UK.

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!

Liv Philip Wins 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup!

Liv Philip Wins 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup
Picture Credit: Nicholas Kouvaras

Liv Philip (www.livphilip.com), swooped into Crete to win the 7th Mediterranean World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr), hosted by Stavros Kastrinakis!

Due to a tight work schedule, Liv only came out for one week and did just a couple of training dives before the competition proper. Despite these disadvantages and it being so early in the season, Liv, who only had one opportunity to perform each of the three disciplines, did three solid dives with the necessary white cards to win: CWT 55m, FIM 50m, CNF 40m.

Liv gave thanks to the organiser, judges, doctor and safety divers, and said it was very special to have sometime in the sea, because of financial limitations and commitments at home, I have had very little time in the water this year, especially compared to many of the other athletes, so I really felt very happy and humbled by being in the ocean again’. Liv is in her element in any type of water, but she has a particular affinity with the sea and with the depth season just beginning these are exciting times for the British Champion, boding well for the coming months.

With 5 competition days on offer (and the possibility of 2 weeks prior training), athletes could compete in the 3 depth disciplines (constant weight, constant weight no fins, free immersion). To win the competition trophy, athletes had to attempt at least one dive in each of the 3 disciplines, and the winners of the Med Cup are the freedivers – man and woman with the highest total score in the three depths disciplines.

A total of 25 freedivers from 13 Nations attended the event for shorter of longer stays and aiming to train, and compete for the title of the 7th Mediterranean World Cup. Other British athletes included Tim Money who came fourth out of the men for the depth competition, missing out on third place by a single point, also there were David Tranfield, Chris Crawshaw and Beci Ryan.

The Med Cup is now in it’s 7th year and going strong. Stavros Kastrinakis has created a wonderful environment for the athletes, with some great accommodation catering for individuals, couples, groups and even freediving families (www.kastromyrtos.gr), just a stones throw from the harbour where the boat departs each morning and a short walk from the tiny village with its delicious bakery, local shops and restaurants.

BFA 2014 Outstanding Contribution to Freediving Award goes to Liv Philip

BFA 2014 Outstanding Contribution to Freediving Award goes to Liv Philip
Picture Credit: Emma Critchley (www.emmacritchley.com)

Monday, 23 June 2014; — The BFA is very proud to announce this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Freediving award has been presented to Liv Philip (www.livphilip.com). This award was introduced some years ago year and in previous years, has been awarded to John Moorcroft and Ben Noble. As well as being National Champion seven years in a row, breaking ten national records, being the World’s top ranked female freediver across the six disciplines in 2010 winning the title World Absolute Freediver award and World Championship Bronze medal winner in the 2013 Individual Depth World Championship, Liv is one of the UK’s most active freedivers in our community. Liv, a Master Instructor who also runs two London-based clubs (www.londonfreediving.org), she has instructed and coached quite a number of other successful freedivers including many of the British Team showing a community spirit that makes her a great ambassador for freediving. Liv has represented the sport of freediving in the media many times with film and TV work, and works extremely hard in her role as Training and Safety Officer for the BFA.

Orca has very kindly sponsored this award in the form of an Orca Breath suit (www.orca.com/gb-en/). For more information on Liv, her achievements and courses, please visit her site www.livphilip.com

2013 UK National Freediving Champions

Liv Philip & Tim Money Crowned Again!


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

Saturday 25th January 2014 — Tim Money and Liv Philip (www.free-flowh2o.com) have been awarded the annual UK National Freediving Championship prize once again! Both athletes won last year, and incredibly this will be the 7th time in a row for Liv. Tim and Liv of London Freediving (www.londonfreediving.org), are experienced athletes who put a lot of thought and work into their training and both reaped the rewards in different ways: Tim sites this as the year his deep diving changed, taking on the same consistency of the pool, learning a different way to equalize and progressing 10m deeper than his personal best; Liv’s concentration on performance was divided at the beginning of the year with teaching in danger of taking over, but with time invested on herself to train she earned a bronze medal at the World Championships.

The year kick started for both athletes, in the wet and cold winter with some pool competitions whilst training off-season, achieving some solid performances at the Riga Freediving Cup (www.free-diving.lv/competitions.html) and the Great Northern International Pool Championships (www.freedivingcompetition.com). As the summer began the great friends who have trained together for many years, travelled to Myrtos, Greece, to take part in the 6th Mediterranean World Cup (www.freediving-club.gr). This event was particularly significant for Tim, as it was here that his diving technique changed completely: ‘I figured out I had been equalizing a very hard way for the last six years, and there was an easy way to do it! It was a revelation, I went from constant focus, and probably anxiety of whether I can equalise at the next meter, to just falling and ears open no stress, laaaaa…. amazing.’ Performance-wise Money did well, diving five times below the 60m mark over the course of the competition.

During the Mediterranean World Cup Liv had placed her focus on teaching, not performance and so upon her return to the UK, she topped up her training, largely through working a very physical job as a landscape gardener in preparation for the Individual Freediving Depth World Championships in Kalamata, Greece (www.freediving-club.gr): ‘Its a vicious circle in an unfunded sport, if you are working to fund yourself, you are often too busy or tired to train, so I’m particularly grateful for any support I can get and especially to Fusion Lifestyles Camberwell Pool (www.fusion-lifestyle.com), who continue to support me by providing training space.’

Upon arrival in Kalamata, Liv made enjoyment of the competition a priority: ‘I wanted to have fun being in the water, and avoid the tension that creeps in’. Philip performed well, both at the mini competition held prior to the main event, and at the main event itself, receiving white cards in every discipline: CNF, CWT and FIM. The icing on the cake was when she performed a beautiful 50m CNF dive under challenging conditions and was rewarded with a place on the podium and a bronze medal: ‘CNF is probably my favourite discipline and performing a big CNF dive at a World Championship was the result of years of dedication and hard work. CNF is a much more technical discipline, but alongside that you have to be very relaxed at depth and naturally love being in the deep water. The time spent deep on a no fins dive is longer due to the slower ascent speed compared to the other disciplines, so it isn’t possible to wing it just to hit the plate. When you get it right, CNF is mind blowing. When you don’t it’s the worst thing in the world. That’s what I like about it I guess.’

Having missed out on the chance to compete at the World Championships and eager to continue further his exploration of equalizing at depth, Tim finished the year with ten days in Sharm at Freediving World (info@freedivingworld.it). He took part in three competition days and attended three theory sessions with Andrea Zuccari on equalizing which he says were incredible: ‘Equalising is becoming a joy, and I did 62m, 64m, 67m CWT in competition and then ended with a 71m personal best (PB) in training.’

Selection of the annual male and female UK Champions is made by collating points earned across all six competitive disciplines, pool and depth, between 31st October and 31st November.

Liv will be teaching courses as well as taking on a limited number of athletes for coaching during 2014. Trips for deep water training are scheduled both in the UK and abroad. Contact Liv on hellofreeflow@gmail.com

The winners’ competition performances for 2013 were:

Tim Money

STA 5min 37sec
DYN 154m
DNF 129m
CWT 67m
CNF 38m
FIM 52m

Liv Philip:

STA 5min 41sec
DYN 134m
DNF 112m
CWT 62m
CNF 50m
FIM 66m

British Champion Freediver Liv Philip to appear on newly launched BT Sports panel show!

The show which goes out live between 9:30-11:30am on Saturday 10th August, features Liv in a short piece recorded at Fusion Lifestyles pool in Camberwell, South London. Raising the profile of the sport of Freediving in the UK, Liv gives a quick guide to staying calm under pressure and explains how the lessons she has learnt as a top level freediver can benefit those in other sports and high stress roles. There is also featured video footage by Daan Verhoeven.


Picture Credit: Daan Verhoeven

BTSP (BT Sports Panel) (Saturdays, 9.30am, BT Sport 1) BTSP is today confirmed as the name of the new show broadcast live every Saturday morning by Tim Lovejoy with ex-England rugby international Matt Dawson, and special guests. A show of opinions, prediction, preview, review and laughs, BTSP is an interactive production which involves viewers at home through social media.

Liv Philip www.free-flowH2o.com e: hellofreeflow@gmail.com

Daan Verhoeven www.daanverhoeven.com www.fusion-lifestyle.com

Bt Sports Online