Toronto, Friday August 5, 2011
It was an early rise for the Freediving National Championships organizers, crew and athlete this morning as they appeared in today’s Breakfast Television show with Sangita Patell and the LiveEye crew at the Etobicoke Olympium Pool.

Under the watchful eye of Freedive Toronto President and AIDA Instructor Doug Sitter, Sangita faced her long-standing fear of water and attempted a breath-hold performance called static apnea, which is a discipline of freediving done on one breath of air, face down in the water without the exertion of movement. This discipline is measure of time spent on a breath-hold (also called sportive apnea). For a first timer, Sangita did really well in her attempt, reaching a personal best of 56 seconds.

Naturally, as Sangita pointed out during the segment, breath-hold diving is only to be done within the appropriate group of trained individuals. NEVER DIVE nor HOLD YOUR BREATH UNDER WATER ALONE.

To find out how to watch the Freediving National Championships held in Toronto this week-end, or to find more information about this one-of-a-kind sport, please contact Freedive Toronto. If you are outside the Toronto area, please contact AIDA Canada.

AIDA Canada is the Canadian national representation of AIDA International (Association internationale pour le développement de l’apnée), the international federation which governs the competitive sport of freediving and ratifies national and world records.

Toronto, August 2011

It is another few weeks before the 2011 Canadian Nationals kick off ! Held over three days, August 6, 7, 8, 2011, with all three pool disciplines (static apnea, dynamic apnea, dynamic apnea without fins) as well as one depth discipline, constant weight.

This unique 4-discipline format will be shared between the Etobicoke Olympium and Lake Ontario. While this competition is the annual championship for all Canadian freedivers, its world-record status will beckon athletes from around the world to challenge themselves to the highest level. International judges from the freediving world federation (AIDA Intl) will be present to adjudicate what will be the biggest freediving national event ever held in Canada.

This exciting competition is organized by the largest freediving club in Ontario Freedive Toronto. In addition to hosting the National Championships, Freedive Toronto is also organizing a freediving judging course a few days prior as well as tours of the beautiful South-Western country right after the event.

Way to go, Freedive Toronto !

AIDA Canada is the Canadian national representation of the international federation of AIDA (Association internationale pour le développement de l’apnée), the organisation which governs the competitive sport of freediving and ratifies national and world records.

Saturday May 7, 2011

Here it is !

Feel free to send your queries at board@aidacanada.org

Saturday April 30, 2011

AIDA Canada members attending the 2011 AGM

After last year’s Annual General Assembly held via video conferencing with Canadian freedivers in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Europe, AIDA Canada does it again ! For its 2nd anniversary, AIDA Canada gathered twenty-something members around the world ready to discuss, debate and elect its new Board of Directors who will enter a new two-year mandate.

Freedive Toronto members are OK, are you?

Many thanks to all of the members who participated, voted, shared with their peers what freediving in Canada means to them. We hope to see many of the discussions continue on ourforums. For members who were unable to attend, the minutes will be posted on the forum. Please take a look and feel free to comment.

– Your new AIDA Canada board who is looking forward to doing its best to serve you!

Chambly, Quebec, April 23-24, 2011 – The largest gathering of freedivers on the entire planet is awaiting you !

After an exciting competitive past weekend with AIDA Canada’s regional competition in Montreal, it is time for recreational and festive Day of the Frog on 23-24 April. Registration is available online and for those who think of coming, we advise to make your application online because you can avoid waiting in line that day.

Official website

Montreal, Quebec, April 16-17, 2011 – With its twenty enlisted athletes from Quebec, Ontario and Vermont, the 7th Cup of Montreal became the largest regional competition ever attended in Canada.

The competition consisted of three events: static apnea (STA), dynamic apnea without fins (DNF) which took place on the Saturday. On Sunday, the remaining pool discipline, dynamic apnea (DYN), took place in the 50-meter pool.

In the time-challenging event, static apnea, 2 new Provincial records fell. First, new-comer Marc-André Tratch from Montreal took the Quebec record to 5 minutes et 59 seconds, breaking a six-year standing time. Then, Marie-Odile Hogue, also from Montreal, broke her own record by setting a new best at 5 minutes and 32 seconds. Both these performances granted them first place on the podium for the discipline.

In the distance challenges of the dynamic with fins (DYN) and without fins (DNF) events, Nathalie Hébert set a new Provincial record with 102 meters in DNF. Marc-André Tratch almost nailed a new record with a distance of 125 meters in the same discipline but received penalty points near the end of his performance. In Dynamic with fins (DYN), one record was broken for Ontario, with 103 meters reached by Yaroslava Timoshenko of the Freedive Toronto club, with her monofin. Also from Toronto, Doug Sitter rocketed over a first-place winning distance of 119 meters in the 50-meter pool, at a speed which gave the safety divers a run for their money.

The overall ranking did not become known until the very last event as freedivers kept giving their best. In the men, the podium was as follows: third place Martin Lebrun of Montreal, second place went to Doug Sitter and Marc-André Tratch was the winner of the Cup. In the women, third place went to Yaroslava Timoshenko, second place to Nathalie Hébert and first place and Cup winner went to Marie-Odile Hogue.

Marie-Odile Hogue prior to her dynamic performance - photo Michel Beauregard, www.michel-beauregard.com

“What a great weekend, thanks for putting together another wonderful event !”
Grateful for the compliment, head organizer Nathalie Hébert said that what made this a success for the seventh year in a row were the volunteers and participants. “Without either of them, there would be no competition to speak of”.

Full results can be found on Freedive Central, by disciplines, and by overall ranking.

The Montreal Freediving Cup is a one-of-a-kind event in Quebec as well as the largest indoor freediving competition in Canada. It is organized every year by the Club d’apnée sportive de Montréal (CASM).

French-speakers can enjoy the radio interview of Nathalie Hébert and Philippe Beauchamp, respectively President and Secretary of the CASM, which was recorded live on April 20, 2011.

AIDA Canada is the Canadian national representation of the international federation of AIDA (Association internationale pour le développement de l’apnée), the organisation which governs the competitive sport of freediving and ratifies national and world records.

Montreal, Quebec, & Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, April 16, 2011 –

It is a sign of the times: Canadian Freediving is on fire.

Indeed, there are currently twentysomething AIDA Canada members spread over three freediving competitions around the world: The Regional AIDA Canada Championships a.k.a. ’7th Cup of Montreal’, ‘Vertical Blue’ (Bahamas) and ‘Sweet & Salty’ (Egypt). First, there was the new National and Continental record broken a few days ago in the Bahamas by Eric Fattah, and today, at the time these lines are being written, 2 new Provincial records have been set in static apnea (STA) in Montreal as well as 1 new National, Continental and Pan-American record set in Egypt.

New Provincial Static Apnea records were set by seasoned Quebec champion Marie-Odile Hogue with 5:32. Newcomer Marc-André Tratch achieved 5:59, thus breaking a 6-year standing record ! No doubt there will be more coming from him in the near future.

Last but not least, William Winram took the Dynamic without Fins record (DNF) to new frontiers… pushing it 19 more meters over the previous one logged over two years ago at 156 meters. It took 2 minutes and 57 seconds for Winram to swim the 175 meters which earned him his 19th Pan-American record since he started competiting in 2005.

Congratulations to all athletes !

Stay tuned for more details and photos. No doubt there will be more excitment coming from these three competitions in the next few days.

AIDA Canada is proud to introduce the following athletes as the members of Team Canada for the 2011 Depth World Championships (Kalamata, Greece – September 15 – 25). They are:

Kattie Lussier
Jana Strain

Eric Fattah
William Winram
Tyler Zetterstrom

For more information on selection, please visit the National Team Selection page for more details.

Team Canada welcomes your support. All donations will help offset the travel and competition costs.

Long Island, Bahamas, April 12, 2011 – AIDA Canada is proud to announce that freediver Eric Fattah took the Canadian and North American Constant Weight record to a new depth of 104 meters today in the invitational Vertical Blue competition held in Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas. At the same event last year, he had become the first person to break 100 meters on the continent.

His record dive was made on the fourth day of the diving competition in Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas. It took 3 minutes and 21 seconds for Eric to complete his dive in crystal clear blue warm waters (27°C) of the Bahamas, which are unusual conditions for the Vancouverite who is used to train in much colder and darker waters at home.

AIDA Canada is pleased to see a variety of national record holders lead the way in Canada’s sportive achievements. Whether on the local or world scene, AIDA Canada hopes this will motivate new (and not so new) troops to tackle the task of knocking a few more records this season and beyond.

Deepest man in North America and 9th deepest man in the world

Saturday April 16 and Sunday April 17, 2011, CASM (Club d’Apnée Sportive de Montréal) will be hosting its 7th Cup of Freediving in beautiful old Montreal.

Static Apnea (STA) will take place Saturday morning and Dynamic without fins (DNF) in the afternoon with Dynamic (DYN) on Sunday morning. Trophies will be awarded at the evening party organized at the L’Assomoir, on Sunday evening.

This competition will be sanctioned by AIDA Canada and is the AIDA Canada Indoor Regional Championship. Open to all competitors from all nations, only results from Canadian athletes will appear in the national ranking.

For more information about the competition and to register, please visit Freedive Central. Results will be posted live during the competition on Freedive Central.

This competition is limited to 25 participants. To secure your spot, make sure to register before April 11, 2011. First come, first served.