October 18, 2006

Judge’s Committee Report

CAFA’s 6th season as Canada’s official sport governing body for freediving saw its slowest year yet. A total of four competitions were held compared to a usual five with some showing low turn-out. This year eastern Canada held no competition at all while a western Canadian competition was nearly cancelled.

Although competitions may have slowed down, national records still fell and the entrance of new competitor and CAFA member, William Winram, lead to this increase, while long time member Mandy-Rae Cruickshank continued to add to her list of achievements.

Static apnea saw no change with Luc Gosselin still holding firm with his 7:22 second grip for the past two years. In dynamic apnea with fins William Winram posted an impressive 159m performance in Marseille, France while without fins he achieved 116m in Renens, Switzerland. This April Mandy-Rae Cruickshank posted a new women’s constant ballast national record and closed the gap on the men with an impressive 80m performance during the Sink Faze event, while Eric Fattah still holds onto his Aug 2001 depth of 82m. In Okinawa, Japan in August 06, William Winram once again posted a outstanding depth of 66m in constant ballast without fins and while just before in June in Dahab, Egypt reset the men’s free immersion record to 74m. No-limits remains untouched with Mandy-Rae still holding 136m and variable ballast has had no successful attempts for either the men or women.

Some small issues regarding procedures and protocols have risen for national record ratifications and this is due mainly to having a limited guide on the CAFA website for these procedures. This should be added to along with more specific outlines regarding Team Canada involvement and the commitments and responsibilities each member has should also be specifically defined.

So other than a slow year from the side of the number of national competitions held within Canada, the competitive pace of athletic performances has increased and Canada is still maintaining its competitiveness. With this, a 2006 Team Canada was selected from the largest CAFA Nationals competition hosted by the Vancouver Apneiest Club. As a result from this competition, four women and three men were selected to represent CAFA and Canada at the upcoming 5th AIDA Team World Championships in Hurgahda, Egypt this December 1st through 12th. Selected for the women were Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, Roberta Cenedese, Jill Yondeda and Jade Leutenegger and for the men William Winram, Doug Sitter and Brent Pascall. Coaching the team is Kirk Krack. Attendance at this competition the Canadian women will be the reigning champions two years in a row and we look forward to their success at the competition while the men will attend having shown their best ranking of 3rd place at the last AIDA Team World Champions hosted by CAFA in Vancouver in August of 2004. To this team and its members we wish them the best of luck, have fun, work as a team and most importantly, carry the tradition of being great ambassadors for Canada.

Sincerely,

Kirk Krack
Judges’ Committee Chair

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