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AIDA International

Associations Organisation Scuba Diving (English)

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Company description AIDA is the Worldwide Federation for breath-hold diving, established in 1992 which manages and oversees the recognition of records, organises competitions, and sets the standards for freedive education. Since 1993, AIDA International has officiated 164 Official World Records.
It all started with Jacques Mayol, Enzo Maïorca and a couple of others. Then came ``The Big Blue``. In the years 1985/1990, with still very few freedivers around the world, new performances and records were achieved. They were passionate about the sport…and were called the ``lights of the Big Blue``. A few years later, history would demonstrate that without them, modern freediving would have never come to be. This is how it all began; this is the history of the birth of AIDA…the International Association for Development of Apnea.
In 1990, Roland Specker, a freediver from the North East of France, was training at a nearby lake with a replica of Jacques Mayol’s weight ballast, which he had constructed. Roland Specker then met another Frenchman, Claude Chapuis, after having learned he had just achieved a world record in Static Apnea in Nice on the Côte d`Azur. They decided to organize clinics so that others could also discover the sport of freediving. The first clinic took place in Nice in May 1990.
Upon his return to the North of France, Roland Specker thought he had more than enough time to create rules for records, when in fact, many records were already being established, but the rules weren’t all necessarily identical. Roland travelled and met Umberto Pelizzari, some German freedivers and many others attempting freediving records and decided that it was important that an association be created that would recognize the records.
On November 2, 1992, Roland Specker and a few friends created the International Association for the Development of Apnea with their head office in St. Louis, France, near Mulhouse. Roland was President, Thierry Meunier was Secretary and Claude Chapuis was the Technical Director. Two texts were drawn up: the rules and recommendations for the recognition of records. Several records were recognized very quickly by AIDA, which became the reference for freediving. The first AIDA journal was created in 1995 and at General Assemblies, many freedivers, such as Umberto Pelizzari, Loïc Leferme, Olivier Heuleu, and Frédéric Buyle were recognized.
The first AIDA World Championship was held in Nice in October 1996. There were 25 participants each in teams of 5 from Germany, Belgium, Columbia, Spain, France, Italy and a team representing the United Nations consisting of freedivers from different countries.
1997 was a year of transition and several freedivers created groups in their own countries. AIDA continued to certify records and 12 countries were in contact thanks to AIDA. Since it was a year without a world rendez-vous, the French created the AIDA France World Cup, which is a circuit of individual competitions by team.
Egypt, January 1999: Magda Abdou had heard of AIDA and contacted Claude Chapuis to ask if he can organize a freediving competition in El Gouna, to the north of Hurgada, Egypt and freedivers from around the world met at the Red Sea. Amidst all the coral and the dolphins, the competition program was somewhat insane. An individual competition was held at the start of the week, followed by a team competition. The idea was to test the realism of international individual competitions.
In 2000, an incredible effervescence existed throughout the world. AIDA assisted all new affiliate countries to create national associations. Notwithstanding the debut of competitions in 1996, national diving federations did not seem to take an interest in freediving.
AIDA International wishes all freedivers around the world the very best of adventures…adventures that will build the future of freediving. Will you be among those who will continue the story?
Location description: To affiliate to AIDA International, you have to follow these points :
1. Create a National Institution (ex. AIDA ``country name``)
2. Send us an affiliation request with :
- a copy of the statutes of your Institution (in english)
- a memberlist
- the datas of your future National Representative and Consultant
(address, phones, e-mails, etc...)
3. Then the AIDA Delegates Assembly vote about your affiliations
4. Then you pay your annual membership fee.
5. After this you receive a right to vote in the AIDA Delegates Assembly
6. Your National AIDA are then welcome to send National teams to AIDA
competitions, like the World Championship, and members of your National AIDA are welcome to join competitions over the whole world.
7. The National AIDA freedivers will find there name and results on
the World Ranking List.
8. The National AIDA freedivers will also have access to different
AIDA freediving mailing lists, and the AIDA Forum, were they can find
info and ask questins about Apnea, records, competitions, rules etc.
9. The National AIDA will have a complete set of Regulations for competitions and records that are accepted and used over the whole world, in the world of AIDA.
If there already is an National AIDA in your country, you can still create a second AIDA organization, but then you don`t have the right to vote inside of the Assembly, because there is only one vote per country. The National AIDA who have the vote inside of the Assembly is also the one who make the selection for the National AIDA Team, the team who will represent there country in International AIDA Competitions.

Website: Preview http://www.aida-international.org by Thumbshots.org http://www.aida-international.org
Worldwide Federation for breath-hold diving

Contact information:

Street Address:
Rue du Petit-Beaulieu 4
Lausanne
Switzerland
CH 1004
Spoken language(s): English
Open: from 09-00 till 17-00
Local time:  GMT + 1 Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Warsaw
Note: No guarantee is made to the accuracy of these details.

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