Lubomir Stefanoff | freediving and UW photography

Last week I took part in my first competition – Naissub Freediving Cup 2011, held in Nis, Serbia.

I thought that I’ll be the only Bulgarian at this comp, but soon my friends Ivo and Peter decided to participate, despite the short notice and the limited time for training.  I took part only in DYN discipline; Ivo and Peter competed in both static and dynamic apnea with fins. First, It was Peter’s turn at static – he did a solid 5 minutes with room for more – white card . Ivo didn’t manage to show what he does in training and exited early, but again a white card and positive emotions.

I had announced 1 meter in DYN and was the first to start. I was relaxed and knew before the start that I’ll make a good swim.  Before the competiton I thought over the two options: to exit early for 100% clean dive well below my personal best or go for a near max attempt. I chose the second option…The wall at 50 meters came éarly’ and after that moment I stopped thinking, I was just swimming along the black line. At 125 I considered exiting, but I was completely OK, only my legs felt a bit heavy. I didn’t plan to turn at 150, but at the wall mind control said ‘make the turn’ and I did, a few more meters and I came up at 154, very close to the limit. I made the surface protocol immediately and saw some strange expressions . For a moment I thought that I screwed up sth, but soon I got my first white card. 154 meters, 4th place (third was 157m, first – 172).

That’s in short my experience from the competition. I want to thank the organizers Naissub, my buddies and Divetec Ltd for the support for this trip. Next time the results will be better

P.S. Photos by Tihomir Rachev for DivingBG magazine