Lubomir Stefanoff | freediving and UW photography

In the end of May I participated in a competition for a second time. It was under the CMAS rules (not AIDA) – Thessaloniki Indoor Apnea Games, Thessaloniki, Greece.

It was a new experience for me to do DYN in 25 m pool, but things went fine. I was the first to start. After a nice relaxation (almost fell asleep) before the start I felt confident that finaly I’ll make a good dive (150+ meters). In training, I’ve done several long dives but I also aborted many dives early…So it was just a question of getting in the right mood and do what I can.

I did 165 meters in 2:08. Swimming in a 25 m pool confused me a bit – at some point I couldn’t realize how many laps I’d done. It was a nice feeling – swimming accross the line and not thinking about anything…I wanted to do 175m, but chose to exit safely at 165.

You can see the video of the swim below:

I made a mistake at the start (did not push off the wall), so -10 meters penalty. I took 2nd place, first was Aldo Stradiotti from Italy with a nice 200 m dive and third was Dimitrios with 150m.

Tha atmosphere was great, we really enjoyed those 2 days with the guys from Thessaloniki Freedivers Association and the other competitors. Definitely I’ll participate again in such events