page_title: Freediving
section_title: Competitive apnea
hierarchical_section_title: Freediving / Competitive apnea
caption_attribution_description: English: Monofin freediver holding his breath and swimming underwater to compete in the AIDA category of "Dynamic With Fins" (DYN) at the 2nd Great Camberwell Breath Hold Freediving Competition held in London on 31 May 2009.
context_page_description: Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
  Besides the limits of breath-hold, immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure also have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in freediving.
  Examples of freediving activities are: traditional fishing techniques, competitive and non-competitive freediving, competitive and non-competitive spearfishing and freediving photography, synchronised swimming, underwater football, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, underwater target shooting and snorkeling. There are also a range of "competitive apnea" disciplines; in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times, or distances on a single breath.
  Historically, the term free diving was also used to refer to scuba diving, due to the freedom of movement compared with surface supplied diving.
context_section_description: Competitive freediving is currently governed by two world associations: AIDA International (International Association for Development of Apnea) and CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques – World Underwater Federation). Historically, there were two more organisations that regulated freediving records and activities - IAFD (International Association of Freedivers) and FREE (Freediving Regulations and Education Entity). Each organization has its own rules on recognizing a record attempt which can be found on the organization's website. Alongside competitive disciplines there are record disciplines - disciplines that are not held in competitions, that are just for setting world records. There is a third organization which in addition to AIDA and CMAS preside over those record disciplines and that is Guinness.
  Almost all types of competitive freediving have in common that it is an individual sport based on the best individual achievement. Exceptions to this rule are the bi-annual World Championship for Teams held by AIDA, where the combined score of the team members makes up the team's total points and Skandalopetra diving competitions held by CMAS, the only truly ‘team’ event in freediving - for which teams are formed by two athletes: one acting as an apneista (Voutichtis; diver) and the other acting as an assistant (Kolaouzeris; person who "extracts").
caption: Monofin freediver
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