The road to expansion is dotted with landmarks. It’s a historic time for US Freediving, as the federation strong in depth begins to expand to Indoor (time and distance).

2021 promises to be an epic year with many firsts for this young federation. Of note: June 21st-27th in Belgrade, Serbia, the United States will make its debut appearance at a CMAS Indoor World Championship.

Last weekend in Tampa Florida at the Apollo Beach Racquet & Fitness Club, Juani Valdivia held the Tampa Bay Apnea Challenge - UNU Pool Competition. This was a joint rules event meaning that athletes could announce their performances under either CMAS or AIDA rules. Once they make that announcement, all performances are done under that set of rules.

Both CMAS and AIDA oversee competitions and have their own set of rules. In general the rules are very similar, but athletes are responsible for knowing the rules of the agency overseeing their performance.

April 2021 will go down in the history books thanks to Melissa Ponder and Chris Funada. The wunderkinds targeted their sites on setting national United States Freediving (USFF) records as well as CMAS world records, and that’s exactly what they did.

Are you an AIDA judge, or have aspirations of being a judge for open water (salt & fresh water) and indoor freediving competitions?

With the world starting to open back up and freediving on the rise more now than ever, the US Freediving Federation will be holding judge courses over the next few months. In order to be able to support this growth for those that want to extend their freediving experience, we need to create a national network of judges to enable competitions and record attempts.

On the heals of achieving his variable weight national record in the salty Pacific Ocean off the Bay of Honaunau, Hawaii, Chris earns a national record for Men’s Static. The official record, as recorded by USFF/CMAS Judges Annabel Edwards, Brian Kispert and Jenifer Brant, was 6 minutes and 2 seconds.