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Old 08-18-2007, 08:41 PM   #7
Dave Edlund
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Los Gatos, California
Age: 67
Posts: 595
Re: CMAS World Freedive Spearfishing Championships

Sorry I have not written to this thread in a while.

To answer Marco's question, in 2004, the Americans finished an amazing 7th place in the team standing and all three divers in the top 30 individuals using mainly short guns to hole hunt. The second day of the competition vis was about 3-4 feet and the American team of old guys kicked butt with their strong low vis hole hunting skills.

To answer Matt's question, we will be preparing a special U.S. World Spearfishing team shirt to help raise funds for the team. I will post them to the board as soon as they are ready!

To answer Stringer bell, the American teams average age that was once in the 20's now ranges from the mid 30's to upper 40's. The 2007 team that finished an amazing 7th place overall have an average age of near 50 years old. These divers did better than any U.S. team in about 20 years, so age is not a limitation if you have the right trainiing and desire. The U.S. has great disadvantage in World competition as the top teams regularly scout 1-3 months for this event while the U.S. team scouts for maybe 18-20 days. We do not have the financial resources to scout more. If the Worlds where held in the U.S., we would beat all the other World teams. If we had the time to scout 2 months for World Championships, our U.S. teams would almost always be in the top five teams.

And to answer Rbautista's question, we didn't pull anyone out of retirement for the U.S. world team. The reality is that the best tournament divers in the U.S. are mainly 35-55 year olds. Dennis Haussler, who won this years Nationals is a 50 year old dynamo who can beat anyone younger or older than him. My team, that won the 2005 U.S. Spearfishing Nationals averaged a ripe 55 years old! Age means nothing in tournament diving. Skill, preparation and desire are paramount.

Last edited by Dave Edlund; 08-20-2007 at 08:48 PM.
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