Missed this one but here are some details about the race:
FII free divers did very well in the race. Need to learn more details about how it was run this time in shallow water.
"A huge congratulations to all the freedivers whom participated in the 2011 Gold Coast Underwater Grand Prix organized by the Underwater Wreck Racing League. Hilarious fun out there today!!!!!!!! Winners pic to come!!!!"
"GRAND PRIX FREEDIVING CATEGORY WINNERS: John and Jonathan Dickenson!! These scooter experts blasted the group with a sneaky double Apollo set up. Jonathan is an FII Instructor offering courses out of his shop, SCUBAWORKS, Jupiter. Congratulations Team Scubaworks!!!!!!!!!!!"
Above two photos and captions from FII's Facebook page.
I just spoke with Jonathan on the phone to get some more details about the free diving race. There were four teams of two free divers. Each free diver would do a lap and then change off for the next lap for a total of six runs around the course in total for both. The free diving race was held after the SCUBA diving portion. Visibility was pretty good at 40 to 50 ft. with a real strong south running current. The Dickenson's did something that I thought about doing for my first race last year. That was using two Apollo diver scooters with one held out in front while sitting on the other. This gives you two inline props with minimal drag and a good deal of speed. Jonathan said changing racers with two scooter six times was a little tricky but the speed made up for delays. They averaged about 66 seconds per lap. Way to go! I hope someone puts up some images from the free diving portion, hint!
and for the larger SCUBA scooter race:
"Divers find winning positions in underwater grand prix
By SUSAN C0CKING
A 57-year-old TV station engineer from Orlando became the first two-time winner Sunday in the fledgling sport of underwater scooter racing.
Michael Vivona won grand champion honors in the second annual Gold Coast Underwater Grand Prix, held 30 feet deep on the wreck of the SS Copenhagen off Pompano Beach.
Slightly built and wearing a compact scuba rig, Vivona powered his Dive-X Cuda to the front of a pack of 27 racers in the third lap of five to get the checkered flag from race official Natalie Oriente.
Vivona is the first competitor to win two Formula H20 events sanctioned by the Wreck Racing League, which is only a little over 1-year-old. He won grand champion honors in last year’s Wes Skiles Memorial event in Key Largo.
“I think a lot of it has to do with I’m an engineer, techy kind of person who tends to look at the details,” Vivona said. “I’m a crazy Formula 1 race fan and Formula 1 is all about being streamlined and speed.”
The field was divided into five classes: Recreational, with mostly smaller, slower diver propulsion vehicles; Expedition A and B, with larger, faster craft; Freediving, with three two-person relay teams of breath-hold divers handing off a DPV to their teammate; and Modified, which basically allowed any scooter configuration that someone could think up.
The Royal Palm Beach father-and-son team of Don Dickinson, 54, and Don Jr., 23, won the Freediving class, despite the elder Dickinson colliding with the bow of a moored boat. The Dickinsons took up the sport of breath-hold diving about four years ago at Fort Lauderdale’s Freediving Instructors International, where Don Jr. is now an instructor. Sunday marked their first Formula H20 competition.
“We loved it — it was a blast,” Don Sr., said. “If there’s [a] world circuit, we plan to be on it.”
Formula H20 veteran Mark Hughes of Flagstaff, Ariz., won the Expedition A class on his Cuda L400. Newcomer Anthony Recine of Coconut Creek took the Expedition B class. Jordan Harvell of Miami won the Recreation division.
U.S. Army veteran Brian Torres of Vero Beach, a novice racer, came in third in the Expedition B class using a donated scooter. He was one of a handful of wounded war veterans hosted by the nonprofit Divers 4 Heroes organization.
Torres, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and tinnitus after two tours in Iraq, has been a certified scuba diver since age 17. He gave up the sport for a while, but got back into it since leaving the Army.
“It’s not like you’re alone down there,” Torres said. “It’s very peaceful.”
While Sunday’s competition was friendly, it was hardly peaceful. Racers jockeyed for position on the starting line and traded some paint throughout the course, battling a stiff southerly current.
“Turn one looked like a WW Two smackdown,” said race director Jeff Torode of South Florida Diving Headquarters.
Said Recine: “This is the only time I’ve done diving where it’s a competitive sport. Definitely competitive, but still fun.”"
Read more:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/3...#ixzz1URiE7wUn