Bari - the good, the bad and the ugly

Throw your post Bari analysis in here.

Ref's, organisation, structure etc...

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responding to carols comments about local bodies organising the champs...

in bari,if the locals had done the job as they did AND there had been membersof the commission present to oversee, and decent refs in the water, then i think it would have gone down without a hitch.

this from a bunch of guys with not much idea what they were doing. they still managed to get things done. with more experienced guidance onsite in the days preceding the comp they would have had less problems with barriers etc...

they would have had no reffing probs with decent refs and chief refs and people who could tell the scorers etc what they needed to be doing.

even a mild commission presence in the organising committee at the event would have made it all go fine in my humble opinion.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Donato is a commission member.

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Carol Rose

comments were asked, so here are mine.
As this was an event with multiple levels, there are quit some comments. I hope you have the strength to go on until the end.

Firstly I would like to quickly give my personal background so nobody can say I am just criticising without proper knowledge:
- I am a professional PR person working with all types of media on a global level
- I have an extensive history in organizing international events
- I have been one of the two uwh coordinators for Belgium for the past four years. We did not only created a lot of new clubs, but also increased the uwh budget for the national team from 500 to 12500 euros, jus by lobbying.
- I have participated in Marseille and Sheffield, as well as quit some international tournaments.

My conclusions:

1. I was told the event was organized by a professional agency. My advice is to fire their ass for every future CMAS event. At arrival, things might have been smoothly organized for teams sleeping at the dorms, but others had to sort things out for themselves, even the roads to pools etc.

2. As in the entire CMAS structure, communications was sub standard. Teams didn't always know where to register, how to get to certain venues or what was expected of them. Neither were there any roadsigns made to the venues for team that had their own transport.

3. Registration took too long and was one big chaos. Roles were not clearly defined.

4. Local communications was a complete mess. Nobody in town knew the games were going on and I saw exactly 6 posters while driving through town. As a test I asked 5 taxi drivers at different times if they knew anything about the CMAS games. All replied negative.

5. Media relations were non existant. There was one "media responsible" who didn't even know what a press pack was when I asked for one. After making clear I would already be glad with a simple press release, he gave me a simple one page: in Italian!! This while this event had a huge media potential!!

6. UWH organization was a discrase. Donato tried to do good for all the people, but I can imagine he had limited options as he was only informed two weeks in advance that he was in charge of everything.
I can't believe players had to bring their own materials in order to get the competition going. Neither is it normal that uwh representatives have to negotiate the schedules of play.

7. The pool was excellent. The floor quick and the measurements great. The wall was indead crap, and with the Sheffield wall in place, this would have been an uwh festival!! Additionally, there would have been some more advertising room as that wall was transparant.

8. Ref's levels was also below decent level, but I am already glad to guys were willing to sacrifice their holidays to help us out. Let's be honest (especially the guys that were also there) the refs didn't get anything in return, except for comments and laughter. I pittied them at some points.

9. The idea of combining all sports was great, and if we had the size of the Sheffield tournament here, uwh would have been the biggest attraction of them all. Yes, we can still discuss about the fact this was only one week and Sheffield was two, but if men/women elite and the other categories wouldn't have been mixed last year, the competition would had lastest only one week as well.

10. Lunches weren't good and the lines much too long, as Liam already mentioned.

11. Camera images weren't as good as Sheffield's and live broadcasts would have been a very nice addition. We had the knowledge, CMAS just didn't want to use it.

Future:
1. Start with getting another agency in, supported by a team consisting of one or two consulting experts per sport.
2. Get a decent PR agency on the case that would actually get the coverage this deserves.
3. UWH countries should sit together and discuss how to proceed. Let's face it, splitting up our sport would be the dummest thing to do. We are way to small. The UWH-players MUST not become the victim of a personal powerplay between CMAS and the commission!!! As so many players, I am fed up with having to listen how both parties go on and on about what the other did or did not do. Start being constructive for a change instead of childish behaviour, and this goes for both parties!!
4. Create a strong lobby towards local presidents. If all federation presidents bring the same uwh demands forward, CMAS will have to except.
5. Let's keep training and see how Durban will run. Meanwhile it is my personal opinion that calling Durban the World Cup woul be the best option. That way countries supported by their federation can also participate, and the countries that are not don't loose anything.

I am willing to be part of a team setting up a global conference about the future of our sport. Whether that is on-or offline, I don't care but the current situation is impossible to bear.

Take care,
Fred

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Donato was only voted onto the commission one or two years ago and that he comes from a country where there are around 100 hockey players.

With all due respect to Donato, I don't think he can boast the wealth of experience that the other commission members have.

i think the next thing is to see how durban goes.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Yeah, I think you're right there Liam...
I just hope that all those that want to go to Durban will be able to do so.

The problem is that some teams will be "obliged" to continue to attend CMAS events by their federations (as they also partake in other CMAS activities) and they may not have the money to attend CMAS and WAA events, nor the right to chose WAA events over CMAS, even if that's what they'd prefer to do…

For those, I think, Fred's right – the teams should get together and discuss how to proceed. It would be a shame if these teams lost interest in our sport because they can't attend WAA events and the CMAS championships are a mess…

I think that if we want our sport to expand and to be taken seriously on a worldwide level, it has to be known throughout the world… Although they might not play as well as the "majors" the "smaller" underwater hockey countries are just as important.

So that I don't go hors piste again, I'm going to try and start a new thread ("CMAS 2009?") for those that are interested (whether just curious or because they "have" to be)!

I apologise for the bold - it wasn't meant to be like that!

Here is an intersting thread on a general freediving forum about what the freediving world thought about some aspects of the Bari games. There were apnea athletes banned at bari, and one of them contributed to the linked thread below. Some harsh feelings toward CMAS from individuals who freedive with AIDA, but also some other insights on what CMAS means to divers in some countries. Also some talk about the banned athletes taking CMAS to task directly with the IOC.

http://forums.deeperblue.net/general...pionships.html

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An aquifer is a water bearing layer of rock or soil. Aquifers are separated by impermeable layers of rock or clay called an aquitard. Aquitard, however may sound a bit offensive to some, and therefore we will be changing the name to Aquachallenge.

For all the bad blood UWH thinks it has with CMAS, apnea has a much bigger bone to pick. AIDA are THE apnea organisation (CMAS is a poor cousin, they don't even do depth disciplines anymore), but anyone who does CMAS events can't have anything to do with AIDA. For instance, Stephane Mifsud recently broke the 10 minute mark in statics in a controlled environment. He even did a full surface protocol. Problem is, CMAS doesn't recognise statics as a discipline, while having AIDA judges there would have prevented him from competing in finswimming and spearfishing, both of which he does.

When considering splitting from CMAS, you should look at what happened between these two first.