AIDA Asian Freediving Cup 2025 Competition Information

Welcome to Asia’s biggest depth freediving event: The 9th edition of the AIDA Asian Freediving Cup!

When and where will the AIDA Asian Freediving Cup 2025 be organized? 

The Competition will take place from 1st of June to 10th of June 2025 .

All in all there will be eight competition days: Four for men, and four for women. We will also have two spare competition days in case of unfortunate events or postponements.

The program will be as follows:

  • May 26: Training women
  • May 27: Training men
  • May 28: Regular training at SuperHOME for those interested
  • May 29: Training women
  • May 30: Training men
  • May 31: Competition meeting (and regular training)
  • June 1: Women
  • June 2: Men
  • June 3: Women
  • June 4: Men
  • June 5: Rest day (and backup diving day)
  • June 6: Women
  • June 7: Men
  • June 8: Women
  • June 9: Men
  • June 10: Closing party and ceremony (and backup diving day if needed)

Location will be Doljo Beach, our starting point will be at Freedive SuperHOME on Panglao Island’s north-west coast. The competition set up will be located  around 300m from shore with shuttle boats bringing athletes to and from the competition area at regular intervals.

Who can join AIDA Asian Freediving Cup?

Freedivers of all levels are welcome to compete. The only prerequisites are:

  • Minimum age is 18 years or 16 with parental consent.
  • You need to be in good health and present a medical statement, signed by a physician, that says you’re fit to freedive. There will be a doctor that can do check-ups present at the competition meeting. The cost for the checks will be 1000p.
  • You need to be a member of an AIDA National that corresponds to your passport or national ID card.  If your country doesn’t have an AIDA National, any national organization will do (for example AIDA Philippines).
  • You need to be registered as an Athlete on the AIDA website.
  • The maximum depth for the competition is 145 meters
  • Slots are limited to 20 athletes per nationality
  • We are accepting a total of 80 registrations (40 men, 40 women)

How can I join and how much is it?

The cost for the competition is 38,500 PHP (about 650 USD / 4750 CNY).

This includes four official dives, the closing party including dinner, and souvenirs.

To sign up for the event you can register through the competition website www.asianfreedivingcup.com from the 8th of December at 8pm Philippine time (GMT+8).

The registration form will be available here: 
https://gpvdzy.fanqier.cn/f/lvx2x1qt

The registration this year will be so that the first half will be on a first-to-register basis. After this we will keep registration open for 18 hours, until 9th of December 2pm PH time, when we will use lucky draw to pick the second half of athletes. This is to give divers that are unable to stay in front of the computer during official registration time a chance to join the competition as well.

After registering online you will receive an invitation to pay the competition fee to reserve your slot. If we do not receive payment until January 8th your registration will expire and we give priority to the next athlete on the waiting list.

Cancellation policy

  • Cancellations done on or before January 8 will be refunded full amount minus a 500p processing fee.
  • Cancellations done between January 8 and May 21  will be refunded half the registration fee.
  • Cancellations done between May 22 and May 30 will be refunded 20% of registration fee.
  • There will be no refunds after May 30.

Registrations can’t be transferred.

Waiting List

We have space for 80 competing athletes. However in the past years the competition was always fully booked within a very short time after the opening of registration.

Once the competition is full we will create a waiting list for any additional inquiries. Once registered athletes cancel or do not pay until the due date of January 8th we will give priority to the next diver on the waiting list.   

The Competition Meeting

There is an event meeting where all competing athletes must be present. It will take place on 31st of May at 3pm at Freedive SuperHOME (subject to change).

What you need to bring:

  • Passport or national ID card.
  • Lanyard including belt for CNF for checking by the judges.
  • A medical statement, signed by a physician, that says you’re “fit for Freediving” and is not older than one  year. There will be a doctor that can do check-ups present at the competition meeting. The cost for the checks will be 1000p.
    If you have experienced blackout or barotrauma since you got the statement you will need a new one.
  • We will take depth announcements from the women for the first diving day.

After completing the registration of all athletes we will give a review of the competition rules and we will also publish the start list for day one.

The meeting will finish at around 5pm with a group picture.

Competition format: Three counting dives

There will be four competition days per athlete. Athletes are free to choose any discipline on each competition day. The best results from three disciplines will be taken into account in the overall ranking: FIM, CNF and either of the CWT disciplines (CWT or CWTB).

Scoring will be done as a percentage of world records. For athletes that compete in both CWT and CWTB we will use the dive that gives the highest score.

Tie breaks for overall ranking:
Replace fourth dive, most white cards, least red cards, least yellow cards, score of first dive (then 2nd, 3rd, 4th), earliest date of payment, time of registration.

Tie breaks for discipline awards:
White card on winning dive, least red cards in discipline, least yellow cards in discipline, first date of winning dive, earliest date of payment, time of registration.

Safety during AIDA Asian Freediving Cup

Like every year, safety is our main concern. We want to organize an event that is fun and relaxed but at the same time safe and professional.

Our safety team is trained according to the guidelines of the AIDA Competition Safety Freediver by Vertical Blue Professional Safety Freediver® course.

Here are some of our safety mechanisms:

  • Announcements are limited to not more than 5m than the athletes PB in the discipline within the last three months.
  • A group of highly experienced Safety Freedivers will provide safety at the appropriate depth for every diver.
  • Deep Safety with a DPV (scooter) will meet every diver at depth.
  • Every dive will be monitored from the surface by our depth sonar.
  • Our highly effective counterweight system gives us the possibility to retrieve divers within a very short time.
  • Experienced competition medics will be on standby for every diver.
  • Blackout and squeeze policies from AIDA rules will be strictly followed!

In the unlikely event of any diver needing additional care in a hospital we have multiple cars on standby that can reach the nearest clinic within 15 min.

The medical team and organizers have the right to refuse the start of any athlete if diving would pose an obvious risk to the diver’s health or safety.

Water conditions in Panglao

May and June are usually the best months for Freediving in the Philippines. Very little to no wind will make for nice surface conditions.

The water temperature will be 29~30 degrees on the surface. This temperature stays constant until a depth of around 50m. Below that the temperature usually drops by not more than one degree.  Below 100m the temperature is usually not less than 26 degrees. The expected visibility is around 25- 30m. 

Dives will be scheduled during times with least current to the best of our ability. 

Prizes and Sponsors

At this point of time we are still working sponsors and support. However we can assure already that there will again be high quality prizes waiting for the top performances. We will introduce all sponsors as soon as we can.

TBA 

Awards and surprises are waiting during our closing party!