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here you will find information for the best hotels in Kalymnos , members of
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Kalymnos Restaurants:
If you plan to loose weight during your vacation, forget it if you are coming to
Kalymnos, because the restaurants in Kalymnos with the big portions and the
pleasurable tastes of local cuisine are just unbeaten temptation
The
Skandalopetra Freediving Games, which were organized from 21st to 27th August
by the KALYMNOS HOTELIERS ASSOCIATION were a huge success and attracted many
participants.
The games were organized to promote our Diving Heritage and dedicated to Skevos Zervos the great
Kalymnian who was a professor in the School of Medicine in Athens, a pioneer of transplantation and
telemedicine, a Greek national benefactor, a protagonist in the liberation of
the Dodecanese islands and a naked sponge diver during his student years. In
his honour, the "disease of naked sponge divers" was named, ‘Stevros
Zervos disease..
Naked diver with a
skandalopetra
KALYMNOS NAUTICAL MUSEUM
The
diving with a stone called Skandalopetra, is one of the the traditional
diving methods of Freediving and is the diving heritage of Greece and
the sponge divers of the Aegean sea.
The Skandalopetra is a tool with many
uses. It is the equivalent of the weights we use today and at the same time
it is a steering wheel, a brake and a standing base. While the rope it is
tied on, was used as a reference line, the rescue mean and the communication
mean with the boat.
It has
been used by Kalymnos' sponge divers from the ancient years until the decade
of 1960. It was abandoned due to the progress of the diving outfit and the
limitation of the sponge diving fields.
The
revival of the skandalopetra diving method as a new style, opens new
perspective in athletic Freediving!
The games
literally became a festival of Freediving.
Famous
Freediving athletes mixed with the public and amateur divers, having common
their will for knowing this ancient diving method, lived an unforgettable
week full of diving in the sea, the medicine and the history of
freediving and Kalymnos' sponge divers.
Especially
enthusiastic with the skandalopetra diving have been the great Italian
Freedivers who participated to the games:
·Stefano Tovaglieri: Jjournalist, instructor and
secretary of the Apnea Academy and co-writer with Umberto Pelizzari of the
book «Manual
of Freediving»
·Davide Carrera: IItalian champion and World champion
in 2001 in Free Immersion with -91 mt.
·Paola Parenti, Paola TagliabueandValeria Somma : the 3 Italian champions in 2005 and also Apnea Academy
instructors
·Elio Marino: instructor of Apnea Academy in monofin.
And so
were the Greek athletes Thomas Thomaidis, Kostis Mamasis,
Dimitris Chatzimendor andTheodore
Limberakis.
The
skandalopetra used for the games were hand sculpted by the marble sculptor Theofilis Vrondos.
From the left: Davide Carrera, Valeria Somma, Anna Vlachou-Reissipresident of Kalymnos Cinema Club, Nikolas Trikilisdiving medicine doctor, diving
director of the games, Yiannis Chilasteacher, painter and author, Paola Tagliabue andStefano Tovaglieri
Preparations
for the first trial dives.
The Italian athletes were the
first to start the training and the trial dives.
Davide Carrera on his first trial dive
Stefano
Tovaglieri on his first trial dive
Paola
Parention a trial dive
Paola
Tegliabue on a trial dive
Pretty soon the games platform was crowded by
candidate divers who tried the skandalopetra dive and enjoyed the great
athletes disappearing in the big blue!
The lucky ones who found
themselves on the platform and in the sea during the training, enjoyed a
unique spectacle and experience:
·World class athletes to dive rapturous
in our crystal clear water and disappear in the big blue
·or to swim like dolphins with the
monofin
·or to dive 2 and 3 together with
one skandalopetra
·or to try to drive the
skandalopetra to the sea bed as old sponge divers described just a little ago
!
·Young and aged, boys and girls,
Greek and foreigners to try the skandalopetra dive and get a taste of «ksemiksasma», the painful adaptation procedure
that the sponge
divers were following before their trip, to «get used» to diving without equalization !
·In action the mythic diving style
of our "revera" sponge divers mentioned as "frog ala
Greca" in Italian books !
But above all they felt the joy
and the enthusiasm of someone who discovers his roots, admires it and exults
it !
Friday August 25 2006 - 1stdayof the games.
The deep
dives have been scheduled for this day, meaning the categories of 41-60 and
60+ meters of depth. Weather conditions do not allow the approach of the point
with those depths and the games take place to a point with a maximum depth of
-56 meters.
Davide
Carrera and Thomas Thomaidis, the athletes who were going to participate to
the 60+
category accept to dive in a lower category without any competition feeling
and totally ignoring the records or who would be the first one !
They are
aligned with the spirit of the games which is the participation and the
acquaintance of the skandalopetra !
The safety divers
getting ready
and so is the
Metropolite who will bless the sea
athletes concentrating
Last boarding
Safety divers, doctors, judges and
athletes ready !
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