The purpose of the rules is to make each freediving discipline safe, measurable, and comparable. AIDA educated judges work as witnesses for the dives and verify that the diver has respected all the AIDA competition rules.
At the end of a dive (in any discipline) a safety protocol consisting of the following three things must be completed:
- removal of the face equipment (mask or goggles and nose clip)
- ok hand sign
- and a verbal ” I am ok “
This all has to be done within 15 seconds of surfacing in this specific order.
If an athlete does not complete these tasks, or experiences loss of consciousness, they are immediately disqualified.
Judges have use of three different cards to score the dive:
- white card = ok (clean performance, no deductions)
- yellow card = ok with some penalty points
- red card = disqualified
Further description of the disciplines can be found on the AIDA International website.