No. Those are the maxes for the course. Our course is skill based. As long as you can be a safe and competent freediver, that's what matters to us. The main thing that effects people to not pass the course is equalization. Keeping your sinuses clear is important. Hydration helps, and if you have allergies, taking allergy medicine may help.
If you feel confident in all of the level 1 skills, you are ready to take a level 2 course. For some reason many people start to think level 2 is a test and forget it's actually a class to learn. Again, you don't need to hit the max depth (40m) to pass the class. The goal is to learn all of the skills to be able to get to 40m, not come into the class already doing 40m to pass.
Yes. This is probably the most asked question we get for this course. The common thought being "I learned how to freedive, now I just need to point and shoot".
The spearfishing class offers everything from absolute beginner all the way to master spearfisher. It teaches you all the best tactics and techniques used by world class spearfishers. We talk about anything from speargun parts, all the way to attracting fish.
In the freediving courses, we discuss safety a ton. In spearfishing, we discuss it even more! Sure, we don't want to change the safety protocols that we put in place, but there are certain things about them that allow for extra safety. For example, if someone is experiencing a LMC (loss of motor control), we will want to make sure not only to have the proper rescue for holding onto that diver, but may want to consider which hand his speargun is in. He is experiencing loss of motor control afterall, so we probably want to perform the rescue on the side not holding the speargun so we don't end up in the line of fire. That means, we would want to be on their non dominant side.
This is just one example of many the safety things covered in the class.
Basic freediving safety course is just that. It teaches the safety portion of the level one course. It is also just a one day course, and there is no open water / depth portion for the class. The minimum age is 12 years old.
The level one course includes all of the fundamentals for freediving. This inclues the safety, physiology, static sessions, form and technique, depth training, and much more.
The level 1 class is a 2 day course which consists of 4 hours of theory, 4 hours of pool, and 2 hours of open water / depth training. The minimum age is 16 years old.
Yeah, absolutely. Most diving communities are actually built around the instructors connecting them. For this reason, we also add our divers to our group chat so that they can reach out to each other and set up diving sessions, spearfishing, or even start doing extra training. Not only that, FII (Freediving Instructors International) is like one big family, after getting your certification, if you are traveling from a different area, there is a high chance that we can connect you with the community close to where you live. If there so happens to not be one near you, you are always welcome to continue diving with us when you come back, or can even plan a time or you to come down to train.
100%. We understand not everyone can make a trip to take a class. Sometimes it is easier for us to come to your group to teach. We have traveled all over including but not limited to China, Malaysia, all over the USA, Hawaii, etc.
Reach out to us about private courses and we will try to accomadate you.