So who are the contributors to project Freedive Worldwide?
In Alphabetical order….
Mike Board (Freedive Gili)
Mike has a strong background in teaching and instruction as a PADI Scuba Diving instructor, a TDI Technical Diving Instructor and as a former Royal Marine Commando. As a Freediving Instructor he is an SSI Instructor Trainer and an Apnea Total Master Instructor. He has a strong physical approach to his own training, however through Freediving he has discovered that equally important is the balance achieved through activities such as yoga and gaining greater self awareness and mental focus. Both approaches feature strongly in his teaching style.
As an instructor he believes that you should be able to do what you teach and so regularly strives to discover his own limits and extend them, through competing in Freediving and the training that goes with it. As a member of the 2011 British Freediving Team (www.britishfreediving.org) he has dived to 91m and has set four British National records, currently holding the Free Immersion record at 83m. Through competing in international competitions, discussing techniques with other athletes, and being coached by great Freedivers such as multiple World Record holder Sara Campbell, he aims to ensure that his teaching is always up to date and using the best methodology.
Ian Donald (Freedive UK)
Ian Donald (AIDA master instructor and founder of Freedive UK and Freedive Worldwide) has been freediving for over 10 years. He started whilst on holiday in the Caribbean, diving with local spearfishermen and learning how they collected the big crayfish which were being cooked up on the beach every night. This love of breath hold diving continued and developed eventually making his Scuba diving hobby pretty much redundant, despite having qualified as a rescue diver.
He is the personal breath hold trainer for several of the UKs top surfers including Tom Butler.
Ian has been involved as a freediving expert in TV and film projects about/related to freediving, and his experience is often called upon for a wide range of projects around the world. He has also been involved with developing an Apnea program for the Royal Marines.
Whether you are just looking to get in to freediving for the first time, an intermediate diver looking to get to grips with the infamous mouthfill technique or an advanced diver wanting to find new training grounds then Ian has the freediving and teaching ability to help.
Soren Frederiksen (Enjoy Freediving Toronto)
Soren started snorkeling with his dad at age 6 and has since spent countless hours in pools, lakes and oceans enjoying the underwater world. He joined Freedive Toronto in 2005 and participated in his first Canadian Nationals in 2006. Part of the Safety freediver team for the 2009 World Championship in Bahamas, Soren is also a Scuba Diver, CPR and O2 Provider. A member of the organizing committee for the Canadian National Freediving Championship 2011, he is also a board member of Freedive Toronto and AIDA Canada as well as an AIDA International judge. Soren underwent his AIDA Instructor training in July 2011 in Toronto and Parry Sound, Ontario. His focus as an instructor is beginner snorkelers and intermediate freedivers.
Carolina Gonzalez (Apnea Canarias)
Freediving Instructor is the spanish ex-record holder of Dynamic with 150m. She has competitive experience since the last 6 year where she has compite in European and World CMAS Championships and AIDA Competitions in Dahab.
PERSONAL BESTs: CWT -60m; STA 5’11”; FIM: -50m; DNY 150m;
Ted Harty (Immersion Freediving)
May 2009 1st place Men’s overall freediving PFI competition Breathless.
May 2011 1st place Men’s overall freediving PFI competition Deja Blue 2.
October 20011 Broke longest standing United States freediving record at the Freediving World Championship in Italy, with Dynamic Apnea swim of 170M.
October 2011 Made it to the finals and represented the United States in the Freediving World Championships in Itatly.
November 2011 Trained with William Trubridge and Sarah Campbell.
May 2012 New personal best dive of 85M (279ft) during Deja Blue 3
Santiago Jakas (Apnea Canarias)
SSI and CMAS Freediving Instructor is the spanish exrecord holder of Static with 7 minuts and 5 seconds. He has compite in CMAS and AIDA Championships and got 3rd position in the Triple Depth competition in Dahab.
PERSONAL BESTs: CWT -76m; STA 7’05”; FIM: -75m; CNF -45m;
Miguel Lozano (Apnea Canarias)
is the Former Spanish Freediving Champion and Current National Record holder in Constant Weight with -100 meters depth (the maximum depth ever achieved by a Spanish Freediver in an Official Competition). He is also the current Spanish AIDA Free Immersion Record Holder with -90 meters and Constant Weight without fins with -60 meters.
Miguel is SSI Freediving Instructor Trainer, AIDA, Apnea Academy International and CMAS Freediving Instructor.
He has learned from and trained with some of the best freedivers in the world in Dahab (Egypt), where he lived for a year and a half. He has experience in CMAS national Competitions, International AIDA Competitions (at competitor and safety freediver levels).
PERSONAL BESTs: CWT -100m; STA 6’57”; FIM: -90m; CNF -60m; DYN 170m.
Andrew MacLennan (Auckland Freediving)
Andrew is an AIDA freediving instructor and is part of the instructor team at Auckland Freediving.
Kate Middleton (Freedive Gili)
Originally from Vancouver Island, Canada, Kate grew up in nature surrounded by the Ocean. Her love for the outdoors naturally evolved to the underwater world and led to her becoming a Scuba Diving Instructor. But, as a dedicated yogi, Kate naturally tended towards exploring the ocean and her Self as organically as possible, which meant trading in a Scuba tank for long fins! Kate practiced yoga for 10 years before trying her first breath-hold and immediately fell in love with the symbiotic relationship offered with yoga and freediving. Kate’s teaching style is an energetic, creative and full-spectrum approach to embodying your fluid nature. Whether on the yoga mat or underwater, Kate encourages you to use the breath as a navigating source of conscious living, reconnecting to the system and source as a whole.
Kate sees competition is the perfect vehicle to exploring your potential and came first overall in the recent South East Asia Breathless competition. Kate has been teaching yoga for 5 years and freediving since 2009. Along with teaching SSI and AIDA freediving courses, Kate runs Freediving and Yoga retreats at Freedive Gili.
Steve Millard (Freedivers)
He started teaching Water sports when he was 16 years of age. He has taught Scuba for over 20 years, for all of the main agencies, PADI, BSAC and SSI. He has been Snorkelling / Freediving since joining his first Scuba club in 1992 which he is now runs in the North of the UK/Wales. UK squad member for the world championships in 2006, and head coach in 2008 he has been around the competition circuit for a while. He has though turned his main focus to the training of recreational divers and athletes. He is an AIDA Instructor trainer with thousands of hours teaching under his belt and now coaches many of the up and coming athletes in the UK and the largest teaching club certainly in the North. As a competition organiser he runs the UK National pool competition every year which is the most attended and anticipated competition in the UK calendar. He has recently started organising the UK depth Championships too as well as informal competitions and record attempts. A keen Spearo, recreational Freediver and still enjoys the depth aspects of the sport having trained with the wonderful Only One Apnea centre in the discipline of No-Limits he is an active member of the larger Freediving community having taken committee roles for the British Freediving Association and assists AIDA International when he can and most of all, passionate and knowledgeable about the sport.
Marco Nones (Only One Apnea Center)
Founder of the Only One Apnea center in Sharm El Shiek. Marco has been spearfishing from a very young age, developing his breath hold abilities and kindling his passion in the sport of freediving. In 2007 he opened the Only One Center, as a permanent freediving training academy. His skills as a teacher have been called upon for a wide variety of projects including film and TV. The Center itself has been used as a world championship location and is the location of many current world records, much thanks to his teaching. He is an AIDA, SSI and Apnea Academy instructor.
Alfredo Roma (Apnea Sports)
Alfredo Romo is the current Mexican freediving champion and holder of 3 Mexican national freediving records has recently graduated from the prestigious F.I.I. academy to become the first Mexican F.I.I. level 1 and level 2 instructor base from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Alfredo is currently a National Champion in 3 disciplines:
·Constant Weight 60 mts
·Constant Weight without Fins 52 mts
·Free Immersion 58 mts.
Albert Sammut (Freedive Malta)
Albert Sammut is the first Maltese SSI freediving instructor in the Maltese Islands.
From a very young age he had a great passion for spearfishing. This helped him built a confident and passionate relationship with the deep, blue, clear sea of Wied iz Zurrieq, just few minutes walk from his house. The will to learn how to go deeper and safer made him travel away from Malta to the beautiful island of Koh Tao on the east side of Thailand. There Albert trained at Blue Immersion with Akim Adhari who is a world class freediver and holds the Tunisian constant weight record of 103 meters. He also trained with Jonathan Sunnex who is a New Zealand representative and can dive to 72 meters. Albert is now qualified as an AIDA 4 star Advanced Master Freediver, SSI level 3 Master Freediver , SSI level 2 Freediving Instructor and can freedive below the 40 meter mark on a single breath.
Doug Sitter (Enjoy Freediving Toronto)
Doug was a founding member of Freedive Toronto in 2002 and
developed comprehensive training and mentorship programs for the club. He has
devoted countless hours to the development of the sport in Ontario. Doug is a
former Team Canada member, PADI Diver Master and First Aid, CPR and 02 Provider
instructor. Doug organized and was in charge of training the safety team for
the Aida World Championship in Bahamas 2009.
Birgir Skúlason (Freedive Iceland)
Founder of the first freediving school in Iceland, Birgir is a qualified SCUBA instructor an AIDA 4* freediver and SSI freediving instructor. Given that he is so happy diving in near freezing water, he has an interesting take on the sport of freediving, and is probably one of the toughest freedivers in the world!
Sergei Timoshenko (Enjoy Freediving Toronto)
In 2008, Sergei joined the Freedive Toronto Club where he is currently Vice-President. He was trained and selected to be a Safety Freediver at the 2009 World Championship in the Bahamas. In 2011, Sergei was a member of the organizing committee for the Canadian National Freediving Championships in Toronto. He is a rescue scuba diver, EFR and O2 Provider and currently completing his PADI Dive Master certification. Keen to share his passion, Sergei has brought his two children Yaroslava and Sergei Jr to the sport of freediving and Yaroslava is a regional champion. Sergei underwent his AIDA Instructor training in July 2011 in Toronto and Parry Sound, Ontario.
Sarah Witcher (We Freedive)
AIDA Master Instructor and Judge
Member of AIDA Education
ASA Swimming Instructor
Lifeguard Trainer
Sarah had been working as a Swimming Instructor and Personal Trainer for more than 16 years – teaching swimming to students of all ages and coaching Triathletes to competitive levels. After she took her first freediving course she quickly decided to become an instructor and focus her considerable skills on the underwater world. Having practised Yoga and worked in the fitness industry she found herself right at home in the world of freediving. Since 2008, Sarah is a professional freediver, known for her excellent coaching skills and comprehensive teaching experience. She is now using her extensive experience for the AIDA Educational Commission with which she is defining the Contents and Structure of the AIDA Educational Framework. Sarah is perfectly at home in the water and has an ability to project her love and enthusiasm for freediving that both encourages and motivates her students.
Richard Wonka (We Freedive)
AIDA Instructor Trainer and Judge
Member of AIDA Education
Apnea Academy Instructor
Member of the German national team at the AIDA Team World Championships 2008
Richard comes from a background in the sciences. After earning a degree in Biology and Information Engineering he worked as a research scientist before becoming a professional freediver in 2008. He was certified AIDA Instructor in 2007 and Apnea Academy Instructor (certified by Umberto Pelizzari) in 2008. His dedicated training with some of the best freedivers in the world has earned him a place in the German national team at the AIDA Team World Championships 2008, after which he decided to put his experience and training into the teaching of freediving full time. Before founding We Freedive, working with several of the most active freediving schools in the world.
