What makes a good freediving course?

[SThompson]

I want to take a freediving course. More than that, I want to take a good freediving course. Ideally I would like to visit the school and possibly observe a portion of the class. Preferably voluntary, although sometimes I am sure it would be "Pardon me Tanya, who is that strange man sitting in the shrubbery behind the pool?". Unfortunately I live in Kentucky and since there seems to be a relative dearth of local freedive clinics I will probably go to a clinic site unseen. (As an aside, "freediving" in Kentucky usually means that you go to the quarry at 2am and sneak in under the barbed wire.......)

Knowing that upfront, what do you think makes a good freedive course? Class size? Number of clinics put on a year? An instructor who teaches in the climate/conditions that you prefer to dive in? Ratio of classroom to open water work? Taught by WR holders? Content? Something else?

I would like to keep this criteria driven so I can keep them in mind as I review courses from different groups. Please do not post "Soandso's course is better than soandso's" or "Agency xyz is better than Agency yzx" as it fosters antogonism and doesn't really help much. I think it would be more helpful and enlightening if you could tell me what you think is important to look for and, if you have been to a course, what you thought were the good/salient points that made it worthwhile.

Personally, one thing I think is important is ratio of students to instructors - in freediving I think individual attention is crucial. What do the rest of you think?

[DeepThought]

I'm right now in the middle of a freediving course, you might find some answers to your questions in this thread:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthr...threadid=30116

To answer more directly to your question, in my opinion what matters is (not necessarily in that order):
Qualifications of the instructor/s
Contents of the course
Class size
Certificate/Credentials
The ability to do your potencial for that time being.
The site of the course
The cost of the course

and finally

Alternatives- means that sometimes it's better to do some freediving course even if not the best available, than none.

If you have more questions that I might be able to answer, feel free to PrivateMessage me.

[Pezman]

SThompson,

Not sure that I can give solid criteria, as I have only taken one course. This is a PDIC Extended Range Freediving course that was developed (in large part) by a guy named Trace Malinowski. You can find an outline here http://www.eastcoastfreediver.com/ds...ityCourese.cfm.

One great thing about the course is that it has evolved with student input (i.e. former students are part of the think-tank). Trace seems to be moving farther into tech diving, so the future of the course is somewhat in question, but I hope that the outline will be useful in your evaluations. Before the course, I couldn't even hit 60 feet -- now 84 feet (the bottom of the quarry) is no problem and I'm certain that I can go beyond 100.

I'm not pushing Trace's course -- just saying that the outline and the student input are two things that you might look for. There are other, more autocratic teaching styles out there that teach a more mechanical approach -- not my cup of tea, but everyone's different.

Good luck -- if you find a cool course I'm sure that a lot of DB fans will be interested in learning about it.

[golougor]

Originally Posted by Pezman

SThompson,

Not sure that I can give solid criteria, as I have only taken one course. This is a PDIC Extended Range Freediving course that was developed (in large part) by a guy named Trace Malinowski. You can find an outline here http://www.eastcoastfreediver.com/ds...ityCourese.cfm.

One great thing about the course is that it has evolved with student input (i.e. former students are part of the think-tank). Trace seems to be moving farther into tech diving, so the future of the course is somewhat in question, but I hope that the outline will be useful in your evaluations. Before the course, I couldn't even hit 60 feet -- now 84 feet (the bottom of the quarry) is no problem and I'm certain that I can go beyond 100.

I'm not pushing Trace's course -- just saying that the outline and the student input are two things that you might look for. There are other, more autocratic teaching styles out there that teach a more mechanical approach -- not my cup of tea, but everyone's different.

Good luck -- if you find a cool course I'm sure that a lot of DB fans will be interested in learning about it.

I just wish to add that Trace Malinowski is right guy who teaches. He is awesome in freediving (as well as in Tech and Cave Diving). As PDIC Freediving Instructor he does his work perfectly!

[sunflower]

Hi,
I think it depends on the level you are at - what do you wanna do?
A beginners course to learn the basics or an advanced course to get deeper - farer or stay longer in static?
At all - of course - it is very important how many people are there for one "teacher".
I did two beginner courses both took 2 days (means 2 days pool training and 2 days in the lake - between the water times we had theorie lessons) and we were both times up to 4 persons to one instructor - this was not bad in my opinion as you could try many thinks and got many hints and good information - costs were about 100,- Euro each.

A friend of mine did an advanced level course (AIDA) which was much more expensive, but they had more time in the water (ok - there everybody had good apneasuits so nobody got cold) and did not practice safety diving and all these thinks very much, they just concentrated on increasing the performance.

I would just ask the instructor if you could attend some time of a course and get an idea if this fit´s to you - or talk to some people who already did a course where you wanna go to?

[GreekDiver]

Someone who can speak well and know how to teach.

[Fondueset]

Hot chicks

[Bill]

The most important thing about a course is the student. Many of us prepared for the first course to impress the instructor. Wrong. Most of us thought it was important to perform well during the course. Wrong again. The students that got the most out of a course were the ones that came with a 'show me what you can do for me' attitude. The PFI group can work wonders with a group that has different capabilities by using their experience of working with all levels of divers. I was fortunate to get a lesson from one of the best before I started doing all the wrong things. Just wish that I had listened better and taken more notes.