Commercialisation of freediving.

[PoseidonSv]

Yes it has khappened now, videos and pictures are now a thing that is taken at the competitions and the photographer later sells them to people just for profit and people who have done some freediving record sell courses for rediculous sums of money i mean 500 dollars just for a freediving course itself is really weird. Is this a trend that will be even bigger, the freediving pages will be pay per view sites and the photos and videos will also cost money.

Informatin wants to be free.

Also the big focus on competitive freediving is not so good for the sport as a promotional thing people think freediving is freaky and shy away from it.

I like to see some promoting of freediving as something easy and safe and for not just athletes. With the courses costing many houndreds of dollars the normal people who like to learn more is shying away and the a\sad thing is that there is big difference in wiev from the divinclubs who do mediocre depth freediving and the freediving organizations who's only purpose it to go deeper longer further and all seems to be abou beeing able to pusha away the bodys signals to breath as many times as possible.

[Stephan Whelan]

Moved to General FreeDiving

[alastair]

Hi,

I don't think it's a bad thing to create some freediving heros / idols, and this usually goes hand-in-hand with some commercialism. Who wouldn't pay 500 dollars for a driving lesson with Michael Schumacher or Tiger Woods?

On the other hand, we need to ensure that our sport remains as accessible as possible and that's where organizations like Apnea Academy come in - offering courses for every level and pocket through a large network of hand-picked instructors.

Happy New Year!

Al

[joefox]

[Erik]

Originally Posted by alastair

Hi,

I don't think it's a bad thing to create some freediving heros / idols, and this usually goes hand-in-hand with some commercialism. Who wouldn't pay 500 dollars for a driving lesson with Michael Schumacher or Tiger Woods?
On the other hand, we need to ensure that our sport remains as accessible as possible and that's where organizations like Apnea Academy come in - offering courses for every level and pocket through a large network of hand-picked instructors.

Al

What he said! Agreed.
If you don't like the commercialisation, don't watch. Go diving! Commercialisation means someone gets to make a living doing what they like doing: don't crap on instructors who offer world-class training. If I fly 3 world record-holders 10,000 kms and stay in hotels/eat/rent pools/boats, etc, what do you think they should be paid?
If you're all for the average guy getting cheap training, then get it started.
By the way, I teach friends how to dive for free all the time, just because I enjoy it, but I wont get angry at Kirk Krack because he taught me how to dive much safer/deeper/longer than I ever had and charged me accordingly. Thank God for good instructors.
Thank God for Stephan Whelan, who, through a commercial operation, decided to start a website/forum that we can all communicate through (although he may set you straight about the income generated).
Happy diving,
Erik Y.

[quasimoto]

AMEN!

i forked over 500 for a lesson with kirk krack and it was by far the best 500 i have ever spent, i would hand over more if they charged more

[cdavis]

Poseidon's comments on the cost of freediving courses don't fully recognize the cost and risk of doing a course and a reasonable return for the provider. It is the best part of a weeks hard work for the organizer and an assistant, plus helpers during the diving, plus air fare, pool and room rental, etc. Then there is risk. Would you want to spend a few thousand $ up front with the risk that not enough people would show up? When I first looked at a Performance Freediving course, I did a quick analysis of cost and return and decided Kirk must be doing it for love. It didn't seem like there was any way he could make decent money at $500 a pop. After having had the course, I know I got way more value than I paid for, even considering the cost of my transport, hotel and lost income. Unirdna might have a strong opinion on that as well.

Commercialism is easy to complain about. It brings in the quick buck artist, too many people, overcrowding at popular spots, etc. It also brings things like masks and fins that work great for freediving, freediving courses that saved my buddy's rear end, opportunities to dive exotic locations, etc. Overall, it is a benefit.

Connor

[Alex Chiappe]

Originally Posted by PoseidonSv

some freediving record sell courses for rediculous sums of money i mean 500 dollars just for a freediving course itself

May I move in USA? .... I'm an italian instructor ... I am cheap

alex

[jrgian]

Missionaries lovingly committed to freediving
***It almost makes me cry


Sigh Sigh...
ha ha ha ha

[subaquaticus]

Originally Posted by PoseidonSv

people who have done some freediving record sell courses for ridiculous sums of money I mean 500 dollars just for a freediving course itself is really weird

a funny liguistic remark for French speaking readers... "ridiculous" is a "faux-ami" (false friend) in present context...

in the French phrase "des sommes d'argent RIDICULES" means VERY LITTLE sums of money

in the English phrase "RIDICULOUS sums of money" means the contrary : HUGE sums of mony (as far as I understood !)

[subaquaticus]

Originally Posted by alastair

Hi,

I don't think it's a bad thing to create some freediving heros / idols, and this usually goes hand-in-hand with some commercialism. Who wouldn't pay 500 dollars for a driving lesson with Michael Schumacher or Tiger Woods?
On the other hand, we need to ensure that our sport remains as accessible as possible and that's where organizations like Apnea Academy come in - offering courses for every level and pocket through a large network of hand-picked instructors.
Happy New Year!
Al

Hi !

I envisage to take part in a trainig session at the Apnea Academy... I went on the web site, but it does not seem so easy...

Are you part of the team ?

[Tanya S]

I for one am in complete agreement with commercialising freediving as much as possible. If you do not like it you do not have to be involved in it, and as was said before just go diving. No-one makes you go on courses and beleive me there is not a great deal of profit in them once all the costs are taken out, and they take a hell of a long time to set up. People go to courses because they want to learn, if they could not afford it they would not go, or they consider it a good investment in something they enjoy. When Tanya and I started in this sport making a living was and is very tough. I for one am not that interested in it as a past time or sport, to me it is a business. Tanya has had great publicity, sponsors, media attention to get where she has but in many ways it was at great expense. We both gave up our jobs and worked fulltime to promote the sport, and Tanya as an athlete. Some would say it paid off and for a number of years we survived but it was only survive. If there was no business side the sport (if you want to call it a sport) it would just be a hobby or past time. Commercialism creates media, which in turn creates interest from the general public. THe more people hear about it the more people will want to try it and so it grows. For me I think that anything whether it is a sport or business, if it does not grow and expand it will die. It is not like there are dozens of people makinga ton of money out of this, there are just a select few who wanted to try and make a go of it. Some succeed and some don't but at least they tryied.

Happy diving

Paul Streeter

[Naim]

Do you ever have a grumble about how much your kit costs in comparison to scuba gear? Yeah Im all for comercialising freediving as much as can humanly be done, the more popular the sport the more (obviously) people will do it, the more people who do it means greater compitition in the marketplace............. which in turn leads to more and more top quality equipment around at a realistic price So yeah bring it on, more the better, lets embrace the stars of this sport and get them to be everyday faces like Michael Schumacher and Tiger woods, I doubt that will ever happen due to the nature of the sport but hey we can all try.
One question to Paul S and its an important one the world needs to know an answer to: Does Tanya really drink Red Bull??

[poacher]

Freedive instructors are expensive for 2 reasons 1 there is a lot of time and effort etc involved
2 they are rare
if there was one of everycorner like scuba intructors they would be cost cutting to compete
here in Aus there is very few freedive courses available none within 100km of my place but scuba instructors are a dimme a dozen AU$ 269 (about US$215) will get you certified for scuba but freediving is more expensive.
I wish I could do a course though I hear they help guys improve a lot in ability and safety.
Peter

[Will]

The first Apnea Academy International Instructors Course in English will be held in Sharm el Sheikh in May, 2006. Full details are soon to be released. Freediving is about to expand...