There's a great review on spearboard from two guys that just finished the class this past weekend:
Spearboard Spearfishing Community - DIVE FIT Level 2 review
Jeez! you guys are FAST! I just got done writing that review rofl
Anyways, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out this course is smart to take. All you really need to see is who teaches it.
I know I've been more of a "lurker" on DB but being taught by the man behind all the wonderful articles I've read from here was a treat (i.e. Paul). And if you dont know who Martin Stepanek is, you should be shot... j/k Really, Martin is taking great strides in improving and expanding the "Freediving Lifestyle" for us all and FIT is a giant leap towards that. Besides that, his teaching style is top-notch... I could find no flaws.
Remember old threads like this?
http://forums.deeperblue.net/freedi...ues/48972-padi-type-freediving-education.html
And here's one from me a while back:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/freediving-training-techniques/66175-courses-sofla.html
I'm sure there's a million more from DB members voicing similar issues. Martin and Paul have the pulse of Freediving down pat and I'd be willing to bet they've been listening to the masses (it almost feels like they were reading my mind). I really didnt feel like I was just taking the class and then washing my hands of things, or just being chewed up and spit out... I was encouraged, welcomed, and really wanted to carry-on even afterwards (which I plan to do). It really felt like Martin just wanted to "spread the love" in the best way he knew how. And I think it works.
Eventually, through efforts like this... we'll realize the dream of many diveshops carrying Freediving courses such as this. If I recall, they're training a lot of the ProDive instructors in advanced freedive techniques (one was on our dives). So they can then carry more courses and so on. So there's nothing "stingy" about FIT at all - it's really designed to grow with you and help freediving grow in general.
For those that know ProDive in Lauderdale, they're probably the most well established dive school in Florida. Nowadays they basically train instructors only. Oddly enough, I got my rec. diving license from ProDive when I was 13. So I came full circle I guess.
Even more odd (I didnt remind Martin or Paul about this), I emailed Martin in May of '06 (he was in Egypt at the time) inquiring about courses and "whining" about how tough it was to find instruction. PFI was always full and courses were too few and far between, not to mention expensive. And here EXACTLY a year later from when I sent that email he forms his own company and solves my problem... so obviously I jumped all over it.
For now, I'm going to work more on my technique and when I'm ready move to Fit lvl III. By that time, I'm hoping we'll have enough people locally to do a course in SoFla... as of now there's only one in Kona I believe.
Safe diving!
Shawn :friday