freediving course

[Lil Dragonfly]

Well it looks like PADI has jumped on the bandwagon...

 

[shrek]

where did you find that out from?

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Email from the local freediving club. (The lady in charge is now teaching the PADI course.)

 

[island_sands]

Email from the local freediving club. (The lady in charge is now teaching the PADI course.)

That's probably her own speciality. PADI haven't announced any freediving courses.

 

[Judge]

I have had quite a bit of contract with SSI divers and instructors over the last year and I was a bit nervous about its direction and what it would do for the sport. When I found scuba instructors becoming freediving instructors with a few days on a course, I thought that was a bit easy. From my viewpoint I would look for performance and experience in a teacher. In Australia give me instruction from Walter Steyn any day despite no official instructor credentials. However thats MY viewpoint.

I can speak for Australia as we have been running Sydney Freedivers for over 2 years and the sport needs to contact and train more people. MUCH MORE. Our little neighbours across the Tasman in NZ are streets ahead of us. When someone comes to Sydney Freedivers already trained our coaching and drilling can get real results fast. It doesn't matter if it is AIDA or SSI, we have them both training amongst our athletes. If they come knowing next to nothing they will spend weeks just getting in the basics and its hard work for them and us.

I have read the Course packs of the first two SSI courses. Mike Wells passed them to me. The data that is needed by new divers is in there. No doubt about it. Safety is looked after just fine. Sydney Freedivers does not endorse any single course but advises divers to do a course early in their career. The SSI graduates are competent as any when they arrive.

Is this good for the sport? You bet. There are lots more freedivers about.

Re: Scuba instructors becoming freediving instructors... This is probably the weakest link in the chain but so long as the safety is kept tight... and I think scuba instructors have some experience on keeping safe working practices in. We tend to forget that the public will find better instructors as they need them. The cigarette smoking, overweight under-performing freediving instructor whether he be a scuba instructor or not, will attract less business.

Cheers,

Judge

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

The lady running the club told me that once she got her instructor cert for FII she would teach me the level 2 class for free (in return for advertising the club). But she didn't pass the FII instructor course, and now it looks like she is teaching PADI instead. Oh well.

I wonder if I can get a free FII course via modeling contract (like Rubaquagirl's contract with SpecialFins)...

 

[della]

there will be an instructors course in september in nz i will be attending i'll let you know how it goes

Hi can you tell me where and when please, and who do I contact ?

 

[shrek]

well here goes, off to lake taupo for the next week.
hopefully all will go well as a lot of time and money have been poured in so far
i'll let you all know how i got on soon

 

[Mullins]

Must still be a bit chilly up there... best freediving spot in the country though, can nearly always get deep calm water.

 

[shrek]

enviroment waikato surface temp reading today was 14.5 degrees
nearly 2 degrees warmer than the sea where i dived on saturday
and 5 degrees warmer than kaikoura a couple of weeks ago so
should feel tropical

 

[Mullins]

Normally 12m vis too, hope you have a good time. We normally start training there when it hits about 18C - but then we're pussies in 2mm suits.

 

[sebaqua]

Can a SSI freedive Instructor only teach in cooperation with a SSI Center ,like it is with scuba?

 

[deanspahic]

The SSI SCUBA instructor to freediving instructor cross over is absolutely a ridiculous idea. I don't care what you say about an "instructor is and instructor"... That statement is absolutely ungrounded. I have been a ski instructor, where I learned teaching skills and taught at a high level, does that mean because I am also a spear fisher that is more than capable of diving that I can become an SSI freediving instructor in a week. Maybe in the pursuit of profits which is likely the reason for the first cross over, SSI should set a SKI instructor cross over aswell. CRAZY IDEA??? According to Mike and SSI its not!! The only similarity that SCUBA has to freediving is that it takes place in the water. That's it!!! SCUBA instructors for the most part know nothing about teaching freediving - spearfisher or not. The Zero to Hero approach popular in SCUBA diving just doesn't work in this case. The key result will be a degradation in training quality and a big lump of cash in SSI's pocket. Teaching Freediving requires first, experience freediving, then time and experience learning to teach freedivers. There is no substitute for this experience, which comes through completing a certifications scheme over time. "TIME= EXPERIENCE" for all those who don't know!!!!! In addition the sob story of the dive instructor that loves spearing but works as a SCUBA instructor. Give me a break !!! Anyone who was willing to put the time in to becoming a PROFESSIONAL FREEDIVING INSTRUCTOR could have put the time in like all of us and taken an AIDA instructor course after completing the certification scheme OVER A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME. (Not one week). I think you people need to give your head a check. The rest of the program can be more or less acceptable given that the whole SSI program is simply a reformulated version of the long standing AIDA program. Mike was here in Dahab, where he took his AIDA instructor course from freedive dahab a little over a year ago. This brings up another interesting point... how does one go from being a new instructor a little over a year ago to the main instructor trainer for SSI????? Amazingly fast progression. It takes quite a bit longer than that in most other organizations. Ask yourself some questions people before you all Jump on board with SSI.

 

[shrek]

well iv'e just done what im going to call hell week!! i've passed the course,i can tell you now there are very high and ridged standards in place any pretenders turning up are going to be exposed very quickly.
this has been a very profesional course with solid methodology and structure.
it is not!! just a mike wells course the content has been formulated from all over the world and has been subject to peer revue right throuout ssi intenational
i have preped for several months for this course so its not just show up and become an instructor in a week thing
i now have a qualification i'm very proud of

 

[Mullins]

What kind of standards - performance related, technical/procedural, or both? Just get a few of your future students into competitive diving and we'll be stoked...

Dean, insofar as basic rote-learning stuff is useful for beginning freedivers (and it is quite useful) I don't think experience is all that important. You just don't need to be a good freediver to teach people about the dive response, finning, duck-diving and a few key training principles.

If you want to start producing genuinely good freedivers then that's another story and the instructors need to be expert divers themselves, otherwise they can't speak with authority when it comes to psychology, advanced techniques, long-term training approaches etc. This is where freediving becomes a sport requiring coaches, rather than a basic skillset that instructors can learn and reel out on cue. But I don't think SSI are pretending to occupy that niche anyway, are they?

 

[flamencoguru]

My biggest concerns with freediving courses offered by some agencies such as SSI or PADI is that they don't stress safety (this is just from the literature that I've read). I know there are big-name agencies with a lot of $$ to back them. I would be very weary to take a class from them...

I would definitely go with FII or PFI. They have a proven track record and have been developed by established freedivers from the ground up.

This is just my 2 cents.

 

[shrek]

You need to take a closer look at the SSI level 1 literature.Most of the course is around safety and to pass you need to perform rescues from 10m. The numbers might not seem that big but the level 1 course is all about getting people out diving safely.For those wanting a bigger challenge there are the level 2 and 3 courses.

 

[flamencoguru]

You need to take a closer look at the SSI level 1 literature.Most of the course is around safety and to pass you need to perform rescues from 10m. The numbers might not seem that big but the level 1 course is all about getting people out diving safely.For those wanting a bigger challenge there are the level 2 and 3 courses.

I would love to read more literature about the SSI freediving programs. I could not find anything on their website regarding safety. Not even in their online pamphlet could I find anything.....This was all I found.

Freediving (Level 1) The introduction to the purest form of diving. Learn proper breathing techniques, familiarize yourself with diaphragm breathing and take a deep breath like you never have before. In the SSI level 1 Freediving course you acquire the proper skills and knowledge to participate in Freediving to depths of 60 ft. (20 meters) in the most relaxed and safest manner possible. You will develop the skills necessary to train your body to be more efficient with breath-holding, gain better respiration and muscle flexibility and learn new skills to take your Freediving to the next level.

 

[trullalla]

hi,

this is copied and pasted from the level 1 course outline regarding the pool and open water sessions practice:
• Safety- SWB, BO / LMC
• Buddy System
• Skills / Ascend mask removal / ascend arms only / from (10mtrs)
• SWB Rescue technique / Skills (10 mtrs) / LMC - (Surface)
• SWB / LMC surface rescue skills

there is indeed quite a lot of safety involved in all 4 water sessions (and of course in the theory).

cheers,
linda