Freediving Instruction as a Career?

[steveniswhere]

Hey guys,

I searched through the forums and couldn't find anything, but if this has already been discussed and I just missed it, I apologize in advance and please point me in the right direction .

I'm wondering if there's any information out there, or if experienced members can give some info on making freediving instruction a career. There are a ton of forums/blogs/etc. about this for SCUBA, but I've found very little for freediving. I'm seriously considering becoming a freediving instructor because I see great potential in this activity as a developing sport and recreational activity. What I'd like to learn about is the following:

1. How much would a freediving instructor generally make working as an instructor for a company (e.g. instructor at Freedive Dahab, etc., but not the head teacher/boss). Same/more/less than SCUBA instructors?

2. Are there any statistics out there on the number of freedivers being professionally trained year on year? I'm under the impression that this is a growing industry (as evidenced by the fact that SSI created a curriculum in 2010), but I haven't seen any data on this.

3. Is there money in research for this sport? It seems that there is still a lot unknown about the stress put on the human body during freediving, so are there Universities out there currently doing a lot of research on this? Do we (the community) expect that to grow?

I think freediving is great as a sport and recreationally, so the answers to the above won't stop me from freediving, but if I'm going to invest time and money into becoming an instructor, some realistic info on how this could be made into a career would be great!

 

[rddk]

Hi, am a freediving instructor, and from what i can tell you make a living with freediving is really hard or almost impossible. It's a poor cky get sport, consider that there aren't professional freedivers, consider that a football player get payed even if play at low levels, to ranking freedivers if are lucky get some equipment and not even a $.
You can imagine to gain some money with freediving if you live in a place where is hot 365 days at year, water is amazing and scuba goes there and last but not least cheap place and easy travel...
Oh i forgot that i live in Rome, Italy where freediving and spearfishing is really popular, i make courses cuz i like teaching and allow me to have cheap holiday

 

[cdavis]

There are a very very few people making a living at it, Kirk Krack, Performance Freediving, Martin Stepanik, FII, Will Trubridge, Aaron Saloman, come to mind. Forgive me if my spelling is challanged.

Freediving is growing fast, and things may be different in the future, but, for now, making a living at it is a hard and lonely road.

If you are really committed, study what the above did, its not impossible

Connor

 

[rovanpera]

There are quite a few full time instructors working in tropical countries, where the diving is good year around, myself included. Most work is comission based, so you get a xx% cut of the course fee.

There are not that many freediving instructors around, and dive shops are generally interested in offering freediving courses in addition to scuba courses.

I do get paid more per freediving course than an scuba instructor gets from a scuba course.

 

[steveniswhere]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

To clarify, my questions are specifically about freediving instruction as a career, as opposed to becoming a professional freediver (like record holders who are sponsored). I think it's interesting to think about the potential change that could take place: from freediving as an extreme sport to freediving as a fun recreational activity.

From what I've read ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreational_diving"]Recreational diving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]), SCUBA diving took a long time to become "recreational". This was because of cost of equipment mainly, and so SCUBA diving stayed professional in the early days (mostly used in industry).

Now, it's a multi-million (billion?) dollar leisure industry!

Although freediving is much more a sport than SCUBA, and takes hard work and training to reach depths and times of note, it seems to me the "recreational freediving" industry has a lot of growth potential, especially with organisations like SSI starting courses (nothing to do with the quality of any certification over the other, but SSI is just better known and has better marketing potential than AIDA for example).

Personal example: After I did a bit of research about freediving (I'm a total beginner, but am SCUBA certified), I started looking for specific vacation locations (for my next trip) that had freediving training. Then, after doing a bit of searching, I realized there are lots of people doing freediving training, but many with no certification and no "credentials" except experience (I put it in "" because I don't doubt their ability at all... but there's no one vetting them as legitimate). As a consumer, this confused me and made me want to find a place that was "reputable" (again, not saying the places I was finding weren't reputable... there's just no way to know!).

I'm an entrepreneur... so I tend to start thinking of the business side and potential of a lot of things when I first learn about them. So to me, it just seems like an interesting industry to invest some time/money in, if it has the kind of potential that I see.

So if I'm totally off base, and the idea of "recreational freediving" is just too niche to work, please let me know!

Either way, I'm really interested in being trained (and getting certified) just out of my interest for the sport and love for water

 

[monkeyhatfork]

there is growth potential for sure i think there could be some crossover from sports like surfing and triathlon but it wont be like scuba cause freediving requires fitness and handwork any slob can scuba, im working on a dive master cert right now and am amazed how physically inept the average scuba diver is.

 

[esom]

There was a related thread before: http://forums.deeperblue.com/general-freediving/92871-how-market-freediving.html

i think the amount of money you can make as a teacher depends, as Connor said before, on the reputation you have. I´m sure, the people having a great reputation nowadays, did not think too much about a money return when they started to study.

Sadly your margin will also increase, as you strategically generalize "your freedving" to be equal to "Freediving". Something that is bound and owned on first hand, can be sold very successful. For sure there are numerous ways to reach this state. One way to this, is to convincingly pretend there is as much a "right" way to freedive, as there is a right way to use a pressurized air tank. Once this daring analogy is successfully installed, it should pay of ... and build your reputation at the same time.

Just saw your recent post. So you are a newbe and may not have something you´d call "your freediving". Than just invent one, this can be tailored to the needs of the customers much better anyway.

I hope you dig through my sarcasm and get some info out of it that helps - not with your business ideas though, it´s hair-raising for me to read about it.
The ideas of expoiting potentials, produce shrinking potential. Lets grow it instead, it´ll pay of.

 

[steveniswhere]

@Esom, your information is very helpful, and thank you for the link. I was trying to start this conversation in the same way as the other thread... not about me doing it, just more about the theory and the idea.

It seems to me that early adopters (what we would call them in the tech world), those that "discover" something before it's widely popular, often don't like the idea of the product/activity becoming popularized. I understand this, but like I said, I'm not trying to come on the forum as a beginner and say "I'm going to become a trainer and be the first to commercialize the sport and become rich making it a business for cruise ships to market to all their customers as a shore activity". I'm just interested in it as an idea.

I would maybe compare it to Yoga as opposed to SCUBA. Yoga has always had popular appeal, but it used to be practiced by a smaller subset of people and there were a few (relatively) famous yogis/teachers that someone would go to to practice with (and the instructor was the important part, as opposed to the system/school).

Now you can go to a yoga class on every corner. And although I'm sure there are many less-than-awesome yoga instructors and not every established yoga method is "the best" as advertised, it is comforting to the student to know that the instructor was certified to teach in a uniform way from some organisation (Bikram comes to mind).

I have a good friend that is a national champion in a certain yoga position (sorry I'm not an expert in yoga so I'm not sure the correct terms). She has practiced for many many years and has perfected that one position. This is great, and I think it's great for the sport of yoga to have this type of commitment from its athletes. However, the yoga industry is not supported (financially) by these athletes. It's supported by the regular people that go to class a few times a week, struggle through the course, but still get something out of it personally, and are very happy to be part of the "yoga world". To me, it seems freediving could reach a similar state (as discussed in the other thread). But possibly that's exactly what current freedivers DON'T want. I don't know, as I'm not yet a freediver.

I'll read up on the other thread. Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[sai]

I think another important factor is, if you want to live off giving freediving courses, that you find a place where you have low living expenses and still can charge let's say "first world" prices due to a lot of tourists coming by. Every instructor I know from germany does the courses besides a normal job.

 

[esom]

Yes. the yoga world has a competitive aspect. Isn´t this an amazing development of a thousands of years old spiritual discipline? I was in two columns when i heard of it for the first time. "this is the logical next step" on the one hand. And in total amazement "how can this possibly happen?"

The competitive part of nowadays freediving has another context of course and its own routs. So there is not in the same way a tradition to be corrupted as for "yoga".
On the other hand, the claim that freediving is a sport. ...where you try to dive as far/ deep/ long as possible, which is spread, and more and more often quoted, may be in a similar way connected to money interests,* as the idea is, to make yoga a sport.
And yes, you are right, i too think, to look at yoga in this case is maybe even more important, as the scuba analogy is about to be fullfilled. So what would be the according analogy to "yoga competition" in freediving? to be honest i do not want to know.


*actually and sadly, in most cases it´s the interest for barely making a living, which should be seperated from "making money", getting wealthy- and be no question anyway nowadays.



edit: i have nothing against competitive line/lane diving. I even feel it´s still freediving. Also, i have nothing against freediving getting much better known - as breathhold diving in a felt safe way with it´s great potentials

 

[rovanpera]

Usually freediving courses teach recreational freediving and are focused on safety and fun. Most students either want to find out what freediving is, or they want to improve their recreational freediving/snorkeling/spearfishing skills.

 

[steveniswhere]

Jussi, thanks for your reply! I'm actually located in Beijing... I might consider coming to visit you in Moalboal to do a course!

 

[rovanpera]

You're welcome!