The apnea academy in cuba

I'll be in L.A. in February doing a cooking show with Wolfgang Puck about sea urchins and then a couple of days in San Diego picking up women and drinking beer.

Fuzz, you are always helpful...especially when I post a pic

As for the original topic...a freedive school in Cuba sounds awesome. As soon as the current situation changes, not to fire up either camp just mentioning legalities , it is a place I would love to visit and dive.

Originally posted by Stephan Whelan
I'd better start having words with Sven about this...

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Yeah, you keep smiling you read the mail I sent ya! :hmm

Roan said:

To My Cuban-American Countrymen,

We're glad you're here (in America). It's been my observation that Cuban immigrants have been the most industrius, innovative, freedom loving, hard-working and entreprenurial groups to have ever landed on our shores. America and Florida in particular is a better place because you are here.

I have to say that over the years it has often seemed to me that your perhaps well founded hatred of Castro has clouded your memory of pre-1959 living conditions for the vast majority of Cubans. Yes, many of your families wrongfully lost homes and businesses. But pre-Castro Cuba was an oligarchy in which, again, the vast majority of the people lived in the most abject, brutal poverty ever documented in the 20th century. The plantation owners lived well and were free, yes; but they were not exactly benevolent overseers of the people who were living literally as modern day slaves. Their lives were brutal and short lived; their injuries and illnesses went untreated. Today all Cubans have universal health care. Is it great health care? Probably not. But it is much more than the oligarchs would have ever voluntarily provided out of the "goodness" of their hearts.

Given historical currents in the world at the time, and the social conditions in Cuba a communist takeover there was inevitable. Castro cared about the unwashed masses; he did'nt care about the 2% who controlled 98% of the land and wealth. The Cuban and American capitalists who owned Cuba had it "good." Too good. You lost; get over it. Cut the old guy some slack. He's got one foot in the grave; let him retire or die with the dignity he deserves. You guys will have plenty of oppurtunity to re-build your casinos and hotels after he's gone. My opinion is the more people who visit now, the better (especially if it's to freedive)!

Sincerely,
Roan

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Roan,
a good site to visit is therealcuba.com
so you can really see what cuba is like.

Roan
Puerto Rico was the same as Cuba without castro, by the 1950, we had nothing here, now we have all Castro has, plus so much more because of Democracy.
And I was born in Cuba raised in Puerto Rico, I know what am saying, but
I understand is so hard for someone on the outside to be fooled by Castro way of doing things, is such a shame, I cry for my loved ones who are still there, and cant speak or get out, or work for money, its just too hard to explain.
But if the ones who knows tell the world and you dont listen, its even harder for us to deal with it.
Anyways, is just my opinion, do whatever you want, its your freedom, ask yourselfs why people from Cuba dont come to your country to do apnea or anything else.
Roberto Reyes
Spoken from the heart. Con dolor en el Alma por la ignorancia de muchos.

This is just great, I've just come back from smegging Cuba:vangry
It was lovely out there and I'd recommend it to anyone, except maybe the Cubans, great people but the conditions they live under seemed to suck.....badly.

ROAN,
You just dont understand what makes us so mad is alot of tourists go to cuba and have a great time enjoying the Island that the cubans cant.
and an american dollar goes a long way they will almost do anything for you including sex.
Why do you think an 18 year old girl would sleep with a 65 year old man?
to feed her family thats why.
Then when we hear or see that tourists are talking about how they did all these things and how cheap it was it upsets us because it like they are using our misery and misfortune for their pleasure. But what really upsets me is when a tour guide feeds the tourist all this @#$% about how Castro educates the people and how great their health care is that drives me crazy.
I have to send my family all kinds of medication including tylenol and aspirin because they cant get it over there. so if you want to go over there and enjoy the island that is okay but dont talk about how good castro is because that drives us crazy.
Just think if it was the other way around, and you had to leave your country due to a dictatorship and fear for your life. everything was taken from you,
but then you see tourist coming to your country and enjoying it and having sex with young women, because that is one of the only ways for a woman to make money in cuba, and taking advantage of how cheap a vacation is and then you have to hear them say how good it is over there and how great the dictator is. especially when they only see one part, and not the destruction or hunger or all the jails filled with innocent people their only crime speaking against the dictator.then maybe you can understand our pain.
Take a minute of your time and visit www.therealcuba.com so you can get some real info and pics from cuba. again i'm sorry for making this a political issue but it just hurts. I miss cuba especially freediving and spearfishing over there and have great memories and hope to one day be able to dive in a free cuba.

Jesus henry dude, did you read the date on Roan's post? It was almost 2.5 years ago. There's an element of irony in that ...

Re: CASTRO, NO THANKS!!

got lungs? said:

sounds like a good school. it's a shame they put it in Cuba. you won't see me headed there anytime soon. i'd rather eat horse shit than spend a penny supporting their wonderful leader Castro. i don't think i'm alone on this one.

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"Got Lungs",
Nice to know, that there are people here who see through the old communist and the new neo-communist propaganda. "Welfare" in the communsit countries, means making EVERYBODY equally miserable. That is the only thing a communist regime figured out how to do well. This reminds me of the naive souls who traveled to the old Soviet Union and then wrote glowing reports in the Western Press after being led on the staged tours by the KGB operatives. Funny thing is, that even after witnessing the brutality of the communsit regimes like Jospeh Stalin in Soviet Union, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Mao Tze Tong in China and yes, Fidel Castro in Cuba .... there are still shills who would tow a party line for the their belowed and utterly failing communism.

Thouse who don't know history are bound to repeat it.