Free Diving Training

[Soy Alex]

Hi all,

Been a scuba diver for a while and now i set my eyes on free diving. I have been searching online for freediving training from different organizations but they all look similar to me.

Appreciate if someone here could share me more in depth with their training in the past, from different oragnizations luckily.

Cheers,
A

 

[ImmaHyrdalisk]

Where are you located? The instructors in your area will probably determine which certification agency you will join. FII is probably the most common and I've never heard any complaints with their program. Any reputable org (read: not a scam. Googling the name will clear it up) will probably work though. If in doubt post a question about a specific agency here or spearboard.

If you plan to progress to deeper levels like FII Level 2, make sure whatever group you choose offers that course. You may not be able to cross over without a level 1 cert.

 

[Phantom Menace]

Globally AIDA is the most common (from what I have see anyway). FII seems to be prevalent in the USA. PADI have just launched a freediving certification program.

AIDA offer "cross-overs" from other agencies.

(I have done an AIDA 4 star course).

IMO the instructor is more important than the agency (if you are going with one of the larger ones).

 

[Soy Alex]

Where are you located? The instructors in your area will probably determine which certification agency you will join. FII is probably the most common and I've never heard any complaints with their program. Any reputable org (read: not a scam. Googling the name will clear it up) will probably work though. If in doubt post a question about a specific agency here or spearboard.

If you plan to progress to deeper levels like FII Level 2, make sure whatever group you choose offers that course. You may not be able to cross over without a level 1 cert.

Thanks ImmaHyrdalisk! I'm in HK for now and unfortunately checked there is no FII here.

Globally AIDA is the most common (from what I have see anyway). FII seems to be prevalent in the USA. PADI have just launched a freediving certification program.

AIDA offer "cross-overs" from other agencies.

(I have done an AIDA 4 star course).

IMO the instructor is more important than the agency (if you are going with one of the larger ones).

I agree, Phantom. However, don't know anyone doing free diving here so I can only look for an agency with a better curriculum indeed. What do you think about AIDA? How's it compared with others like CMAS or SSI?

Cheers!
A

 

[Phantom Menace]

I haven't done CMAS or SSI so I cannot really compare to AIDA. I have done AIDA 2, 3 and 4 star (next step after 4 star is Instructor). I did the 2 and 3 star as a combined course as I was already relatively competent (spearfishing for a few years) but picked up a fair bit of knowledge and technique.

The 4-star course was really good and the instructor also covered deep equalisation etc.

AIDA is the predominant body for recognition of world and national records - although CMAS also has its records. (Most competitive divers seem to compete under AIDA - although CMAS has a reasonable European base. CMAS records have historically been quite a bit less than AIDA but are catching up it seems).

I know there are AIDA courses offered in Singapore (a friend of a friend is an instructor there).

I just did a search for "AIDA freediving Hong Kong" and a few links popped up.

E.g.:
Hong Kong free-diving: where to learn, and why it's catching on
Hong Kong Freediving Planet
Hong Kong Freediving Association 香港自由潛水協會

So on those links there are at least two groups.