I am a 22 year old student residing in Houston Texas and recently was very interested in spearfishing. I have no background in the area. I had been certified to scuba dive in 2011 and that’s pretty much all the experience I had in the water. After watching some spearfishing videos on you tube, I was fascinated and amazed with the idea of freediving to these depths while holding your breath.
I began looking and found a course in corpus Christi, Texas in October 2012. I signed up for the freediving course.
My experience with this course was mixed with good and bad things. The course consisted of 1.5 days 1/2 a day in the classroom, 1/2 a day in the pool and 1/2 in the ocean. I learned a lot during the class and pool session and it was very good information. However the ocean session did not prove to be as successful for my case. First of all, we had to go out on a tugboat about 40-50 miles out (cost of the boat fees per person was around 300 dollars) and the conditions were horrible. 6+ foot seas. Extremely choppy. Even after taking bonine hours before the trip I became terribly seasick. Upon getting to the place where we were going to do our dives, I geared up and went in the water. Even though I felt horrible, I had spent a lot of money and wanted to complete the course. As I tried diving the lines, I could not get past 15 feet. Even at that depth my ears were in great pain. was unable to go down any further. I got even sicker and had to return to the boat, disappointed that I couldn’t complete the course.
Even though I was very disappointed after the course, I was not ready to give up on my freediving goal. I kept researching and found out that there existed another organization, PFI which also taught freediving. After looking at their courses, the had very similar guidelines but this course was longer. Also I began to look where to take the course and found that there weren’t any courses near to where I lived. I found immersion freediving’s website very helpful and motivating, so I gave them a call. Upon calling, I was able to speak directly with Ted, the Owner and sole instructor of the company. I explained to him what my past experience freeving was and his response made me rethink if I had taken the right course from the start. First of all, when I told him how bad the seas, he was amazed that we even went out in those conditions. Also after telling him the problems that I had equalizing, he explained to me that there were 2 ways of equalizing. I had heard this in my first course but was told that it wasn’t taught until the next level because it was difficult to learn. Ted assured me that through a Skype session included in his course, he would teach me how to properly equalize using the frenzel method, contrary to the one I was using, the valsalvia.
Upon hearing Teds background as a professional freediver and these motivating words, I signed up for the course. Though the course was 1200 miles away in ft Lauderdale, I was determined to reach my goal anyway possible, so I booked my plane ticket and hotel.
2 Weeks before the course I met with ted via Skype, and it took an hour and afterwards I learned to properly use the more efficient frenzel method. Though I am not the fastest learner, I was successful at it.
Upon arriving to ft Lauderdale, I stayed at one of the hotels which he has a discount rate if you take the course. The freediver course was great! We had our classroom lesson on Friday afternoon at his house, where I learned much more than I had in my previous course and the information came with more credibility because of Teds accomplishments as a professional freediver. The pool sessions on Saturday and sunday proved very effective in polishing entries and rescues that we were to use in the ocean sessions.
On Saturday, I felt great in the ocean. With only a short ride to the ocean on Teds boat, I was not seasick at all. After completing the Saturday ocean session it felt great because I reached 15 meters. I was so happy. The frenzel method really worked.
On Sunday, came the hrdest test of all – 20 meters. Though it took me a few times, I finally reached 20 meters and was extremely happy.
The course was great and I owe my results to Ted. His way of teaching the course gives you confidence and he will help you overcome any difficulty that you may run across in the course. There is no comparison between the other course that I took and his course. Its, longer, has more useful information, and is much better in all areas. My results prove this. If you ever plan on taking any freediving course, there is no doubt that you should take it with IMMERSION FREEDIVING. You wont regret it.
Alejandro Cuellar (2.5 Day PFI Freediver Course Jan 2013)
