No tank. No bubbles. Just you, a line, and the quiet that starts about ten metres down. Three days from now you'll have made the descent yourself — and have the certification to keep doing it anywhere in the world.
These are the PADI Freediver performance requirements. They sound out of reach on day one. Almost nobody finds them out of reach by day three — the limit is rarely your lungs, it's what you do with your mind in the first thirty seconds.
Floating face-down, completely still, holding your breath. The discipline that teaches you what relaxation actually costs.
Swimming horizontally underwater on one breath. Where you learn that efficiency beats effort, every time.
Down the line and back on your own power. Somewhere past ten metres you stop swimming and start falling.
Take one easy breath in — not a big one — then press and hold. Let go the moment you want to breathe. No cheating, nobody's watching.
Your first attempt is almost never your best one.
Sit down for this. Never practise breath-holds in or near water without a trained buddy.
This is the full PADI Freediver programme, taught by a certified PADI Freediver Instructor in groups of no more than four.
PADI Freediver eLearning at your own pace before you arrive: breath-hold physiology, equalisation, safety and buddy procedures. Do it on the sofa, not in a classroom.
Breathe-up, relaxation and recovery breathing, then static and dynamic apnea. You'll also learn to rescue your buddy properly — this is half of what freediving safety actually is.
Free immersion and constant weight descents on the line, with a buoy, lanyard and safety cover throughout. This is where the depth happens, and where most people surprise themselves.
You're certified as a PADI Freediver — recognised worldwide, valid for life, and the prerequisite for Advanced Freediver whenever you want to go past 24 metres.
Freediving kit is specialised and expensive to buy before you know you love it. All of it is yours for the duration of the course.
You need to be comfortable in water and able to swim 200 metres continuously, or 300 metres with mask, fins and snorkel. There's no time limit on either — nobody is racing. You'll also complete a standard medical questionnaire, and if anything on it applies to you, we'll need a doctor's sign-off before you get in the water.
That's the normal starting point, and it's mostly a technique problem rather than a lung problem. Relaxation, breathe-up and knowing what the urge to breathe actually means will take most people past 90 seconds inside the first pool session. The people who struggle are usually the ones trying hardest.
Freediving is safe when it's done to standards and it's dangerous when it isn't — there's very little middle ground. Everything on this course is done with a trained buddy, a line, a buoy and direct instructor supervision. Half of what you'll be taught is how to recognise and manage a problem in someone else. Never freedive alone, before or after certification.
Scuba gives you time; freediving gives you quiet. There's no equipment noise, no bubbles and nothing between you and the water, and marine life behaves completely differently around you. Plenty of certified scuba divers take this course and describe it as learning to dive twice. No scuba experience is needed or assumed.
Certification requires a minimum of 10 metres, and the range runs to 16. If you don't get there in the scheduled sessions, we'll work with you to complete the requirements rather than write off the course — that's a conversation, not a refund policy.
Yes. Couples and pairs are common and freediving is genuinely better with someone you know, since you'll be each other's safety. Private courses run on your schedule at a supplement — ask when you enquire.
Tell us roughly when you're free and we'll come back with the next available dates, usually the same day.
The hardest part of freediving is the decision to try it. Everything after that is technique, and technique can be taught.