– Our Mission –
We don’t just Teach Freediving. We Create Highly Skilled, Well-Trained, All-Round Freedivers!
At FREEDIVE+, we all fully enjoy living on our beautiful little island, and we love coming to work every day cause we can share our love for breath-hold diving, and our passion for the oceans and the underwater world.
It’s our mission to create the best and biggest professional freediving development centre in the world while maintaining a family atmosphere and a welcoming home for freedivers from absolute beginner to Instructor Trainers and World Champion freedivers!
About Us
The FREEDIVE+ Freedive Academy Panglao had its official opening by World Champion and multiple World Record holder Alexey Molchanov on February 8th, 2016, and the centre has been rocking the freediving world ever since.
The three founders and co-owners of the centre Sura Dai (苏拉), Cau Yu (曹雨) and Vincent Sparreboom had a clear idea in mind of what they wanted with the centre, having taught and trained all over the world before landing in Panglao.
Meet the three founders and owners of FREEDIVE+
Sura Dai (苏拉)
SSI International Training Director, General Manager and responsible for daily operations at FREEDIVE+ Panglao.
Cao Yu (曹雨)
SSI Level 3 Instructor, SSI Instructor Trainer Candidate, SSI Speciality Instructor Trainer Candidate and Manager Operations China Mainland
Vincent Sparreboom
SSI Freediving Instructor Trainer, SSI Specialty Instructor Trainer, SSI Swim Teacher Trainer, and AIDA & Raid WSF Instructor and Manager International Business Development (not China).
FREEDIVE+ focuses on 3 things;
Recreational freediving courses, mainly level 1 and 2 courses.- Master Training
- Professional Freedive Development
SSI (and AIDA) recreational freediving courses:
FREEDIVE+ Freediving Academy Panglao offers a wide range of freediving courses and many many freediving specialities. Of course the most popular are the SSI Level 1 and Level 2 courses, and these courses can be started at pretty much any day of the week. We run these courses many times a week. We are also running at least one Level 3 course a month; one month will be in Chinese, and the next month in English. When we have an English Level 3 the same month, we’ll organise a Chinese Instructor course, and the next month when we have a Chinese Level 3, we’ll run an English Instructor course at the same time.
Master Training in Panglao:
If you are looking for the best place for your freediving training in Asia, Panglao for sure and without any doubt has the best conditions. It’s very easy to get to any depth you want, diving at any time of the day, always close to shore, up to 40 meter visibility, up to 31C water temperature, and the out-of-the-water conditions are pretty great too with affordable, and nice long-term stay housing, healthy and good food available all around the island. Whether you want to train by yourself or follow the MASTER+ program, with coaching and guidance from the experienced instructors, FREEDIVE+ and Panglao are a true paradise for master freedivers.
Professional Freedive Development programs:
With Sura being an SSI International Training Director, and Vincent an SSI Instructor Trainer, FREEDIVE+ is capable of running an SSI Instructor Course pretty much every month. Because of this FREEDIVE+ is very strong in offering the different Professional Freediver Development programs. With FREEDIVE+ you can start at any time a zero-to-hero program, apply for an internship, or follow a custom professional development program.
Additionally;
If you are interested in becoming a speciality instructor like Monofin Instructor, Variable Weight Instructor, or any of the other many freediving or ecology specialities be sure to contact FREEDIVE+ too. And if you want to broaden your market as an instructor, you can also choose to participate in the Swim Teacher courses or a Mermaid Instructor courses.
Panglao is an amazing tropical island with near perfect in-water and out-of-the-water freediving conditions, and we’d love to welcome you here on our amazing island!
BUT! The Best is Yet to Come! Our Team! Our Family!
The best things about FREEDIVE+ is not our freediving centre, our location, the high level of freediving education, or even Panglao Island. The Best thing about FREEDIVE+ is our team! The FREEDIVE+ family will make your visit to Bohol, and freediving in the Philippines fun, deep and unforgettable!
We are very proud to introduce to you our FREEDIVE+ family!
Cici (Jiang, Wenjing)
SSI Level 2 Instructor, Mermaid Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques, FIM, Monofin & No Fins
Edge (Li, Yi)
SSI Level 2 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques and FIM
Tessie Sumampong LaMourea
SSI Level 2 Instructor, Mermaid Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques, FIM, and Monofin
Kai (Xie, Kaiheng)
SSI Level 2 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques and FIM
Nejc Likar
Manager English Division, Apnea Academy Instructor, SSI Level 2 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques, FIM, No Fins and Monofin
Lobella Mhie
Assistant Manager Academy
Qi Dongqian
SSI Level 1 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques, FIM, Monofin and Mermaid Instructor
Kenn Alelie
Manager Academy
Daichi Chen
YA Yoga Instructor, AIDA Instructor and SSI Level 2 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques and FIM
Jerald Guioguio
Ground & Support team, and Hippo (van) Driver
BigBer (Jin, Yi)
SSI Level 2 Instructor, Mermaid Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques, FIM & Monofin
Marivic Estomata
Alona Shop Manager
Edwin Castillon
SSI Level 1 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques and FIM
Niuniu (Han, Xiaochao)
SSI Level 2 Instructor and Speciality Instructor Training Techniques and FIM
Clyde Aguillon
Online Business Manager
Rex Secoya
Ground & Support team
Samantha van Rossum-Gough
Support and distribution the Netherlands office
Stephen Bulang
Ground & Support team
Liezel Tigol Jumaran
Support team and Housekeeping
Keven Jumaran
Ground & Support team
Jenel Opena
Support team and Housekeeping
Ron Comidoy
Assistant Manager Academy
Marvin Estoque
Ground & Support team
Pinky
Support Team & Chef
Juan
WeChat Support team China
Qian
WeChat Support team China
Violette
Intern for the English team
Moon
Intern for the Chinese team
One
Intern for the Chinese team
Rachel
Intern for the English team
Ian Dexter Calderon
Support Team & Chef
Zhang Meng
Intern for the Chinese team
Olivier (Lin Xu)
Intern for the English team
You don’t have to believe us, just read what our many guests had to say about FREEDIVE+ and the FREEDIVE+ family.
On the testimonial page, you can find even more testimonials. Below are random ones, if you refresh the page, you’ll see five new ones.
Assaf Reshef
Did my SSI level 1 with FREEDIVE+ and had a blast. They made the course super easy and fun and had the patience to answer all my questions. Thanks alot everyone, I hope to see you again soon!
Norman Gem Ellasos
Free diving training and holiday
It was a pleasure to have been under the tutelage of vincent to further improve my freediving skills – it was a very rare opportunity to have received personal instructions and functional wisdom of the this specialized craft. My interest is in spearfishing; My ears gave in at the middle of the training and made it to 20 meters only with 10 more meters shy of fulfilling my personal depth goal to bag level 3- it went down hill after that. Nevertheless, there a lot of advance takeaways that I ran away with. Most notably, the advance equalization techniques he shared to me. In addition to this, I considered myself lucky to receive yogic asanas and meditational pointers to further improve my technique. He’s a professional instructor of the trade and a yoga guru all rolled into one!
Namaste.
Kristine Tecson
Competent instructors and a fun basic freediving course!
As a beginner, I was a bit terrified of freediving. I had worries before I even started the course and panicked when we finally had to go into the open water.
But thanks to our reliable and (very) supportive instructor, Kuya Edwin, we enjoyed every minute and had fun during our basic freediving course, despite the slightly choppy waters!
My friends and I were complete newbies to freediving. But after just a day of learning breathing techniques and realising just how capable the human body really is, we were able to go into the open water, apply what we learned, and had a blast in the process.
It was amazing how Freedive+ encourages you to challenge your understanding of your limitations and break that mold you put yourself into. The initial discomfort that the unknown brings slowly turns into something wonderful that you take with you forever.
My friends and I are already planning to return soon and get our SS1 Level 1 training. We’re excitedly talking about bringing new friends in and sharing the experience with them.
We are particularly grateful for Kuya Edwin! We couldn’t have asked for a better instructor to introduce us to this amazing sport. I personally felt safe from start to finish and I wonder now why I was so scared in the first place.
To those of you who, like me, had hesitations and fears about freediving, I encourage you to give Freedive+ a try. They’ll help open you eyes to the beauty of the ocean depths and make the process very enjoyable, too!
David Cabrera
Nice spot! Calm waters and good buddys. I’m feeling like in my house. Many thanks for all and see you soon 😉
Victoria Peters
A great Level 3 course!
I had been looking for a place to do my level 3 for a while and I’m super happy that I choose Freedive +, not only did they get back to my first enquiry email super fast but it is also a great learning environment! I got sick during my course and taking a couple days of was not only not a problem but encouraged rather than rushing through to finish! 🙂
The school is located right by an amazing reef so when diving you usually run into a whole bunch fish which is always amazing. We even did a night snorkeling/diving session around the full moon which was amazing to get to look at the reef with the moonlight.
10/10 would dive here again! 🙂
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