Taking the Beginner Freediving Course!

Taking a Basic or Beginner Freediving Course will Change Your Life!

Yeah, yeah, change my life?! Really? Well… It really can change your life! We have seen it over and over. When you take your first course, you will quickly discover that freediving differs from anything else you’ve done before.

Freediving is much more than just going up and down the line or learning how to dive comfortably along a reef. People often call freediving an extreme sport, but is it? Freediving is a mental ‘thing’… And the exact opposite of what you usually have to deal with in daily life: stress and anxiety. There is no room for failure in freediving; for fear and ego, the ocean will always win.

You are depriving yourself of one of the life essentials: oxygen!

This sounds horrible! Why would someone learn how to freedive? Why would you like to do a freediving course?

Because freediving can easily be one the most incredible things you’ll ever do in your life! Freediving is not just a sport or a technique to hold your breath longer.

Freediving teaches you to relax and not be absorbed by the clutter in your life. You will learn to approach life in a more calm and enjoyable way.

All our freediving courses are developed so that diving depth, distance, and breath-hold times increase slowly, safely, fun, and entertainingly.

This means that the courses are even more fun for those who are a little bit more nervous in the ocean. This means that those who are worried about their breath-hold times can make great progress, too. Not only will people who are a little less confident in the water have fun and learn lots of new skills, but they, too, can finish the course as certified freedivers.

In our dive center in Panglao, we teach courses for beginners to freediving instructors. We offer internships, and all of our programs and classes are taught by instructors certified by the world’s leading, most important, and globally recognized freediving agencies.

We always teach our freediving courses in small groups, a maximum of 3 students, while most of our classes are run with only two students at a time. If you come with a group of 4 or 5 friends, we’ll add a fully certified instructor to the group so each and every one of you gets the student-instructor attention they deserve.

Teaching in small groups results in more student-instructor one-on-one time, personal attention, and much practice time for each student, resulting in higher skills and knowledge levels and, eventually, higher passing rates.

What you will learn during your beginner freediving course!

The course will last a minimum of 2 days – usually run the beginner freediving courses in 2,5 days, but we can be flexible and add additional coaching sessions when needed. Each beginner course has at least two pool sessions and at least two, but usually three, ocean sessions. But there is more than these in-water sessions. Knowledge is power, and magical things happen once you know what happens when you hold your breath, when you learn how to swim or fin efficiently, and how to save oxygen. You learn freediving in the pool and ocean, but the knowledge is learned in the classroom – and you will learn a lot!

And keep in mind that our courses are ALWAYS personal, often one-on-one or with no more than 2 or 3 students with lots of student-instructor time!

We don’t just Teach Freediving. We Create Highly Skilled, Well-Trained, All-Round Technical Freedivers!

We teach beginner freediving courses in the following languages. If your language is not there, no worries. We always have international freedivers around, and we often work with translators.

Please get in touch with us today to book your course – we’ve seen it many, many times!

Taking a Beginner Freediving Course can be Life Changing!

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Get Ready to Learn Freediving!

This is how it is to take a Beginner Freediving Course with us in Panglao!

Are you ready for a new adventure?! You will have so much fun! We would love it if you took your first freediving course with us in Panglao!

The Freedive Academy Panglao is located right smack on Napaling Drive, the only access road to the famous Napaling Reef – the reef wall with the massive drop off into the depths – the reason why Panglao has become the freedive capital of Asia – perhaps of the world! Napaling Reef is also the location of the famous sardine run of Bohol. When we get ready to leave the center for our diving, we follow Napaling Drive for about 300 meters, and then we immediately have access to our dive site Napaling. We don’t use a boat for training and courses; being able to dive directly from shore gives us incredible flexibility and convenience to run our courses.

Not only are our dive spot and house reef fantastic, but so are our Freedive Academy, accommodation, 25-meter pool, classrooms, and dive gear. We want to teach pure freediving at the highest level, and we do this with highly skilled and internationally recognized instructors.

If you want to learn real freediving and get a taste of the freediver lifestyle, you will love your course with us!

This is how it is to do a Beginner Freediving Course with Us!

We teach beginner freediving courses in the following languages. If your language is not there, no worries. We always have international freedivers around, and we often work with translators.

Please contact us today to book your course or to have us answer any of your questions.

If you want a quick reply, please use the short form on this page.

For more detailed information about Courses, Accommodation, Prices, etc. Please follow the below links.

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Learning Freediving at our Dive Center in Panglao!

You will get to learn the Ins and Outs of an Amazing Sport!

You’ve already read that our dive center in Panglao is located right smack on the only access road to the famous Napaling Reef. We dive without a boat, directly from the shore, at any time, at the world-famous freediver playground with a massive drop-off, the sardine run, with regular sightings of whale sharks, mantas, and some of the biggest ocean dwellers.

You know that the Freedive Academy is an officially registered business and dive center, that our instructors are all trained and certified according to the latest global standards in safe and progressive freediving, and that the academy is fully equipped with its own private 25-meter pool, that all our classrooms have the needed tools like oximeters, spirometers and anatomical models to teach high-level freediving and that the freediving gear we use is all premium gear tested and inspected regularly.

You also understood that we only teach in small groups of a maximum of 2 or 3 students, so each student gets lots of one-on-one time with their instructor, personal attention, and practice time. This results in well-trained students and higher passing rates—even among those who are a little bit less confident swimmers or scared to go into the ocean. You are now ready to start your beginner freediving course!

The 3 Freediving Certification Agencies we work with;

When you take a freediving course, the course materials are usually not written or developed by the dive center but by so-called freediving agencies. There are quite a few different freediving agencies, and they all have somewhat different rules and regulations freediving centers must abide by. These rules and regulations are called training standards that are put in place for safe and progressive teaching. Breaking the standards of these agencies can lead to unsafe practices and can result in the instructor being banned from teaching courses for these agencies. Proper and professional dive centers will never break standards.

In Panglao, we offer freediving courses from the three leading freediving certification agencies: SSI, AIDA, and Molchanovs. SSI and AIDA are the most renowned, acknowledged, and oldest international training agencies for recreational freediving or breath-hold diving.

The scuba training agency SSI is the oldest organization, founded well over 50 years ago. They started teaching freediving almost 20 years ago and have the largest freediving center network in the world. The SSI freediving courses are recreational and easily accessible; SSI covers topics like marine wildlife, coral identification, and waves, tides, and currents.

AIDA International was the first organization to develop courses and has an incredibly rich history in freediving. They have been teaching and regulating competitive freediving since 1992. People still see AIDA as the classic freediving agency teaching technical and academic-based freediving, but we are also quite passionate and romantic about AIDA International. AIDA is also the agency that regulates most of the global freediving competitions.

The youngest freediving agency is Molchanovs. The Molchanovs Training Agency was founded by Natalia Molchanova and her son Alexey Molchanovs. Alexey officially opened our dive center in Panglao in 2015. Natalia is the most successful freediver who ever lived, known as the queen of freediving, with over 40 World Records and Championship wins. Alexey has over 30 World Records and Championship wins and is still going strong.

The Molchanov Education System is also a popular freediving agency since it’s ‘powered’ and supported by some of the best freedivers in the world. Their courses are about technical freediving. The courses are technical and all-around, meaning that you practice all different disciplines like bifins, no fins, a little bit of monofin, and free immersion, which is pulling up and down the line. Plus, after the course, you will get access to a mostly community website where Molchanovs offers mostly free training plans, exercises, and webinars for those keen to develop themselves further.

In the end, the agency you choose for your beginner freediving course matters little—the instructor and dive center matter most. You want to learn freediving from a highly skilled, professional, certified according to the highest global standards, and fun instructor – yes, fun! 🙂 We want you to have a great time here at the academy!

The Differences in the Beginner Courses of SSI, AIDA, and Molchanovs!

The price and the duration are the same for each agency’s beginner freediving course, but there are definitely some differences.

Below are all the performance requirements for the SSI Freediver Course, the course completion requirements for the AIDA 2 Beginner Course, and the course requirements for the Molchanovs Wave 1 Freediving Course.

Although not everyone will pass these course requirements, they are very well-doable for everyone. Problems like equalization or stress can happen. Please remember that our instructors are well-trained, calm, and professional, often making students surpass their expectations. You will be surprised by your capabilities. Breath holds of over 3 minutes and 15 to 20 meters dives during beginner courses are quite common.

Please get in touch with us today to book your course – we’ve seen it many, many times!

Taking a Beginner Freediving Course can be Life Changing!

If you want a quick reply, please use the short form on this page.

For more detailed information about Courses, Accommodation, Prices, etc. Please follow the below links.

For more detailed information, please fill in this form.

Please get in touch with us today to book your Introduction to Freediving!

Let us Surprise You! Start Holding Your Breath! We’ll Have Fun!

If you want a quick reply, please use the short form on this page.

For more detailed information about Courses, Accommodation, Prices, etc. Please follow the below links.

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Doing More with the Beginner Freediving Course!

It is a lot of fun combining your course with a freediving specialty!

People freedive for different reasons. Some people like to learn freediving for the sport, some for the freedom of not using any breathing apparatus, and some for the photos, friendships, and social side of freediving.

Usually, students book a pool-side bungalow with us for 4 or 5 days, and then after their course, they still want to learn more. When this happens, we can offer great freediving packages with a freediving course, a specialty or coaching, accommodation, airport pickup and dropoff, and even motorbike rental to travel around the island freely.

When students are staying 6 or 7 days with us, we highly recommend doing our most popular package, the Level 1 and 2 combo – this is awesome and serious freediving 🙂 But when you don’t have the time or want to take it a bit slower, joining a nofins, monofin, or training techniques specialty is also a lot of fun. If you like some photos of your new skills, we can organize a photo shoot with our professional in-house underwater photographer and even combine it with a mermaid course. Look at some of our options to make your stay with us even more exciting.

Freediving Specialities and Workshops

Taking your Freediving to the Next Level!

There are workshops and specialty programs available for each level of freediving.

We teach all freediving specialties in English and some in German, French, Chinese, and Philippine languages. However, we teach the Specialty Instructor courses only in English and Dutch.

If you want a quick reply, please use the short form on this page.

For more detailed information about Courses, Accommodation, Prices, etc. Please follow the below links.

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