Archives: Level 1

Must go place in Panglao. I learned so much cool stuff. I learned to stay underwater for 3 minutes in a day. It was very professional and fun.

Excellent freediving school

A special thanks to our great teachers, Nejc and Kim! We had good fun, learned a lot & enjoyed the super nice reef and the sardines.

Location is perfect, with a house reef directly nearby dive centre.

We hope to come back soon!

Simone & Bernd

A great place to be and greater people to be with. 🙂 😉

One of the best locations for training serious freediving that every freediver would dream of!

It is a very good place to chase depths in a very convenient manner as the place is just nearby a drop off cliff. No need for boats and tiring swimming as after a more or less 10 meters swim, you`re at an awesome training ground. 🙂

Also, it is not just a good place for depths but also for fun diving. The cliff has its own very beautiful reef and colourful coral which is the habitat of a different variety of marine life from amazing sardines, to yellowfin jackfish, beautiful scorpionfish, etc. If you get lucky, from time to time, you get to see mantas, whale sharks and some serious whales passing by the area!

But what makes me even more happy about this place is the amazing owner, the professional and knowledgeable instructors, and the super friendly staff that make you feel home away from home. They make you feel like you are part of a family. The owner and the instructors are very high skilled and definitely know what they are talking about and make sure you are safe. Safety is their top priority. 🙂

Kudos to everybody, especially to Vincent, who bestowed his knowledge when he taught me my Level 1 course. Hope to train with you guys again and looking forward to my Level 2 course soon!

Super professional, experienced and lovely team. Great courses and location.

I’m a scuba diving instructor, and last year I decided to try freediving. I took the SSI level 1 with free diving Guru Vincent Sparreboom. Having taught scuba for 4 years it was great to be a student again, learning something new. Vincent’s professionalism, knowledge and experience was astounding. Definitely one of the most professional coaches I’ve ever had over my 20-year diving experience. In the water, we were joined by Edwin and Sebastian who at the time were training to become instructors. Both of these guys were so supportive and encouraging. I felt completely supported and safe throughout the whole experience. Previously when chatting about freediving, I managed to hold my breath for 2 minutes (only once). After Vincent coached us on the breath up and relaxation techniques, I was totally surprised that I managed to hold my breath for over 4 minutes!

After such a great experience, of course, I went back and did my level 2 with Vincent. Once again, the training was superb, and I surpassed everything I had learnt at level 1.

I cannot recommend this place enough.

Thank you, Vincent and Freedive Academy Panglao!

Freedive Academy Panglao has the best location to learn freediving.

It is convenient to train when the sea is pretty much in your backyard. There is a beautiful reef wall with plenty of marine life to explore after training. It is exhilarating to have schools of fish swimming around you when you do your training.

The Instructors and staff at the academy are extremely nice and friendly people, always ready to lend a helping hand (or their personal fins). I did both my Level 1 and level 2 with Nejc. He is very knowledgeable about freediving, and he always related back to the theory when we were doing the practical sessions. It makes understanding the theory easier for me. His patience and encouragement helped me to persevere to the end of the course. He even went out of his way to help me look for other accommodations because I didn’t like the one I was staying at and when I had an ear infection, he got medication from the pharmacy for me. Having a caring instructor like Nejc makes learning to freedive more assuring as I can count on him to cover all the safety aspects and focus on executing my techniques.

If I could, I would return here to continue my freediving lessons because of its location and superb Instructors.

A nice freediving experience

I came to Freedive Academy Panglao for new experiences and techniques to progress.

This dive center is really comfortable, and it is also easy to speak, think and share ideas about freediving.

This was a really nice experience, and I suggest to all people to come here.

This picture was a fun dive made with my teacher Nejc. (*image is missing)

One of the best if not the best place to freedive.

I did my SSI level one with them back in June 2017 and my level 3 last July, and it feels like coming back home. The center has a very contagious positive atmosphere that you do not want to miss. Everyone is so great from the instructor to the ground crew. At Freedive Academy Panglao you’ll meet freedivers of all level, and everyone is so supportive of each other. The center has the facilities you’ll need for your freediving training. The best part of it is that the centre is only a few minutes away from your depth goal.

Will definitely come back.

Perfect place for freediving

This place is perfect to learn freediving from a beginner level to a professional level.

It’s also perfect for already qualified freedivers who want to train. 100m+ available close from the shore, don’t even need a boat and the conditions are always pretty good. The reef is also pretty nice, and I’ve been lucky enough to see whale sharks, pilot whales, dolphins, and even a blue whale since I’m there.

And in bonus, a very friendly team and nice people are living there.

I’ve already spent more than 6 months there, and I’m still not planning to leave.

Awesome freediving experience!

It is our first time to be on the wonderful island of Panglao. Me and my boyfriend were really amazed by the natural beauty of the island. Since we both love the sea and exciting activities, we decided to try freediving. Thanks to the friendly and very knowledgeable instructors here, our experience was indeed a memorable one. We have learned the basic knowledge of freediving and finished our level 1 course in 3 days. I highly recommend Freedive Academy Panglao to everyone.

We had a really nice time here at Freedive Academy Panglao.

My friend and I did a level 1 course here in August, and first of all, learning to freedive is really something special. The instructor was recommended to me via a mutual friend, and I contacted him via Facebook since their website was still under construction, but he responded to all my messages within the hour.

Lessons where nice, and a lot of fun – on land and in the water. It surprised me how easy it was to hold your breath for minutes when you know how to breathe properly (3:06!). The 3 days we spent at the centre where great! Unfortunately, we did have rain and some waves during the lessons in the water, but that happens – the wrong season I guess…

Additionally, there was some construction going on at the dive resort, and we had moments that the noise outside was quite annoying. But overall; we had a really good time, and I hope to come back to the Philippines one day to do my level 2 with them.