I ed my underwater adventures (career) in 2005, as a Scuba Instructor in the Florida Keys. During that time I became a PADI Staff Instructor, and taught for NAUI and the SSI as well. I took my very first professional freediving course with Performance Freediving International (PFI) in 2008, taught by Kirk Krack. I was absolutely blown away by the class and by freediving, I quickly became obsessed…like I do with many things!

In 2009, I became a freediving instructor for PFI and I’ve been teaching freediving full time ever since. I went to my first freediving competition in 2009, as an out of shape and overweight ex-scuba instructor, and progressed from an 80 ft. to 177 ft. dive in just 3 weeks! After that experience, I wondered what I could do if I got in shape and took training more seriously. I went on to break a USA Freediving record, have won 3 freediving competitions, was selected to be Captain of Men’s USA Freediving team at the World Championships, am a PFI Instructor Trainer and my deepest freedive to date is 279 feet.

While I enjoy being a competitive freediver immensely, my true passion has always been teaching. Thus, for the past 5 years I’ve been focused on the instructional side of freediving by teaching my classes through my company Immersion Freediving. Deeper Blue reviewed my 4 day PFI Intermediate freediving course and said it was the most professional course in the dive industry they had seen in 33 years. See the full review here.

I’ve worked with Tim Kennedy (US Army Ranger, UFC fighter and star of History Channel show Hunting Hitler), Ben Greenfield (fitness guru and podcaster), and several elite military instructors. I’ve appeared on The Spear, Noob Spearo, Ben Greenfield’s podcast; have written an article for every issue of Spearing Magazine since 2013, as well as am the official freediving course of Spearing Magazine. I’ve appeared in the books Deep Freediving, Renegade Science, What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves and One Breath. I have also been a featured speaker at the Blue Wild Expo, the largest freediving and spearfishing expo in the US 5 years running.

• here – game plan for the course. (9:08)
• Explanation of watching videos in order and passing quiz. (2:55)

• here – safety overview. (5:41)
• 3 main safety principles and the myth of I don’t push myself, I know my limits. (18:05)
• Learn what to do if you dive in bad visibility and can’t see your buddy underwater. (6:21)
• Recovery breathing and my bullet proof buddy system. (3:19)
• The dangers of hyperventilation. What is it and why you should avoid it. (7:58)
• In water rescue demonstrations of how to handle a loss of motor control and a surface blackout. (16:31)
• Why the rescue in this course is different than the rescue I teach in my classes. (3:39)
• Why you should remove your snorkel underwater. (4:09)
• Limitations of this safety course. (2:03)
• Who should not be freediving. (2:15)
• As seen in Spearing Magazine Hunting in teams for spearfishing.
• As seen in Spearing Magazine: The myth of I know my limits.

• Safety quiz.