Can I Freedive without taking a course?

Our ancestors have been freediving for survival long before SCUBA diving. So if they have been doing it for many, many years, why do we have to take a course? Here is the reason why.

SAFETY - is the biggest reason why everyone should take a freediving course before going freediving. There are no laws in Thailand at the moment that govern freediving activity, but we are getting there. For example, some national parks only allow the use of long freediving fins in specific dive spots, or tour companies only allow you to freedive if you have certification. There are also other safety reasons that you should consider.

SAFETY FOR YOURSELF - Even though our ancestors have been freediving for generations, there hasn't been any research about freediving until very recently. Freediving courses are created with knowledge and safety in mind to make a safe and competent freediver. It is not just efficiency that we are after. A freediving course is created to teach you what to do and what not to do. We have had many students who did spearfishing on their own come to take a course to improve their freediving techniques and breath-hold, then learned that there were things they did regularly that were actually putting them in grave danger. Some of them even passed out before and didn't know why or how.

SAFETY FOR OTHERS - During the course, we teach you skills to rescue yourself and others, so you won't just become a safe freediver, but a competent buddy as well. Imagine you are going on a freediving trip; you'd want a buddy who can save you if something happens to you. Now you also should be that person for others.

OTHER RISKS - Different diving types have different risks. Freediving generally has lower risk than SCUBA, but the risks are never zero. There are risks of blacking out, LMC, cramps, environmental conditions, and boat traffic. The risks are too high to accept people who don't know what to beware of when freediving and may unknowingly put themselves and everyone else in danger. Therefore, we DO NOT accept people who have never taken a freediving course to go on our trip, whether for training or fun dives.

Freediving courses are not created just to take your money and give you a card. You will have to prove that you can be a safe and competent freediver and buddy up to the standard of the agency to be certified. Just like driving a car, a driving license doesn't guarantee that you'll never crash, but it is proof that you have reached a certain standard to be a safe driver to be able to use the public road with others. You wouldn't want to be in a car with a driver who doesn't have a driving license, right?