On Day One of DEMA SHOW 2016, we were able to sit down with Kirk Krack, CEO and Founder of Performance Freediving International (PFI), to get caught up on all of the cool things they have going on in the world of freediving and sports training. PFI has more tenure as a certifying agency than any other freediving agency, with the exception of Apnea Academy which started just a year ahead of PFI, about 17 years ago. Over the years, Kirk has trained tens of thousands of students, and coached seven world class athletes to 23 World Records.
“When we started our company nearly two decades ago, we were specifically focused on athlete development — working with the likes of Brett LeMaster, Tanya Streeter and my wife Mandy-Rae Krack (née Cruickshank) at first and then moving onto big wave surfers and other professional athletes. As time passed we shifted our focus to developing the sport as a whole, but now we’re ready to re-focus on our athlete development programs, especially in our partnership with Red Bull. We’re really excited about a few new developments,” shared Krack, “including our upcoming DejaBlue 2017 Training Camp and the ground-breaking news that come early 2017 we’ll be launching our Technical Freediving Program.”
Consistently innovating, PFI has also become the first agency to work on a protocol for disabled divers which they call “Adaptive Freediving.”
“I’ve always had the philosophy and true belief that everyone, at some level of participation, should be able to enjoy our underwater world, and I’m thrilled to be able to help in that regard,” Krack explained. “I’m a purist at heart.”
He added:
“Performance Freediving is an educational system provider. We provide our system to Naval Special Warfare, Red Bull and a host of other organizations that demand the highest level of standards, performance and training. It’s fantastic to see the dive industry embracing freediving as a sport and a unique discipline, especially here at DEMA SHOW 2016. I have been coming to DEMA for 25 years and this is the first year where the show itself as a whole may be smaller than the glory years of the 90’s but the freediving presence is significantly more robust and is obviously the growing market. I for one don’t care to be the biggest, or have the most instructors, or to ever loosen our standards. We have a responsibility to our industry.“
It is clear that PFI will continue to demonstrate leadership in its field and with a return to athlete development we may just see a return to a new records from freediving’s favorite Canadian girl.
