Australian freediving record-holder and longtime dive professional Mike Wells wants you to get excited and ready for some freediving fun. In collaboration with Scuba Schools International (SSI) Wells has developed what he calls the first-ever, fully comprehensive, standards-based freediving training program for recreational divers. Or as his shirt says “the most elite freedivers in the world.”
Implementing a program across the worldwide SSI facilities provides Wells and his team a pre-existing infrastructure, and one they believe offers a critical path to buoy the dive industry in a way that AIDA has not achieved. The SSI freediving training system is being officially announced here in Las Vegas at DEMA 2010 and will unveil its new training products over the course of the next few weeks.
Wells underscores the rigor of SSI standards, claiming that only 30-40 scuba instructors globally have shown enough prowess to make it through his arduous gauntlet to be able to train new students in the SSI freediving protocol. Mike gave DB a thorough explanation and preview of the training materials but we invite readers and DB members to check it out for themselves and let us know what you think.
