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036 Becoming A Freediving Instructor Part 2 Equipment

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In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast you’ll hear from Mark Laboccetta about selecting equipment to become a freediving instructor.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to the dive locker podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

Hey again dive pro’s, its great to be with you today. Today we are going to cover part two of becoming a freediving instructor. Last week we went over part one of my transformation to becoming a freediving instructor by speaking with Kirk Krack founder of Performance Freediving International and now his Performance Freediving Academy. He went over the training side of this journey, now today we will hear from Mark Laboccetta the founder of Maverick America – a top freediving and spearfishing company. He’s who I reached out to to equip me properly.

But first a little fun. Another fun online activity that just came out is from the guys at The Great Dive Podcast, James and Brandon, they invented Pandemic Madness 2020. This is like March Madness with college basketball, except the teams that run through this tournament are legends in the diving industry. By voting each week it will eventually get whittled down to the top diver of all time. This is hilarious! You have got to see the matchups here, they have some of the biggest names in diving along with little ones like me, yep I’m in this.

And in the first round I’m up against Sir Robert Boyle – you know the guy that developed Boyle’s Law. Yeah, that’s a little hard to compete with. I need all the votes I can not to be eliminated by Sir Boyle. I’ll give you a compelling reason to vote for me instead of Boyle. I never made you do equations. Remember your Divemaster class P1V1=P2V2? Jeez, I twitch just thinking back to learning that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s useful and necessary. But I’m just not a fan of math. So check that out it’s the Great Dive Podcast’s Pandemic Madness 2020. Check out all the names and vote.

My Equipment Guy – Mark Laboccetta

Okay a little bit about our freediving equipment quest Mark Laboccetta. Mark started freediving and spearfishing in 1987 with his father Eddie in Sardinia where he was from. He started diving with a small Technisub 40cm pneumatic speargun for mullet along the Sardinian seashore with Eddie. Underwater hunting became his passion. The IUSA has awarded Mark 11 world spearfishing records to date.

By 1997 Mark and his father brokered a National Distribution contract for North America by Omersub of Italy. Mark’s family business was the steward and custodian of Omersub and Sporasub until the company was acquired by a public Corporation in 2013. After growing Technosport into a multi-million dollar revenue business Mark decided, he didn’t want to be an “operations function” for the man.

Spearfishing is a small grass roots industry with family owned artisans that produce the best products. These qualities made this fun in the first place. It was only natural to reinvent the mission of high-end small companies focused on artisanship rather than volume. And that is where Maverick-America was born.

Items In This Episode

  • Freediving fins
  • Freediving wetsuits
  • Freediving masks and snorkels
  • Freediving weight belts

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com and there you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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035 Becoming A Freediving Instructor Part 1 Training

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In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast you’ll hear from Kirk Krack about how to train to become a freediving instructor.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to the dive locker podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

Hey everyone, I hope you’re all handling these coronavirus restrictions well. I am. Sure there are plenty of negatives with this, but I am very intentional about finding the awesomeness of this time. I’ve had more time with my family, I’ve had less work stress and traffic related stress. My creativity is up and I’m developing myself physically and professionally. I’ve told you all about my fitness journey with the FitOn App and Primal Blueprint diet. They are going great by the way.

But also all the many webinars and podcasts that can develop us professionally that I talked about last week. There’s really good stuff out there. In fact, I was just on The Diver Medic’s webinar with Chantelle Newman. My topic was on Physical Stressors in Diving – the most overlooked issue in our industry. Go to The Diver Medic website to see the replay if you’d like.

But today I want to continue to take you on my announced journey to become a freediving instructor. As I mentioned in previous episodes I have always had a passion for freediving. But over the years I watched as others had gone through advanced training and became freediving instructors. Well I applauded them and championed them, but I did not do it myself. So now is the time that I’m going to prepare to become a freediving instructor.

My Instructor Trainer – Kirk Krack

So to do this I reached out to, in my opinion, the top freediving instructor trainer in the world Kirk Krack the founder of Performance Freediving International. He co-founded PFI in 2000 and has done all kinds of scientific study of hypoxic effects on the human body. Kirk has trained seven athletes to 23 world records and dozens more to hundreds of national records. Chief among these is Kirk’s wife, Mandy-Rae Krack. Kirk trained and coached Mandy-Rae to seven world records and 13 Canadian records. Through its over 100 highly trained and rigorously qualified and insured instructors, PFI has trained and certified over 10,000 freedivers.

In 2016, Kirk was named the Diver’s Alert Network (DAN)/Rolex Diver of the Year. Krik also teaches freediving to Swift water rescue teams, Search and rescue teams, and Military special forces operators.

Kirk’s unique wealth of experience and talent for teaching have made his services highly sought after by those who want and need the absolute best. Among the individuals Kirk has trained are: Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson for their underwater roles in the blockbuster feature film Mission: Impossible–Rogue Nation. Margot Robbie and her stunt double for their underwater roles in Suicide Squad (in which Kirk also served as a credited on-screen stunt double for Batman). Endurance performer and illusionist David Blaine for his world record breath-hold attempts live on the Oprah Winfrey Show (he survived over 17 minutes on a single breath of oxygen-enriched air). Tiger Woods, Lindsey Vonn, and Woody Harrelson.

And Most recently, as you’ll hear, he’s worked with actors on the set of James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar 2,

Now he has his own freediving training company called the Performance Freediving Academy. So, you can see why he was my go to guy for becoming a freediving instructor.

Items In This Episode

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com and there you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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Why Dive Pro’s Should Take Freediving Courses

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In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast freediving expert Ted Harty discusses why taking a freediving course will benefit all diving professionals.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to the dive locker podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

Our lives have certainly changed. Truly, everything is different in our day to day happenings. In once sense it is unsettling and disruptive and on the other hand I’m connecting with my family more. One day I’m shaken by this virus and what it could do it i or a loved one or friend gets it, and the next day I’m like so what if I get it, Im not a high risk health individual. One day you hear wear masks and the next day you hear don’t wear masks. One day I think how are we going to get through this financially, and the next day I think about all the things I want to do when we are not homebound anymore and how I believe the economy will strongly bounce back. Are you feeling these same opposite feelings? It’s pretty crazy.

Resources to Get Through These Crazy Times

Well, let me point you to some resources that may help this time in our lives. First, our buddy Stephan Wheelan at DeeperBlue has created an entire coronavirus information area on deeperblue.com. It mostly relates to diving related coronavirus articles, but there are good general information pieces there as well. Well done Stephan. Also, DEMA is reporting on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act also known as the CARES act to offer assistance to US Small business. This is great news. And DEMA has circulated the Small Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act so that you can apply for these funds. This 11 page document covers so many different business needs, you really need to take a look at it. Check it out at DEMA.org .

Also, if you want some mental health tips to keep your sanity at this time, my wife Dr Heather Clark is a clinical psychologist and she has just come out with a YouTube video series called Coping with Coronavirus. Here she gives a two-three minute tip per video on how to cope with these challenging times.

And finally, speaking of YouTube is the number one trending video in the world right now. It is called Some Good News with John Krasinski – you may remember him from the hit show The Office, well he just released an organic home-grown YouTube channel dedicated to sharing only good stories seen on social media around the world. It is awesome. Yep, I had some tears going on, because of the great stuff he highlighted. Plus, the guy is hilarious too. So check out Some Good News with John Krasinski – you’ll love it, and you’re welcome.

Upcoming Episode on Fitness to Dive

So that’s it for coronavirus items. Actually one more thing, I’m actually previewing fitness and exercise apps to recommend to you for an upcoming episode. I don’t know about you, but I’m not doing such a great job keeping fit these days. My gym is closed, I can’t do my workouts in the park anymore. So everything has to be at home or in my neighborhood. And, not eating like i used to, and yeah, I might be doing more happy hours now that the commute from my home office to my home bar is ten steps away. No 40 minute commute home! So I’m going to share the programs and apps that I have been trying in an upcoming episode so that when its time to dive again, we can all be in shape.

Interview with Ted Harty

Today lets focus an area near and dear to my heart and that is freediving. But the specific thing we’re sharing with you is how freediving can make you a better dive professional. I have with me my friend and freediving expert Ted Harty with Immersion Freediving and we discuss all the ways that you taking a freediving class will help you be a better divemaster or instructor. Ted began his professional underwater career as a Scuba Instructor for PADI,NAUI, and SSI in 2005. In 2008 he took his first freediving class with Performance Freediving International. After that course on his days off he didn’t want to go scuba diving he wanted to go freediving, and realized his passion was freediving. In 2009 Ted took PFI’s first official Instructor program, and immediately started working for PFI helping Kirk Krack and Mandy Rae-Kruckshank teach courses all across the USA.

Ted went to his first freediving competition in 2009 as an overweight out of shape scuba instructor and progressed from 80-90ft freediver to 177ft in 3 weeks. After the experience he wondered what he could do if he actually started training. Since that time he broke a USA Freediving record in 2011, won 3 freediving competitions, was selected to be the co-captain of the USA Freediving team in 2012, and his deepest dive is 279ft. Isn’t that awesome. And Ted also has a series of online courses – perfect for this time of us staying at home. Ted has also given a special promotion to The Dive Locker nation. You’re gonna like this, and in case you’re wondering we recorded this a few weeks ago prior to stay at home orders. So here we go pro’s time to change it up and hold your breath.

Online Freediving Courses Offer

Very cool stuff, thanks Ted for a great interview and thanks for your offer. Folks go to Ted’s Immersion Freediving Online Courses that Ted talked about and you’ll get 10% off any online course as a listener to this podcast. Simply enter tecclark (all one word) in the coupon code on your checkout screen to get 10% off. That’s really great, thanks again Ted.

Immersion Freediving's Online Equalization Course
Immersion Freediving's Online 28 Day Freediving Transformation Course

Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com and there you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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Welcome Dive Professionals

Welcome to ScubaGuru.com!  The ScubaGuru brand is dedicated to giving dive professionals tools and techniques to be GREAT LEADERS – leaders in the classroom, leaders underwater, and leaders in their diving businesses.  With unique leadership skill-sets, the dive professional can create:

  • Better divers
  • Loyal customers
  • A thriving dive center
  • A flourishing dive industry

See what we mean by Go Beyond the Standard and enjoy the rewards of being truly great at what you do!

Sincerely,

Tec Clark

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