2019 Reconstruction

2018 The Pool

2017 World Champions

2016 A New Record

70 new SSI Freediving Instructors were made at Blue Immersion this year, including the very first SSI Thai Freediving instructor: Pathai Namintraporn. 80% of them are still active today. It is an amazing reward for us to see that so many of you discovered Freediving with us and decided to make a living off your new passion. The course “Zero to Hero”, beginner Freediver to Professional instructor, had become extremely popular. This year was also the year of Yoga & breathing classes. Every day at 6pm, for sunset, we started to run a 1-hour class of Yoga or breathing classes. This helped many of our students to develop the necessary flexibility and breath-hold ability for freediving. It also gave the opportunity for many tourists to try holding their breath. Back then, Freediving was considered an extreme sport and many people thought it requires genetic gifts or a high level of fitness. The Yoga & breathing classes were a success and we proved them wrong.
2015 General improvements.

Blue Immersion had such a rapid success so we decided not to take more students to focus on quality. We hired an equipment manager to select the gear for all students in order to help the instructors with time schedule. We bought underwater camera and include digital pictures to all our Freediving courses. We started to provide lunch to all beginner courses and made a menu with no food that can disturb our student’s equalisation. We made our courses a little longer to bring students fun diving after the training. That year we really did lots of Freediving without the line and took many of pictures. This did not slow down Florian’s training: he had a new Static apnea personal best at 8.39 minutes.
2014 New Owners

A World champion in Static apnea from Sweden, an Italian champion in depth disciplines and a Korean champion. Suddenly Blue Immersion was full of competitive athletes. Lotta Ericson is a former Static apnea World champion. In 2007, she surpassed all her competitor with a 7min+ breath hold. She also competed in depth disciplines with 71 meters and dynamic apnea with 167 meters. Linda Paganelli passed the 80 meters mark in constant weight, and setting three new national records: Variable Weight (100m), Constant Weight (82m) and Free Immersion (70m). Jin Hyun got his first National record in Constant weight using bi fins with 61m. A year later another Korean National record with 71m this time using a monofin. Florian increase his static breath hold with a personal best in an AIDA competition at 7.41minutes. He also dived to 53 meters on exhale. Flo, Linda, Lotta and Jin invested in facility that year. Blue Immersion had now two sea view classrooms,one new large office for information/reservation and our own boat specially designed for Freediving.
2013 Fun dives

Florian Dagoury-Houas started to show interest in Freediving competitions where he was known as an up and coming star. After 1 year of intense training, Flo could dive down to 80 meters and held his breath for 6.30 minutes. Blue Immersion invested with more Freediving equipment and activities. We started running monofin, no fins, static apnea specialities. We went exploring the best dive sites for our students. Freediving Koh Tao has perfect conditions on the West coast 8 months/year and on the East coast 4 months/year. We were now able to Freedive all year around in good conditions and bring our students to wrecks, underwater statues, caves and reefs diving. We started do organise many social activities for our students. Big dinners, friendly Freediving competitions, breath hold games, photo shoots and more…That year we certified 800 Freedivers and had a SSI award for the most popular SSI Freediving school in the world.
2012 The Second shop

This year was the game changer for Blue Immersion with over 500 new SSI Freediver certified. Akim opened a 2nd Blue Immersion on the other end of Sairee beach. The double location allowed students to find us easily and tripled the amount of Freedivers that year. Akim was satisfied with his rapid success and sold the company to Florian, a good student of him to move on with his dream. Akim then moved to Tunisia where he bought a boat and sailed around the Mediterranean Sea to teach Spearfishing and Freediving. Flo was an optometrist working in France and Australia. His city life was too superficial and depressing so he decided to quite everything to explore the seas that always fascinated and scared him. He became a scuba diving instructor, then a Tec diver and finally a Freediving Instructor.
2011 from AIDA to SSI

One year later Blue Immersion change their education system from AIDA to SSI. Akim saw that the students manual were better, available in multiple languages and website/smart phone app were easier to use for students than the old AIDA pdf manuals. Akim became one of the first SSI Instructor Trainer and started to teach professional courses. This year 180 students got SSI certifications at Blue Immersion. Akim invested in his own facility and said good-bye to Good Time Adventure who made it all possible at the start. The new center was small but had lots of personality. Located on the beachfront, with a terrace for stretching, a small sea view classroom and an office for information and reservations.
2010 The Beginning

Blue Immersion was founded by the Freediver Akim Adhari in 2010. At first Akim was the only employee. He was the owner, manager and instructor. The Freediving center was located in a scuba diving center called Good Time Adventure. Akim worked really hard and made Freediving a popular activity in Koh Tao. His wife was teaching yoga to most of his students to help developing flexibility. He was teaching AIDA courses and certified 60 students this year.