The year just started but we already have lots of news for you. We invested in our facility again! Our center has now a social area for students to relax. You can now order snacks/coffee while reading Freediving books or playing Freediving board games… Blue Immersion have a new private gym for students to improve on fitness and work on specific exercises such as Apnea cycling. We also created an Art gallery with pictures from the famous Jacques de Vos to enjoy or purchase. This year is also a very special year because we will be teaching SSI and Molchanov Freediving courses from beginner to instructor. Molchanov education is made by the two world best freedivers of all time: Natalia Molchanova and Alexey Molchanov. The student manuals are simply extraordinary so we are jumping early on the opportunity.

We finally have our swimming pool! If you are looking for Florian, just go directly there. He spends more time training Static and Dynamic Apnea than he is at Blue Immersion or even at home. In the pool we teach static apnea, monofin and no fins specialties. We also create our own Freediving games and challenges sometimes. This year was also the luckiest year with marine mammals and fish in Koh Tao. Pilot whales, Bryde’s whale, False killer whales and Bull sharks were the unusual species. Turtles and Whale sharks were there as every year but we saw them more often than ever. In February, we invited the female no fins world champion, Natalia Zharkova. She can Freedive to 70 meters using only her arms and legs. Freediving without fins is by far the hardest depth discipline. During a full day with the champion, we watched several professional swimming videos to understand the disciplines technical aspects. We had a big stretching and workout session to develop flexibility and strength. We spent few hours practicing in the pool and out in the sea to get results. And we did! The second super guest of the year was the one and only, Alexey Molchanov. He currently holds the Free immersion World record with 125 meters and the constant weight world record with 130 meters. Our students and instructors learned new exercises of deep equalisation, strength & stretching routines for deep bi-fins dives and the secret training plan of the world best to constantly progress. We are now apply Alexey’s training method in our Master course and our students are stronger than ever. After the training we went fun diving on Suttakut, the world war II wreck which sank in Koh Tao. The next day was Alexey Molchanov vs Florian Dagoury-Houas static challenge with a twist…

This year main events were the visit of two freediving World champions. In March, we invited Guillaume Nery to teach our students and instructors some of his secrets. Guillaume has several World records and can Freedive to 126 meters. We spent one full day with the world best, starting with few hours of theory, breath hold, equalisation exercises and yoga. Then we went in the water to put all this new knowledge to the test. We learnt a lot from him. Our instructors improved and we learned new tricks to help students dive deeper, faster and safer. In September, we invited a second Freediving super star. The World champion of Static apnea: Branko Petrovic. The amazing breath holder of 12.11 minutes. Branko does things you can’t really believe unless you see it with your own eyes. After few days of training with him most of our students and instructors were doing 6+ minutes breath hold. Florian was at 8+ minutes since 2015 and went up to 9 minutes few weeks after the course. We learned special stretching techniques that helps develop an insane flexibility for Freediving. Hypoxia and Hypercapnia exercises were also taught to help improve performances without needing to get in the water. Another skill learned out of the water was the importance of dieting and supplementing for Freedivers. These two champions helped our instructors grow their freediving knowledge that we are now able to share to all our future students.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 and busiest SSI Freediving school in the world.

 

This year was the game changer for Blue Immersion with over 500 new SSI Freediver certified. Akim opened a 2^nd 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 great Tec diver and finally a Freediving Instructor.

 

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.

 

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 Freediving courses and certified 60 students this year.