Education, Instructors & Judges

• Be 18 years of age or older (16 or 17 years old with parent or guardian consent)
• Can swim at least 200m non-stop without fins and at least 300m non-stop with mask, fins and snorkel

The static and dynamic sessions in confined water are used to teach relaxation, breathing, finning and safety techniques. In the open water sessions students will apply the skills they have learned in the pool / confined water sessions and combine them with the basic skills of open water freediving such as equalizing, duck diving, vertical swimming, body positioning, turns and use of buoyancy.

The freediving theory will include: Introduction to Freediving, Freediving Breathing Cycle, Basic Physiology of Freediving, Equalization, Freediving Techniques, Safety in Freediving, Equipment in Freediving, Freediving Disciplines.

• Be 18 years of age or older (16 or 17 years old with parent or guardian consent)
• Can swim at least 200m non-stop without fins and at least 300m non-stop with mask, fins and snorkel
• Have completed the AIDA2 course or have completed the AIDA2 Crossover Evaluation if crossing over from another freediving agency

The course is designed to further develop skills from previous levels, to acquire new skills and gain a higher knowledge of safety procedures and techniques. The new techniques that are introduced are free-fall, Frenzel Equalizing, the use of training tables, the risks of increasing and decreasing pressure and also how to minimize these risks. Students will train these skills in the most common disciplines of freediving: Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea, Free Immersion and Constant Weight.

The theory will include: Physiology, Equalization, Barotrauma, Lungs at Depth, Buoyancy, Shallow Water Blackout, Training Concepts, The Mammalian Dive Response, Decompression Sickness , Surface Intervals and the Freediver’s Code of Conduct.

• Be 18 years of age or older (16 or 17 years old with parent or guardian consent)
• Have completed the AIDA 3 course or have completed the AIDA 3 Crossover Evaluation if crossing over from another freediving agency
• Have completed a course in First Aid with CPR within the last two years

This course familiarises students with techniques, knowledge and safety procedures for deep freediving that go beyond recreational freediving. The new techniques will include FRC diving, mouth-fill equalization and packing. The skills are developed within these categories of freediving: Static Apnea, Dynamic Apnea, Constant Weight, Free Immersion and Variable Weight. In addition to the in-water skills this course introduces full body warm-ups and stretching, specific stretching of breathing muscles, training concepts and diet that benefits the freediver and help shape their development as a diver. You will also be, acquainted with packing and reverse packing, mainly within vital capacity as a part of the dry lessons.

An important set of skills concerns managing open water equipment. The use of appropriate knots and braiding techniques, setting the depth on the dive line, constructing a safe bottom weight from a weight belt and diving leads, safe handling of other additional equipment (bottom plate, torches, lanyards, etc.).

One of the purposes of this course is to prepare successful candidates for the role of “Assistant Instructor”. This new role will include leading an appropriate warm-up session for confined and open water freediving and supervising students of all course levels during their confined or open water sessions.

The theory sessions will include: Physics – Dalton’s Law, Boyle’s Law, Henry’s law, Decompression Sickness, Nitrogen Narcosis, Failure Depth and how to increase VC and decrease RV, FRC Diving, Mouth-Fill, Packing, Fitness and Training, Nutrition and Diet for Freedivers.

• Be 18 years of age or older
• Have completed a course in First Aid with CPR within the last two years
• Have completed the AIDA 4 course or have completed the AIDA 4 Crossover Evaluation if crossing over from another freediving agency

• 1 dive to minimum 40m maximum 50m
• 1 dive to 30m lasting for a minimum of 1.30 minutes
• After a 1 minute breath-up hang at 15m for 45 seconds to a minute and then rescue a freediver with BO from that depth
• Stamina test: max 1 min preparation and then 5 consecutive dives to 20m, each with a 1 min surface interval
• Rescue from 25m followed by recovery at surface and 50m tow
• Static breath hold: minimum 4 minutes
• Demonstration of other disciplines: DNF, CNF and VW, no minimum requirement
• AIDA 2, 3 and 4 theoretical exams, final Instructor Course exam, practical exams on teaching and setting up equipment, oral presentation

Within at least 10 full days candidates are trained to teach AIDA Freediving Courses. Classroom sessions cover variety of topics such as planning, marketing and running courses, teaching skills and theory, legal requirements and risk management. Water sessions are used to complete performance requirements and skill demonstrations. As a part of their IC, candidates teach trial courses AIDA 2 and 3 under supervision of their Instructor Trainer. One month prior to their IC applicants receive studying materials as well as a topic of their own research which they will present during the IC as one of the practical exams.