This manual is a collaboration of information that I have gathered over the past 12 years.
It was at that time that I bought a sailboat and moved aboard with my girlfriend at the
time, now my beautiful wife Jeannette. Each winter when we set sail for the tropical
waters of the Bahamas and Caribbean it was my duty and passion to provide fish for us.
Not being a great fisherman with a rod and reel, and wanting to be more proactive in my
hunting I turned my focus to spearfishing while freediving. It was a passion that still
In 2006 while sailing through the Caribbean we anchored off Long Island, Bahamas and
serendipitously met William Trubridge. We witnessed William perform a world record
no-fins freedive at Dean's Blue Hole and my life has forever been changed.
Thinking about how that level of freediving could benefit my spearfishing as well as the
draw to push my own limits of depth had me motivated to learn as much as I could about
freediving. And so for the past six winters Jeannette and I have returned to Long Island,
Bahamas to freedive Dean's Blue Hole and spearfish the amazing reefs.
In 2009 I became a member of Team Vertical Blue, an elite freediving school founded by
William Trubridge. My position was as a safety diver for the annual Vertical Blue
freediving competition. Over the next four years I have spent months at a time training
with William and absorbing as much as I could about freediving. It was so much more
than just an education in depth freediving, it was a journey within myself of discovery
and pushing my limits. A discovery of efficiency in freediving as well as my mental
strengths and weaknesses. William has been my mentor in freediving and in his
The following season I became an assistant instructor for with Vertical Blue and was
asked to be the Chief of Safety for the Vertical Blue Competition as well as for William's
Although most of my training has been with William and is based from both his
education through the Apnea Academy and through his own experiences, I have also
studied freediving through many other sources. I have attended courses with PFI
(Performance Freediving International) instructors, been to seminars by Martin
Stepanek, and had the privilege to dive with some of the most elite freedivers from
burns strong within me.
complete enjoyment of the sea, in all of its beauty and power.
historic no-fins Hectometer dive to -101 meters.