In 2012, Big Blue Diving became the first scuba diving centre to embrace the emerging sport of apnea diving and we opened Big Blue Freediving. Ever since, we’ve been at the forefront of apnea diving on Koh Tao, relentlessly training individuals to become confident divers.
But wait – what is apnea diving? Apnea diving, also known as freediving, is simply diving while holding your breath. You don’t need any equipment – your lungs are your tanks! Apnea diving gives a person complete freedom underwater and allows them to experience the underwater world that scuba divers simply don’t get to experience. Without the noise of an underwater breathing apparatus, fish interact with apnea divers in ways that really make you feel like you’re a fish yourself.
For the best apnea diving on Koh Tao, you should always choose Big Blue Freediving. We’re located right on Sairee Beach, the largest and most popular beach on the island. We are the only SSI Freediving school on Koh Tao that has their own dedicated training pool where we can conduct confined skills. For beginner apnea divers, knowing they can practice in a comfortable and safe training environment can make all the difference when choosing a freediving school. Once our students are ready to move to their open water dives, they get to go out on our dedicated freediving boat so that they don’t have to keep to the same schedule as our scuba divers. That’s a huge bonus.
Another great reason to choose Big Blue Freediving is our extraordinary apnea diving instructor and Big Blue Freediving manager – Juan Pablo Diaz Noemi. A former nurse in his native country of Chile, JP has spent the last three years here on Koh Tao turning our humble freediving shop into one of the largest SSI Freediving shops in the world. He’s exceptionally patient, super knowledgeable, and an extraordinarily talented apnea diver. We’re pretty sure there’s no one he CAN’T teach to freedive!
Here’s a fun fact about Big Blue Diving that most people don’t actually know – our entire dive centre is named after a freediving movie! That’s right. Our entire existence was originally inspired by the classic movie, ‘Le Grande Bleu’, starring Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barr. The movie is about the friendship between two legendary freedivers – Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca – and their lives in competitive freediving. People with a really keen eye will also notice that one of our large boats is apply named Enzo, yet another nod to our favourite movie!
Are you interested in doing some apnea diving on Koh Tao? We offer all SSI Freediving courses and have fun diving options for freedivers happening every single day. Contact us today to get more information!
