My son, myself and a few friends just completed the PFI Intermediate course. Kirk Krack came down and we did the course at Glovers Reef.
I hadn't realized how dumb I was when it came to free diving. I mean, I'm a scuba instructor....I"m a badass....right? HAH !! heh heh.
And even though we did ok in the course, reaching 100 feet and doing 5 minute static breath hold, I came away feeling like a little kid just learning to walk. Or, just getting an open water scuba cert. You kind of know how to dive but there is so much to learn.
Kirk can fricken' DIVE. Unreal. There were between 4 and 6 divers in the water (two guys had to drop out) and Kirk did every one of our training dives with us. Don't give that guy a speargun.....he'll clean out your favorite deep holes. haha.
My son Jake was my partner and when we were doing the static breath holds on the second day I reached 5 minutes. Naturally Jake had to beat his old man and at about 4 min 30 sec, we could see him having spasms in his diaphragm. At 5 min he signaled OK and a 5 min 8 sec, he popped up, took two breaths and blacked out, just like in the training videos we saw. That, to me, made the whole course worth while. That was why I wanted to take it with my crazed, testosterone loaded 22 year old son. We saw first hand that it CAN and WILL happen.
I came up from my 5 min static and felt pretty woozy. I could hear Kirk saying, "breath....see how is lips are a bit blue?....now look,.....turning pink". Now knowing how to see it and handle it in the water....invaluable.
The course is directed at the pure performance free diving and as spear fisher people we probably will bend the rules a bit weight wise based on target fish etc, But I know I am a much better buddy now. My son and I are pushing into this as we go on and the course was a real eye opener. If you're serious about free diving, take the course. I've read this same statement from just about everyone that's taken it....but it's worth saying again. Thanks to Kirk and PFI.