Assistant Freediver Instructor
Advance your professional Freediving career!
This certification course is for individuals wishing to learn the fundamentals of teaching, assisting and supervising breath-hold divers during training and recreational freedives. This course will cover topics such as the history and philosophy of PFI, the physics and physiology of freediving, educational theory, and presentation structure.
Is this course for you?
- Do you want to advance your professional freediving career?
- Do you want to work towards becoming a freediver instructor?
- Do you want to be more involved in helping conduct freediver courses?
Format/Duration
This course is taught by highly trained PFI Instructor Trainers at locations all over the world. The PFI Assistant Freediver Instructor course includes, at a minimum:
- Classroom sessions
- Confined Water Sessions
- Open Water Sessions
Skills
Some of the skills a student will be able to perform at the end of the PFI Safety Freediver course are:
- Site Briefings
- Site Set-up & Breakdown
- Open Water Constant Weight Dive Evaluation
- Problem Management & Rescue Scenarios
- Command and Control of Students
Prerequisites
- Minimum age of 18 years
- Be certified as a PFI Intermediate Freediver
- Be certified as a PFI Freediver Supervisor
- Be in good medical & physical condition and have signed medical clearance for freediving from a physician.
- Be an active status CPR, first aid and AED instructor with a program that includes marine life injuries and neurological assessments.
- Be an oxygen administration instructor.
Course Components
Classroom
- Introduction
- PFI Standards and Procedures.
- Pre-Course Assessments.
- Academic Overview
- Supervising and Control of Freedivers
- Fundamentals of Educational Systems and Instruction
- Course Scheduling and Marketing
- Academic Teaching Presentations
Watermanship and Stamina
- 800 meter snorkel in under 16 minutes
- 400 meter non-stop swim in under 10 minutes. Goggles permitted
- Tread water for 15 minutes without floatation assistance.
- Horizontal underwater swim (dynamic) with equipment for 50-Meters
- Complete a static of no less than 2 minutes without warm-up and 4-minute breathe-up
- 100m egress with non-stop BLS
Confined Water
- Emergency Ascents & Problem Management:
- a. Surface LMC Control
b. Surface BO Control
c. Unconscious BO diver at the surface with rollover
d. Underwater BO during ascent- conscious going unconscious
e. Locate and ascend with a blacked-out diver from the bottom
f. Perform in-water artificial resuscitation while doing a rescue tow
- a. Surface LMC Control
- Command and Control of Students
a. Demonstrate command and control/position of students with and
without assistants.
b. Demonstrate command and control/position of students as an
assistant. - Skill Circuit / Teaching Presentation
Complete the following skill circuit and demonstrate ability to
teach:- Stress Test/Teamwork
- Mask Skills (partial mask flood and clear, full mask flood and
clear) - Snorkel Clear- Blast and Displacement Methods
- Finning Techniques
- Surface Entries
- Surface Recovery
- Weight belt removal/replacement
- Static Procedures (as safety and performer)
- Dynamic Procedures (as safety and performer)
- Proper Breathe-up
Open Water
- Site Briefings
- Site Set-Up & Breakdown
- Open Water Constant Weight Dive Evaluation
- Problem Management & Rescue Scenarios
- Command and Control of Students
- Skill Evaluation
- Open Water Teaching Presentations
Equipment Used:
- Mask
- Fins
- Snorkel
- Exposure protection
- Weight belt and weights (appropriate for local environment)
- A timing device and freedive computer
- Any recommended equipment relevant to the level of
instruction.
How to take this course!
- Find your local PFI Dive Center: Click here!
- Find your local PFI Instructor: Click here!
