Lily Crespy is a former molecular biologist turned freediving coach and instructor. She has represented France several times as an athlete in freediving competitions and is part-owner of the world famous Dahab Freedivers school. In this episode we discuss: Lily is from France. An accidental discovery of freediving, from pharmaceutical company to the ocean. Apnea Total on Koh Tao and a broken leg with a nice boy. Shout out to Julia Mouce at Apnea Bali. Shout out to JP from Freediving Planet...

Today we are joined by Croatian athlete Lidija Lijic.  Lidija is a 5 x world record holder, a World and European champion, a pilot, a climber, a mountaineer, an architect, a motivational speaker  and a Sea Shepherd ambassador.  The strength of the Croatian athletes in freediving is well known, Lidija is not an exception. We talked about her Jump Blue Days,  running up mountains with a snorkel in your mouth, an incredible project in the Himalayas with Vitomir Maricic, her love of sport...

Stig Severinsen has a degree in biology and a Ph.D. in medicine. He began experimenting with holding his breath as a child at the bottom of his parents’ pool. Stig has played underwater rugby at an elite level, he's been a freediving world record holder, he's broken a few Guinness world records, he was the first to break the 20m breath hold barrier on pure O2 among other feats of human endurance, and now he works on spreading the word about his system Breatheology, a set of tools and...

On today's show is Jennifer Wendland, Jennifer is a current World Record-holding freediver from Germany and unless anything has changed since we recorded this interview two months ago, currently holds all of the German national records, and has done for quite a long time! We talk about how she manages to balance training as a top-level athlete while working a regular human job, we compare athletes of other sports and talk about what challenges she faced over the years and how she overcame...

On today's show we are talking to Mr 10 minutes himself, Florian Dagoury.  Florian is  French freediver with more than 10 years experience in the sport and has reached in these last few years, the amazing performance of 10 minute in static apnea, his chosen discipline - a performance that very few in the world have achieved.  Florian is based in Thailand, from where he joins me today. We'll hear about his journey as a freediver, his work in Thailand with his school Blue Immersion and how...

Petar Klovar is a World Record breaking Croatian competitive freediver. In the 2022 CMAS World Championships he dived an incredible 92m in CNF (Constant Weight No Fins). In this episode we discuss: Is Croatia trying to take over the freediving world? Petar has gone from 70 to 90+ metres in 2 years of CNF!! He has a good background in swimming. Petar is from the coastal city of Rijeka in Croatia. Gym training for appearance and a spell in kickboxing. How has focusing on freediving affected...

On today's show we have a Freedive Cafe favourite returning to the show. Founder of Immersion Freediving and the Freedive Live Podcast, Ted Harty came back and we had a conversation sharing some of our experiences and advice regarding the instruction of freediving.  So this episode may offer up some helpful or insightful information for new or aspiring freediving instructors and my even hold a few gems for experienced instructors too. In this episode we discuss: Ted has moved to...

MT Solomons is a link to the early days of deep freediving before the modern competition era, along with her partner at the time Aharon Solomons they were there in the time of Pipin and Audrey, Umberto Pelizzari and Davide Carrera, a young Martin Stepanek was around, Kirk Crack, Tanya Streeter, a whole host of freediving royalty, a time when things were simpler in the world and also in freediving, when freediving was still very exploratory and deep diving logistics and training were being...

World Record Holder Vitomir Maričić returns to The Freedive Cafe to answer the legendary Training Talk questions! We also discuss his experiences with nitrogen narcosis and decompression illness. The Training Talk Questions are: What is your favourite freediving discipline and why?  Do you have a coach and who do you train with?  Do you periodise your training through the year?  What kind of dry training do you do? Do you have a dry EQ practice, if so, what kind of exercises? Describe your...

Originally aired on Thrivers Podcast exactly one year ago, in this fascinating interview we discuss James Nestor's latest book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. James Nestor originally appeared on episode #19 of The Freedive Café when we discussed his previous book Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and what the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves. In this episode we discuss: How did the Coronavirus situation affect the release and promotion of the book? Was James nervous to go on Joe...

Chris McKay was Chief of Safety at the 2021 AIDA World Championships in Cyprus and runs Freedive Tulum in Mexico. In this episode we discuss: How was Chris' whole experience of the AIDA WC 2021 in Cyprus? Did the issue with Taiwan flag negatively affect the athletes? Chris is from Queensland in Australia. A start in freediving through spearfishing. Enjoying depth but not competing. Comparing freediving to climbing. Chris came from a safety and rescue training background, working in...

Tom Peled is a breath coach and freediving coach from Tel Aviv, Israel. Join us for this fascinating conversation on the power of the breath, working with trauma, helping athletes to their peak performance and much more. In this episode we discuss: Shout out to Madison and Alice Modolo Tom is from Tel Aviv, Israel He joined the Navy when he was 18 and eventually became a scuba instructor. Discussing the diving conditions off the coast of Israel. Did Tom get involved in the competitive...

Julia Mouce, Freedive Cafe favourite returns for her fourth appearance! Julia is the owner of Apnea Bali freediving school on the island of Bali, Indonesia and one of the most highly regarded professional freediving coaches in the world. Today we focus on the art of instructing freediving, from the beginning level, to coaching athletes at the top of their game. In this episode we discuss: Discussing the AIDA World Championships in Cyprus. Advice for instructors: Don't talk too...

Fatima Korok is a World Champion freediver from Hungary. She first appeared on the show on Episode #110 and now returns to dig deep into her training methods with a special Training Talk episode. The Training Talk questions are: What is your favourite freediving discipline and why? Do you have a coach and who do you train with? Do you periodise your training through the year? What kind of dry training do you do? Do you have a dry EQ practice, if so, what kind of exercises? Can you...

On today’s show we have another amazing girl joining us, you know the girls are really the ones leading the way in terms of exciting freediving these days, and Alice Modolo of France is no exception.  This year at the famous Vertical Blue competition she achieved the first ever 100m dive for a french female athlete and topped that off with a CMAS world record in CWT bifins with a dive to 95m.  Alice has had a long and interesting journey in freediving, at one point giving up the sport for...

Gary McGrath is and English competitive freediver. His first appearance was episode #109. This is a Training Talk episode. The Training Talk questions are: What is your favourite freediving discipline and why?  Do you have a coach and who do you train with?  Do you periodise your training through the year?  What kind of dry training do you do? Do you have a dry EQ practice, if so, what kind of exercises? Describe your favourite pool training sessions, if you train in the pool. How do you...

Claire Paris is  a competitive freediver and professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Her research is dedicated to biological oceanography and ocean conservation and we'll go into that in detail in the show. If you wanted to know how pelagic fish begin their lives or what the difference is between phytoplankton and zoo plankton and how important they both are to the health of the planet, you'll find that...

Tom Ardavany first contributed to the Vertical Blue medical team in 2012 and has been part of the team many times since then. He has also been present as a medic at many other top-level freediving competitions including Blue Element in Dominica. Tom is an expert in the field, and brilliantly educates us on everything from lung squeeze and athlete monitoring protocols as well as the unforeseen and strange situations that have taken him by surprise over the years. In this episode we...

Louisa Collyns hails from London but eventually found her way into the underwater world through scuba diving, and then, as so often happens, she met some freedivers and nothing was ever the same again. She has been involved in teaching freediving and being a safety diver at major competions for the best part of a decade and is also the founder of Freedive Ibiza, which has been providing freediving education on the beautiful Spanish island since 2015. In this episode we discuss: Louisa...

Mirela Kardasevic is and has been World Champion, Vice-World Champion, 6 times World Record Holder, twice bronze medalist at the European Championship, and multiple Croatian national champion and record holder and some of that might have to be updated since the CMAS competition last week, but as you can see, it's quite the list of achievements for someone who came into the sport aged 30 and has only been at it for a few years. In this episode we discuss: It's the 4 year anniversary of The...

Nathan Vinski is an up and coming Canadian competitive freediver and freediving coach. Nathan's specialist skill is 'being a struggling freediver' and knowing how to apply a sports science-based approach to freediving, helping to turn freediver struggles into strengths. If you want to know how to train and compete for depth, or pool, in cold or warm locations, Nathan is a guy that can help you out because he's been through all the struggles and reached all the dead ends that we aspiring deep...

Fatima Korok is from Hungary. Fatima has been on a special journey through freediving, not just quickly rising to become the first Hungarian freediver to become a World Champion, but overcoming many personal challenges on the way.  In this episode we discuss: Fatima was in Dahab at the time of recording. How has her experience of the pandemic been? Getting Dominican Republic and Dominica mixed up in big way! Life in Dahab during 'lockdown' A trip to Croatia to visit Vitomir Maricic and...

On today's episode we are welcoming Gary McGrath from England into the Café. Gary is an up and coming name on the depth scene. We recorded this interview a few months ago when Gary was diving 109m but I see that he has since been diving, I think around 112m, so making amazing progress at the elite level now after a more than 15 years journey in freediving! In this episode we discuss: Donny first noticed Gary after he hit the 100m mark! Gary used to work at Freedive Gili! (Donny's...

Although Sheena McNally hails from a part of Canada over 1,000 km from the ocean, she has always loved being in the water. Growing up, she spent summers on the lake and winters in the pool, becoming certified in lifesaving, rescue, and swimming...

Daan Verhoeven is best know for his amazing photography of freedivers. He hails from the Netherlands and now lives in Cornwall, UK. He started freediving in 2005. Between 2006 and 2011 he set national records in 5 of the 6 freediving disciplines. He is...