Short answer is no. But we also don't typically 'fail' students. Though we are both AIDA Instructors and can certify up to the AIDA 4 Assistant Instructor level, AIDA course levels are skills-based rather than simply participation-based. We are very clear upfront that our courses are to teach you skills and not to give you a certification. None of our courses guarantee an AIDA certification as performance requirements need to be met in order to obtain a given certification level, and this depends on how quickly each person learns and demonstrates the various skills that are taught. That being said, it is not unreasonable for someone to pass all of the AIDA requirements over a 2 or 3 day course in Ireland or during our week long courses and coaching packages in Egypt. However in many cases, further training sessions are typically required to complete all AIDA standard requirements for your level. Extra sessions will be at the expense of the student, and this cost varies depending on location. Once requirements for the course level you have signed up for are met, we will of course issue the appropriate certificate. Even if you do not "pass" all the specific requirements for your level of desired certification, under the AIDA system, we can log the skills you have completed, and continue to tick off course requirements for 12 months. On all of our courses, our main focus is to support you at the level you are at, and we try to not hyper-focus on passing requirements. This is because each student/freediver has different needs and abilities, and we find that you will be more successful by taking the pressure and stress away from just wanting to "pass requirements." In fact, we generally find that you are more likely to pass AIDA requirements if you stop fixating on "passing requirements!"

Short answer is yes, but you don't need to be mega fit. A basic level of strength and fitness is required, this is a sport after-all. You'll be required to carry all of your own equipment to and from the water and it is expected that you can swim at least 300m in your gear without needing to stop for a break.

Ireland In Ireland, personal equipment is now fully included during our courses - with the condition that you confirm your sizes with us a minimum of 1 month prior to the course start date. We may be able to provide something for you if you book later than this but it is not guaranteed. We only have standard sizing suits and fins and will do our best to get as good a fit for you as possible with our gear. You may find a tailor made wetsuit is a good option for you, if you don't usually fit 'off-the-shelf' sizes. Basic freediving kit consists of; Mask, Snorkel, Fins, Wetsuit, Weights & Weight belt. You are, of course, welcome to bring any or all of your own personal equipment. Our professional recommendation for the the type of wetsuit for freediving or spearfishing in Ireland is a 7mm 2 piece freediving or spearo suit. Egypt Our courses in Egypt do not include equipment rental. This is to keep overall costs down for those that already have their own gear. We can help with suggestions on what and where to rent, and we may occasionally be able to offer kit rental ourselves. For Egypt, we recommend 5mm thickness from Jan-April, and 3mm from Sept-Dec. We will strive to provide you with weights on any of our Egypt or other offerings abroad. ___ Don't hesitate to message us with any questions you might have about equipment.

All of our bookings are arranged in advance online. Availability for Irish dates is shown under each course. If you want to first confirm that your dates are available for any of our Egypt offerings, send us a message. We can only guarantee availability on the day we respond to your query, if you wait days or weeks before confirming your booking with us, that place might unfortunately be gone. Your booking is only confirmed in our system when payment is made. Typically the full balance is taken on booking. We can also take deposits for courses, and have them paid off over time, however they must be paid up in full at latest 1 month in advance of your start date. If the course or coaching package you want to book is not listed, send us a message. Booking can either be completed through our automated online system or we can issue you an invoice directly.

We have limited spaces on our courses to ensure we can maintain a quality level of instruction, we fill these spots in advance and it is very rare that we can fill cancelled spots last minute. So by not attending the course you are booked on to there will be an empty space on that course. On average we get around 1 cancellation for each course that we run, many of them last minute, and reasons range from serious illness to bereavement and as much as we sympathize, we hope you can see how this could cost us dearly if we refunded all cancellations. However, we may be able to offer you a spot on a future course, as a last minute offering. We won't be able to pre-book it, as this would take away another paid spot from our course schedule. When we have a vacant space on a course we will notify all students on our cancellations waiting list and the first to book it, gets it. We could give anything from a few days to 24 hours notice of this vacant spot. Terms in detail; Cancel more than 1 month out - Full refund or move dates. 1 month to 2 weeks - 50% refund, we may be able to offer a last minute space on a future course. Less than 2 weeks - No refund, last minute future course offering at our discretion. Less than 48 hours to your course - We class this as a 'no-show'; No refund, no space on future course. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our business, and the small groups we take, we can't have any exceptions to this cancellation policy.

When it comes to freediving courses, coaching or training, It can be very difficult to compare things based solely on price or discern what you are getting for your money, because of this we don't price match. Our prices are very reasonable for the level that we teach at and we guarantee you will appreciate the value of this after your time with us, particularly if you have previous experience of training elsewhere. We have a wealth of experience to share and we pride ourselves at being amongst the best in the business. However, all that being said, if a discount is what you're looking for, we often run promotions for early season bookings so keep an eye on our website and social media!

Scuba diving is a great transferable skill to have when joining a freediving course, in terms of comfort with equipment and time in open water. However, equalization that works on scuba does not always work while freediving. The tanks and the time on scuba are very forgiving when it comes to equalizing your ears, whereas while we are freediving it needs to be fast and efficient or we can easily cause damage to our ears. Check out our Free Online Frenzel Check, which should show you if you are doing the correct equalisation method for freediving. If you're not, or your not sure, you can book a call with us to teach you how to equalise online, before you start your freediving course and save yourself the frustration of spending hours or even days struggling to get down to depth.

It depends, a wetsuit that keeps you warm surfing or kayaking might not cut it freediving in the fresh waters of the Atlantic. We always recommend a 7mm two piece freediving wetsuit, but you may get away with a scuba or other kind of wetsuit if you are particularly acclimated to the cold water. If you are not sure if what you have will suit, drop us a message. If you choose to not heed our recommendations and find that you are freezing on the course in your own kit, there is very little we can do for you other than perhaps offer you a cup of hot tea unfortunately.

It depends what time of year that you're reading this, but typically we will release more dates early in the year for our Irish spring/summer courses. If you would like to enquire about a private course booking, where we come to you, feel free to drop us a message. We have done this for families, groups of friends and corporate customers in the past.

Personal equipment is now fully included during our courses - with the condition that you confirm your sizes with us a minimum of 1 month prior to the course start date. We may be able to provide something for you if you book later than this but it is not guaranteed. We only have standard sizing suits and fins and will do our best to get as good a fit for you as possible with our gear. You may find a tailor made wetsuit is a good option for you, if you don't usually fit 'off-the-shelf' sizes. Basic freediving kit consists of; Mask, Snorkel, Fins, Wetsuit, Weights & Weight belt. You are, of course, welcome to bring any or all of your own personal equipment. Our professional recommendation for the the type of wetsuit for freediving or spearfishing in Ireland is a 7mm 2 piece freediving or spearo suit. Don't hesitate to message us with any questions you might have about equipment.

Freediving forms a foundation for spearfishing, so we like to ensure all of our spearfishing students are comfortable with equalization and moving around in the water with all of the equipment before we hand them over a speargun. Because of this, we require spearfishing course participants to have joined one of our intro courses, or at least be able to demonstrate an equivalent level of proficiency as one of our intro course graduates. This way you can all learn to spearfish together on the same level in a safe and fun way.

We offer courses all up and down the country. One of our favoured inland dive sites is Portroe Quarry in Tipperary, but we have many teaching spots along Ireland's incredible Atlantic coast. Check out our Ireland offerings for the most up to date locations on offer. Don't see a location that suits? Ask us about our private bookings, where we come to you!

Depending on the season and the location, we will have anything from 8-18°C on the surface. So if you're thinking about wetsuits, we recommend 7mm 2 piece freediving wetsuits year round. You might get away with 5mm if you are particularly well adapted to the cold.

Our coaching packages or courses in Egypt do not include equipment rental. This is to keep overall costs down for those that already have their own gear. We can help with suggestions on what and where to rent, and we may occasionally be able to offer kit rental ourselves. For Egypt, we recommend 5mm thickness from Jan-April, and 3mm from Sept-Dec. We will strive to provide you with weights on any of our Egypt or other offerings abroad. Don't hesitate to message us with any questions you might have about equipment.

Short answer here is no! On the rare occasions that students have arranged this and actually showed up, they were tired, congested and the session often ends up being a waste of time. The fatigue can also have a knock on effect for the rest of your weeks training. So better to focus on good rest, nutrition and hydration on that first day, and we'll schedule your first water session the following morning. If your schedule is very tight, it may be still possible to join for some theory/dry session in the afternoon on that first day.

This depends on your country of origin and the duration of your stay. If you are travelling on an Irish Passport, the current (Dec 2023) rules, allow you to receive a free 14 day visa stamp on arrival in Sharm-El-Sheikh, this permits you only access to the tourist areas in South Sinai and does not allow travel to Cairo. For trips up to 30 days you can purchase a visa sticker at the airport for ~€25. This visa can be extended during your stay for up to 6 months if needed, cost is approx €100. Advance 90 day visa options and eVisas are also available for some nationalities.

While our schedule is more relaxed than the typical 'intensive style' 2/3/4 day courses, we have planned out our coaching and courses in a way that it should be the only activity of your trip. Of course, you can run or swim or go to the gym as usual, but just because you might have a few hours in the afternoon free or a rest day with no freediving planned, doesn't mean that you should also plan a climbing, hiking, kite/wind surfing course while you are here. Rest days are for resting and your freediving will suffer if you try to do everything. If you have a busy workload or if you want to also mix in other activities with your trip, why not check out our part-time coaching packages, that are better suited to cater for this.

Dahab is a small town in South Sinai, approx. 1 hour drive from Sharm-El-Sheikh. Turkish airlines is a popular airline to travel here with, but depending on your requirements, you may be able to find a deal with a budget airline. Flights arrive all through the night and day here and taxis to Dahab can be pre-arranged for 30-40€. A cheap flight to Cairo can be connected with an internal flight to Sharm. Travelling to Dahab by bus from Cairo is totally safe but not usually recommended as it can take anything from 6 to 16 hours.

Each day we will typically use a local business to base ourselves from as we go to the water to dive, we usually have breakfast or lunch here to refuel after our dives, a typical meal is usually less than €5. Days that we dive at the Blue Hole or any other dive site that is within a National Park, there is a daily entry fee payable by each person. This varies but is approx. €10 at present.