Rafael Nolasco
Rafael Nolasco was born in Brazil, and he is a British citizen. He studied law in Brazil, and shortly after graduating with honors, he chose to travel and acquire different languages to broaden his horizons. As a result, he left his homeland to pursue his European origins in Barcelona, Spain. He studied a postgraduate and an Executive MBA degree while residing in Spain, both of which he completed with distinctions. After a busy life in Dublin, Rafael took a work sabbatical to travel across New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia. When he was in Koh Samui, Thailand, he tried scuba diving, but it did not work because of his open water fear.
After his career break trip and back to the UK, he decided to get into spearfishing with some friends. He says he was scared of passing 7 meters, so his friend said he should take a freediving course. Therefore, at the end of 2016, he did a beginning freediving course and fell in love with it. There was no doubt that he would continue developing his freediving journey. Back in 2018, he finished his AIDA Instructor course. Having an already busy life, why teach freediving? He explains that he felt disappointed about himself having problems gaining confidence in open water and holding his breath when he first started. As an instructor, he mentions that he can help people overcome their fears of holding their breath by sharing his experience with his students 'If I could, you can'. In addition, Rafa is so passionate about freediving that in 2019 he decided to create a new Freediving club in Bristol-UK and asked a couple of friends if they were interested, so it was when Limitless Freedivers started.
In 2018, he started doing finswimming with a local club in Bristol and realized he was good with monofins. Some of his freediving friends said he was good at it, so he should compete in finswimming and freediving. Still, in 2018 he started competing in finswimming and won a few competitions in his category in the UK. In 2019, two months and a half from the UK National Freediving competition, he decided to participate. In short hard training and coaching time; he became a Brazilian National record holder for DYN, second place, and Best Newbie of the UK National Freediving competition. 2020 he broke another Brazilian national record, and this time was for DNF.
Rafa says his focus for the next few years is to explore more depth disciplines alongside the pool ones. However, he likes to keep himself busy, as noticeable, he is full-time employed as a Senior Project Consultant and currently doing a master's in the University of Oxford.
Achievements:
Freediving Safety Director of Welcome to Earth Series
Fastest Finswimmer in 2018 V1 Category - UK
3x Times UK Champion V1 Category- (Apnea 25m and 50m) UK
Brazilian Frediver National Record holder: 177m
Brazilian Freediver Former National Record Holder: 131m
Best Newbie Bristol Blue 2019
AIDA Freediving Instructor
Freediving Coach