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Freediving is still a young sport. The first records became official with the creation of CMAS (1959) in the early 60’s and competition rules appeared with the creation of AIDA in the 90’s. The sport is still developing in terms of the number of people practicing it and we can see some freediving dedicated equipment brands emerging and growing. These brands have begun to sponsor some athletes to a certain extent, but it is still pretty hard to find funding if you do not spend your time exposing yourself on social media and become your “own brand”. In other sports, you get a lot of followers because you are very good and that brings you exposure. In freediving, you need to create your own exposure.
This is definitely a timely and special investment and I chose another way to support my career as an athlete. Maybe also because it took me a long time to see myself as an athlete that could achieve great performances. I always saw myself more as an instructor and developed my teaching and coaching skills way more than my “social media” skills. To support me, I decided to have my own freediving shop. It started in 2015 with Freedive HQ in the Philippines, and I am now setting up another freediving shop, still in the Philippines, Camotes Freediving. This leads of course to some compromises with my athlete career. This year, as the shop is just opening, I will not be able to compete much. Probably a couple of competitions in the Philippines, if I can. I see this as an investment for the future as having your own freediving shop presents great advantages in terms of training.
You create your own setup and can train exactly the way you want. I am planning to have my own platform in Camotes Freediving. Of course, it will be amazing in terms of business to attract people who want to dive from a platform and be able to organize competitions. But it will be also great for my own training. I can even say it is my main motivation for the platform … training myself in the best possible conditions!
It took me a while in Freedive HQ before I was able to train a lot for myself but eventually happened. In this new project, I made sure I could train properly from the start.
Of course, you have a lot of things to think about when you are managing a dive shop and it was actually a great mental exercise in the first years. How to make “the switch” and be fully in my training sessions, leaving all the problems I had to fix in the shop, at the shop … and not bring them in the water with me. Not very easy when you are on your own boat, with all the students and you know that you need to prepare the bill for this student, that this other student wants a different accommodation and that you have to put the boat on dry in the next days for repair, salaries to pay in 3 days, emails that you did not have time to answer this morning and an inspection of the fire department in the afternoon! But at one point you learn to do “the switch”. As soon as you get in the water, you are here only for the session, fully focused on the session and enjoying your training time without a thought about what was before and what is coming after. Can you see the similarities with going on the line during a competition? You have to be right here, right now, and nothing else matters.
So while it takes a lot of time and energy, I feel like having your own freediving shop is very fulfilling and I would rather spend my time promoting it than promoting myself as an athlete (which makes me less uncomfortable too). I also see it as a more long-lasting way of making a living. Once my career as an athlete will be over, I will still have my shop. Finally, I love teaching and sharing my love of freediving and after two years of the pandemic with minimal teaching, I was missing it a lot. When I started teaching, I also started competing and it was sometimes frustrating in the very busy periods when I was teaching and would rather be training for myself. With time, I learned to balance it and not be frustrated anymore by being fully in the moment of what I am doing. When I teach, I fully dedicate myself to my students and their progress is rewarding enough. When I am training for myself, I am fully in the training and leaves all the rest outside of the water.