DIVE HAPPY

Blue Planet Divers on Koh Lanta, one of Thailand's best islands for great scuba diving, will be offering freediving lessons from the beginning of the new dive season in October

That's free diving as in diving without scuba gear The Big Blue style, not getting scuba lessons for free! Freediving (also known as apnea) has been getting an increasing profile in the last few years with the world records set by the likes of Umberto Pelizzari and Tanya Streeter.

If you want to try freediving, there are beginners courses already been offered in the UK (see Free Diving - A Beginners Guide) - but it's probably a lot more fun to try out in sunny Thailand.

Blue Planet Divers on Koh Lanta, Thailand will be offering free diving courses from October. Here's what they say: "Blue Planet will offer Freediving (apnea) courses from the International organization AIDA recognized in over 40 countries. Blue Planet is the only dive center that will offer this type of diving activity in Thailand. Francois Gautier, Instructor trainer for the past 7 years and main organizer for all AIDA competitions, joins the team to teach all courses - from beginners to Instructor training. A great pleasure for us all !"

There's a full page of information about free diving and the free diving courses offered by Blue Planet Divers on their website.

I've scuba dived a couple of times with Blue Planet Divers and always enjoyed being on their boat - it was while diving with them that I had my near mystical experience seeing 5 manta rays and a whale shark in one dive - detailed in my piece about Scuba Diving on Koh Lanta. I'll be interested to hear how their freediving venture progresses.