DAY1 @ Jamboree Gili Air 2016

Oli Christen, the founder of Freedive Flow, believes that it is time to put Gili Air on the map as a world class freediving destination. Why should these great training facilities be kept a secret?

William Trubridge first met Oli six years ago in Switzerland. Now, after an intensely busy competitive season, Will went on a break, visiting New Zealand, and Japan. En route to the Philippines, he sent Oli an email along the lines of: “Hey Oli, I’m in the hood on my way to the Philippines. Still wanna do something?”. Cue the Freedive Jamboree Gili Air 2016. The four day event focuses on yoga, pool training sessions, open water sessions and evening talks presented by William Trubridge and hosted by Freedive Flow, the best freediving resort on Gili Air.

The first day started with a sunrise yin yoga session with a Pranayama focus, beneficial to freedive training. Yoga enables participants to warm up their muscles and get their minds in the right place for the open water session.

William gave a run-down on the focus of the open water session: warm ups, then a shallow depth focus on free immersion (FIM) and constant weight no fins (CNF) technique. The participants included Stanley Sradaputta, Indonesia’s depth record holder and represented all levels of experience: from beginner level to Stanley’s senior status in the sport. In this sport, there’s always something new to learn, a technique to perfect, so one’s level is pretty irrelevant.

The surface of the ocean was a mirror as we headed out on the boat this morning. Flat seas and good visibility always guarantees smiles and set the tone for a great dive session.

The buoy set up was intimate and practical with a maximum of three divers per buoy. It was great to learn a new warm-up position that allows you can keep your body relaxed and get a really good in- water static experience.

Some divers focused on their FIM technique, others on CNF. Will spent quality time with everyone individually, observing and giving constructive feedback on technique. It’s quite surreal coming up from a no fins dive and “OK-ing” the world record holder.

Most freediving courses don’t place much emphasis on no fins technique, so it was great to learn about the right rhythm, recovery, glide phase and the duck dive, which is completely different to a duck dive with fins! In keeping with Freedive Flow’s professional service, everyone’s dives were filmed for later analysis on a big screen TV.