Contact Charles by email at: charlesbeddoe@hotmail.com

Charles was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta surrounded by a wonderful landscape for activity. Though most would choose to reach the top of the Rocky Mountains, Charles decided to go underwater.

It was a family vacation at the tender age of 7 years old that began the spark that would ignite a fire for the life aquatic.

Once out of school Charles began working in a local dive shop. His love affair with diving would soon turn into an obsession. Logging an average of 130 dives per year, Charles quickly became familiar with all of the local dive spots. When he wasn’t working at the dive shop or out diving, he was in a pool swimming. It was during these pool session Charles discovered breath-holding and soon turned his sights to freediving. Shortly after completing the PFI course he decided to take on the competitive side of freediving.  Within a year he was diving to a depth of 70m and able to do a +6 minute breath-hold and in 2008, was the Men’s National Freediving Champion.

Continuing to train and compete, Charles enrolled in one of the first PFI Basic Instructor course in 2009.  

With his passion for teaching and love for freediving he currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, targeting other niche communities such as yoga, swimming, and music to introduce the benefits of freediving too.

Upcoming Course dates in Calgary, AB Canada

• Feb 23rd-28th
• March 16-April 3

Email Charles at charlesbeddoe@hotmail.com to register or for more information.

Birthdate: November 16, 1982
Resides: Wilmington, NC USA
Employment: Land Management Group, Inc. - Environmental Scientist

Click here to view upcoming Basic Freediver courses offered by Ashley. You will be redirected to Evolve Freediving’s website.

Growing up in a small town in North Carolina about an hour from the beach and having been born to a mother who is deathly afraid of sharks, Ashley’s prospects at becoming the next Jacqueline Custeau seemed slim.  She was taught to swim at a very early age, as both her parents are excellent swimmers, and began “exploring her potential” by swimming underwater as far as she could without coming up for air.  The freediving seed had been planted unknowingly only to emerge from the soil years later. 

It wasn’t until her senior year in college that she decided to take matters into her own hands and enroll in a SCUBA diving course.  As Ultimate Frisbee was the only thing that really mattered in life at that time, she declined the check out dive trip to Ginnie Springs in Florida in order to compete in a Frisbee tournament.  One year later she met her partner, Ren Chapman, and discovered that his father was the SCUBA instructor from her college class.  Now that Ashley had a vested interest in the family she found herself back in the pool ready to finish her certification.

One ocean dive later Ren mentioned a fascinating new sport called freediving.  Ashley had seen a couple of friends swimming to depths she never considered possible before.  She admitted that it was alluring but doubted her own physical abilities.    

A couple of months later she found herself in the Cayman Islands with Performance Freediving International (PFI).  She was immediately star struck by the opportunity to learn from the freedive community’s foremost members.  Intimidated as she possible could be she decided to let go of her insecurities and test her abilities, which isn’t very hard when you have absolutely no expectations.

Four days and one static apnea blackout later Ashley found herself on the PFI  freediving rig system moving from the “shorter” dive line to the “longest” one in order to swim to her maximum depth yet.  She surfaced from the dive a freediver.  “Everyone uses the cliché ‘You can do anything if you put your mind to it,’ I realized that this was true for the first time in my life when I surfaced from that dive.”

After this accomplishment she has gone on to become a member of the 2008 US Women’s Freediving Team, where they achieved the silver medal in Egypt.  She has also gone on to further her education with PFI by becoming a Safety Diver, Assistant Instructor and now Basic Instructor.

With her new sense of accomplishment and confidence Ashley’s goals have been redirected.  She is now working on running her own Basic Freediving courses in Wilmington, NC with her partner and teaching Intermediate Courses with the PFI team.  Ashley will continue her education with PFI.  She is currently working as an environmental consultant when not in the water, and is always looking for a 30’-40’ sailboat in hopes of one day circumnavigating the globe.

Click here to view upcoming Basic Freediver courses offered by Ashley. You will be redirected to Evolve Freediving’s website.

Robert squeezed into a used $30 7mm scuba suit to take his first PFI intercourse in Monterey in 2002.  He then kept coming back to hang out with PFI, so much so that they forced him to take the advanced course in 2006.  He kept hanging out with PFI and eventually took the instructor course.  He has taught PFI courses in California and Hawaii.

Robert genuinely enjoys teaching and sharing his knowledge, whether it be about freediving something else.  He is a certified personal trainer with the American College of Sports Medicine and has published an article in the Journal of Applied Physiology, http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/5/1914.

Robert has worked as CEO of Fly Online (acquired by Travelzoo) and VP of Intellevate (a professional services company acquired by CPA Global) but mostly tries to avoid all responsibility.  He received his JD/MBA (law and business) from UC Berkeley and his BS/BA (biochemistry and philosophy) from Yale University.  He has lived in France, India, Singapore, Egypt, Korea, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Washington and California.

You can contact Robert Lee via email at: robert.lee@mba.berkeley.edu

Sheri then became interested in Freedive Spearfishing and took several courses from PFI, attaining over a 4 minute static breathhold, enabling her to spearfish in 100 feet of water. She went on to compete and won the Women’s Freedive Spearfishing National Championship title in 2006, along with a few other tournaments and titles. Sheri has speared over a dozen world record fish, and her catches include a yellowfin tuna at 179-pounds and the African Pompano at 44-pounds (also breaking the men’s record).

Having hunted in many different areas, Sheri is proficient with a variety of techniques. She has extensive experience in bluewater hunting in the open ocean, reef and wreck hunting in the strong currents of Florida, deep diving for elusive fish in Hawaii, rig diving in the muddy waters off Louisiana, kelp diving in California, and slinging and polespearing in the Bahamas.

Sheri is the host of the popular TV show “Speargun Hunter” on Outdoor Channel, now in its fourth season, which showcases different types of spearfishing in a variety of locations. She also organizes and hosts “The Blue Wild Spearfishing Expo” in Florida — an annual event with proceeds to charity.

Sheri is a corporate manager with a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA. She hold several patents and is a co-inventor of the Freediver Recovery Vest, currently under development. She actively promotes “Dive Flag Awareness” and “Freediver Blackout Education”. Sheri spearheaded the effort of developing a “Safe Spearfishing Protocol” — with the help of Kirk Krack and Daryl Wong.

Sheri has been profiled in Jeep Magazine, Greek Deep Magazine, a Russian Spearfishing Magazine, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, South Florida Adventures, Hawaii Skin Diver, Spearfishing Magazine (Spearo of the Year in 2005), Apnea Magazine, and on NBC News. She serves as a member on the Board of the two world-record keeping organizations, IUSA and IBSRC, and she is on the Advisory Board for Oceanic Safety Systems and DiveWise.

With spearfishing, her goal is to encourage more people to enjoy the beauty of the sport, specially women and juniors. She has wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity to teach spearfishing classes with an emphasis on safety and selectivity.

Click here to view upcoming Basic Freediver courses offered by Ren. You will be redirected to Evolve Freediving’s website.

Ren was born and raised in Wilmington, NC, a quant, seaside community rich in history and natural resources. From day one he was immersed in coastal living and was fortunate enough to have been raised with his toes in the marsh and estuaries of the area. Ren’s father, humanitarian, biologist and teacher, has been the Scuba instructor as well as the director of water safety for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington since the mid 70s and always had Ren around the ocean. Ren began scuba diving at the age of 6 years and after a short period of inactivity during his college years he got back in the water and has never come out.

Ren attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he received an athletic scholarship to play baseball. In the summer of 1997 he spent all summer between thunderstorms obtaining his private single engine pilots license. He graduated with a degree in communication studies and a minor in recreation and in 2001 started Complete Playgrounds, Incorporated.

“I have always loved being in the wild whether in the back woods, deep in the marshes, above the clouds flying or immersed in the ocean, you just can’t beat the feeling of being untouchable and free.”

He began freedive spearfishing in June of 2006 and took the Performance Freediving intermediate course in October 2006 in Miami. Unable to do the ocean portion of the course due to weather, he traveled to the Cayman Islands where his love for the sport as well as the sense of accomplishment grew. In the past year, he has made somewhat of a name for himself in the spearfishing community as a videographer and underground producer of spearfishing videos with his Searen Productions.  Since Ren’s introductions into the sport, he has refined his skills through the PFI professional courses and experiences such as the 2008 Team World Championships in Egypt where he assisted and cheered on his partner Ashley Futral.

“Freedive instruction has to be the most rewarding thing that I have ever done. When folks come into these courses and completely blow the doors off of their expectations, it is just amazing to see their excitement and it makes me feel like a million bucks because I helped get them there.  Not only that, the skills which they have learned could very well save their life or the life of other’s. That’s what it’s all about.”

Click here to view upcoming Basic Freediver courses offered by Ren. You will be redirected to Evolve Freediving’s website.

 “Freediving for me means going back to my roots, to where humans and all earthly creatures originated. It is also a form of meditation, a form of empowerment over my body and my self.”

 Julie always has been a natural in the water. She used to spend her summers in lakes and rivers swimming, windsurfing, canoing and later, started scubadiving in Quebec where she was born. When she came to Hawaii, she got certified as a Divemaster and later was introduced to freediving.

When Julie attended her first PFI clinic, she not only discovered a passion but also a talent. The Canadian freediving team invited her to the world championship in Egypt in September 2008 where she started showing her colors. At her second competition, she was already setting a new North American record in the static breath hold discipline.

 In addition to being a full time student and being a yoga instructor, Julie has been a certified freediving instructor since summer 2009 and have conceived and built a rig to allow people reach depth in the ocean. She also started her own company named yogafree, where she offers downloads of her yoga videos and where students can register for her freediving classes. You can visit her at yogafree.ca.

 “I am fascinated by how much the human body can adapt to such extremes”.

 “Teaching freediving is a way for me to share the love I have for the ocean, a way to show people its incredible beauty and a mean to help preserve it through awareness.”

Julie is offering the following Basic Freediver course dates in Honolulu, HI: January 23-24 and March 27-28, 2010.  Visit yogafree.ca for more details, to contact Julie and to register for a Basic Freediver course.

Hawkeye grew up in Vermont, and during the summers, lived on a sailboat (on Lake Champlain) with his family:  sailing, swimming, and fishing.  But it wasn’t until 2003 that Hawkeye discovered freediving in earnest, during a trip to Bonaire.  The connection was immediate and strong.

In the following years, Hawkeye developed his freediving skills, diving regularly with his partner and girlfriend Amanda.  He read everything he could find on freediving, and took basic freediving classes with Carlos Eyles and David Laird.  Then, in early in 2009, Hawkeye took PFI’s Intermediate Freediving class.  The experience was transformative for him:  he took the PFI instructor training course a few months later and started assistant teaching shortly thereafter.

Simply put, Hawkeye loves freediving: the basic pleasure of swimming, moving, and flying underwater; understanding and training the physical and mental sides of the sport; the relaxation and quiet of a good breath-hold; diving with marine animals and exploring underwater ecology; just hanging out and diving with the great people in our freediving community.  His love for diving translates naturally into a passion for helping others learn about freediving.

Hawkeye also works as a software engineer; he and Amanda live in San Francisco.  They get most of their ocean time in the cool kelp forests around Monterey, CA.

2010 Course dates with Hawkeye will be available soon!

Every year before our Cayman Competition we offer competitiors  and past PFI students a week of training in these bueatiful waters of Grand Cayman. 

During this week of training you will have the chance to do both ocean depth training as well as pool training.  During each training session PFI will provide safety supervisors/divers, ocean counter balance system, Safety Stop Oxygen System, boat for the ocean dives, a 25m pool for dynamic pool training, warm local pool for static training, surface and bottom video with video review after the dive and if wanted informal training assistance from Kirk Krack. 

The cost of training sessions is pay as you go.  Each session is payable as follows:

Disciplines at this years event include the following:

During the seven day competition competitors will be able to make attempts during 5 ocean days and 5 pool days.  They earn points as follows and the winner will be the diver with the overall highest point score in all disaplines.

Join renowned photographer Amos Nachoum along with two of the world’s best freediving instructors, Kirk Krack & Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, who is also a World Record holder. On this adventure we raise the bar on encounters with the Gentle Giants, the Humpback whales. Guests will learnhow to free dive more efficiently as well as better breath holding techniques from the best in the industry. Guests will also learn how to create better images of Big Animals with their new snorkeling/freediving skills. 

Location Details

The Kingdom of Tonga, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprises 169 islands, 36 of which are inhabited, and stretches over a distance of 500 miles in a north-south line.

World’s Leading Freediving Instructors

For the first time, this year, I have created a joint project with Kirk and Mandy Rae — who were featured in the movie The Cove and are the world’s leading free-diving instructors. In addition to my photography coaching, they are teaching a free-diving clinic to improve efficiency and develop better breathing — enabling all of us to have more intimate views of these gentle giants. All guests will have an opportunity to work with each instructor — two boats with six people per boat. This soft adventure is limited to twelve guests in order to create an up-close and personal experience for every participating diver.

Taking our cues from the great cetaceans themselves and from my accumulated knowledge of humpback
whale behavior, three guests at a time will slip quietly into the water to dive and photograph the whales.

This expedition will give us a rare, intimate look at the tender moments of nursing mothers and their calves.
Having arrived from antarctica, they give birth among the warm-water and protected reefs. It is a privilege to share their space and to photograph these giant gentle creatures.

Humpback Behavior

The sometimes-violent competing behavior of the mature humpback bulls is witnessed, along with breaching and tail slapping. It is impressive to see the juvenile whales practice breaching as they learn from the adult bulls. The adult bull, usually about forty feet long and forty tons, throws itself almost completely out of the water only to crash back down in a spectacular display of foam and spume to impress its female or scare away its competitors.

At such moments, when time seems to stand still and the modern world is very far away indeed, even the most experienced photographer can forget to point and shoot.

Rustic Blue Lagoon

We are staying on a far-removed island within the atoll of Vava’u, on the edge of a beautiful blue lagoon. Cozy in rustic over-the-water cabins built from driftwood and woven mats, we are hosted by an extraordinary character and colorful storyteller, Feletti, and his wife Mahata. This ‘Robinson Crusoe’ adventure is an unforgettable big animal encounter in a natural setting with all the ‘civilized’ amenities — hot water, towels, healthy hearty meals — and brilliant stars lighting up the night.

In addition, there is ample snorkeling, kayaking, and exploration around adjacent islands.

 The Vessels

There are two modern vessels, each 24-feet long, to accommodate the two separate diving teams. The vessels have easy, safe access to the water to make your entry as quiet as possible — with little disturbance to the environment of the whales.

Big Animals Expeditions’ intention is always to honor the animals and their need to live their lives with minimal interference.

Amos Nachoum

Professional photography will be done with Amos Nachoum, who was the BBC wildlife photographer of the year in 2007 and 2008.

He will be coaching individuals on wide-angle and ambient-light photography of big animals. 

Amos has twenty years experience diving with humpback whales in Tonga.

Amos’s explorations have been featured on National Geographic, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel. His exclusive travel company, Big Animals Expeditions is intimate diving with the same feel as a high-quality in-depth exploration found in documentaries.

Trip details at a Glance

• Where: Kingdom of Tonga
• Dates Sept 24 – Oct 6
• Duration 13 Days
• Cost $8,000 per person (Double Occupancy)
• Max No. of Guests 12 guests
• Availability Open
• Registration requires a Deposit of $2,700
• Facilities:Accomodation at blue lagoon
• Diving Services: Two 22’ modern whale-watching vessels
• Activities: Snorkeling / Kayaking / Beachcombing
• Temperature: In Water: 72-76°F; Air: 72-80° F Windy at times!
• U/W Visibility: 60 – 100 ft

To book your spot please contact Amos at: