About
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Top Freediving and Spearfishing education and training in Greater Vancouver area
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Freediving Courses are taught beyond the standard curriculum where students learn a lot more than in a standard course, especially when it comes to equalization, depth and increasing bottom time.
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Courses are taught by one of the most experienced and accomplished Freediving Instructors in BC, Marko Lubonic "Marko Spearo".
The primary objective of a freediving course is safety. Students will learn how to freedive safely and how to be safe freedive buddies aswell - Freediving is NEVER to be done alone!
Tied into safety is the efficient freediving technique. A solid freediving technique results in efficient freediving which in turn conserves energy and oxygen and thus allows for safe and more comfortable freediving while vastly improving the overall freediving performance and experience.
Freediving can be learned by anyone! Proper freediving education is however paramount to ensure that we are freediving safely, correctly and efficiently. When taught correctly, student's with no previous freediving experience can learn how to freedive as deep as 20m over several days of the course!
Marko teaches certified and non-certified freediving courses at various levels, from beginner to advanced.
About Instructor
Marko Spearo is one of Vancovuers' most experienced and accomplished freediver with over a decade of freediving experience in British Columbia. Marko is a Certified Freediving Instructor under AIDA Freediving Organization and also arguably the most experienced and advanced spearfisherman in Vancouver, BC.
Marko is excited to teach and share his underwater passions on a single breath of air with others, providing the utmost quality and in-depth freediving instruction and sustainable marine harvesting education (spearfishing) year round out of Vancouver, BC.
Marko's Stats and Achievements:
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Breaking Provincial Record in Depth (bifins discipline): 50.7 meters
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Breaking Provincial Record in Breathhold (Static discipline) : 6min 29 sec
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Un-offical National Record in Breathhold (Static discipline): 7min 20 sec
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Featured on the front cover of the Island Fisherman Magazine (2022 June edition)
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Founder and administrator of Canada's largest Freediving Facebook group: Freedive BC. This group is intended to serve as a platform to grow the sport and community of freediving and sustainable marine harvesting in coastal British Columbia.
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Freedive BC's founder Marko Lubonic "Marko Spearo" is a Certified Freediving Instructor who is ultra passionate about teaching freediving and spearfishing to highest level and attention to detail.
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Most recognized and experienced freediving instructors in BC as well as the most experienced and most advanced Spearfisherman and Spearfishing Instructor in Vancouver BC
Featured on front cover of the Island Fisherman Magazine, June 2022
1st place in static breath-hold, surpassing the current BC provincial breath-hold time, in a freediving competition held in Victoria, BC on April 2022.
Freediving is
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Deeply fulfilling, almost otherworldly, therapeutic, somewhat challenging and plenty rewarding
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Art and skill of holding breath while moving as efficiently as possible under water while maintaining relaxation
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Self-awareness; allowing us to deeply befriend our mind and body, becoming aware of our mental and physical states and limits.
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The most natural and free way of exploring the wonders of oceans on a single breath of air without the use of heavy air tanks and other bulky scuba gear.
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Allowing us to be part of the ocean and the surrounding marine life, and yes allowing us also to feel a bit of bad asses knowing we can explore the underwater world or spear a fish at some 30 - 80 feet down on a single breath of air!
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Sustainable and primal; the only source of fuel utilized is the oxygen in our lungs and energy produced by our own body.
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Very safe; when practiced correctly
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Multidisciplinary; There are 3 main types of freediving: Recreational Freediving, Line diving/Pool training & Spearfishing
Recreational Freediving in British Columbia
Recreational freediving involves exploring underwater landscape and marine life, reefs and ship wrecks. Recreational freediving in BC is a very unique and therapeutic experience. British Columbia's sea floor offers us with a very interesting underwater landscape, a rich biodiversity and abundant marine life comprised of impressive sea anemones, kelp forests, flamboyant nudibranchs, jelly fish, large and colorful sea stars, an array of reef fish to mention only a few.
Freediving in the kelp forests is what cold-water freediving dreams are made of - an underwater forest that harbors a biodiversity and abundance of marine life that made the famous ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau himself proclaim the kelp forest and reefs of Pacific Northwest as the second most abundant in marine life after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia! Plenty of playful seals and curious sealions make their home here. There are plenty of crabs, fish and shellfish that populate both intertidal sandy ocean bottoms and reefs, and if you are lucky enough and know where to look, you can spot the elusive giant pacific octopus, the largest octopus in the world.
Being able to hold your breath comfortably and freedive safely and efficiently while exploring this amazing underwater landscape is nothing short of a surreal experience. Being one with the sea and gliding though the water exploring a reef without any bulky scuba diving equipment and tanks is very liberating and a phenomenal feeling. It's a unique experience of meditative and therapeutic nature that no terrestrial activity can replicate.
Freediving is a gentle activity and perfectly safe when practiced correctly and anyone can learn it! Take a big breath of air and begin your own freediving journey...
Line Diving
Line diving, as the name suggests, is where a freediver descends and ascends along a line which, at one end, is attached to a freediving buoy on the surface and, at other end, attached to a weight that makes the line taut. Line diving is meant for a safe training of freediving techniques and relaxation while improving depth adaptation. With good technique, good relaxation, adaptation and slow progression to depth approach, freedivers can more comfortably reach deeper depths, cover longer distances under water and increase their breath hold times. Like any other sport and activity, practice makes perfect and freediving is no different.
Besides improving your PBs, all certified freedivers (who successfully finish a freediving course like AIDA 2) are highly encouraged to practice line diving and rescue maneuvers together with other certified freedivers. This will not only make you a better freediver but also a very safe one! Too many freedivers who take a freediving course and become certified stop practicing safety techniques! This needs to change and I therefore highly urge my students and other certified freedivers to keep practicing rescue and safety techniques even after they are certified! This will ensure that you and your dive buddies are very confident in safety skills so they become a second nature. This in turn also allows for a lot more comfortable freediving experience since both you and your dive buddy are confident in each others' safety and rescue skills. Safe divers are comfortable divers and comfortable divers make for comfortable dives and greater diving experience!
Spearfishing in British Columbia
Spearfishing is as old as humanity itself and one of the oldest ways of harvesting seafood. Spearfishing involves freediving to various depths on the reefs, pinnacles, ledges and flat sandy bottoms while hunting for marine life for the purpose of consumption. Spearfishing is the most ethical and sustainable way of seafood harvesting as it is the most selective form of hunting for food. A fish that is speared suffers much less to no trauma compared to traditional hook and line fishing. While spearfishing, we can see what it is we are hunting and therefore be able to select our target correctly; leaving the smaller, juvenile fish behind while only targeting mature and legal sized fish whereas in line and hook fishing this isn't possible. Not to mention, it is a challenge that is highly rewarding and full-filling. The idea of harvesting your own delicious and top quality seafood while holding breath, either via speargun or with bare hands is immensely satisfying. In BC we are lucky to have large and healthy wild populations of top quality seafood such as dungeness crabs, red-rock crabs, lingcods, rockfish, cabezon and greenling, seacucumbers and sea urchins. In addition, we have an abundance of shell fish such as mussels and oysters. In order to spearfish in British Columbia, a tidal water fishing license in mandatory. Additionally, one must be familiarized with BC Fishing Regulations that outline open seasons for various marine species, conservation areas closed to spearfishing such as RCAs (Rock Fish Conervation Areas) and also zones / announcements of Red Tide when it comes to shellfish harvesting. Please make sure you familiarize yourself with all the regulations before you venture out spearfishing or take a Spearfishing Course where you will learn all about how to Spearfish in BC, from techniques, gear and how to use a speargun, safety, how to read and research terrain and interpret bathymetric maps, understanding tides, currents and assessing conditions and, ofcourse, be able to identify target species and understand the regulations. Last, but not least as true Spearfishermen/women (Spearos) we stand fully behind ethical spearfishing and ocean conservation, therefore: Abide by the regulations and only take what you intend to eat and try to take only as much as you need, even if regulations allow for greater limits.
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Freedive BC Facebook group!
