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The World’s Freediving Podcast
Welcome to The Freedive Café, a pure freediving podcast.
At The Freedive Café Donny sits down with freedivers great and small. He goes really deep with some of the deepest humans on Earth and discovers the personal stories, the inspirations, the techniques and training, the routines and passions of freedivers from all walks of life, from competitive athletes, instructors and trainers, underwater photographers, ocean conservationists and many more.
#44 – Georgina Miller
Georgina Miller has always been interested in the underwater world; she can't remember learning to swim! She started scuba diving in 1998 and was certified as a PADI MSDT Instructor in 2005. She took a Freedive course in 2007 and has been a member of the UK team since...
#43 – Stavros Kastrinakis
Stavros Kastrinakis was born in 1976 in Athens, Greece and started spearfishing with his father when he was 5 years old. He spent 7 years in the UK studying (BSc Astronomy and Physics, Masters in Petroleum Engineering), after which he returned to Greece in 2000. He...
#42 – Erika Schagatay – Science of Freediving
Erika Shagatay grew up in northern Sweden, far from the sea but eventually went to Lund University in southern Sweden to study biology, focusing on physiology and marine biology. She completed her PhD in 1996 on the human diving response. She started her own research...
#41 – Derek Broussard
Derek Broussard is currently working as an apnea specialist with Cirque Du Soleil. He grew up exploring the cold waters of Puget Sound. A second enlistment In the U.S. Army brought him to Hawaii, where he discovered the healing properties of freediving and the peace...
#40 – Amber Bourke
Amber Bourke began her breath-holding journey as a synchronised swimmer, eventually competing for Australia. She retired from the sport at age 19 and it wasn't until a couple of years later that she stumbled upon the sport of freediving while on a backpacking trip...
#39 – Mateusz Malina – Part Two
Mateusz Malina started diving in late 2008, but already knew that it would become his destiny seven years earlier after trying it in a pool with his friends. His achievements are too numerous to list them all, he has set multiple world records in dynamic with fins...
#38 – Mateusz Malina – Part One
Mateusz Malina started diving in late 2008, but already knew that it would become his destiny seven years earlier after trying it in a pool with his friends. His achievements are too numerous to list them all, he has set multiple world records in dynamic with fins...
#37 – Leigh & Bill Baker
It is my pleasure to bring Leigh and Bill Baker, Vertical Blue medics, into The Freedive Café today, to find out about them, to find out what their job entails at the comepetition. How do they deal with diver's health problems, and how are they prepared for the worst...
#36 – Adam Stern #2
Today's guest is none other than Mr Adam Stern, the very first returning guest to The Freedive Café. It was around 9 months ago I first interviewed Adam and if you would like to learn more about him and his discovery of freediving and his views on training and...
#35 – Alexey Molchanov
Alexey Molchanov took up freediving as a teenager, motivated by his legendary mother Natalia Molchanova, with whom he trained. He has risen to the very top of the competitive arena, and holds the world record in CWT with a huge dive to 129m. Many other World Records...
#34 – Carlos Coste
Carlos Coste is from Caracas, Venezuela and now lives on the island of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean. He started freediving in 1997, and has since achieved 12 world records. Most notably, Carlos was the first person to officially surpass 100m in CWT and FIM. An...
#33 – Kate Middleton
Kate Middleton is a Champion Freediver, Yoga Teacher-Trainer and co-founder of Gili Yoga and Freedive Gili. She has set 18 National Records for NZ, dives to over 97 meters in Constant Weight and is Vice-World Champion in Free Immersion. She is a student and...
#32 – Emma Farrell
Emma Farrell is the author of the beautiful book One Breath: A reflection on Freediving. She is a major contributor to the development of AIDA and other education systems as author of their education materials, and is dedicated to making freediving accessible to...
#31 – Gus Kreivenas – Part Two
Gus Kreivenas is a rising star in the freediving scene. He's originally from Lithuania and over the last decade has been developing himself into an elite freediver, focusing on awareness, sensitivity and focus to bring himself to this level in the safest and most...
#30 – Gus Kreivenas – Part One
Gus Kreivenas is a rising star in the freediving scene. He's originally from Lithuania and over the last decade has been developing himself into an elite freediver, focusing on awareness, sensitivity and focus to bring himself to this level in the safest and most...
#29 – Walid Boudhiaf
Walid Boudhiaf is a French-Tunisian freediver, currently living in Colombia and the Caribbean. He has achieved a depth of 116m in competition in FIM, and was ranked 2nd in the 2017 world ranking for that discipline. He also runs the Nirvana Oceanquest Freediving...
#28 – Julia Mouce
Julia Mouce is an instructor for SSI, AIDA, Apnea Total and PADI as well as an Instructor Trainer for Apnea Total and PADI, she is an accomplished competition freediver herself, holding records for Argentina in CWT and CNF. She is also the owner of a very well-known...
#27 – Homar Leuci
Homar Leuci is from Italy and began diving in France in 2001. After seeing the cult freediving movie The Big Blue, about freediving rivals Enzo Maiorca and Jacques Mayol, he dreamt of one day becoming one of the strongest freedivers in the world. Through his 15-year...
#26 – Anna von Boetticher
Anna von Boetticher started scuba diving when she was 17 and kept exploring that realm until she was a scuba instructor and deep technical diver, eventually diving to 130m on trimix. When she signed up for a freediving workshop in 2007 she was just looking for a...
#25 – George Georgas
George Georgas was born in Athens, Greece. He has a degree in Physical Education and Sports Sciences and has continued to study Kinesiology, Ergophysiology and Movement Biomechanics. George is also a fromer competitive freediving athlete and I came to hear of him in...
#24 – Ashley Futral Chapman – Supermom
Ashley Chapman is a native of North Carolina and wife of Ren Chapman (Episode 21). While Ren focuses more on the safety aspect of competitions, Ashley is a dedicated competitive freediving athlete. In her years of competition she's achieved 14 national records and 3...
#23 – Sayuri Kinoshita – Top of the World
Sayuri Kinoshita was born in 1988 in Japan. Her parents have been running a swimming school in Nagasaki since she was 3 years old, and she has a background in competitve swimming. She began freediving after seeing fellow Japanese freediver Hanako Hirose in a magazine....
#22 – Davide Carrera – Making Love to the Ocean
Davide Carrera was born in Turin in Italy and began freediving as a child during his summers spent in Leguria. He has was part of the World Championship winning teams of 1996 and 2001 and a established FIM world record shortly after when he dove to 91m. He moved away...
#21 – Ren Chapman – Chief of Safety
www.evolvefreediving.com (910)358-4300 Ren Chapman was raised in Wilmington, NC. 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. He began freedive spearfishing in 2007...
#20 – Umberto Pelizzari
www.evolvefreediving.com (910)358-4300 Umberto Pelizzari is from Italy, he's held more world-records than you can shake a lanyard at. He was coached by the legendary Jacques Mayol of Le Grand Bleu fame, we'll hear all about that in today's episode. His famous rivalry...
#19 – James Nestor – Deep
James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for Outside Magazine, Men's Journal, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Scientific American, Dwell Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more. His book, DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What...
#18 – Alessia Zecchini – Italian Supergirl
This episode was sponsored by Octopus noseclips. www.octopusfreediving.com Alessia Zecchini is from Rome and is based there when she isn't travelling around the world. She's only 25 years old and started freediving when she was just 13 years old! In her first Italian...
#17 – Thibault Guignés – French Champion in The Philippines
Thibault Guignés is from France and at the time of recording holds the French Record for FIM at 105m. He started freediving three and a half years ago and has been dedicating 100% of his time to freediving since then. He is an Examiner and Instructor trainer for RAID,...
#16 – New Year’s Special – Aharon Solomons – Part 2
This is Part Two! Listen to Part One HERE Aharon Solomons is a man with a rich and fascinating past, and a freediving career spanning many decades. His accumulated knowledge and wisdom are a great gift to the freediving community and our two part special will take you...
#15 – Christmas Special – Aharon Solomons – Part 1
This is Part One! Listen to Part Two HERE Aharon Solomons is a man with a rich and fascinating past, and a freediving career spanning many decades. His accumulated knowledge and wisdom are a great gift to the freediving community and our two part special will take you...
#14 – Giorgos Panagiotakis – 300m on One Breath
George Panagiotakis is a world champion freediver and national record holder from Greece. He has achieved a 300m distance in DYN which is the current AIDA World Record! He currently lives in Cyprus and now works as a personal trainer and AIDA freediving instructor....
#13 – Sheila Hanney – Sea Shepherdess
Sheila Hanney was born in the UK and has now been resident in Dahab for 4 years, and also volunteering for Sea Shepherd for the same time. She spends about half her time in Egypt and half her time on ships in Mexico feeding the crew. She's a free diving instructor and...
#12 – Goran Čolak – Croatian Discipline
Goran Čolak started his amateur free diving career in 2006, less than one year later, he won his first Croatian championship and broke several national records, he turned professional in 2011 and joined the exclusive group of free diving professionals around the...
#11 – Nanja van den Broek – The Mind as Master
Nanja van den Broek has been freediving since 2001. She currently has 40 Dutch records and 1 world record, in VWT, diving to 130m. In daily life she is a freedive instructor, business trainer and coach. She uses the water and freediving as tools to make people aware...
#10 – Stefan Randig – Freedive Panglao
Stefan Randig was born in Germany, but spent a lot of his childhood living on the islands of the Seychelles. In 2006 he moved to Dahab, Egypt to teach Scuba Diving. He eventually became an AIDA insructor at Freedive Dahab, and Since 2012 he's been living in the...
#9 – Adam Stern – Freediving’s Robin Hood
Adam Stern is an Australian freediver based in...well everywhere. Adam competes and teaches freediving all over the world. He first started competing in 2011 and since then he has broken 5 Australian records and won a bronze medal in Vertical Blue (2015) and a bronze...
#8 – Jean-Pol Francois – Asia’s Freediving Godfather
JP is like the godfather of freediving in Asia. He comes from Belgium and his school Freediving Planet is one of the top schools in South East Asia. He has been freediving for more than 25 years, participating in many international freediving competitions and World...
#7 – Sara Campbell – From the City to the Sea
Sara Campbell is a bit of a legend in the freediving community. She is a Kundalini Yoga teacher, and four times World Record-holding freediver. She is the founder of Discover Your Depths, a unique teaching and personal growth philosophy based on yoga, meditation,...
#6 – Alejandro Lemus – Mexico’s Master
Alejandro Lemus is the Mexican freediving national champion in all the disciplines in the pool and in depth. Born in Mexico city, he was given the books of Jacques Cousteau by his father as a child and his fascination with the underwater world continues to this day....
#5 – Stéphane Tourreau – Perfecting the Present Moment
Stéphane Tourreau started diving at the age of ten around the waters of Corsica. Over the course of 20 years he has risen to the top of his game as a professional freediving athlete. He has been a member of the French national team since he was 24 and continues to...
#4 – Stig Pryds – Transformation in the Deep
Stig Pryds is a trained chimney sweep who went into early retirement in 2010 due to a terrible condition known as psoriatic arthritis. He started freediving in 2013 and eventually became an AIDA instructor. He has achieved 8 national records for Denmark, got a bronze...
#3 – Per Jennische – Freediving Fundamentals
Per Jennische has been a full-time SSI Freediving Instructor since 2015 and became an Instructor Trainer in 2017 after training and certifying more than 300 students. Per was born and raised in Sweden but spent the last eight years in Asia where he also underwent his...
#2 – Daan Verhoeven – Capturing the Deep
Daan Verhoeven is best know for his amazing photography of freedivers. He hails from the Netherlands and now lives in Cornwall, UK. He started freediving in 2005. Between 2006 and 2011 he set national records in 5 of the 6 freediving disciplines. He is a freediving...
#1 – Tim Oehmigen
Tim Oehmigen began freediving in 2012 and has been competing since 2014. After his studies he decided to spend some time on freediving training to see where it could take him. Freediving and especially freediving competition is his passion. For Tim, the feeling during...
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