Freediving with purpose
Conservation Freediving Bohol
Conservation Freediving Bohol offers courses of marine conservation and freediving in the Philippines, on the island of Panglao, in the province of Bohol. The school operates the freediving courses under Apnea Total and AIDA freediving agencies.
Apart from sharing the passion for freediving and raising awareness about environmental concerns among the visitors of the island, the primary objective of the conservation and freediving school is to logistically and financially support the Apnea Green Organization, a non-profit environmental organization which acts to protect marine resources and benefit local communities through freediving in the Philippines.
Conservation Freediving Bohol itself is a non-profit organization, and all the profit generated will be donated to the Apnea Green NGO in order to finance its activities in the Philippines. Here is a list of activities our students made possible over the last few years. Come freedive in Panglao with us!
We offer certifying freediving courses with Apnea Total and AIDA freediving agencies, for beginner, advanced and master levels. We also offer personalized coaching sessions according to your needs.
Our instructors are fluent in English, Spanish, and French. They are all passionate freedivers who have several years of experience as freediving instructors, and all dive beyond 60m deep.
We offer a personalized teaching philosophy adapted to who you are and what you seek, based on quality rather than quantity, focused on the beauty of the experience rather than on the performance itself.
You will learn to let go and to explore new depths in comfort, relaxation and security.
For the coral reef rehabilitation courses, we partnered with the Ocean Quest Global organisation and their all-natural methodology, and we adapted their standards to freediving.
The practice of freediving is particularly adapted to take amazing underwater pictures.
While scuba diving photography focuses more on close subjects and macros, the total absence of bubbles in freediving allows to shoot entire landscapes and more distant subjects, using the natural light to lit the scene.
Conservation Freediving Bohol offers a discovery module and a complete three days course to delve into the specificities of freediving underwater photography. We also offer a more specific post-editing module and teach you how to apply filters to your pictures in order to get the best out of your underwater shoots.
And if you prefer to be on the other side of the camera, we also offer some professional level photo shootings, so that you can impress your friends and family on your favorite social media.
Most of our freediving activities happen in Doljo Beach, on the northwest side of the island of Panglao, in the province of Bohol, Philippines. The location is known for its optimal water conditions and has hosted several international competitions over the last few years.
Depending on the season, we also dive in Napaling Reef, on the northern shore of the island. This reef is the best one around Panglao to practice snorkeling. Its dive site is located just in front of a Marine Protected Area, where you can see a colorful pattern of abundant sea life, including a huge school of sardines, the occasional visit of whale sharks, dolphins, or even blue whales if you are lucky!
One of the best freediving spots in the world
With water temperatures between 26°C and 30°C, no thermocline (same temperature at depth as on the surface), little to no current, barely any waves, and water visibility from 15m to 30m, this is the perfect spot to learn and train freediving in the Philippines. These unique conditions allow us to dive 95% of the time. It takes a typhoon or a world pandemic to prevent us from going into the water.
Thanks to these optimal conditions and its dolce vita, the island of Panglo has become one of the few world capitals of freediving. It is not only known for its freediving competitions, but also as one of the best locations for beginners to learn to freedive and make friends among the community of freedivers.
Come and try freediving in the Philippines!
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Founding Team
Patrick (Belgium)
Co-Founder of Conservation Freediving Bohol & Apnea Green
Advanced Instructor AIDA, Molchanovs, PADI and SSI
3 Belgian national records in depth disciplines
Patrick started freediving in 2013 in Nemo 33 in Brussels and was directly hooked. He continued evolving through the different levels and he became an AIDA and PADI instructor in 2017.
Discovering freediving was a radical change in his life. For the last eight years, he had been working as a logistician and a project coordinator for the medical NGO “Médecins Sans Frontières”, in different emergency contexts and conflict zones. After this intense period, the practice of freediving gave him the opportunity to breathe and to find another perspective of development.
He arrived in the Philippines in 2017, with the idea of practicing freediving in Panglao, and developing a project in permaculture. Since then, he became a freediving instructor with two more agencies: SSI and Molchanovs. He also had the opportunity to grab three national records (in CWTB, FIM and CNF). His personal bests so far are -83m FIM, -73m CWTB, -63m CNF and 6’36” static.
He met Arnaud on the island in 2019, and they launched together the Apnea Green NGO. They later decided to open Conservation Freediving Bohol… The adventure continues!
Arnaud (Belgium)
Co-Founder of Conservation Freediving Bohol & Apnea Green
Master Instructor AIDA and Instructor level 2 Apnea Total
After living for a while in Morocco where he worked for the Dutch embassy, Arnaud resumed his studies in management, environment and development in Belgium then headed to Southeast Asia. He has since then been sharing his time between environmental projects and freediving, first in Thailand then in the Philippines.
His first discovery with the sport happened in Koh Tao, where he became intrigued by a small group of quirky individuals who all seemed to be obsessed with the idea of holding their breath and disappearing into the water… there had to be something interesting there.
He became a freediving instructor late 2017 under Apnea Total, and then crossed over to AIDA a year later. At the time he co-founded Apnea Green with Patrick in Panglao, he was working for the environmental organization Ocean Quest Global on a campaign to better involve local communities in reef rehabilitation processes through freediving.
His personal bests so far are: -58m in FIM, -61m in VWT, 115m in DYNB and 6’05” in static apnea.
Testimonials
- Update -
Following covid, we are currently going through a soft reopening and run a limited number of courses monthly.
If possible, please reach in advance so that we can schedule a course or training for you in the best possible manner.
